The Changing Face of Media

The Internationalist

2008-08-11T21:02:00Z

If you’re not familiar with the publication The Internationalist…. I suggest you check it out. Deborah Malone who is Publisher of The Internationalist is known globally as an expert on media and marketing. Anyone who has interest in international (for that fact domestic) marketing can gain the thoughts of leading marketing and agency folks from around the globe. Just like going to a fancy conference, but in the leisure of your home.

I was fortunate enough to be interviewed with folks much smarter than myself regarding the changing world of marketing.

Scott

A Rose By Any Other Name….Would Be Called Planning and Collaboration!

2008-08-04T15:47:00Z

I was reading AdWeek this morning and saw this article about MediaVest’s (part of the Publicis Groupe) decision to rebrand media planning into “Truth and Design.”

As Lisa Donahue, CEO of the new organization Truth and Design, said, “"Planning is bad," she said. "By its nature, planning has the heritage of a plodding, rigid and linear connotation. What we're implementing is a fundamental shift in mind-set where planning becomes design, which does not have a linear connotation and is more creative with less of a building-block approach."

Another negative concept is "collaboration," at least when that consists of the client gathering hired guns from its various disparate marketing and communications firms in a room to generate big ideas and formulate action plans.”

So I have a couple of thoughts on this whole thing…

Planning is not a dirty word and I disagree that it is rigid and linear. Planning, if done correctly, orients the actions of marketing to achieve the goal(s) originally set out to accomplish. When you sit in the client chair you’re held responsible for P&L, achieving shareholder value, customer expectations, etc. If you can’t stand the heat in the kitchen, then get out – fancy terms don’t change the fact that the kitchen is hot.
Collaboration is not the about gathering “hired guns” and generating big ideas. It’s about ensuring buy in from those involved… getting alignment and support, so when the heavy artillery comes in, people hold the line and don’t run. It’s about creating a team, and leading that team to achieve a goal. Meeting in a smaller room with fewer people is the same as meeting in the big conference room with more people.

Frankly, clients are sick and tired of hearing all of this mumbo-jumbo. Call it what you will, but clients are still going to plan and collaborate. Frustration sets in when someone throws in a red herring to try and get us all to look somewhere else and then charge us a ton of money for the same work as has been done in the past.

Let’s focus on what’s important – selling stuff and exceeding our customer’s expectations!

Scott

The Subservient Chicken – Still Ticking

2008-07-30T20:02:00Z

So I was just stumbled upon my link for Burger King’s Subservient Chicken. You remember this one… the online site where you can ask the chicken to do something and it obeys your command. I believe this is the what parenting is suppose to be like, but I have yet to discover it.

Although this gimmick is probably 3-4 years old (at minimum), BK continues to support the initiative financially – I assume it’s still popular and rings up the clicks daily. And you know it can’t be that expensive… but I continue to be amazed at so called “investments” in major initiatives (e.g. SecondLife, etc.) which seem to fizzle out in a matter of days. Yet, the chicken keeps plugging along.

So if you haven’t visited the chicken – stop by and say Hello!

http://www.subservientchicken.com/

Scott

If A Client Created a Stop Sign....

2008-07-22T16:05:00Z

I had this video sent to me the other day... and after laughing for 10 minutes.... I realized it also shows the reality of the sometimes insane situation we as clients put our agencies and partners through on a daily basis.

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Scott

Jumping the Shark with Mobile Text Messaging

2008-07-09T19:48:00Z

The phrase “Jumping the Shark” is a popular phrase used in the US… basically for those of you not familiar with the phrase…. It was made popular from the hit TV show Happy Days, specifically around when Fonzie jumps a shark. It marked the peak and eventual decline of a favorite TV show.

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Well, I’m using the term as it relates to mobile text messages. Today, while in the middle of a meeting I hear the familiar ring of a text message… naturally, my wife is the only one who uses this service as she knows it’s a quick and reliable way to reach me. So immediately, I look at my cell phone and low and behold I read:

“Don’t miss the Energy Sector Rally …. Buy (X stock) at $X.”

I then realized, Text Messaging had “Jumped the Shark” and it’s now just a matter of time when I can look for all sorts of text messages to bombard my cell phone selling: mortgage refinancing, hot stocks, insurance, etc.

As marketers we must be vigilant in the proper use of mobile text messaging… the last word we need to hear from consumers is “text spam.” So if you haven’t already, take a look at the Mobile Marketing Association’s website to get the latest info.

Scott

The Momentum Effect

2008-07-01T14:51:00Z

The Momentum Effect

I encourage all of you to take a look at the video and the book “The Momentum Effect” by Jean-Claude Larréché, the Alfred H. Heineken Chaired Professor of Marketing at INSEAD. This is a fascinating way to look at driving the market, growing market share without having to increase investment (e.g. getting efficiency out of advertising and marketing in general). Value creation and innovation need to be considered by all CMO’s as we move forward… emotion has a critical impact on the customer and how we satisfy their needs and requirements. Enjoy!

http://knowledge.insead.edu/TheMomentumEffect080607.cfm?vid=52

Scott

What’s the Most Important Media Type During a Recession??

2008-06-30T15:26:00Z

With the Dow dropping nearly 20% the US economy seems to be poised for a technical “bear” market. Not that the word “technical” means a whole lot, when you have commodity prices rising driving an inflationary marketplace.

But with that in mind, and with the announcement from Zenith media in which they cut the rest of the years media forecast by .03% (from a previous increase of 3.7% to a revised 3.4%), so what’s a marketer to do? And where should you invest your dollars to maximize the highest ROMI?

A number of factors play into these types of decisions, but let’s hash through a few of today’s market and customer realities.

Gas Prices – with gas prices around $4.00 per gallon, the consumer is trying to combine trips, limit overall travel, etc.
Pocketbook Squeeze – with not only gas going up, but the costs of food, clothing, etc. also being pushed upward, the consumer is searching for the lowest possible cost.

Here’s how and why I’d rank my media choices based on the before mentioned consumer challenges….

Search – allowing the consumer to find the lowest price and/or check the availability of the product before running out can work to your advantage.
Point of Sale – boost up those POS signs in store to drive impulse purchases.
Web Site – ensure your web site is optimized for search; landing pages are extra easy to navigate and drive to checkout quickly. And use the web site to advertise sales, discounts, low shipping costs, etc.
Interactive Banners – driving demand generation banners which allow the consumer to actually purchase the product at a lower cost (while keeping shipping costs manageable) is another way to help the consumer and gain market share. Make it easy, fast and cost efficient.
Radio – it’s cheap on a per GRP basis, easy to target and can be used to get the message out about a sale or discount. The key I believe is to ensure you have plenty of frequency during afternoon drive and be sure to list out locations so the consumer can make a “quick” stop to pickup the item(s). My recommendation… weekday’s afternoon drive/weekends during the entire day part when shopping is at it’s highest.
Newspaper – yes newspaper… but I would use it only on key shopping days such as Saturday or Sunday.

Others that should also be considered but I won't rank include: direct mail, email, etc. All the other media types fall off my list at this point for demand generation, because either the cost is a bit too high or the return is bit too low.

Needless to say, regardless of the media type, you must spend money during recessionary times to make money… they key is investing it appropriately.

Scott

AAF-Ft. Worth, TX Presentation

2008-06-23T16:03:00Z

I had the pleasure of speaking with the AAF-Ft. Worth Chapter yesterday in Ft. Worth, TX on future media/marketing and advertising trends, etc. I’ve attached my presentation in pdf and the link to the video “Did You Know 2.0” which I showed at the presentation.

The world is changing folks and we as marketers must begin to shape each of our company’s to take advantage of these shifts.

Scott

Media Trends

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/blogs/docs/AAF_FtWorth_June2008.pdf

Did You Know 2.0 Video

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The End of Pilot… Not the End of an Idea

2008-06-11T21:40:00Z

As reported by Adweek, the ebay television Ad Sales Marketplace Pilot has been discontinued. As you might recall, myself and other marketing folks from major advertisers helped to drive this initiative along with ebay.

And although this pilot did not meet the expectations of ebay nor the committee, the need for a more efficient manner to exchange media is certainly not dead. You have to look no further than Google and Yahoo! who both are trying to sell media inventory through their own respective systems.

As I read the article from Adweek, I was reminded of a quote by Malcom F. MacNeil,

“The only failure which lacks dignity is the failure to try.”

Scott

Radio – The New Comeback Kid?

2008-06-11T21:37:00Z

I notice this article from Media in Canada, showing an 8.3% increase in radio advertising in radio advertising in Canada for the upcoming Q308 time period.

The industries with biggest increases included: Restaurants, Alcoholic Beverages, Financial Services, Retail and Automotive.

What’s great to hear is 8 quarters of continued growth in radio advertising… for a media type that has been in decline in general, this is very positive news.

And although this information and trending is for Canada, my hope is that the US marketplace will begin to follow suit in due course.

So what might be driving these increases? A couple of thoughts:

Inventory – TV inventory in general has been tight… radio inventory has been easier to obtain. So hitting campaign GRPs… I can see agencies and clients moving quickly to radio to make up GRPs
Cost – when demand exceeds supply, price goes up (sometimes waaaayyyyy up). That being said radio is relatively cheap on a per GRP rate vs. TV.
Creative – radio commercials are extremely cheap from a production perspective and I don’t know many clients who have seen increases in budgets these days. If anything, most are trying to reduce creative/production costs in order to increase the amount of working media.
Viability – radio is still a viable medium… challenged yes, but also viable.

Scott

I Facebook, Therefore I Am

2008-06-05T20:17:00Z

I haven’t blogged in a while about my Facebook experience, so I thought I’d give an update.

First, I have a total of 113 friends. And although many of them are more contacts via the business at HP, I have actually had a few friends from the past claim me.

Second, I actually have become somewhat addicted at reading the News Feed posts on my account. I’ve learned a lot of things about a lot of people – nothing scary… but frankly, those little tidbits of information are acting as a way to “connect” or start conversations.

Third, I haven’t loaded up a bunch of photos. I guess with the audience I have it probably isn’t a huge priority. But I did find out from the folks at Facebook that they have around 15 million photos loaded to the site DAILY. Yes, that is correct… DAILY. That easily makes them monster in the aggregation of photo storage. The kicker, most of these folks don’t print the photos.

Forth, my best friend’s teenage daughter friended me… what I’ve quickly noticed is the completely different use of Facebook she and rest of the youth market exhibit. They comment on everything, they let everyone know where their going, what their doing, and they load and utilize a much larger number of apps. Not surprising, but they are literally “connected” all the time. And to boot, they use the mobile function religiously.

Fifth, I believe the platform is viable as a marketing tool… but frankly, banners and such aren’t really the thing I believe will work. Engagement with the audience through a “thread which ties people together” (e.g. a cause, event, or passion point) is probably the best way to use the medium.

Scott

Perhaps the Most Important Words to be Successful in Marketing in the Future…

2008-05-19T19:07:00Z

Over the weekend, I was helping my daughter with her 3^rd grade math homework. And the statement which all parents have heard at least once from their children sprang from her mouth “Daddy, am I ever going to use this stuff?” And after pondering the question I answered “Yes.”

I’ll spare you the specific math problems (which by the way, I don’t think I learned until I was in high school) but the short story is she is dealing with Boolean logic and terms.

Via Wikipedia, Boolean is defined as “a complete system for logical operations. It was named after George Boole, who first defined an algebraic system of logic in the mid 19th century. Boolean logic has many applications in electronics, computer hardware and software, and is the base of digital electronics. In 1938, Claude Shannon showed how electric circuits with relays were a model for Boolean logic. This fact soon proved enormously consequential with the emergence of the electronic computer. Using the algebra of sets, this article contains a basic introduction to sets, Boolean operations, Venn diagrams, truth tables, and Boolean applications. The Boolean algebra article discusses a type of algebraic structure that satisfies the axioms of Boolean logic. The binary arithmetic article discusses the use of binary numbers in computer systems.”

If you focus the definition downward into layman’s terms the key words include:

AND
OR
NOT
SUBSET
GREATER THAN
EQUAL TOO
LESS THAN

So all of this got me thinking about the marketing earth being inherited by the techno/analytical geeks. Basically, in terms of marketing “Boolean” logic allows marketers to fine tune the target audience. This is certainly nothing new to the database marketers and mathmaticians out there… but for many, this type of logic will be new and perhaps a bit challenging to understand.

So why should we be concerned about the use of this type of logic in the first place? Let me list just a few of my thoughts…

Segmentation – being able to target and segment messaging and offers to segments will help increase response rates.
Sub-Segmentation – this term really helps define a “subset” of an overall segment. For instance, let’s say your “segment” is to target customers who purchased a desktop computer but NOT a monitor. A subset of this segment, would be those customers who have
Budget – by fine tuning down the segmentation and the sub-segmentation, budgets can be optimized to drive the highest ROI.
Search & Online – you’re probably already using Boolean Logic in search and online programs today… you might just not know it. With all of the data being collected via this marketing initiatives, it is critical to fine tune messages and Boolean Logic helps drive these segments.
“Traditional” Media Properties – as data growth continues in the more traditional media types – e.g. television… the hope would be to utilize Boolean Logic even deeper and integrated with digital media properties to maximize the exposure and targeting of the audience.

If you’re not well versed in Boolean, I would recommend you spend some time with your database marketing folks and actually have them walk you through some examples in order for you to gain an understanding.

Also, to all readers of HP blogs, we will be migrating to a new platform in the coming week or so. So as of May 23^rd, I won’t be posting to my blog and won’t be able to receive any comments submitted. Please hold your comments until June 1, when our new site will be live.

Scott

Boolean Logic George Boole Wikipedia Database Marketing Analysis Hewlett Packard HP advertising marketing targeting television search online digital segmentation media Scott Berg

Visual Oriented Search

2008-05-05T20:15:00Z

Recently, I was forward the following beta search site address which is in development by Searchme.

http://beta.searchme.com/

And although it’s in the infancy, I’m fascinated on the direction(s) search is starting to take…. Where search begins to be even more user friendly and visually appealing. I liken the results produced to scrolling through an iTunes music and movie library.

If search can became more visually oriented then we as marketers should begin to focus attention on providing advertising/sponsored “links” which are equally visually appealing to the consumer in these environments.

Food for thought….

Scott

Marketing media search advertising iTunes visual search Hewlett Packard HP paid search sponsored links Searchme Visually Oriented Search Scott Berg

From Pet Rocks, Mood Rings, Beanie Babies….to Webkinz

2008-05-01T16:50:00Z

For those of you who have kids under the age of 12 probably have been hit in the pocketbook by the newest trend…. Webkinz.

My kids are both fanatics about their lineup of Webkinz animals and I’m sure that this fad will pass in time, but for today I'm stuck shelling out for a host of stuffed animals.

First a bit of background…

1. What is a Webkinz? It’s a stuffed animal(s).

2. What makes them different than the other thousands of stuffed animals my kid has lying on top of their bed? Well, those pesky little varmints’ have an online component. You register them on the Webkinz site, name them, etc.

3. So what’s the big deal with that? The makers of Webkinz, GANZ, allow your kids to interact with the stuffed animal in a “virtual” environment. They can feed them, take care of them, chat with other kids in a controlled environment, etc. In addition, kids can play games, decorate a room, use trading cards to interact and play, etc.

What I find particularly intriguing about Webkinz, is the interlinking between an offline product and an online virtual world. They’ve found a unique way to extend the life of the toy, create a social platform for children as well as a destination site to keep the kids coming back.

I also like the fact; they can use the website to promote new products, cross-sell, etc. while making the kids feel a part of a community. Plus, the site and the in-store products are international, making scale as easy as normal product distribution.

Scott

P.S. I’m still waiting for the pet rock trend to re-appear!

GANZ Webkinz toys stuffed animals social media interactive digital advertising community virtual marketing media HP Hewlett Packard Scott Berg

Decline in Newspaper Advertising

2008-03-31T15:57:00Z

Caught this article on the decline in newspaper advertising for 2007 -- a whopping 9.4% This decline is noted as the largest year-over-year decrease since the tracking started in 1950.

The Newspaper Association of America provided the information and some thoughts around the decline – including economic challenges, shift to digital, etc.

Scott

HP Hewlett Packard media marketing newspaper Newspaper Association of America Scott Berg advertising digital changing face of media