Debra De-Jong's Marketing & PR Blog

About The Five Types of Prosumers

2012-01-24T16:37:00.011-05:00

Euro RSCG has been conducting research about prosumers (professional consumers) for some time now. With the rise in social media use, the importance and impact of prosumers has been growing.

Prosumers differ from consumers. Prosumers have (relatively speaking) more influence, are more involved, and are more digital-savvy. compared to “regular” consumers. For brand owners, prosumers are important. Companies want to know what motivates them.

There are 5 prosumer archetypes based on social media use, the way content is shared, and reasons to be active on social networks

Utilitarians are the natural allies of brands that make appealing offers
Entertainers get excited by stimuli
Advocates as a good citizen and to contribute to a better world
Co-Creators support brands that approach them in a personal way and help them to come into contact with others
Competitors assume that brands are in competition, as they themselves would.

To learn more about prosumers, check out the video below. It also includes world domination by Google in 2050 and Lawrence Lessig becoming US Secretary of Justice in 2020 and declaring copyright illegal!

Enjoy!

A Steve Jobs action figure - just what Sheldon Cooper et al want….

2012-01-12T15:04:00.011-05:00

It only took three months after the tragic passing away of Apple’s iconic founder Steve Jobs for a company to come up with merchandise. The company “In Icons” is going to launch Steve Jobs action figures.

The company’s website has pictures of the poseable Steve Jobs figure on its website. The figures are expected to be shipped in February and will cost $99.

The Chinese manufacturer believes that the 12-inch-high Jobs doll will become a collector’s item. They might be right; there is a lot of viral buzz and the item already appears on eBay for around $135.

If you take a close look at the doll, you will see that it is rather eerie. The level of detail is too much, including pores on Jobs' forehead, subtle wrinkles under his eyes, and veins on his hand. According to the company, the item will come with 2 pair of extra hands; 1 in case the original set goes AWOL and one set with pointing index fingers.

In case you wonder, the Steve Jobs action figure comes with a whole set of clothes and accessories that would make Barbie green with envy. Items include: 2 pairs of glasses, 1 black turtleneck, 1 pair of blue jeans, 1 pair of sneakers, 1 black leather belt, 2 apples (one with the iconic bite) and 1 bar stool.

Needless to say, Apple, Inc. is not amused. According to The Telegraph, the conglomerate is allegedly threatening to sue the toy maker unless they cease trading.

It would not be the first time; back in 2010, Apple blocked M.I.C. Gadget from selling a Steve Jobs action figure on Ebay, stating that the action figure was a violation of its copyrights and trademarks.

FAQ that Companies Have for Their PR Agencies (Part II)

2012-01-07T12:37:00.017-05:00

This post is the continuation from the previous one that you can find on my precious post.

7. Companies must have a dedicated (and charismatic) spokesperson

For startups, putting the CTO or VP R&D without any media experience in front of journalists and the media is disastrous. In many cases, the interview will result in a monologue about all the cool features of the amazing technology/product/service, peppered with tech lingo.

The journalist needs to write something cool that everybody can easily understand. Listen to the PR agency and your marcom; they will tell you who would be good for the interview and prep them accordingly. Technical information, including diagrams, should be sent upon request by email.

Please note that there is no such thing as “off the record”. Any information you share about upcoming investments, major deals or product developments will be covered by the journalist. Also make sure that all information submitted is accurate. A good journalist will do his or her homework and will know if you fibbed.

8. What you said is not always what you get

Journalists and the media can use received information as they see fit. A journalist might write about your technology under a funky heading that make you cringe. Journalists might even misquote or relate incorrect information. There is not much you can do about it, except asking your PR agency or professional to contact that journalist, thank him or her for the great article and gently correct the mistakes. Don’t expect a correction though.....The only way you can do damage control is on your own corporate blog, Facebook, or Twitter account.

9. Social media for PR entails more than harnessing the power of Facebook and Twitter.

Many countries outside of the US have there own social networks (and search engines). China uses Baidu, Russia Yandex, and the Germans prefer Xing over LinkedIn.

PR agency (or in-house professional) should also target the most influential bloggers in your industry, such as Technorati or the Huffington Post. Using op-eds is also useful, such as offered by the NYT are effective.

10. Professionals have been trying to come up with a “calculator” - without success
The best way for companies to get a grip on results is to ask for reports on progress and exposure. It is important to realize that exposure might take time. To give an example, the CEO of Curapipe was interviewed at WATEC on 19 November 2011. An excellent article appeared in the Mexican media on December 27; more than a month later. Due to the power of going viral, articles can be reposted and blogged about for a long time!

(Image courtesy of Jeff Bullas)

FAQ that Companies Have for Their PR Agencies (Part I)

2011-12-31T12:42:00.004-05:00

Companies and clients often ask a lot from their PR agencies or marcoms. Not without reason - since PR agencies work on a monthly retainer, the company wants to get maximum results.

As anyone in PR can tell you; it’s a tricky field. You have to put in a lot of effort and networking that is not visible to the company or client. In the end, it’s the results that count. Any company that hires a PR agency asks the same main questions.

In this post and the next one, I will address these FAQ.

1. No agency is in contact with all relevant journalists.

Yes, journalists of trade magazines and broadsheets relevant for you must be targeted - in the Americas, Europe, and the Far East depending on your business. But is it unrealistic to expect your PR agency to be on first name basis with all of them. They do have their own database and network though and will try to get you as much targeted exposure as possible. Please note that journalists don’t always bite. Yes, that is chutzpah considering how cool your company and product/service is, but that's life in the media lane.....

2. The location of a PR firm or professional is not that critical anymore.

However, if you are considering investor relations, it helps to be in or near the main financial centers, such as New York, Los Angeles, London, Paris or Tokyo. If you are targeting governmental agencies in the US, finding a PR agency near Washington DC helps, as does finding one in Brussels if you want to target EU-related governmental bodies and influencers.

3. Think local.

No PR agency is truly global. Many have partner agencies in other countries, which makes them highly effective. To reach journalists in Europe, you do need to communicate in the local language. No journalist of La Stampa, Le Monde, or Die Zeit will communicate with you in English.

4. You do need to send out press releases, but they must be newsworthy.

Publicly traded companies must put out a press release on any change that could influence investors’ decision to buy or sell stock (e.g., appointment of a new C-level manager or board member). Private companies can (and must) be far more selective. A new product release, major contracts, deals and partnerships, as well as received investments are all worthy of a press release.

To get the news out, I strongly recommend using one of the major paid distribution companies. My favorite is PR Newswire, which also takes care of translations and distributes to all media channels (including social media) in any region and industry you want.

5. A PR agency is only as good as the input they receive.

It is therefore crucial that you as a company or client share your goals, competitive information, and yes, all the relevant skeletons in you closet. Any publicity based on faulty or incorrect information, will backfire big time.

6. Some PR goals are unrealistic.

“Get me on Oprah” is a mantra that companies have been singing for many years. Chances are very slim, to say the least. Sending out (by email) and uploading B-roll footage (e.g., to YouTube) to be freely used by the media is cheaper and far more effective. Cold calling the media is a waste of time (and money), trust me!

To be continued in Part II - keep posted!

(Image courtesy of Jeff Bullas)

A Cute and Creative Application of QR Code

2011-11-27T15:44:00.003-05:00

Quick Response (QR) is a good tool for creative marketing. A QR code is a 2D barcode. It is similar to the well-known 1D product barcode, but a QR code can contain far more (and different kinds of) information. Reading a QR code is different from reading a standard barcode. Apart from scanning the code with a barcode reader, the QR code can also be read by using a free application on a smartphone.

QR codes can be linked to a company’s website, a YouTube video, a photo or any other hyperlink.

Marketers quickly saw the possibilities of the QR code and started using them for all kinds of B2C campaigns. A QR code is easy to create as an image. It can be printed on business cards, folders, flyers, products, and yes, even cookies.

The German company Qkies offers its consumers the ability to bake cookies with edible QR-codes. The company allows its customers to put their own personalized code on top of the cookies. One package consists of dough and 10 edible QR codes. (Yes, the buyer must bake the cookies first). On the website of Qkies, the “baker” can choose to which website the QR code should point to.

Qkies is the brainchild of a German food company and DFKI, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence.

Disney's Muppets Movie Edgy Marketing Campaign

2011-11-24T11:01:00.005-05:00

Disney (NYSE: DIS) is releasing its latest Muppet movie, aimed at a wide audience. Apart from kids, Disney also wants to wow parents who grew up loving the Muppets the first time around.

The Muppets phenomenon has been around for 35 years. The latest movie has just been released in 3,440 theaters in the U.S. and Canada. For promotion, the services of controversial comedians such as Sarah Silverman, Ricky Gervais and Wanda Sykes were enlisted.

Similar to their hominoid counterparts, Miss Piggy, Kermit the Frog and Animal have hit the talk show circuit. They appeared on “Saturday Night Live" and “Chelsea Lately." When talking to E! talk show host Chelsea Handler, Miss Piggy was asked if there was any "penetration" involved with her relationship with Kermit. Miss Piggy’s love life was also discussed on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!", She responded that "there might be handcuffs involved, if you know what I mean." Move over Angelina Jolie! Miss Piggy’s love interest Kermit the Frog appeared on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno."

The movie trailers are also catering to the mature audience. These trailers spoof "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" (with a trailer titled "The Pig With the Froggy Tattoo"), "Paranormal Activity" ("Abnormal Activity") and "The Hangover II" ("The Fuzzy Pack").

Disney marketing executives refrain from going on the record. But Disney executives obviously realize that going for a broader appeal of a youth-targeted movie is highly profitable, as Sony's "The Smurfs" showed. That movie grossed a neat $560 million at the global box office.

Interesting enough, the strongest demographic for "The Muppets" consists of women older than 25. (Source: research firm NRG). 95 % of women over 25 were aware of the movie and 37 % stated that they have "definite interest" in seeing it.

The CardMunch Application Let You Scan Business Cards; Creating A Digital Rolodex At Your Fingertips

2011-11-19T07:37:00.005-05:00

At WATEC 2011, a business contact showed me CardMunch, the latest cool application to capture business cards. LinkedIn just unveiled a completely revamped version of CardMunch, which it bought from Bowei Gai at the end of 2010. CardMunch is a free iPhone application that let you scrape business cards for vital information.

You snap a picture of the business card, and CardMunch 3.0 ties that business card with the person's LinkedIn profile. This gives you insight into mutual contacts, credentials, recommendations, etc.

What makes CardMunch powerful is its Cover Flow-like Rolodex feature. No more card scanners at exhibitions necessary; MunchCard lets you swipe through virtual business cards of all of your contacts. You can also add notes to contact cards while you wait for the cards to be processed.

You can also quickly add information from your contact’s CardMunch record to your iPhone address book. LinkedIn does not do this by default for all contacts, which shows you that LinkedIn truly cares about privacy. It is possible to send quick e-mails to contacts from within the application. It is also possible to initiate a LinkedIn connection request, but once "connect" is pressed, it cannot be undone.

It’s a great and free application to swipe business cards at exhibitions. Hopefully, LinkedIn will add some more features, such as: to "favorite" a contact, to sort contacts by company name/the date the picture of the card was taken, or to record the location where the card was scanned (e.g., Curapipe at WATEC 2011)

To grab the free CardMunch Application from the App Store, click here.

Apple Takes Action Against Cafe in Bonn for Infringing on Its Famous Logo

2011-10-30T03:12:00.010-04:00

Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has sent a “cease-and-desist”letter to “Apfelkind“, a cafe in Bonn, Germany. Apfelkind („Apple child“) uses a logo consisting of a red apple with the silhouette of a child inside.

Owner Christin Römer submitted the design to the Trademark and Patent Bureau in Munich, Germany. She applied for 42 classes (categories), including fashion and service provider. She also stated that she would like to franchise her “Apfelkind” concept.

The legal eagles at Apple noticed that the two logos are very similar. Apple lawyers promptly objected to the submission and issued a “cease-and-desist” letter to Ms. Römer.

She immediately involved the German media, playing the David vs. Goliath card.

But things are not as clear cut as Ms. Römer might think.

The problem is not just having the logo on the building. She also sells merchandize with the logo (such as cups) online. She also writes on her website that she is planning to expand her webshop (there is already a picture of pillows featuring the logo).

Furthermore, her submitting the logo in the category “service provider” and announcing that she wants to build a franchise show that she is a savvy business woman.

Her claim that her logo was inspired “by the apple trees of my neighbors” is weak to say the least. She hired a graphic studio to do the design. Any reputable graphic designer will warn against piggyback-riding on famous logos.

How will it end? Ms. Römer has two choices: to spend a lot of money fighting for her patent, or changing the design and removing it from the “service provider” category.

In the mean time, she got lots of free publicity. She should realize that multinationals invested a fortune in their brand and are therefore highly protective of their logo.

The lesson to be learned here is to make sure that your logo, font type, slogan or color scheme do not even vaguely resemble those of other companies. Be original! It is not only better marketing, but also prevents legal problems.

Eight Simple Tps for Starting and Using Social Media

2011-10-24T14:10:00.004-04:00

1) Establish a presence

This may sound redundant, but you need to be on the social media trinity: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. LinkedIn is great for professional networking. Facebook is a more informal way to connect, although the business pages are very much B2B. People can “like” your business page, which is great for branding. Twitter is the cocktail party in social networking; just keep the tweets business-related!

2) Engage your peers

Your peers are your potential customers, business partners or employers, so you need to engage them with articles, blogs, comments and postings. It’d s great way to establish your brand and position yourself as a thought leader.

3) Make sure your target audience knows where to find you.

You need to promote the links to your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blog. An easy (and often overlooked way) is your AutoSignature. Make sure that you also link your website and blog to your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

4) Find your voice.

As the French say: “c’est le ton qui fait la musique”. Decide how you want to communicate with your target audience. Do you want to keep it formal (for B2B) or informal (for B2C)?

5) Pace yourself.

Avoid starting with many tweets and blog posts a week that are impossible to keep up. Too much activity can be overwhelming and lead to burnout. It’s better to set up a schedule for your social media and stick to it.

6) Keep it simple.

Tweets, postings and blogs should be fun and easy to understand. Try to avoid using complex language or concepts.

7) Visuals rule.

A picture can tell a thousand words. Use visuals in your blog and postings; people love it!

8) Engage.

You are using social media, so be social! React, like, and comment to other people’s posts. Be generous and informative. Again, it’s a great way to brand and position yourself as a thought leader.

Want to learn more? Contact me at www.tiptoppr.com

Tattoo Barbie - Mattel's Clever Marketing Ploy

2011-10-22T13:05:00.006-04:00

Mattel’s latest Barbie doll sports pink here, a trendy outfit and has tattoos across her left arm, neck and chest. This limited edition Barbie is the result of a cooperation between Mattel and Italy-based brand Tokidoki. The doll is marketed as a collector’s item for adults and sells for $50. This pink-haired, tattooed Barbie wears black T-shirt with heart and crossed bones, leopard print leggings and a dog called ‘Bastardino’. Supposedly, this has invited the wrath of parents across the U.S, and was debated on the O’Reilly Factor.

There is some understandable skepticism if the so-called outrage of concerned parent is real, or a clever marketing ploy by Mattel.

The Daily Mail did some digging and found a number of obscure websites for “tweenage” girls where people had a negative opinion of Barbie’s tattoos.

However, the majority of the experts that normally pipe up were silent. Quite likely, they just don’t see it as a big deal.

It’s not the first time that our Barbie got tattoos. In 1999, Butterfly Art Barbie was withdrawn from stores after parents complained. In 2009, the company released Totally Stylin’ Tattoos Barbie, a doll with removable sticker tattoos.

But it seems that in 2011, nobody seriously cares about a doll with tattoos. That leaves us with an interesting marketing question: did Mattel create artificial controversy to sell its latest Barbie? Knowing Mattel – quite likely! As usual, Mattel is laughing all the way to the bank. The doll is already sold out......

A painful lesson in copyright and graphic design – inspired by Steve Jobs

2011-10-19T12:50:00.004-04:00

Social media has changed the game; in more ways than one. Let’s look at the case of Mr. Mak.

Mr. Mak, a university student in Hong Kong who is an aspiring graphic designer. Upon the passinga way of Steve Jobs, he designed a graphic of the Apple logo with a silhouetted profile of Mr. Jobs. It went viral and was even picked up by news media. Even actor Ashton Kutcher posted the design on his Twitter account. So far, so good...

But then, it was noticed that his design has an uncanny resemblance to the design of Chris Thornley, a British graphic artist.

Mak developed his design in late August using a white Apple logo on a black background. He used a black silhouette of Mr. Jobs indented in the apple as a tribute to Mr. Jobs after he stepped down as chief executive of Apple.

Although Mak said he had searched across the Internet both to ensure he was not infringing on another design, he did not come across Mr. Thornley’s design.

But his design turned out to be similar Mr. Thornley’s. Thornely designed a black Apple logo on a white background, with a white silhouette of Mr. Jobs. The angle is slightly different from Mak’s design.

A shocked Mak said he had received notification from Mr. Thornley’s wife, Julia, about the similarities of the two designs.

In the world of graphic design, similarities between images are quite common. This case illustrates once more how easy it has become to unearth similar images or outright copies. Mr. Thornley, a 40-year-old living in Darwen, England, acknowledges the dangers the digital age presented to creativity.

He is following the controversy while receiving treatment for a rare form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. He stated that he first developed his design in May 2011. He wanted to celebrate the fact that someone who had cancer was still working, still driving forward and still thinking positively about the future.

“The Internet can be a double-edged sword,” he said. “You need to use the Internet in order to promote yourself, but in order to do this you are making yourself vulnerable to these situations.”

Mr. Thornley went on to say that he hoped to speak with Mr. Mak soon about the two designs.

“J. Mak has been as honest as he can about the situation, I think,” he said. “It is important to have the debate about this, and J. Mak has to be credited for opening up the debate and not hiding from it.”

Finding your target audience – the Jim Beam lesson

2011-10-10T11:05:00.002-04:00

Jim Beam launched its Red Stag in 2009. This black-cherry infused bourbon was aimed at the male market. The company opted for a strong masculine product name and enlisted rapper Kid Rock to promote it.

Much to the company’s surprise, the drink was a hit with women. Female drinkers appreciated the sweeter taste compared to regular bourbon.

Jim Beam began to investigate. As its global chief marketing officer Kevin George stated: “We wanted to understand the emotional reasons why women drink wine or spirits. While women make up almost half of spirits drinkers, they consume just a quarter of the volume sold.”

As a result, after 216 years of marketing almost exclusively to the male drinks market, Jim Beam is embracing women. The company introduced three new products aimed at female drinkers: Courvoisier Cognac infused with red wine, Pucker vodka and low-calorie Skinnygirl cocktails. Skinnygirl Cocktails, created by American reality TV personality Bethenny Frankel, was purchased by Jim Beam. Since the drinks contain only 100 calories per serving, they are attractive to women wishing to avoid the calories of a typical 480-calorie restaurant margarita.

But also Jim Beam’s existing Sauza Tequila brand benefited from the switch to marketing towards women. As research shows, about 57% of all the Tequila sold in the US is mixed in margaritas. Two-thirds of those margaritas are consumed by women.

Sauza began a marketing campaign based on the idea of a “ladies night in”, hosting at-home margarita parties and advertising on the Food Network. Sauza teamed up with restaurants to create what they called “Sauzaritas”

Based on its success with the female market, Jim Beam is planning to introduce a new line of chocolate liqueurs called “Crave”. The drink will blend flavors such as mint, chili pepper and cherry.

Jim Beam’s marketing story proves that companies should never take their market audience for granted. They should be open to step out their comfort zone and check new opportunities.

Hoe Raines Rules opdrachtgevers kan helpen bij IT-investeringen

2011-10-04T10:05:00.011-04:00

Raines Rules zijn een aantal simpele regels waaraan IT-investeringen moeten voldoen voor accordering door de President van de Verenigde Staten. Deze regels voor IT zijn in 1996 opgesteld door Franklin D. Raines, die toendertijd directeur was van het Office of Management and Budget, één van de executive offices van de President.

In ons land is Rijks-CIO Maarten Hillenaar een fan van de Raines Rules. Hij ziet bij IT-investeringen door de overheid zonder meer een rol weggelegd voor de Raines Rules. Hiermee kunnen zo in het voortraject van elk project vastgesteld worden wat een IT-investering financieel en beleidsinhoudelijk moet opleveren. Verder of de investering voldoet aan de referentie-architectuur en of alle beschikbare standaarden zijn gebruikt. Verder moet ook nagegaan worden of het al ergens is uitgevoerd.

"We willen als cio's binnen de rijksoverheid over dit instrumentarium kunnen beschikken om onze beleidsmakers te adviseren bij risicovolle ict-projecten," aldus Hillenaar.

Maar ook voor het bedrijfsleven kan het pakket Raines Rules een goed instrument zijn, vooral als het om grote IT-investeringen gaat.

Aandachtspunten voor een opdrachtgever zijn hierbij:

1. De ICT-oplossing moet de kernprocessen van de organisatie ondersteunen.

2. Zijn er alternatieven in de private sector? Zijn er andere (overheids)organisaties die het proces efficiënt kunnen ondersteunen?

3. Processen dienen zo simpel, goedkoop en effectief mogelijk gemaakt worden, met speciale aandacht voor gebruik van (commerciële) bestaande oplossingen.

4. ROI moet risk-adjusted zijn in samenhang met de complexiteit van het project, de managementcapaciteiten van de opdrachtgever, de kans op kosten- en tijdoverschrijding, en het risico van onder- of nonperformance.

5. De ICT-oplossing moet consistent zijn met al ontwikkelde informatiearchitecturen. Hierbij is de integratie van proces- en informatiestromen met de technologie die de kernprocessen moet realiseren van belang.

6. De opdrachtgever dient risico's te beperken, zoals alleen gebruik maken van volledig geteste pilots, simulaties, of prototypes. Hierbij is van belang doelstellingen te formuleren om vervolgen deze te testen en meten voor de uitrol.

7. Het ICT-project dient opgedeeld te worden in zo klein mogelijke deeloplossingen die elk aantoonbaar een eigen rendement hebben onafhankelijk van de nog te realiseren gedeeltes.

8. Risico's tussen opdrachtgever en opdrachtnemer dienen gebalanceerd te worden. Dit omvat optimaal gebruik maken van reeds bestaande commercieel beschikbare technologieën.

Voor zowel overheden als het bedrijfsleven is het zaak met een leverancier in zee te gaan die al jaren volgens deze Raines Rules werkt.

Wilt u meer weten? Neem dan contact met mij op. U kunt mij ook bereiken via Tip Top PR www.tiptoppr.com

Using animal symbols in marketing - not the cat's meow!

2011-09-28T08:52:00.005-04:00

Using animals in marketing can be tricky. We all know strong brands that use animals: Puma, Jaguar and ING bank to name a few. But an animal may have different (and negative) connotations in export countries and other cultures.

In some countries, animals are considered to be a low life form. Using animals to promote eyeglasses is cute in the Western world, but a no-no in Thailand. (See also David A. Ricks "Blunders in International Business")

Based on Greek mythology, the owl in considered to be a symbol of wisdom (it was the favorite bird companion of Pallas Athena). Using an owl is quite common in Europe and the US (with the exception of hooters) for educational software and institutes. However, Asians consider the bird a symbol of stupidity. Not what you want in your marketing campaign!

Muslims consider dogs unclean animals. Any advertisement with cute dogs is therefore bound to fail. The same applies for showing women and men in one advertisement. Head and Shoulders adapted its advisement for the Arab-speaking market.

However, cats are extremely popular in Japan. Just think “Hello Kitty” or google one of the many YouTube clips.

Kate Edwards in Multilingual magazine’s August 2011 article, “Animal Symbolism” points out that (animal) symbols need to be managed carefully. “In an increasingly interconnected world, we have to remain diligent in choosing our symbols wisely with the utmost care.”

Before using animals in marketing campaigns, check the local culture. See what kinds of ad campaigns are popular. If a pet is conspicuously missing, there is a sound reason for it. Checking local proverbs is also a good way of checking for cultural sensitivities.

As with all marketing material: think global, but act local!

Jonathan Stark’s Starbucks coffee card – a clever marketing trick from an app developer?

2011-09-12T09:42:00.004-04:00

Mobile application developer Jonathan Stark (a mobile app consultant from Providence, Rhode Island) made his Starbucks card available for anyone by offering his Starbucks Mobile app on the Web for others to use.

His message read:

“Need a caffeine boost? Use Jonathan's card. Want to buy a cup of joe for a pal? Or, more likely, someone you've never met? Use Jonathan's card.”

Stark posted an image of the electronic card, inviting anyone to copy it to their own phones.

"Jonathan's Card is an experiment in social sharing of physical goods using digital currency on mobile phones ...," he wrote on his site. "Based on the similarity to the 'take a penny, leave a penny' trays at convenience stores in the US, I've adopted a similar 'get a coffee, give a coffee' terminology for Jonathan's Card."

Needless to say, lots of people followed up on this call to action. After its launch in July 2011, the campaign went viral once it was covered by several tech blogs.

According to Stark, more than 177 people spent $3,651 on the card; not bad considering that the original balance was only $30 balance. A couple of times, some users transferred money to their own Starbucks accounts.

"It's been a bit emotional, actually," Stark stated. "People's reactions have ranged from accusing me of stealing to thanking me for renewing their faith in humanity. It's been very uplifting overall, but it does hurt when the occasional pessimists send negativity my way."

How did Starbucks react? “We think Jonathan's project is really interesting and are flattered he chose Starbucks for his social experiment. We're curious to see how his project continues to evolve."

In the end, it all came to an end due to Sam Odio, who wrote a script that let him transfer large amounts of money from Jonathan’s Card to his own personal card. Once Starbucks became aware of Odio's efforts, the company shut down Stark's card. "We were concerned with fraudulent activity," a Starbucks’ spokesperson said. "Starbucks was supporting the program from the sidelines, because it was an interesting thing, and in line with the pay it forward mentality. But the very concept of sharing a card violates our company's terms of service. "

One thing is certain: Jonathan’s card was an interesting marketing experiment in collective consumption and mobile currency – and excellent branding for Jonathan Stark himself!

Abercrombie and Fitch’s Reverse Endorsement Deal – What a Situation!

2011-08-27T13:27:00.013-04:00

Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino of “Jersey Shore” fame, has been asked by Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) to stop wearing their clothes. The company is willing to pay him for this, which makes it a reverse endorsement deal.

On August 16, Abercrombie announced their decision to disassociate from The Situation, stating: "We are deeply concerned that Mr. Sorrentino's association with our brand could cause significant damage to our image. We understand that the show is for entertainment purposes but believe this association is contrary to the aspiration nature of our brand and may be distressing to many of our fans." Funny enough, Abercrombie & Fitch itself has courted controversy with racy catalogs and questionable products.

From a marketing standpoint, it is quite likely that A&F will be laughing all the way to the bank. "It gets their name further out into the marketplace with one of the hottest brands on TV right now at the peak of the back-to-school season," said Wall Street Strategies analyst Brian Sozzi. "It's free marketing. Because the approach is so ridiculous, everybody's talking about it."

MTV, who hosts Situation's "Jersey Shore", responded to Abercrombie's money offer with a statement: "It's a clever PR stunt, and we'd love to work with them on other ways they can leverage Jersey Shore to reach the largest youth audience on television."

Abercrombie and Fitch may not want Jersey Shore’s Situation wearing their clothes but Larry Flint wants Mike Sorrentino for his Hustler brand. Larry Flynt told TMZ: “The Sitch may not be good enough for Abercrombie & Fitch, but he’s good enough for us.”

Is this move by A&F a clever PR stunt? Will reverse endorsement deals become popular? Time will tell.....

How Net Promoter Score (NPS) Measures Customer Happiness

2011-08-27T11:52:00.013-04:00

Companies want to know if their customers like their products and services. Net Promoter Score (NPS) tracks how likely is it that they will recommend the company’s product/service to a friend or colleague, using a 0-10 point scale, and tracking the ratio of “promoters”, “passives” and “detractors”.

Promoters are loyal enthusiasts who will keep buying and refer others, fueling growth. They score 9-10.

Passives are satisfied but unenthusiastic customers who are vulnerable to competitive offerings. They score 7-8.

Detractors are unhappy customers who can damage your brand and impede growth through negative word-of-mouth (WOM). They score 1-6.

Apple (AAPL) has some of the highest NPS scores of any sector by careful listening to what customers have to say and responding to it.

Apple made its retail stores to places where people can gather and learn, not just buy. Apple learned that customers want an ongoing relationship with Apple and not a one-off purchase transaction. Apple opens on average between three to five stores a month worldwide, using the NPS to check how effectively each store is meeting expectations.

Apple uses the NPS in its daily management of its more than 300 stores. Apple’s central NPS team analyzes customer feedback from all the stores to understand the systemic reasons for promoter’s enthusiasm or lack thereof.

Apple store employees who create promoters are recognized by store management. Each day, the “daily download” takes place, when employees review the NPS feedback and discuss how to adjust their work accordingly. Detractors are phoned by Apple store managers within 24 hours resulting in additional sales of $25m yearly.

Other companies that use the NPS are: Intuit (INTU), Philips (PHG), Southwest Airlines (LUV) and Allianz, They all use NPS to monitor customer satisfaction.

Using sweepstakes and contests for marketing

2011-08-26T13:45:00.020-04:00

At exhibitions and events, sweepstakes and contests are a popular marketing strategy. It is a great way to get leads: visitors submit their business card and the winner of e.g., a trip or iPad is announced.

At a sweepstakes, the winner is chosen by the luck of the draw. At a contest, the winner is chosen based on some merit, such as best photo, most votes on a video, best slogan, etc.

In the U.S., federal laws governing marketing promotions have been in place for decades. But also many states regulate sweepstakes, such as Massachusetts, Michigan and Virginia that all ban tobacco-related promotions. California, Tennessee and Utah highly regulate promotions involving alcohol.

Every sweepstakes and contest must have “official rules” and they should be easy to find by the public. The easiest way is to link to the rules where it is easy to find and read them.

What should the rules entail?

“No purchase necessary.”
The alternative method of free participation.
Geographic area of the sweepstakes and/or who is eligible to participate in the sweepstakes.
Opening date and scheduled termination date of the sweepstakes.
Complete name and address of the sponsor and promoter of the contest.
Number of prizes, the accurate description of each prize, the retail value of each prize and the odds of winning each type of prize.
Whether all prizes offered will be awarded and how the prizes will be awarded.
Manner of selection of winners and when a determination of winners will be made.
Where and when a list of winners can be obtained.

From a marketing standpoint it is clever to limit the value of the prize to e.g., an eBook, a voucher of $25 for an online store, or a free product to avoid tax complications for the winner.

Sweepstakes and contests ate a great way to promote and grow business or promote a corporate blog. It is also used on Twitter and Facebook to get followers.

How to Tweet Wisely

2011-08-12T04:31:00.004-04:00

Is Twitter just for people who can’t shut up? Many tweets are irrelevant, and it takes some digging to get to the good stuff. That way, it’s not any different from looking for a good book. Between shelves of Dan Brown fluff, there are literary gems such as “The Perfume”, “Madame Bovary” and “To Kill A Mockingbird”.

Companies (and individuals) can of course choose never to send a tweet into cyberspace. But the problem is that companies will be left behind and their competitors will have the competitive edge.

Tweets are short (140 characters) and resemble sms-speak (not surprising, considering the original twitter concept) and have huge marketing potential.

Following is a short guide to tweeting (courtesy of www.ReputationManagementFor.com with some of my own additions).

1/ Tweeting
When you tweet, you’re sending a message to all of your followers (see 2/) and displaying the message on your Twitter Feed (a list of your tweets). Now, it’s extremely important that you bear a few things in mind when tweeting, as you can end up wasting a lot of time for zero productivity. Don’t over-tweet, but don’t tweet sparingly either. A Tweet a week does not an interest garner. These are some important things you’ll need to keep in mind while tweeting:

Don’t treat Twitter like an SEO exercise. Nobody cares for unexplained, uninteresting links, and if all you’re doing is linking back to your website, people will generally ignore you.
Don’t make ridiculous spelling mistakes. Tweets are only 140 characters long, and typos and other errors will reflect badly on your company. Spell it right; sell it right.
Try not to be too personal, or emotional. You’re marketing your brand, and while that doesn’t mean you should be robotic, attention-seeking will ultimately reflect badly.
Develop your own style, but unless you’re a professional comedian don’t make every post into a joke.
Make sure to hashtag important keywords in your tweet (see 4/).

Ideally, every time you tweet you want your followers to re-tweet (RT) your posts. That way, you are reaching the followers of your followers.

2/ Following
When you follow somebody on Twitter, it means that you’re going to automatically get updated with every tweet of that user. You can opt to get as many people to follow you as possible, or to expand your brand awareness and market influence to targeted users (journalists, institutes, bloggers, magazines, etc.).

The easiest and simplest way getting followers is to include obvious links to your Twitter account on your website, and any email correspondence you send out. If you don’t tell people to look for your Twitter account, you’re relying on people looking for you speculatively, and that can be a slow process. Also, you can enter your contact list from GMail, AOL, MSN, Hotmail and Yahoo! accounts to see if the people you already speak to use Twitter. Following people you know on Twitter will encourage them to follow you.

3/ @Mentions
If you have a look at your “homepage” on Twitter, you can see a few tabs below the Tweet box. One of these tabs says ‘@Mentions’. A @Mention is when somebody puts a ‘@’ sign, followed immediately by a username. When somebody @Mentions you in a Tweet, it’ll show up both on their Tweet Feed and on your @Mentions page (which your followers can’t see. A @Mention is useful:

to engage other users who are not in contact with yet. They’re then more likely to return the favor.
if you’re Tweeting their material. Their details do show up on a RT, but a @Mention will show gratitude and let the person know you’re passing on their content/posts.
when tweeting original content. Start the post with “RT” and end it with @yourtwittername. .It makes it easier for people to find you and associate your Twitter account with the content being (re)tweeted.

4/ The #Hashtag
While we have already mentioned that this shouldn’t be an SEO exercise, that doesn’t mean that none of the same principles apply. The #hashtag is the king of Social Media Optimization – an opportunity to make use of ‘keywords’. People searching Twitter for posts on specific subjects will generally find #tagged posts first. Tips to use #hashtags:

If you want to talk about a #subject, #location or #person (without linking to their Twitter account), use the #hashtag.
A #hashtag can be used to emphasize a specific part of your tweet, and generally adds context to any content or comments you might be posting.

Twitter posts show up in Google search results. Although it is unlikely that a Twitter post will outperform a highly contested keyword by normal SEO standards, a clever campaign on a specific subject will get attention.

5/ Trending
Twitter keeps track of when a term (or #term) is being used a lot on Twitter. It records Trends that appear by geographical demographic, and a general worldwide tracker. Thus, if a #term (with or without the #hashtag) is popular in e.g., the US; users who’ve set up their “Trend Feed” to the US will automatically see a list of the “Trending Topics” for that country. Users can also click on a topic that is trending (e.g. budget cuts).

There are many innovative ways to turn social networking and social media profitable for business. On your Twitter homepage, you can link to your own website. You can also add Twitter to your website homepage. Your tweets will now automatically be displayed.

6/ Shortened Links
As mentioned before, tweets are limited to 140 characters. Most website links (e.g., to articles you RT) take up a lot of character space. To solve this problem, there are several free services around that automatically shorten your links. The most popular are tinyURL and bit.ly.

Wishing you Happy Tweeting!

(Cartoon courtesy of Johnny Ancich of Past Expiry)

Wikipedia Needs More Contributors

2011-08-07T07:36:00.011-04:00

David Daw published an interesting article in PCWorld. He writes that Wikipedia is not yet fading away, but could do with an extra dose of contributors to give it a much-needed shot in the arm.

At Wikipedia's annual conference this week, founder Jimmy Wales warned that Wikipedia is slowly losing contributors. He said the issue was an important one that Wikipedia needed to focus on.

Wales blamed the drop in contributions on Wikipedia's editing guidelines, which many users feel have gotten more complex in recent years. While longtime users are busy in edit wars about the minutia of Wikipedia entries, new users are often left in the dark or chastised for not creating articles in the proper format.

The best solution is to make edits easier for new users. Wikipedia also is trying some other fixes.
Among them: Sue Gardner, executive director of the Wikimedia Foundation nonprofit that runs Wikipedia, said the organization is working with college professors to have students assigned Wikipedia articles as class work. Users can now also send each other virtual badges in a program called WikiLove to encourage more participation.

It's unclear how effective these strategies will be, though Wales also was quick to point out that some of the attrition is natural.

The typical Wikipedia user, whom Wales described as "a 26-year-old geeky male," is bound to move on to other things eventually and, after ten years, there simply aren't as many things for new users to add.

Wikipedia has more than 3 million entries, but by March had only about 90,000 active contributors, according to The Associated Press, which reports that Gardner says the goal is to add another 5,000 by June of next year.

For the original article, please go to www.pcworld.com/article/237452

(Cartoon courtesy of Brian Fairrington, Cagle Cartoons © Cagle Cartoons)

Nine Effective Marketing Tools for Small Businesses

2011-07-27T05:12:00.021-04:00

Small businesses (SMEs or SMBs) need marketing as much as large corporations. The good news is that there are various cost-effective marketing tools around. These tools are a mix of traditional and new – together, they are highly effective.

1. Have your Own Website and Blog

Every business needs a website. Potential customers are searching online to find out what your business is all about. For branding and to position yourself as a leader, you also need your own blog. Blogs are easily created using Wordpress or Blogger - free of charge!.

2.Use business cards

It is still worth while to hand out business cards. A printed business card stays around, which is good for your branding. At exhibitions and at a first business meeting, business cards are still handed out.

Depending on your target audience, make sure that it has the correct format and language (e.g., Chinese at the reverse side of your English one. Pay attention to the format of your phone number; make sure to include the country code for clients abroad.

3. Brand your collateral

Use your invoices, receipts, proposals, price quotes, and order confirmations to brand your company. Put your logo, slogan, tagline, and contact details on documents that you send out.

4. Create brochures, flyers and PowerPoint presentations

A brochure, flyer or PowerPoint presentation will explain who you are and what you are offering in an appealing and easy to grasp way. Once you turn them into a PDF, they are easy to distribute by email and to post online (LinkedIn, website).

5. Create and update your own website

Potential customers want to check you out. They expect you to have your own website. Your business domain name is ideally the name of your company. In case you cannot register a .com, try .biz. Make sure that you update your website regularly and also check that is opens correctly in all major browsers.

6. Use Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

To reach potential customers, you need to be found. Online searches are the key; people search on search engines (Google, Yahoo, Bing) and on social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, forums, blogs, etc.). SEO helps you to be found by potential customers that are searching for you or your product/service.

7. Use social media

LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter are the main social media to reach your target audience. They provide a highly effective way to interact with your target audience. It is also easy to spread news about your company and announce special offers.

8. Provide freebies

People like to get free information and advice. One way of leveraging this, is by having your own blog and to post your own articles (e.g., on ezine) that provide useful tips to the readers. This not only positions you as an expert in your field, but also builds brand loyalty. Other excellent marketing tools are having a free download on your website for white papers and free webinars.

9. Make Yourself Visible

Attend seminars in your area, promote a cause your target audience care about or sponsor a charity event. People need to get to know you and your business. If your business is completely online, opt for a (humorous) YouTube video.

These nine tools provide a great way to promote your business - success! Please leave a message how if works out for you.

(Image courtesy of directory.ac)

Guideline for Conducting Your Own Marketing Audit

2011-07-25T13:34:00.000-04:00

You put a lot of effort in your marketing, so you want to know how you are doing.

A marketing audit will show how you are performing.

Following is a guideline on how to conduct a marketing audit.

1. List all the social marketing media you use:

Website
Blog
Forum
LinkedIn (corporate page, own group)
Xing (corporate page, own group)
Facebook (corporate page, groups)
Twitter
Newsletter
Webinar
White papers
Articles

2. List your target audience for each one:

Customers/clients
Potential partners
Investors
Media (newspapers, journalists, reporters)
Analysts
General public
Employees

3. List what your business, sales & marketing goals for using social media are:

Reaching new customers (lead generation)
Retaining customers
Communication with customers (announcing news, special deals, updates such as recalls)
Entering new markets
Market research
Branding

4. Compare your social media with those of your competitors:

Do they use the same social media?
Do they reach the same target audience as you do?
What social media do they use that you don’t?
How frequent do they post, tweet, hold a webinar, publish newsletters?

5. Rate how your SEO and news coverage score compared to your main competitor(s):

Are you covered mainstream (e.g., Yahoo news, Reuters, FOX) and industry media?
Are being blogged about?
Are you being covered by analysts and journalists?
How many followers do you have?
Do people leave comments for you (e.g., on your blog)?
Do people share your content with others (LinkedIn, retweet, Facebook wall post)?

6. Rate the quality of your content.

What content does your target audience like to see from you?
What are they in general interested in (e.g., discounts, product updates)?
What is the responses?

7. Do you have a social media policy in place?

Did you formulate goals?
Do you measure results?
Do you have a crisis management plan?

8. Who conducts your social media?

Internal employee (Marcom, business development, marketing)
External expert (e.g., Tip Top PR)
PR company

9. Are you happy with your social media?

Yes, it does what I want it to do!
No, it does not contribute to my branding
No, too many negative reactions
No, not enough new leads

Once you analyze the answers, you will be able to take action. It will tell you if your social media campaign fits your company and how to improve and/or adjust it. Success!

Perfetti Van Melle Uses a Perfect Mix of Social and Traditional Media Marketing

2011-07-01T11:23:00.008-04:00

For its US product launch of Mentos UP2 stick gum, Perfetti Van Melle started its advertising campaign on social media. Mentos UP2 has already has a Facebook fan page, at facebook.com/up2u. The first 1,000 visitors who clicked on the “like” button got free gum. Up till now, already more 96,000 people “like”. In July, the company plans to post an invitation to on the fan page. People who “like” will be asked to provide the name of friends so they can also get free samples.

The logic behind the Mentos UP2U product name is as follows. Each 14-stick package contains seven sticks of one flavor and seven sticks of a second flavor. The slogan is: “2 flavors. 1 pack. You decide.”

According to Mehmet Yuksek, executive vice president for North America at the Perfetti Van Melle office in Erlanger, Ky, the strategy to introduce Mentos UP2U “is very much 360-degree marketing, starting with very compelling and unique social media content.”

The idea is to first create media buzz on social media, followed by advertising in traditional media like television. The social media are handled by Martin Agency in Richmond, Va., part of the Interpublic Group of Companies. Perfetti Van Melle is also using Lizzie Grubman Public Relations in New York to distribute samples of Mentos UP2U at events in locations like Las Vegas and Miami.

Social media are empowering consumers with greater control and they aren’t shy about posting their feelings online about products and brands. The UP2U marketing campaign illustrates once more how important the combination of digital and traditional marketing has become.

Louis Vuitton’s ad “mistake” or a clever marketing move?

2011-06-25T09:25:00.003-04:00

Louis Vuitton (LVMH.PA) has launched a beautiful advertisement as part of its “Core Values” campaign. It features Angelina Jolie sitting on a barge, informally dressed with a big Louis Vuitton tote bag by her side.

The photo was shot by Annie Leibovitz in the Siem Reap province of Cambodia and first appeared in WWD, followed by the International Herald Tribune, Vanity Fair and a slew of other news, general interest and lifestyle publications. It is expected to run for at least 18 months and will also feature a video interview with Jolie filmed on location. The campaign will run alongside a few other recent “core values” personalities, including Bono his wife Ali Hewson (in Africa) and Sean Connery (in the Bahamas).

Vuitton launched its “Core Values” campaign in 2007 to reconnect with its travel roots and thus reach a broader audience. According to Pietro Beccari, Vuitton’s executive vice president, “Vuitton gives a travel message through personal journeys which is a fundamental one for the brand.” Other personalities who have features in the campaign are Mikhail Gorbachev, Keith Richards and Catherine Deneuve.

However, there is one oddity in the Jolie ad: the Alto carry-on bag shown in the ad (Jolie's own) is about six years old, and is no longer available in stores.

A mistake? Quite likely not - Beccari commented that Vuitton is considering a "re-edit" of the Alto carry-on.

My take on it is that Vuitton will wait to see what the demand for the “Jolie tote bag” will be and then restart production and sales if expected to be profitable.

If I am correct, this would be one of the most cost-effective market researches for Vuitton. Let’s wait and see!

How Spirit Airlines uses Weinergate for it Marketing

2011-06-08T23:31:00.020-04:00

Spirit Airlines is known for its non-traditional marketing. Even before social media took off for promotion, Spirit made it a habit to leverage controversial trends (MUFF, MILF) and scandals (Tiger Woods) to advertise its low fares.

The current Anthony Weiner scandal (dubbed “Weinergate” by the media) fits nicely into Spirit’s marketing strategy. On Tuesday, June 7, Spirit Airlines sent an email to its customers containing the following sales promotion: “Check out our Weiner Sale boasting fares just too hard to resist! This scandalous sale is no secret so get socially connected … book now before this sale gets hacked!” The company’s homepage offers more Weiner puns.

The promotion has been picked up by The New York Daily News, CBS, The Wall Street Journal and MSNBC.

Arun Sharma, a marketing professor at the University of Miami, explains that Spirit has packaged the promotion well by prominently mentioning its low-cost fares. For a value brand like Spirit, cheap fares are its key selling point. He does not foresee a possible backlash from customers who are uncomfortable with the sale’s theme. "These kinds of promotions do not seem to offend the general public," Sharma said. "They chuckle over things like this."

Previous Spirit marketing campaigns include its 2009 campaign when it ran its “Eye of the Tiger Sale” to leverage the Tiger Woods scandal. The airline’s homepage featured a tiger driving an SUV into a fire hydrant to promote its $9 fare sale.

During the BP oil spill disaster, a Spirit ad featured a sunscreen-covered sunbather and the teaser: "Check out the oil on our beaches."

Spirit Airlines also put a new twist on trendy acronyms. In February 2010, it ran a promo called MUFF to diving destinations. MUFF stood in this case for Many Unbelievable Fantastic Fares. MUFF followed on the heels of the MILF promo. According to Spirit, MILF stands for “Many Islands, Low Fares.”

A few years ago, Spirit CEO Ben Baldanza explained in an interview that the company practices "shock marketing" to keep advertising costs low: "People get the e-mail and forward it to their friends. ..."

Shock marketing and campaign going viral obviously work for Spirit Airlines. Let’s see what the next campaign will entail...

General Pants Raunchy Ad Campaign – Stunt Marketing Gone Wrong

2011-05-09T12:26:00.007-04:00

Australian fashion retailer General Pants has been forced to censor its provocative ad campaign for the fashion label Ksubi. General Pants carries several Australian and international brands for young men and women. Its main focus is on youth culture and street wear.

The retailer’s latest in-store campaign is “Sex! & Fashion” for denim label Ksubi. It featured half-naked mannequins and provocative videos and posters displaying the word “Sex!”. Staff was asked to wear badges featuring the phrase “I love Sex”.

Shoppers were not happy and bitterly (and effectively) complained. Australia's NSW has a Minister for Women named Ms. Pru Goward who stated that the retailer “clearly overstepped the mark”.

General Pants responded by covering the posters with black “censored” strips, but kept the posters and badges will remain part of the promotion, which ends on May 16. General Pants chief executive Craig King remarked it was a “bit of a stretch” to suggest the campaign may encourage young people, particularly teenagers, to have sex.

General Pants division manager Jacquie Vuleta added that Ksubi is perceived as a polarized brand and the campaign is therefore in line with the retailer’s image. She stated: “They’ve always been a very bold brand and try to make a statement with the campaigns that they do. We did not go into this campaign to offend anybody; it was meant to be a play on the fashion industry and the fact [that] there is sex in fashion.”

Stunt marketing tries to be quirky while avoiding being too cheeky or crass. Especially start-ups like to launch controversial campaigns to get noticed. However, the campaign must be in context with the brand image.

The main marketing lesson? Be careful using “stunt marketing”; if it backfires, brand and budget are burnt.

Marketing blunder or clever marketing ploy?

2011-04-22T10:23:00.004-04:00

The upcoming Royal Wedding is a marketer’s dream promoting memorabilia ranging from tea towels to tea bags. There are obviously no limits to products that can be given a Royal Wedding twist.

Verdict, part of the Datamonitor Group, predicts that wedding merchandise sales could “easily” top £26m in the UK alone, with food and grocery retailers raking in £360m, while an additional £216m could come from travel and tourism.

There is one item that stood out – a commemorative royal wedding mug that should feature the bride & groom. But although the description details Prince William as the groom, the picture just above the text “Wills” features the groom’s brother Prince Harry.

Producers Guandong Enterprises state on their website that the mug is "a beautiful cup to commemorate the most beautiful occasion" and an "esteemed limited edition heirloom." It could be a mistake, not unlike the ones that were made in Chine de Commande a few centuries ago.

However, it could also be a clever marketing ploy; an effort to create an oddity that will have additional value since it will be rare.Did they want to create a collectors/spoof item? Regardless of the motive, the company got great (and free) publicity!

U.S. Senate panel to hold hearing on Vermont Branding

2011-03-07T05:29:00.005-05:00

Vermont has been marketing itself as "the beckoning country." The Vermont Brand promotes maple trees, high-quality food products, and an enviable way of life with clean air, trout streams, and unspoiled forests.

Made In Vermont stands for quality of goods and foods - from Maple syrup to cheddar cheese. Protecting Vermont Brand has long been a top priority for Vermont’s state officials.

Other (out of state) companies try to leverage the Vermont Brand; McDonald's restaurants promoted maple flavored oatmeal much to their peril.

Vermont is defending its brand – even at Federal level. Thanks to Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee will come to Vermont for a hearing. It will hear testimony to find ways to protect and promote Vermont’s unique brand. Leahy is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and set the hearing, titled “Strategies to Protect and Promote Vermont Brands".

The Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hear testimony from representatives from the Vermont Wood Manufacturers Association, Cabot Creamery, and state Commerce Secretary Larry Miller among others.

Stay tuned to find out if Vermont will be able to protect its brand.

The marketing behind Barbie & Ken rekindling love

2011-02-27T03:27:00.011-05:00

Barbie and Ken met on the set of their first commercial in the spring of 1961. couple, they were an item through the’60s, ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s — with wardrobe, gadgets and makeovers to adapt to changing customer preferences.

Sales were steadily declining, so the people at Mattel (NASDAQ:MAT) came up with a clever plan – a on-off relationship. It started on Valentine’s Day 2004 when the couple announced that they were going to spend time apart. Barbie began dating Australian surfer Blaine. In 2006, Ken got himself several makeovers, but just remained friends with Barbie. Then the couple was cast in Toy Story 3.

Mattel listened to its customers. Lisa McKnight, vice president of marketing at Mattel, explained that people were really pushing for Ken & Barbie to get back together again.

“We got a lot of formal petitions from brand fans, Barbie fan groups, asking for them to get back together. I think there was one group that sent in a three-page letter, expressing how they felt and how they never should have broken up in the first place and they’ve just got to be reunited. So there’s a lot of passion there. They really are the sort of ultimate ‘it’ couple. So everyone’s rooting for them to get back together.”

Mattel closely monitored customers’ reactions on the website www.barbieandken.com. Both Barbie and Ken also have their own Twitter accounts and Facebook pages and are active users. Fans could leave comments and also vote on if the Love-O-Meter if the couple should hook up again on Valentine’s Day 2011.

As part of the marketing strategy, Mattel launched a new product on 14/2: the Barbie and Ken Gift Set.

Mattel’s marketing strategy has already generated a lot of exposure in the main media. But what will be the deciding success factor is the bottom line – will sales of Barbie products increase….

Tweeting in the courtroom? Yes we can!

2010-12-23T01:00:00.008-05:00

The Lord Chief Justice in the UK allows journalists to report some court proceedings by using Twitter, texting and email. He made it clear though that it would not happen if it could influence witnesses.

Media organizations and journalists can now apply for permission to use social media on a case-by-case basis. Non-journalists could still be barred in order to ensure the "proper administration of justice". This would prevent distractions in court and limit the potential for interference with courts' own recording equipment. The guidance applies only to courts in England and Wales.
For now, anyone who wants to tweet in court needs to get the judge’s permission. In criminal trials tweeting will quite likely be forbidden when there is a risk that witnesses who are out of court would be able to find out what is happening inside.

The Lord Chief Justice explained: "The judge has an overriding responsibility to ensure that proceedings are conducted consistently with the proper administration of justice, and so as to avoid any improper interference with its processes. There is no statutory prohibition on the use of live text-based communications in open court. But before such use is permitted, the court must be satisfied that its use does not pose a danger of interference to the proper administration of justice in the individual case. Subject to this consideration, the use of an unobtrusive, handheld, virtually silent piece of modern equipment for the purposes of simultaneous reporting of proceedings to the outside world as they unfold in court is generally unlikely to interfere with the proper administration of justice."

Interesting enough, the Twitter guidance comes days after WikiLeaks Assange's court hearing. Mr Justice Ouseley ruled during that hearing that supporters and journalists should tweet about was happening in real time. At an earlier bail hearing, district judge Howard Riddle did allow tweeting from Westminster Magistrates Court, saying journalists could send messages if they were discreet and did not interfere with the judicial process.

If the same policy would apply to let video cameras in court, justice would be seen on TV, online and on mobiles. Is this the way to go?

On the other side of the Pond, U.S. District Judge Thomas J. Marten allowed in 2009 a reporter to Twitter court proceedings in a trial of six Crips gang defendants taking place in his Wichita, Kansas courtroom.

"The more we can do to open the process to the public, the greater the public understanding," the judge said when asked about lawyers' concerns that jurors might be influenced by the tweets.

So where will it end? Does tweeting serve a purpose in court room?

To quote Andrew Cohen: “The difference between a reporter tweeting in the courtroom and a reporter doing the same during the breaks and phoning it in is not that great."

Ita Est

(Image courtesy of Courtoons & David E. Mills)

Facebook's Titan Messaging System Reviewed

2010-11-17T15:01:00.003-05:00

Facebook announced its new Titan Messaging System (aka Fmail) on 11/17.

In an official blog post, Facebook software engineer Joel Seligstein explained that the service is different from email as we know it:

"There are no subject lines, no cc, no bcc, and you can send a message by hitting the Enter key. We modelled it more closely to chat and reduced the number of things you need to do to send a message. We wanted to make this more like a conversation."

In the video below, CNET editor Rafe Needleman (of Red Herring-fame) tried it out and talks about the features.

Not without my IP lawyer – Nexocial’s painful marketing lesson

2010-11-06T03:15:00.006-04:00

The company Nexocial was forced by Apple (AAPL) to change the name of its nPad-tablet. Apple argued that the product name infringed on its trade marks. Nexocial also had to discontinue its nPad-website. It is unclear what new product name will be chosen by Nexocial. Hopefully this time they will check it with an IP lawyer first.

Nexocial was wise to comply with Apple’s demand. The nPad is the brainchild of Hugo Leijtens, the Dutch CEO of Chengdu–based Nexosial. He believes that the iPad lacks some important features. His tablet therefore is Windows 7-based in order to enable multitasking and support Flash. The tablet also has a USB-port and has a resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. However, the battery life is only 4 hours; about half of Apple’s iPad. The two products also look uncanningly alike - which puts Nexosial in hot legal water by default. By blocking Nexsocial to use the nPad product name, Apple effectively prevented it from entering the market. By losing the momentum, Nexosial decided not to enter the consumer market anymore, since it is now (over)crowded. The company stills sees possibilities in the enterprise market, where a few companies are experimenting with it.

Legal actions, including patent trolling, are used as marketing techniques to prevent market entrance or market expansion by competitors. Companies, and especially start-ups that could be a threat for behemoths such as Microsoft, Google or Apple, need to seek legal advice before launching a product or entering a market.. The fallout could otherwise break the company.
Will Nexocial be able to weather this storm? Not likely, unless Leijtens has another marketing ace up his sleeve...

Silly Bandz marketing success

2010-10-17T09:32:00.065-04:00

Silly Bandz is a great example of how marketing of a fad item works.

Silly Bandz are silicone rubber bands in the form of animals (e.g., tree frogs, dolphins, geckos), objects, letters, Barbie, and Justin Bieber. They can be worn as bracelets, and revert to their original shape once taken off. They are mainly aimed at Tweens, who collect and trade them. But boys and girls as young as 5 have start wearing (and trading) them.

Robert Croak is the rubber band man who came up with the idea after seeing a similar product designed for Japanese offices. His business has grown 10 times in the past six months. Croak is currently shipping millions of Silly Bandz weekly.

What contributes to the marketing success of the Silly Bandz fad?

Appeal

The shapes and colors appeal to te target market. The bands are coveted by both boys and girls (the picture shows a 5-year old boy showing his collection), and several ages groups (from 5 up to 15). The appeal is global, which explains its quick adoption in non-US markets. The bands also give their owners a certain status and bargaining power among their peers.

Product strategy

Silly Bandz cleverly discontinues less popular shapes, while introducing new ones (e.g., Justin Bieber, Helllo Kitty, and iCarly).

Collecting and trading

Collectability always extends the lifespan of a fad. The longer the bands are collected, shared, and traded, the longer its product lifecycle (and income stream) will be.

Affordability and packaging

In a US retail store, Silly Bandz sell between $3 for a pack of 12 to $5 for a pack of 24 items.
The product is affordable for the target group that has the spending power. As Croak puts it: "Let's face it. In a tough economy, any parent can afford to spend $5 to get their kid something they really want." The packaging is a small, no-nonsense, transparent plastic bag; "what you see is what you get".

Promotion

Croak uses social media for marketing buzz, including a blog. The Silly Bandz Facebook page has over 700,000 fans. Its Twitter feed has more than more than 15,000 followers. As Michael Lewis, CEO of Forever Collectibles points out: "it's 100% viral. When one kid finds it at a store, in two seconds the kid or his mother is on the phone texting that they've found them."

Additional Products

In addition to Silly Bandz, there are also Silly Ringz, Silly Necklace, SillyBandz Caribinerz, and Silly Buttons.

But Silly Bandz is facing two major threats:

Some schools have banned the silicon bands since they could pose a distraction (e.g., kids trading in class) or pose a physical danger (e.g., used as rubber bands to snap others).
Although Silly Bandz is trademarked, it was only a matter of time, until other brands would appear. Silly Bandz has its share of imitations/competitors, e.g., Zanybandz and Crazy Bands.

But for now, Silly Bandz are still selling like crazy. Silly Bandz also seem to enter the adult market - as a flirtation tool. Singles at bars and clubs are slipping the object of their desire a Silly Band to show that they are interested in a stranger that they just met there. This could open a whole new market segment for Silly Bandz.

Disney launches its user-generated (UGC) marketing campaign

2010-09-25T08:13:00.017-04:00

Disney (DIS) is leveraging user-generated content for its marketing. The new Disney Parks’ campaign will use visitors’ own home videos and snap shots. Disney dubbed its new marketing campaign "Let the Memories Begin".

It works as follows. Consumers can post their content (photos, videos) on the website Disneyparks.com/memories or via the Walt Disney World and Disneyland Facebook pages.

This content is used (with permission of its creators) for a TV spot dubbed "Hugs" that premiered on the Today Show and will air on several networks, including CBS, ABC and Animal Planet. It consists of a video collage of happy children at Disney parks, with the tagline "Where Dreams Come True."

The print ads will appear in the November/December 2010 issues of People, Martha Stewart Living, Real Simple and Parents, among others.

Disney will also collect memories from consumers during a tour in major cities. A Disney vehicle will make appearances to conduct interviews with consumers.

The “Let the Memories Begin” campaign embraces all aspects of social media: messages are shared on the website, including photos, videos and texts that are categorized by theme, emotion and location. Participants can register on the new site and then a user is offered the ability to opt-in for future Disney e-mails that include “Let the Memories Begin” updates and other information on the parks. The functionality will also be a part of the Disney park pages on Facebook, YouTube and MySpace.

The next piece of the campaign will be when photos taken daily in the parks become projections at night on the Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World Resort or “it's a small world” at Disneyland resort. Disney photographers will capture guests and will display about 500 photos per location per day.

Disney states that it got the idea for the campaign from its customers – according to Leslie Ferraro, Executive VP of global marketing, Disney Destinations: “the inspiration for this effort came from our guests. Each and every day people are making memories at our parks, posting them online and sharing them with friends and family."

Will it work? According to Forrester Research, consumer-generated content is still a fairly niche market.

But Disney is killing two birds with one stone. Firstly, Disney expects that its consumers will relate better to real people with real experiences, than to professional ads with professional actors. With the popularity of social media, a UGC marketing campaign is the way to go. Secondly, using (free) UGC saves a lot of marketing budget.

All in all, lots to gain with not much to lose....will this be the future of B2C marketing?

New social networks for enterprises: move over Yammer, Podio is coming!

2010-09-04T10:33:00.019-04:00

A friend of mine in the Netherlands told me about Yammer, a new social network for enterprises. She was checking it out for her organization (Visio). On behalf of several companies I worked and freelanced for, I have been looking for a secure “in-company” social media platform. It seems that I finally found some.

Yammer is sort of a hybrid version of Facebook and Twitter that helps members of an organization to let their workers interact and collaborate. Yammer works according to the freemium-model: to start a Yammer network is free; but in order to own, control, and administer the data and content, it will cost between $3 to $5 per user/per month.

Yammer claims that it is being used by more than one million users and 80,000 companies worldwide for their internal communications. It offers access in three ways – through web login, a desktop application, and mobile apps.

According to an excellent article on TechCrunch, Yammer (aka Twitter for business or as an enterprise microblogging platform) is facing stiff competition from Podio. Podio describes itself as a ʻsocial work platformʼ similar to Facebook for companies. It claims to be a full work platform with messaging, calendars, tasks and contact management. It gives users the ability to build their own ‘apps’ without any technical knowledge, and allows for almost endless customization. According to Podio, over 2,000 apps have already been built by users, which include CRM systems, meeting planners, process facilitation, recruiting, contract drafting, and employee feedback.
To quote TechCrunch, Podio “is a full work platform with messaging, calendars, tasks and contact management, – not just another project management space.”

But Yammer is not giving up, and announced the launch of Yammer 2.0. Yammer’s CEO and founder David Sacks believes that the ability to create a go-to corporate social network is a Facebook sized opportunity.

Another new social network to watch is ZYB. It describes itself as a mobile phone utility and social networking site. It started in 2005 as a European service to provide easy back-up services for mobile phones. ZYB leveraged the data set into building a social networking platform with Twitter-like location-based functions.

For now, the race between Yammer and Podio to acquire enterprise customers is on. Depending how it will pan out, both Yammer and Podio could be targeted for acquisition by companies such as SalesForce or Google.

Relauching a website – the Doctor Who case study

2010-06-08T08:01:00.004-04:00

The recent relaunch of the BBC Doctor Who website is an interesting one for many reasons.

The BBC team in Wales was aware that the entire franchise was going through something of a regeneration. The new Doctor, his companion and the creative team on the show meant that changes to the tone of the brand were coming that had to be reflected in the website.

BBC’s brief was a simple: 'make the site the no.1 destination to experience the world of Doctor Who, past, present and future'. In web design terms, this translated into extending the reality of a show with such rich subject matter.

The website was then built in a way that became a platform to distribute originated content associated with Doctor Who. The goal was to ensure that Doctor Who would be more than the Saturday night TV program. It transformed into a 24/7 experience of which the online element is a key component.

From a technology point of view, the team utilized the new BBC Platform. The use of this new platform opened up a new suite of development tools. It enhanced the speed of the site and it allows for producing more dynamic and customizable content.

The new Global Visual Language enables to (literally) think big with designs, using the metaphors of time and depth within the site.

Together with R&D , the web design team realized a powerful way of engaging with narratives online, which helps to explore how to tell stories that don't fit into single Doctor Who episodes.

For content, the BBC accrued feedback from its audience from its 'red site'.
Feedback included:

The audience loves monsters. For this reason, a brand new section in the site for viewers to explore and learn more about them. Iconic foes like Daleks and Cybermen have had repeated encounters with the Doctor which is reflected within the sites designs.
The Doctor Who site is the destination for Doctor Who fans and the news section is important for two reasons: to deliver level production news (which is a key request from users) and to break important Doctor Who news stories.
The Fun & Games section of the site has a major priority; it's also extremely popular with the younger audience. A brand new look and feel was introduced to this section to keep it visually engaging and entertaining. The BBC is also working on the development of its own Adventure Games.
Past series are unlocked from archives and content is migrated to the new site.

The first phase is completed and the new site is available online now.

Startup providing “kwedit” to people without credit or debit cards

2010-05-20T04:20:00.008-04:00

Kwedit (pronounced qwe-dit) is a new startup. Its focus is to help teenagers and other people without credit or debit cards to buy virtual goods online. It works like credit: a buyer promises (Kwedit Promise) to pay later in order to get an item now. If the buyer keeps his (or her) promise, the buyer’s Kwedit score goes up. This will enable the buyer to borrow larger amounts of money. If, on the other hand, a buyer doesn’t fulfill his/her promise, the score will go down.

Since virtual goods have no “real” value, buyers real credit score (for credit card applications or for buying a house) is not affected and the debts are not enforceable. Kwedit can be paid off through the mail, by paying cash at 7-Eleven stores, or by using a credit card from a friend/parent.

According to Danny Shader, CEO of Kwedit, it could broaden the market for virtual items and even teach kids about real credit. Shader headed Accept.com (a developer of online payment systems) before Amazon.com Inc. bought it in 1999.

Kwedit is not the first company to come up with a payment system for those without credit or bank accounts. San Francisco-based Boku Inc. lets users pay for virtual goods using their mobile phones. And many stores sell prepaid cards that can be used for online purchases. Kwedit is currently available on 100 social games, and also as an option on Social Gold.

The target audience for Kwedit and Boku is large - according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., an estimated 9 million U.S. households have no checking or savings account - and thus no debit card to go with it.

The idea of virtual buying is appealing to many. Just look at the popularity of games such as "Farmville" and "Pet Society" where users play for free. It’s the sales of virtual add-ons such as seeds and farmland that rake in millions of dollars. According to social games developer Zynga said its players raised more than $1.5 million for Haiti earthquake victims in five days by purchasing virtual items.

If Kwedit’s business model will be successful, gaming companies will be quick to follow. But also companies providing virtual goods and services, such as online music, will embrace the concept. Michael Arrington of TechCrunch wrote: “I’d love to pay for music on iTunes or MySpace music via Kwedit. At some point, we may just be able to.”

We will have to wait and see…..

How to have an effective international business card

2010-04-24T15:19:00.006-04:00

The Globalization-Group published an interesting article. It helps business owners and their employees to understand why their business cards might not be effective in some countries.

Although business cards may seem small and uncomplicated, there are some issues when it comes to using them in foreign markets (and languages). The article provides some excellent tips to help business go smoothly when working with international clients.

Size, non-translation of certain elements, and even the way a business card is presented differ depending on the country and situation. Before traveling, the business card must be translated quickly, smoothly, and without incident. Various preferences and reference materials must be provided to the translation supplier in order to have the business card translation process run smoothly.

Standard Business Card Dimensions by Country
Standard business card dimensions differ from country to country, and the business card must have the correct size. If the corporate headquarters are in the U.S., but the business card is printed in multiple languages, U.S. standard dimensions can be used. However, if business cards are printed for someone based in one of the international offices, then the designer (or the translator) and the printer will want to use the standard dimensions for that country.

United States, Canada: 88.9 × 50.8 cm / 3.5 × 2 inches;
United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland: 85 × 55 cm / 3.346 × 2.165 inches;
Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, Norway, Sweden: 90 × 55cm / 3.54 × 2.165 inches
Japan 91 × 55cm(or 90 x 55 cm) / 3.582 × 2.165 inches;
China, Hong Kong: 90 × 54 cm / 3.543 × 2.125 inches;
Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Israel, Kazakhstan, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Ukraine, & Multiple Latin American Countries (Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and more): 90 × 50 cm /3.543 × 1.968 inches.

Culturally Appropriate Business Card Etiquette
Business cards hold differing importance in some countries. Know the appropriate way to give and receive business cards in each country. The most notable example is Japan. The book Kiss, Bow, or Shake Hands includes the following recommendations for culturally appropriate exchange of business cards in Japanese business:

Cards are presented after the bow or handshake. The card must be presented with the Japanese side facing the business partner, so that it can be read immediately.
Read the card presented and memorize all the information. Ask for help in pronunciation and in comprehension of the title and make a relevant comment.
Handle cards very carefully. Do not put them in a pocket or in wallet, and never write on a person’s business card in his/her presence).
In Japanese culture, business cards are usually given and received using both hands, and Japanese business cards often contain additional details to emphasize qualifications.

Preferences for Business Card Translation
Indicate the following preferences where appropriate to ensure that the business card translation supplier provides what you need the first time:

Preferred terminology used on other company cards (i.e. preferred job titles, department names, taglines, or product names).
Existing name translations or whether to include names in both languages.
Exclusion of address from translation.
Preferred international contact information (i.e. non-toll-free phone number with country code that can be accessed outside the U.S.

Reference Materials for Business Card Translation
Provide the following optional reference materials to ensure that the business card translation supplier has everything needed for appropriate translation:

Existing company style guide, especially if related to translation and/or business cards.
Existing company glossary, especially if related to translation and/or business cards.
Existing translation history.
Example of an employee's business card that has been translated or created in the target language.
Other reference material including existing translations for logos, slogans, names of products, names of people, etc.

How to Market on YouTube

2010-04-13T03:28:00.011-04:00

YouTube has been used by companies to market themselves. These “viral videos” include videos like Miss Teen South Carolina , Smirnoff’s Tea Partay music video, the Sony Bravia ads , Soulja Boy . These videos have traveled all around the internet and been posted on YouTube, MySpace, Google Video, Facebook, Digg, blogs, etc. They have been viewed millions and millions of times.

Marketing campaigns can harness promotional videos and become truly viral. To get at least 100,000 people to watch a company’s “viral” video, keep the following in mind.

Not all viral videos are what they seem.
There are tens of thousands of videos uploaded to YouTube each day. A company needs to get at least 100,000 views to be considered successful; hopefully reaching 1.5 million views. In short, not all videos go viral organically – professional PR help might be needed.

Content is King (sort of)
If a company wants a truly viral video that will get millions of people to watch and share it, then content is king. But good content is not the only condition to get 100,000 views. A video must have a decent concept, an should not be forced to fit a brand. Rather, a brand should be fit into a great concept. Here are some guidelines:

Make it short: 15-30 seconds is ideal; break down long stories into bite-sized clips.
Don’t make an outright ad: if a video feels like an ad, viewers won’t share it unless it’s really amazing, such as Smirnoff’s Tea Partay.
Make it inviting: make sure to give a viewer a call to action, such as the Geico commercials.

Core Strategy: Getting onto the “Most Viewed” page
The core concept of video marketing on YouTube is to harness the power of the site’s traffic. The goal is to get a video on that Videos page, which lists the Daily Most Viewed videos. When being one of the twenty videos on the Most Viewed page, it means that it grabs 1/20th of the clicks on that page. The higher up on the page the video is, the more views it will get.

To ensure the first 50,000 views onto the Most Viewed list:

Blogs: reaching out to individuals who run relevant blogs and actually entice them to post the embedded video or the relating URL.
Forums: embed the link to the video in a post as part of a relevant threat. Although a bit tedious and time-consuming, it can have a tremendous effect when done properly.
MySpace: Plenty of users allow people to embed YouTube videos right in the comments section of their MySpace pages.
Facebook: Sharing a video with friends lists can have a real impact. Another option is to create an event that announces the video launch and invite friends, writing notes and tagging friends, or posting the video on Facebook Video with a link back to the original YouTube video.
Email lists: sending the video to email lists, including employees. Announce the launch of the video and tell recipients that they can forward the link. This can be a very effective strategy, leveraging the viral effect.

Each video has a shelf life of 48 hours before it’s moved from the Daily Most Viewed list to the Weekly Most Viewed list, so it’s important that this happens quickly. Once a video is on the Most Viewed page, the number of views must be maximized. People see hundreds of videos on YouTube, and the title and thumbnail are an easy way for video publishers to actively persuade someone to click on a video.

Titles can be changed a limitless number of times. For starters, the title can include phrases such as “exclusive” or “behind the scenes,” or “funny video.” Later on, the title can change to something more relevant to the brand.

If a video is sitting on the Most Viewed page with nineteen other videos, a compelling video thumbnail is the single best strategy to maximize the number of clicks the video gets. YouTube provides three choices for a video’s thumbnail, one of which is grabbed from the exact middle of the video. The frame at the very middle must therefore be interesting. The thumbnail should be high res and ideally it should have a face or at least a person/animal in it.

Strategic Tagging
YouTube allows for tagging videos with keywords that make the videos show up in relevant searches. Tags can also be used to control the videos that show up in the Related Videos box. Ideally, the tags are unique, and are not used by any other YouTube videos. Done correctly, this will for full control over the videos that show up as “Related Videos.
Once views start trailing off after a few days to a week, it’s time to add some more generic tags, tags that draw out the long tail of a video as it starts to appear in search results on YouTube and Google.

Metrics/Tracking: measuring effectiveness
Tweak the links on YouTube (whether in a YouTube channel or in a video description) by adding “?video=1” to the end of each URL. This makes it much easier to track inbound links using Google Analytics or another metrics tool. TubeMogul and VidMetrix also track views/comments/ratings on each individual video and generate graphs for review. These tools also follow the viral spread of a video outside of YouTube and throughout other social media sites and blogs.

Facebook’s Catch-22

2010-04-01T03:33:00.004-04:00

Facebook is making another change to its website. Rather than asking people to "become a fan" of a company such as Starbucks or a celebrity, Facebook will instead let users click that they “like” the company, product or person.

Facebook already lets people show what they like by posting comments or pictures on the Facebook website. According to Facebook, its users click the term “like” almost twice as much as they click "become a fan."

Facebook announced that it will change the button in order for users to be more comfortable with linking up with a brand. It will also streamline the website.

Businesses use Facebook pages, which are free to create, to connect with their customers and promote their brands. Facebook makes money from the advertisements these companies often use to draw users to their Facebook fan pages. The average user becomes a fan of four pages each month, according to Facebook.

"The idea of liking a brand is a much more natural action than (becoming a fan) of a brand," said Michael Lazerow, who is an expert in establishing corporate brands and advertise on social networks such as Facebook. "In many ways it's a lower threshold."

But while it might seem to be less of a commitment to declare that someone "likes" Coca-Cola than to announce being a fan of it, the meaning would essentially remain the same.

Facebook friends would see that their friend clicked that he or she "likes" a company’s webpage, and such pages would still be listed on a fan’s Facebook profile for anyone to see.

The world's largest online social network is known for constantly tweaking the way users experience the site. It did not always inform its audience, which resulted in harsh criticisms. Now that Facebook did announce its latest tweak, bloggers reacted by saying that it was just a PR trick to get exposure. It seems that Facebook is caught in a classic Catch-22 situation.

Facebook continues however to draw millions of new fans and more than half of its 400 million users log in every day. This is especially amazing considering the (many) security problems Facebook encountered.

A month ago, hundreds of Facebook users received personal emails that were not intended for them. Facebook reacted by saying: “during our regular code push yesterday evening, a bug caused some misrouting to a small number of users for a short period of time. Our engineers diagnosed the problem moments after it began and are working to get everything back in its rightful place. While they fix the issue, affected users will not be able to access the site.” The company said it was still investigating the problem and could not immediately respond to specific questions about the glitch.

Yesterday, private e-mail addresses that many Facebook users wanted to keep hidden were revealed publicly last night on a multitude of Facebook profiles, as reported by Gawker . The glitch lasted about 30 minutes before Facebook sealed the gap.

An anonymous tipster alerted Gawker of the breach in an expletive-riddled message: "6:46PM: I cannot [bleeping] believe it. Everybody's email has been turned on to the public for at least the past 30 min. I tried going into my account to remove my email b/c I have an issue with a crazed stalker. But I wasn't able to. God I [bleeping] hate FB!! When will they ever learn?!"

It is a question of time before Facebook users get fed up and close their accounts; especially if there will be strong competitor in the social media arena. Moreover, Facebook should shape up before being hit by a massive lawsuit.

Pepsi's Refresh is making marketing history

2010-02-08T09:16:00.018-05:00

Pepsi's Refresh Project is a first-of-its-kind experiment in social media. Pepsi is shifting one-third of its marketing budget to interactive and social media. In a bold move, Pepsi pulled its high-profile Super Bowl spots in favor of heavy spending to push a digitally focused social-responsibility campaign. Consumers don't seem to mind; in the weeks leading up to the Super Bowl, Pepsi was the second-most discussed advertiser associated with the Super Bowl, according to Nielsen.

As part of the Project, launched on January 13th, consumers can apply for grants ranging from $5,000 to $250,000 in one of six areas: health, arts and culture, food and shelter, the planet, neighborhoods and education. One thousand applications are accepted monthly via refresheverything.com. Consumers will vote on the winning projects. Pepsi expects it will give out more than $20 million in grants before the end of the year.

Bonin Bough, global director digital & social media for PepsiCo, is responsible for Pepsi’s social media programs. He explains that "it's not about digital as its own channel anymore. It's, how do we infuse digital across all of our marketing programs? The first step was socializing the brands and getting all the brands to quickly move away from destination sites and start creating experiences."

Refresh Project is closely watched by the industry for its scope and ambition to put digital media at its forefront, its purpose-driven strategy and the way it restructures relationships within Pepsi's agency circle.

Cheryl Damian, a director in the cause-branding group at Cone observed that "this is big, new, getting a lot of attention. It's impactful; it's innovative.” Many of her clients have been asking her about Pepsi's program and watching its progress.

The risk for Pepsi is acceptance. Pepsi has a reputation for amusing and entertaining. As Kevin Keller, professor of marketing at Dartmouth College, puts it: "Pepsi has been wonderful for years at entertaining us. This [program] is reflective of the times and the realities that people love entertainment but also care and have concerns about the world as a whole. But I would hate to see them stop entertaining us altogether."

Other brands in the PepsiCo portfolio have been successful in using non-traditional marketing. Mountain Dew shifted the creation and marketing of new flavors to consumers through its Dewmocracy campaign. Doritos has been a success with its user-generated Super Bowl ads.

Pepsi is hoping that the Refresh Project will deepen its relationship with consumers. Since this brand has a youthful target and appeal, going for social marketing seems to be smart move. According to Mr. Bough, the concept of creating a TV spot and then making that spot into an online or Facebook strategy is passé.

To work on the company's digital strategies, PepsiCo's beverage brands have developed a stable of digital-agency talent, including Huge, Firstborn, Tribal DDB and VML. An agency executive who participated in one of the recent digital reviews said that Pepsi is looking for something different – a combination of being a giant conglomerate with some genuinely new thinking and creative approaches.

Will Pepsi be successful? Up till now, the reactions have been good with an approval rate of 71%. Tweets lauded the brand's decision to "wise up and focus online" and applauded it for "exploring what matters". But in the end, it all depends on the sales figures. The industry is watching, and if Pepsi’s strategy pays off, more clients will walk away from million-dollar TV ads and embrace social marketing.

Using the Obamas as a marketing asset

2010-01-22T08:10:00.004-05:00

The Obamas are a marketing asset – as quite a few companies and organizations know. Going by the assumption “it’s easier to ask for forgiveness than permission”, they use the Obamas in their PR.

The outdoor clothes company Weatherproof noticed that the President was wearing one of their coats when photographed on the Great Wall of China. The company promptly used this news picture for the advertisement touting the tagline 'A Leader In Style'. In the pic, Obama stands alone in a strike, rugged pose – perfect for the company’s image and brand. The picture was taken by the Associated Press, and the clothes company bought the right to use it in an advert. They promptly turned it into a giant-sized photograph on a Times Square billboard. AlthoughWeatherproof did not seek permission from the White House, claiming it didn’t need to since the billboard does not claim Mr Obama endorses the product.

Freddie Stollmack, CEO of Weatherproof stated: 'He didn't come to us. It's just a great looking jacket on a great looking president. Mr Stollmack said he thinks the White House should congratulate his company for making Mr Obama look so good. We did this in good faith. This is an image that we thought would enhance the President of the United States.' He added that although another advertising company had accepted the billboard, the New York Times, the New York Post and Women's Wear Daily had all rejected a similar advert for their newspapers.

The White House was not amused. Deputy press secretary Bill Burton said that the White House has a long-standing policy that disapproves of the use of President Obama's name and likeness for commercial purposes.

But also Mrs. Obama has been used for PR purposes –without her position. PETA used her image in a new ad. PETA states that the first lady has committed to not wearing fur and "the world should know that in PETA's eyes that makes her pretty fabulous." The anti-fur poster features an image of the U.S. First Lady along with presenter Oprah Winfrey, singer Carrie Underwood and supermodel Tyra Banks, under the slogan 'fur-free and fabulous!'

The image that the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals used is the one from her first official White House portrait, taken in February last year. Ingrid Newkirk, president of PETA, confirmed that PETA had not asked for Mrs. Obama's permission to use the portrait, since they knew the First Lady could not officially endorse an anti-fur campaign advert. PETA also insisted, that they used her image in its Washington advertising campaign based on White House confirmation that she does not wear fur. The new adverts featuring Mrs. Obama appeared in Washington's Metro stations, magazines and PETA's website.

It is unclear whether the White House can prevent companies from using the Obamas’ images in advertising campaigns. Shortly after he took office last year, the White House launched a crackdown on 'Brand Obama' and insisted on control over the merchandising free-for-all in the wake of his inauguration. But it is difficult to enforce, especially since the chances for companies and organizations (especially outside of the US) to be sued are slim. Low cost, low risk, huge impact - a marketing dream come true…as the following clip shows....

Tweeting all the way to be bank

2010-01-18T12:50:00.010-05:00

Celebrities used to tweet about their day-to-day life. “I must have pinched a nerve in my neck, I can hardly look to my left. I will pass on my workout today. I need a massage.”

But now, celebs have found out that tweeting-for-money is worth while. Top earner is socialite Kim Kardashian, who commands $10,000 per tweet. Her tweets include a Nestle commercial, and the background on her Twitter page features the fast-food chain Carl’s Jr. The number of followers (KK boasts a formidable 2.7 million), is the key to profitability.

Dr. Drew Pinsky (more than 1.8 million followers) promo-tweets include endorsements for Sonos music systems and Gogo’s in-flight Wi-Fi. Greg Grunberg (of Heroes fame, nearly 1.5 million followers) tweets about the Yowza iPhone application multiple times a day – for an estimated $ 7,000 and $ 10,000 per tweet. (In all fairness, he donates his twitter bounty to charity).

The deal broker between celebs and companies is ad.ly. According to Sean Rad, CEO of Ad.ly, the likes of Britney Spears or P. Diddy could earn up to $20,000 per tweet, should they ever go for Ad.ly’s pay-per-tweet model.

By law, celebs have to disclose if they are tweeting for money or just for fun/adoration/kicks. The FTC regulation applies to all bloggers, so cave bloggerati!

An FTC-compliant tweet looks like this:
U guys have to watch [http://bit.ly/] Dancing w Stars champ @ShawneyJ backflips over speeding bobsled! Pretty cool! (Ad) 10:59 AM Dec 29th, 2009 from Ad.ly Network

Violation comes with a steep price tag: up to $ 11,000 in fines. The FTC is on the lookout, stating: "celebrities have a duty to disclose their relationships with advertisers when making endorsements outside the context of traditional ads, such as on talk shows or in social media”. As it looks now, we might see a juicy Twittergate scandal in 2010….

The power of Facebook – the Pears soap campaign

2010-01-09T11:39:00.004-05:00

Pears clear soap is a product consisting of a 221-year-old formula. It is also the world's first registered brand, and boasts a loyal customer base.

Recently Pears decided to change its age-old formula, changing and extending the number of ingredients and adding chemicals. The original Pears soap contains just eight ingredients, including rosemary and thyme extracts and “Pears fragrance essence”. The new soap replaced these with 24 new ingredients.

Customers labeled the new soap as “smelling and feeling disgusting”. The new soap, which is made in India, smelled strongly of frankincense, rather than the old “mild and spicy herbal fragrance”.

When customers found out that most shops were only selling the new variety, they started a Facebook campaign to force the makers of Pears Transparent Soap to abandon a new recipe after claims the formula. The group, called Bring Back The Original Pears Soap, was achieved what it wanted - the owners of the brand Hindustan Unilever Ltd (based in Mumbai) have agreed to produce something “much closer to the old soap” from March 2010.

The Pears case teaches us some important marketing lessons:

If it’s not broken, don’t fix it. If customers are happy with the product, don’t try to change it.
Brand loyalty. Pears has built a loyal customer base throughout the ages and over generations based on its unique product.
Customers are active and vocal. In the age of Web 2.0, customers have the power to use social networks to get their point across. Journalists pick up stories from social networks; hence the impact of the small Facebook group.

Avatar – the marketing success of an expensive blockbuster

2010-01-04T09:30:00.007-05:00

During the first weekend of 2010, Avatar passed the US$ 1 billion mark. This milestone has only be reached by a handufl of other movies.

This latest 20th Century Fox’s blockbuster was costly and complex to make. The accountants at the movie studio will be crunching numbers for the next few months to find out if investing in James Cameron’s Avatar will turn a hefty profit.

It is hard to determine the final cost of the movie – various numbers are flying around. The New Yorker quotes $230 million, while the New York Times estimates the total cost to be close to $500 million. Quite likely, the official budget lies somewhere in between – at $280 million for the production, plus marketing costs.

James Gianopulos, co-chairman and C.E.O. of Fox Filmed Entertainment, told CNN in early December: “it is the most expensive film we’ve made, but now, having the luxury of hindsight, it is money well spent, so I’m not concerned about it.”

However, a movie budget is limited to the production costs. In other words, it comprises of the wages of the actors, crew and special effects people. Marketing expenses, such as advertisements (billboards, trailers, etc.), promotion (events), merchandise (action figures, apparel, etc.) are not included in the movie budget.

In the case of Avatar, Fox cleverly shared the production costs with investor groups Dune Capital Management and Ingenious Film Partners to hedge the risk. They also took advantage of a tax credit in New Zealand (similar to Lord of the Rings), where they shot the live-action footage that comprises about a third of the film. These savings are estimated at $30 million. Fox is however responsible for the marketing (around $150 million).

Avatar has its unique selling point (USP) – it boasts its own 3D technologies, courtesy of Cameron who invested his own money, and backed by investors. They already got their investments back: the 3D cameras have been licensed for use in other films. Steven Spielberg and Peter Jackson are making their 2011 film, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, using Avatar’s motion-capture tools.

From the movie industry’s perspective, much of Avatar’s value lies in the film’s ability to motivate cinema owners to convert to 3D screens, which would translate into an additional price increase of a movie ticket by $3-to-$5. Furthermore, blockbusters Star Wars and Titanic are slated to be released again in 3D at an investment of $30 million per movie, and an increase in consumer electronics sales of flat-screen 3D TVs is anticipated.

Anticipating the profitability of Avatar, Cameron already has the next two Avatar sequels plotted out. A lot will depend on Avatar’s global appeal. Although the US media are focusing on the earnings in the domestic market, it will be Europe, Russia, India, and China that will contribute to the movie’s bottom line. In its first three weeks, Avatar has earned twice as much overseas as domestically.

Avatar's foreign success is contributed to the marketing genius of Cameron, who zoomed in on the anti-American feelings abroad.

As it looks now, Avatar will enaable 20th Century Fox and Cameron to laugh all the way to the bank.

Innovative marketing - lawyer-style

2009-12-22T04:55:00.007-05:00

One of the best innovative marketing strategies I recently came across, is the brainchild of the Cueto Law Group. This Miami, Florida-based law firm allows its clients to pay up to 20 percent of their legal fees with carbon credits. (Click here for the press release)

Carbon credit trade works as follows: a fixed, high penalty rate is applied to emissions that exceed a set target and firms are free to buy qualifying credits on the open market to bring their balance below the target level. The price of carbon on the open market will vary from scheme to scheme but is guaranteed to be lower than the penalty rate. Hence an upper bound is set for the price of carbon and classical market efficiencies force the real price of carbon emissions as low as possible. Carbon credits thus represent permits to emit climate-warming greenhouse gases. One carbon credit unit is commonly equal to one ton of carbon dioxide emissions.

Under the law firm’s program called “CO Too,” its clients can pay with carbon credits which the company can then trade in the international carbon markets.
"Our CO Too program is a way to help the environment, while at the same time providing an alternative way for clients to pay for professional services. We are proud to be leading the legal industry in this initiative,” said Cueto.

Mr. Cueto went on to say that he is optimistic that other industries will follow his company's lead. He stressed that carbon credits have gained significance as a legitimate currency with which to transact business.

"The current economic climate is a golden opportunity for the professional services industry to develop new ways to tackle global emissions.” He went on to say that credits represent a “paradigm shift” in the way business is transacted.

The global carbon credit market was valued at $126 billion in 2008. The World Bank estimates that the market could grow up to $150 billion by the end of 2009.

The Cueto Law Group consists of Santiago A. Cueto and his associate in Lima, Peru. Established in June, 2009 they are largely doing litigation for international clients with U.S. problems.

Cueto obviously knows a thing or two about marketing – his website is a textbook example of the latest trend in corporate website design, including news feeds, blog, etc. His timing is also impeccable – he launched his “CO Too” program during the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference 2009.

Although no clients took Cueto up on his offer yet, the media impact was a marketer's dream come true.
Prominent WSJ blogger Ashby Jones interviewed Cueto and quite a few eco magazines and blogs picked up the story, including Ecoseed and Mother Nature Network.

It shows how a clever marketing idea announced in a press release distributed via PR Newswire can put a small law firm firmly on the map.

(illustraton courtesy of www.toothpastefordinner.com)

Article Marketing

2009-12-20T12:02:00.018-05:00

One of the best ways to promote a company or product is through opinion articles. Many magazines (online and print) welcome well-written articles. These articles should not be biased though – nobody wants to read a (blatant) sales pitch. As marketing professions will tell you – educating your target audience/potential customers is an effective marketing strategy.

Before starting to write, you need to identify the target audience. Who are the readers of the magazine you want to send the article to? What are their interests? Do you have a direct connection to the editor, or only via a PR company? Does the magazine allow hyperlinks? Do they also want original illustrations? In short – you need to do your homework.

Many marketing and copywriters ghostwrite – they write the opinion articles for a company’s CEO, CMO or CTO, and when published, it will be under the executive's name.

Following are some points of attention when writing an opinion piece:

It must be informative. The reader should learn something from reading the article.
It must be interesting. The text should flow and keep the reader interested to go on reading.
It must be based on facts, and not assumptions. References to recent events that were covered in the global media are a good hook, as are reports of leading analysts such as Gartner and Forrester.
It must be neutral. As mentioned before, nobody wants to read a sales pitch. A neutral article covering new or future trends, or “how to…” articles are popular. At the end of the year, articles about predictions for the coming year are in demand.
It should have hyperlinks (if allowed by the newspaper), footnotes and references. It makes the article trustworthy and increases the chance for publication.
Most magazines will ask for illustrations. Try to have original images in high resolution. No matter what industry you are in, the chance that your competitors use the same stock photos is high. Diagrams are always popular in tech pieces, as are product photos. Make sure to send different photos to various magazines – don’t forget, they all want to have original content!
Custom write your story, tailored to each magazine. Sending the same article to several tech mags is professional suicide, especially in today’s viral media
Make sure to put a short bio with contact details at the bottom of the article.
Follow up. Once you see that your article in published, drop a thank-you note to the magazine (or journalist). Blog and tweet about it, and make sure to include the URL of the publication.

For an example of an opinion piece, click here

Google’s real-time search – a search engine marketing dream come true?

2009-12-09T11:25:00.008-05:00

Google announced the roll-out of its new real-time search function. Search results will incorporate real-time content from Twitter feeds, blog posts, online news content, Facebook status updates, and content from MySpace, FriendFeed, and Jaiku.

According to Google, the latest results and the new search options are also designed for iPhone and Android devices for info-on-the-go.

With this move, Google also tries to stay ahead of its main competitor - Microsoft's Bing that already has a real-time search function.

With its real-time search, Google will change SEO forever.

More and more companies will be "forced" to use social media to get exposure and to stay ahead of their competitors.
SEO and marketing experts will have a plethora of new opportunities for search engine optimization and marketing. Keyword and search terms will be embedded and searched in real-time news content, tweets, etc.
Companies need to be aware of what content and news they publish, since it will be exposed instantly to searches. There is no lead time for rectifications. This is especially important for companies that need to comply with regulatory rules and regulations (e.g., SOX and HIPAA).
Users of social media must be even more careful than before what content they post of their Facebook page or what they tweet about.
Facebook users need to be aware that if they flagged their profile as public, posted info can be displayed in search results.

It's too soon to predict what the impact on SEO and marketing will be, but it looks like a search engine marketing dream come true......

The Jia Junpeng phenomenon – clever viral marketing

2009-10-21T11:01:00.003-04:00

“Jia Junpeng, your mom is calling you to eat at home” became one of the hottest catch phrases on Internet, getting cult status. It is also a testimonial of the power of viral marketing.

In July 2009, an anonymous user posted the sentence “Jia Junpeng, your mom is calling you to eat at home” on a World of Warcraft forum. Within 24 hours, it was viewed 1.5 million times, got over 200,000 comments and was reposted and quoted on at least 7,000 webpages. It quickly developed into a media tsunami inside and outside China.

The brain behind the phenomenon is Ao Chunhua, CEO of a small website marketing company based out in Chonqing. He hired over 800 people to register over 20,000 online IDs to flood the forums and create 100,000 replies / postings to drive traffic to World of Warcraft.

Why did it become such a success?

China’s youth are the driving force behind online growth. They love to social network and reach out and connect online.
The sentence “mom calling you home to eat” triggers an instant emotional response. The Chinese fondly recall childhood memories of playing outside and being called by their mother to come home to eat once dinner was ready.
The Internet is a breeding ground for creativity, ideas, and testing out of marketing strategies.
Viral marketing or word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing is a highly effective way to reach out and communicate with Chinese consumers. Chinese consumers shy away from traditional media and puts emphasis on guanxi (personal relationship). A recent survey found that nearly 40% of Chinese men aged 18-34 ranked word-of-mouth marketing as their top influence for electronic purchases.
Viral marketing is also a cost-effective way of reaching target groups and building brands. As everywhere in the world, traditional advertising on television, radio, or in print is expensive.

Café marketing – did Lcafe start a new marketing trend?

2009-08-27T08:04:00.003-04:00

Sample Lab opened its Lcafe in Tokyo to reach Japanese women with information about new products.

It works as follows: Lcafe, customers register via mobile phone by providing their personal information (age, birthday, marital status). To become a member, they do not need to give their real name or exact address.

Once registered, the customers get tokens based on the amount of food or drink they ordered. They take their tokens to a brightly lit "sample bar" were they use them to get samples.
Registered members also get a barcode that shows up on their mobile phone. This serves as a membership ID, but also helps Sample Lab track who got what sample.

Sample Lab later sends out questions to see how a member liked a particular item. Those who answer the electronic survey get extra tokens for more samples.

Within the first two months, the café has more than 2,000 registered members. Offered samples were Refresh Time, a vitamin-infused drink by House Wellness Foods Corp.; pretzel sticks with flavors such as cheese, apple or tomato; and assorted skincare products.

This new trend was triggered by the economic turndown. Japanese advertisers are looking at new options to make their advertising more effective. They are turning away from mass promotion such as television ads and glossy magazine spreads that are very expensive. Targeted promotions like samples as more far more affordable and reach the correct customer group.

Yuhi Hori, of the event promotion division of Japan's largest advertising agency Dentsu Inc., agrees. "There is a fresh interest in distributing samples, as technologies using the Internet and mobile phones, which were not available in the past, allow companies to see the impact of sample promotion."

Lcafe reaches its target group perfectly – affluent Japanese women in their 20s and 30s. The café, which serves liquor, is open from 10 a.m. until 4:30 a.m. and clearly caters to women. Men are not allowed after midnight during the "Cinderella Time." The ratio of female to male customers is 9 to 1, according to Lcafe.

According to Kouhei Nishida, a manager of business development at Sample Lab, this group was chosen since "women take an initiative in shopping, they spark a trend. These young women can serve as influencers." More importantly, customers like Lcafe. Misako Minami, a 22-year-old college senior said: "It's simple [to register]. I feel value for money because I can get samples of new products while having a meal."

However, Lcafe also has its critics. Hideyuki Suehiro, of Hakuhodo, a major Japanese ad agency, claims that Lcafe lacks a system to encourage customers to spread their café experience through word of mouth (WOM) on the Internet. According to Lcafe, this is easily solved once it expands into other major Japanese cities (Yokohama, Nagoya and Osaka) and eventually overseas.

Time will tell if Lcafe remains a local phenomenon, or is starting a global marketing trend….

Games maker EA is at it again – another PR stunt gone wrong

2009-08-05T06:57:00.003-04:00

This, time Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:ERTS) unleashed a media storm over its Dante’s Inferno.

At San Diego Comic-Con event, EA came up with a promotion that went sadly wrong. It consisted of a contest, where show visitors were invited to "commit acts of lust" with models working at the convention –no matter in which booth. They had to submit proof by posting photos on various social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook.

The idea was to create a viral media storm. The winner (or ultimate sinner?) would enjoy "dinner and a sinful night with two hot girls, a limo service, paparazzi and a chest full of booty." The consolation prize for the five runners- up consisted of a copy of the game, a $240 gift card and assorted game merchandise.

In the disclaimer, EA stated on the official rules page that "...judges reserve the right, in their sole and absolute discretion, to disqualify any Submissions that are inappropriate for any reason, including without limitation, for depicting or mentioning sex, violence, drugs, alcohol and/or inappropriate language." In other words, keep your "acts of lust" clean!

The gaming community was not a bit charmed, to say the least. Th campaign was labeled as tasteless, immature and sexist. The company tried to explain (or to justify) by pointing out that lust is one of the nine sins/Circles of Hell and that participants were invited to take pictures with costumed reps.

"'Commit acts of lust' is simply a tongue-in-cheek way to say take pictures with costumed reps," EA’s danteteam tweets. "Also, a ‘Night of Lust’ means only that the winner will receive a chaperoned VIP night on the town with the Dante's Inferno reps, all expenses paid, as well as other prizes."

The game community was not impressed and tweeting back with viral force.
addtwist tweeted on July 27, 2009: "You should've just gone with Gluttony. Take a picture of the fattest ass at Comicon and get a prize. Or is that too easy?"

It's not the first time a marketing stunt of EA goes awry.

In April 2009, the company was criticized for sending a number of media outlets a Godfather II press kit that included a very real set of brass knuckles, to promote their game based on The Godfather II. The snag: it’s illegal to own brass knuckles in a number of states.

At the E3 trade show in June 2009, EA angered Christian groups and confused journalists covering the event with the use of fake Christian protesters for promotion of its Dante's Inferno.

What are the main marketing mistakes EA made this time?

They only targeted male gamers
They made the incorrect assumption that everyone would understand the “tongue in cheek” and “good fun” spirit of the promotion
They did not properly addressing criticism from their fan base
They did not learn from past mistakes

It seems that EA is writing its own La Divina Commedia - Dante Alighieri would have been amused…..

How Freddo, an 80-year old frog, broke the mold - twice

2009-07-22T09:37:00.003-04:00

On July 6, Cadbury launched its Freddo campaign, featuring Freddo’s first adventure: The Secret of the Golden Keys.

Freddo is the brainchild of Harry Melbourne, a chocolate mold maker at MacRobertson Chocolates, who told his boss in 1930 that frog-shaped chocolate would sell better than those shaped like mouse (the original concept). After making a sample and send to management, the marketing manager declared it a winner and history in the shape of Freddo, was born.

Eighty years later, more than 100 million Freddo chocolate frogs in a variety of flavors are produced in Australia each year.

On its 80th birthday, Freddo is hopping into cyberspace with a series of interactive stories and games designed to stimulate and educate children to mark the occasion.

Cadbury (who acquired the Freddo rights in 1965), stated: "We designed The Adventures of Freddo as a free website which aims to educate and entertain children in the digital environment, a medium this generation is so familiar and comfortable with, using a more modern version of the cheeky, loveable frog that their parents and grandparents grew up with."

But not everybody is charmed by Freddo. Activists against junk food advertising claim that it exploits loopholes in the self-regulation system to market chocolate to children.
There are currently three codes regulating the advertising of unhealthy foods to children in Australia:

the Children's Television Standards that are part of broadcasting legislation;
the Australian Association of National Advertiser's codes on advertising foods, beverages and on marketing to children;
RCMI, which food companies started in January 2009

Cadbury (NYSE: CBY) admits that Freddo chocolates are part of its "pre-teen" product range, but says that the campaign itself does not feature any chocolate, is educational, and encourages an active lifestyle. Cadbury’s marketing motives are clear, and include launching Freddo internationally if he breaks sales records at home in Australia and New Zealand.

Cadbury obviously has a very good legal team on board. Since the Freddo character is a Cadbury trademark and there are no chocolate products showing in the animated films, the company does not appear to be breaching any rules in the various codes. Cadbury cleverly doesn’t actively market to children aged 12 (and under) and thus abides by its own action plan registered under the RCMI (Responsible Children’s Marketing Initiative).

Kate Watson, Cadbury’s spokesperson claims: "We're marketing to parents. Parents are the gatekeepers. Kids can't go on the website without parents registering the kids.”

Cadbury (and its legal team) must have been pleased when the Australian Senate voted down a bill down that would have banned junk food advertising to children.

Our 80-year old amphibian friend broke the mold trice, and for sure will keep on enticing the next generation of Australian kids - with the help of its parent Cadbury.

Marketing to the Twitterati - companies that tweet

2009-07-16T12:27:00.003-04:00

It seems that global warming doesn’t endanger a new breed of animals: the Twitterati.

These are frequent Twitter users, whose life seems to consist of sending as much tweets and retweets as possible. When running out of tweet content (“still stuck in traffic”, “cannot find my left contact lens”), they retweet other people’s tweets. The “me” factor is so high on Twitter, that Sprint Nextel included a flock of blue twitter birds in one of its cell phone commercials (see illustration).

For those of you, who are not familiar with Twitter, think of a micro-blog. Instead of ample space to write your story (peppered with links and images) you have on Twitter.com a limited character length of 140. As one of my friends puts it: “it’s like writing text messages on your phone, only this time online in a blog."

Companies have also fallen in love with Twitter – big time. Just check out some corporate websites, and you will find “follow us on Twitter” at the bottom of the webpage. Companies embrace Web 2.0 with a passion, also since it makes them look good. But what exactly is Web 2.0?

Web 1.0 was a one-way communication from a company to the www-surfers using a static website. Web 2.0 is bi-directional; website visitors can send info to the company. At first mainly Web 2.0 websites were mainly online shopping sites. The next 2.0 wave consisted of web forms and blogs, followed by social networking communities. LinkedIn is one of the oldest, followed by MySpace and Facebook.

Enter Twitter, where you can express your feelings (or frustrations) in 140 characters or less. Is it a Good Thing for companies, or should Twitterati stick to “who-murdered-Michael-Jackson?”
Individuals can "Me!"-tweet about “going on vacation” or “don’t like my new sweater”. Companies however need to provide value. That’s the crux of the matter - any serious company must tweet about a product proposition. Many are too lazy and just put shortened URLs to their press releases in their tweets. If you are too much “Me!” as a company, you will be ignored by the Twitterati and not be retweeted.

What excites Twitterati and makes them to read a corporate tweet?

Lead for new jobs

Cool (free!) downloads

Hot news about the company linked to a current event

Great articles about an industry or area of interest (target your Twitterati!)

Links to interesting newsletters or magazine articles

Information about network/media events

Links to funny cartoons or clips

Links to great blog postings

To leverage Twitter, companies must be smart. They need to define their target group, offer tailored tweet content with a value proposition, and keep up the effort to maintain a Twitter presence.

A grasshopper’s marketing leap

2009-06-17T08:07:00.003-04:00

Grasshopper, an 800 phone number provider for small businesses in the US, rebranded itself.

To advertise the new name (they were previously known as GotVMail) and brand, they grafted a clever marketing strategy.

They started with compiling a list of the 5,000 most influential people in the US. It included influential bloggers, journalists, celebrities, TV anchors, and CEOs (Pete Cashmore, Adam Ostrow, and Tamar Weinberg).

Then they created a package to be sent by snail mail consisting of real chocolate covered grasshoppers ( a wink to their new name) with a simple message and video URL. The URL linked to an inspirational YouTube video about how entrepreneurs can change the world.

The packages were shipped out by FedEx last May. Some of the recipients (Josh Lohensohn of CNET) posted videos online of themselves eating the grasshopper. The campaign created a lot of buzz, especially on blogs and Twitter.

Some data (source: mashable.com):

4,911% traffic increase from April to May 2009
144,843 video views with 162 comments
1,500 tweets
120 blog posts in one month
Tweets from Guy Kawasaki, Kevin Rose, and Jason Calacanis
7 national TV mentions, including FOX

What are the success factors?

A sound concept
This was not just a renaming/rebranding, but a repositioning of the company. Needham-based GotVMail Communications LLC is a maker of communication systems for small businesses. They wanted to relaunch their company targeting entrepreneurship – a shift from being a telecommunications company to a company that helped entrepreneurs.

A theme that makes sense
The company chose the grasshopper to communicate the idea of jumping forward. Since grasshoppers can jump 20 times their own size, they nicely symbolize small businesses (their potential customers) that want to leap forward.

Flawless execution
The grasshoppers were farm-raised insects and dipped in chocolate. They were very professional packaged and clearly stated what was inside.

The front of the envelope said:
“Yes, these are real grasshoppers. Approved by the FDA of Thailand”.

On the back was written:
“You’re a risk-taker, a dream-realizer. What’s left to do that you haven’t already done? Eat a grasshopper. They’re farm raised, covered in chocolate and rich in protein. So, not only will you be breaking boundaries, but you’ll be eating healthy, too.”

The call to action was on the attached tag:
Entrepreneurs can change the world.Join the movement now!http://grasshopper.com/idea
Perfect marketing mix
This campaign combines a snail mail FedEx package with word of mouth (WOM) and social media. The landing page of the video URL made it easy for postings on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other sites using an AddThis widget.

Attainable goals
The Grasshopper campaign was able to achieve its main goals with a small budget:

To get attention
To hold interest
To get people talking
To be considered as a supplier

No word if PETA was among the 5,000…..

Corporate website 3.0 – Skittles brave jump into the marketing future

2009-06-11T06:48:00.009-04:00

Skittles went where no candy maker has gone before – and launched a corporate 3.0 website.

Skittles are candy products, produced by Mars, Inc., and part of the Wrigley product line.

Mars spokesman Ryan Bowling told the Wall Street Journal, that the site was redesigned to better connect with its core teenage audience, which spends a lot of time using social media.

"The teen audience relies heavily on their peers for advice on products. This is a unique, unexpected way to engage and to be a part of the conversation."

How does this site work? The “homepage” of Skittles is a small banner that fixes itself on the top left of your screen. No matter which tab you click, the URLs remain www.skittles.com/xxx,
The tabs link to customer-generated content (Wikipedia, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter)

1. “Home” and “Products” link to the Wikipedia page with the product description

2. “Media” has two components: “Videos” that links to YouTube and “Pics” that links to Flickr

3. “Chatter” brings you to the Twitter page

4. “Friends” links you to a Facebook page

5. “Contact” is the only tab that connects to a standard corporate website – the contact form on the Wrigley website

6. “Other Gobbledygook” will take you to the copyright notice and legal disclaimer

7. The middle part is a dynamic banner. Once you click for more information, a new window opens with a dedicated website ( e.g., http://www.havemorefunds.com/)

It is the first time that I came across such a website 3.0 of a reigning consumer brand. Instead of Skittles reaching out to its customers, it allows them to communicate directly and in a highly visible way. There are some possible pitfalls and dangers though......

Does the website reach the target demographics?
To enter the site, you must first confirm that you are over 18. (Before able to login, you get the message: “Hold your horses. Before you can check out Skittles.com, you’ve gotta tell us your age. So spill it”. Aren’t most Skittles-consumers younger?

Is Twitter a good choice?
According to Peter Corbett, CEO of iStrategyLabs, there are no children on Twitter - the majority of application-users are between the ages of 18-49 years of age. Is Mars aiming for the parents of their child consumers or for a whole new demographic?

How are negative comments handled?
Is there a staff that monitors content and communications and that can handle damage control?

How does Skittles/Mars protect themselves and their customers from malware and Web 2.0 threats?
It is quite easy for cybercrooks to inject malicious code in any of the pages. (Michael Gray provides some great advise on his SEO blog)

What about SEO?
The site consists of an iframe with almost no independent content. Technically, Facebook, Twitter or Wikipedia are not visited, but the Skittles’ website pulls the content for you into an iframe.

How will it affect the overall Mars brand?
Did the the flood of obscene, racist, and otherwise tasteless tweets have an impact?

The website was launched in March 2009 and designed by agency.com.
According to agency’s executive director Chad Stoller: “It is a very bold campaign in the sense that they are letting consumers speak on behalf of the brand."

My personal take: I love the fact that Skittles embraced Web 3.0 and is brave enough to relinquish control. But it might too much unchartered territory with unpredictable and even uncontrollable results. I hope that Skittles will tell us how they fared – up till now, there have been no announcements or reactions from Mars or the agency. No matter what, I predict that this one will make it many MBA course materials and marketing handbooks.

In the mean time, all I can say is: chapeau!

Chinese Web Marketing – A case study from Money Cat

2009-06-04T11:08:00.003-04:00

Money Cat Consulting is and Australian multi-lingual marketing company.
It provides innovative marketing solutions for corporations wishing to reach Chinese communities in Australia and abroad.

They launched a Chinese-language financial & investment website (http://www.moneycat.com.au), to reach Chinese investors.

To reach out and acquire members, they used various marketing & PR tools – with different levels of success.

When reaching for the Chinese market, these are the lessons that we can learn from Money Cat.

Using newspapers is very expensive with a very low response rate. Especially advertisements have little effect, but some advertorials can generate a good level of interest depending on the specific product.
Web banners can work sometimes, but they usually have a limited exposure period. It can be a good tool for branding, but Chinese web users do not click a lot on web banners anymore.
Google Adword-campaign is not effective for reaching the Chinese market – the favorite search engine is Baidu. Google Adword and Yahoo keywords do work in Taiwan and Hong Kong, where English is is predominant Web language.
Taiwanese websites are effective as a marketing channel, since many Chinese web users also look at Taiwanese websites for information. Especially articles on consumer goods and finance are popular.
Blogs are highly effective, it generates consistent traffic. Chinese web users love to read and write blogs. Money Cat sent an article to 200+ blogs across Asia (and Australia), and saw their traffic grown tenfold in a month. However, it is important to target the right blogs for the right topics.
Videos and Audios can be effective, but bandwidth is still a problem. Broadband infrastructure is not yet fully established across China, and quality is often distorted. Money Cat opted to upload video clips on Taiwanese and Hong Kong websites that can also be accessed by Chinese viewers.

Mayo de Cinco Marketing Mania

2009-05-06T03:44:00.005-04:00

Cinco de Mayo is the celebration of the victory of the Mexican people over the French army in the La Batalla de Puebla on May 5th, at Puebla, Mexico.
(Puebla is 100 miles east of Mexico City). It should not be confused with Mexico’s Independence Day.

The reason why Cinco de Mayo became such a national celebration in the US is a nice lesson in marketing.

It started in 1966, when Coors Brewing Co. was facing a crisis. Chicano activists began protesting against the employment discrimination against Latinos working at Coors breweries and called for a boycott of Coors beer. Not exactly the corporate image you want for your company.

Coors did some brilliant crisis marketing – they started sponsoring Cinco de Mayo. It served multiple purposes: it kept them on the good side of their ethnic workforce; they kept their Latino customer base, and they bumped up their May beer sales to college students.

That’s the reason why Cinco de Mayo celebrations mainly take place across the U.S. and only locally in Mexico. The US-based Hispanic advertising community uses it as great promotional opportunity for their clients – promoting a wide range of products, including alcohol. Since Cinco de Mayo has been warmly embraced by the US population as a whole, there are now marketing campaigns galore.

A small selection:
1) The Food Network tells its consumers how to get ready for Cinco de Mayo – with a Rachel Ray fajita pan and a corn zipper
2) The Fine Living Network sends their customers 10 margarita recipes
3) Maxim magazine invites its readers to pick their favorite Mexican hottie

This year, Cinco de Mayo marketing activities got a setback. Many Cinco de Mayo festivals got canceled across the U.S. because of swine flu. Unfortunately, anti-Mexican sentiment also reared its ugly head in some places.

Similar to St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo has become a marketing tool for many companies – especially alcohol companies.

Rest me to wish you all a fun Cinco de Mayo, but please be responsible - don’t drink and drive!
(illustration by courtesy of TMN).

How do you promote a tourist destination in time of recession? By linking it to a global job hunt!

2009-02-24T09:10:00.004-05:00

To promote their Great Barrier Reef, Tourism Queensland launched in January 2009 a highly successful marketing campaign to get media exposure. They announced that they were looking for a caretaker for the Great Barrier Reef. Job applicants were cordially invited to apply for their Barrier Reef “dream job”.

According to the especially created website www.islandreefjob.com, the “best job in the world” is Island Caretaker, living on the Hamilton Island. The job is for 6 months, with a salary of Euro 10,000. The real work is to create weekly blogs, keep a photo diary, make video updates and conduct ongoing media interviews to promote “the wondrous Islands of the Great Barrier Reef”.

With wonderful tongue-in-cheek humor, additional duties are listed as: feed the fish (since there are over 1,500 species living there, they pretty much feed each other), clean the pool (an automatic filter is in place) and collect the mail (by joining the aerial postal service).Applicants were invited to apply by sending video – close to 35,000 respondents from 200 countries followed up. To make sure that the videos were not boring, the advertising agency (CumminsNitro in Brisbane responsible for the campaign) posted a (fake) video showing “Tegan” (one of their employees) getting a tattoo of the Great Barrier Reef to show her devotion to the tourist destination.

The focus will now turn to short-listing the Top 50, which will be announced on the Island Dream Job website on Tuesday, March 3. The Top 50 will be narrowed down to a final 11. In a clever marketing gimmick, 10 candidates will be short listed by Tourism Queensland, while an 11th 'wild card' applicant will be chosen by popular vote, thus guaranteeing ongoing media coverage. These eleven applicants will be flying to Hamilton Island in early May 2009 to take part in the final selection process. The final selection will be announced on May 6.

The applicants neatly represent the targeted tourist population. The highest number of applicants came from the United States, followed by Canada, Great Britain and Australia. Applicants are all ages, nationalities and come from all walks of life – including writers, tour guides, marine biologists, environmentalists, students, bloggers, mums and dads and retirees and celebrities such as an Amazing Race winner, a New Zealand travel show host and a former Young Australian of the Year.The main question remains if the costs justify the results.

One this is already clear – it put Hamilton Island firmly on the (media) world map

Legal oversight, marketing blunder or a stroke of marketing genius?

2009-01-07T02:14:00.004-05:00

On Election Day last November, Starbucks launched a one day marketing campaign. It offered a free 12 oz. drip coffee to anyone who voted. However, this is illegal in the US. Federal law prohibits payment of money, goods or services in return for voting. Starbucks advertised the voter promotion on television during the comedy sketch show Saturday Night Live (for a brilliant spoof of the coffee chain click here).

Starbucks did some quick crisis management issued the following statement:
“To ensure we are in compliance with election law, we are extending our offer to all customers who request a tall brewed coffee."

As a result the wires buzzed with, "Did you hear about Starbucks?" which went hand in hand with: "Do you think Obama will win? "

Theis kind of viral buzz is a marketer's dream. Starbucks profited big time from their freebie:

Many that came in for the free coffee left with purchased sandwiches, cookies or muffins.

Others opted to upgrade their free plain coffee for a fancy grande mocha frappuccino latte or espresso.

The Starbucks brand was plastered all over the media

The question remains if Starbucks made an honest mistake (in which case they should fire their legal advisor) or if it was a clever marketing ploy (in which case they should promote that marketing professional to a senior management position).

Quite likely, it was a case of an eager marketing beaver running off with a campaign without clearing it with legal first. If that is so, Starbucks presented us with a wonderful example of effective crisis management.

Although it turned out great for Starbucks in the end, I strongly advise all companies (regardless of industry or location) to run all planned marketing, sales or PR campaigns via their legal department or advisor before launch. This is even more critical if the company operates internationally.

PETA’s rebranding of fish – will its Sea Kitten marketing campaign work?

2008-10-29T06:18:00.002-04:00

PETA is known for its often provocative and controversial campaigns, such as comparing factory farming to the Holocaust.
In its latest campaign, it tries to convince the public that fish are capable of showing physical affection, of feeling pain and of grieving when their companions die. They are in PETA’s opinion not different from pets such as dogs and cats.

Since fish are not furry and cuddly, PETA tries to change the public image of fish from slithery and slimy to cute. Similar to happy Disney characters, it launched a website featuring “Finding Nemo”- like Sea Kittens. Aimed at small children, the website allows its visitors to create and name their own Sea Kittens. There is also a section on the website with (rather scary) bedtime stories trying to get the PETA point across. One of the stories read: “Tony the Trout is the smartest Sea Kitten in his school. Already litter-trained at 2 months old, Tommy went on to double-major in neuroscience and environmental studies at Clamford University, eventually graduating with honors. When Tony is caught and fed to a precocious young child who, having eaten one mercury-filled sea kitten too many, falls to the bottom of his class, the irony is not lost on him.”

A spokeswoman of PETA explained, that "If everyone started calling fish 'Sea Kittens,' they'd be a lot less likely to violently kill them for food, painfully hook them for 'sport,' or cruelly confine them to aquariums. When your name can also be used as a verb that means driving a hook through your head, it’s time for a serious image makeover.”

PETA kicked off its marketing campaign at the beginning of October 2008 at a school in Fayetteville, NC. As a gimmick, a huge Sea Kitten welcomed the children, explaining that Sea Kittens are just like puppies and kittens and should not be eaten. As part of the marketing campaign, PETA launched a petition calling for the US Fish and Wildlife Service to abandon its backing for fishing (or Sea Kitten hunting in PETA’s language).

Will the campaign work? Doubtful…….

How I see it, the main “mistake” of the campaign is its target group. PETA wants to stop fishing, which per definition is an activity not conducted by totlers. The best what PETA will achieve is changing the eating habits of the little ones, which will disrupt a balanced diet. It is doubtful that school cafeterias serve fish as a whole, including heads and fins. It’s hard to make the connection between a fish finger and a real fish/Sea Kitten. Fish is also a main food source for many communities, and is a great source of omega-3 fatty-acid which helps reducing the risk of breast cancer.

Furthermore, no matter how you look at it, fish are just not cute! Even the biggest dog or lion has a high hugging factor: nice fur and two eyes looking straight at you. Fish have pointy heads with two large eyes on each side, staring unblinkingly at you (whether dead or alive – as we all know from eating trout in restaurants). They are scaly and cold-blooded, which makes it not exactly appealing to touch. Being cold-blooded and living in water it can hardly strive to become our favorite pet. It is also difficult to relate to the mood of fish – how do they show that they are unhappy? They don't growl, purr or bark... (OK, they do show anger, if I rememberJaws or Moby Dick correctly) And there is the “fish-eats-fish” angle; big fish eat shoals of little ones, which don’t score high on the cuteness scale.

The main result of the current campaign is its high entertainment value. Apart from creating our own silly Sea Kitten (see illustration), many of us are making relentlessly fun of PETA’s Sea Kitten in articles and on blogs. It downgrades the campaign to a Jessica Simpson-like gaffe level, similar to her "Is this chicken or is this tuna?" question while looking at a can of Chicken of the Sea tuna on her reality show. As Michael Pearce of the Wichita Eagle pointed out in his hilarious article, calling fish “Sea Kitten” needs some serious rewriting. He pointed out that according to the New Testament; Christ fed the 5,000 with five loaves of bread and “Sea Kittens”; not to mention the fact that several of his disciples were Sea Kitten hunters. Oy!

Marketing during economic turbulence

2008-10-14T05:38:00.004-04:00

In times of an economic recession (and especially during a depression) marketing is the business area that is normally hit hard. When companies want to cut cost or downsize, it’s to the marketing budget, expenses and department they look first.

However, this is a strategic mistake. To adapt to the new economic reality, companies need their marketing professionals to analyze their current market position and to find out what their best strategy to survive will be. Marketing is uniquely positioned to analyze the changes in customer behaviour and advice on the optimal way to reach them.

To give an example, luxury research firm Unity Marketing interviewed 1,200 affluent consumers (average income $209,500) at the top 20 percent of U.S. household during October 3-8, 2008 about their mindset since the bail-out of Wall Street. The result shows that the respondents are overall spending less on luxury items. However, they do splurge on those items that they really want, even increasing their spending for those targeted luxuries. The way they shop has changed as well – to resist temptation, they avoid stores. Luxury store owners have to come up with new marketing and sales techniques to lure these customers back, such as cash-back gift card sales as Bergdorf Goodman is conducting.

Analyze your company image and overall performance
Any crisis, especially one of the current magnitude that is riddled with insecurities, forces companies to take a long, hard look at themselves. They need to evaluate their corporate vision and mission – are they still the same ones that are in the annual reports and the corporate website? Are they still in sync with the current times and new reality or is it time to refresh or reposition? Many high-tech companies launched a technology that they wanted to bring to the average company or consumer. Many of those technologies and products never took off. Computerworld published an overview of the 21 biggest technology flops, among them ebooks.

Even when a company is doing all right now, what are its survival chances? Will its customers allocate more, less or the same budget for items such as Internet security?It might be time to kill some scared cows, even (or especially) if they are the brainchild of the owners. Apart from using your in-house marketing experts, the best option is involving an external strategist to get a clear view.

London-based Financial Times is building steam, especially in the US. Any crisis is always good for the media, since the public is information-hungry. FT did well by the latest “if it bleeds, it leads” - its September newsstand sales rose with 30% in the US and 20% in Europe and Asia. Registered users of www.ft.com rose in one year from 30,000 to 750,000. FT also advises media companies to bring out their newspaper in several formats, push equally to enlist hard copy customers and online subscribers, using tools such as RSS. FT is also in favour of video, based on more than 1 million views a month.

Build new marketing strategies, be creative
One the main drives of survival is creativity – the ability to adapt to new circumstances. Based on the analysis mentioned before, it might be time for the company to reexamine the current offerings and adjust the current suite of products or services. There might be “sleepers” among them – a product of service that is now less-promoted, but is more affordable and consistent with the overall brand.

Based on the advice of the in-house marketing experts, it might be time to make a bold move and sell your product in new markets. Based on the reshuffling of the economic landscape, there will be emerging market niches and customer groups and demands not identified before. Clever companies grab these opportunities – being an early market entrant always pays off.

A recent example is the Australian Tourist NT which is concentrating on local visitors, since the number of international visitors is dropping. "Certainly we would anticipate we might have some softening in international arrivals, so our focus will be to further strengthen our domestic market. Tourist NT stated that it will “certainly continue investing in our marketing activities with partners to ensure that we have a sustained presence in the market to do what we can to ensure we get people visiting."

Communicate with your employees
During economic turmoil, employees are worried about their jobs. They want to know (and have to right to know!) how healthy their company is and if there are any plans in pipeline for cutting costs. Employees are the most valuable asset a company has, so it is foolish not to leverage this main asset!

A new research released today by global public relations firm Weber Shandwick shows that 86% of the respondents see their senior executives or management as "believable" and "trustworthy" sources on the topic. Sadly enough, more than half didn’t hear anything at all from the company leaders.

Don’t cut your marketing budget
The first thing that most companies do when times get tough is cut their marketing budgets. The recent Bellwether survey, published by the IPA, found that Q3 annual marketing budgets have been cut at a record rate as the economic crisis weakens business confidence. Key budgets hit are main media advertising, PR, events sponsorship and market research.It is a strategic mistake to ignore your customers when your competitors are still out there approaching them, as Post found out. In 1929, Kellogg’s and Post were in a neck-and-neck race for the breakfast cereal market. Unlike its rival, Kellogg's continued to advertise through the Great Depression, gaining a position of market dominance that the company still enjoys today.

Instead of cutting your marketing budget, look at your marketing mix and communication channels to your customers and readjust. Instead of going to a tradeshow, you might opt for more SEO and PPC, conduct more online campaigns, or increase the frequency of your corporate newsletter.

Avoid cutting your prices
In a time when customers become more conservative in their spending, it is a lower price that will sway them to purchase, but their need for the product or service. Impulse buying is replaced by ROI buying. Slashing prices for consumer goods can lead to cheapening your brand, which will result in long-term brand image damage.

Again, marketing professionals are uniquely placed to analyze how the current mixture of price and product/service is perceived by the customers. Adjustment to the overall marketing strategy might be needed. If a company is focusing too much on one small market niche with customers most hit by the crisis, it might want to branch out.

Before adjusting prices, analyze all of the elements of the marketing mix and make sure to fully understand what drives current and future customers.

Pamper your customers
As outlined above, customers will be driven by quality and service, and less by the actual purchase price. Customers have to feel good with the product or service itself, but also with the company that provides it. Giving customers extra attention pays off big time. In tough times self-esteem suffers, and companies that care about their customers will maintain existing customers more easily as well as build long-term brand loyalty.

A recent example is investment firm T. Rowe Price that began running a new ad campaign in the last two weeks, with the headline “Confidence.” The campaign ran in the Financial Times, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, communicating that “ultimately, there's one thing that will see our investors through these unsettling times ... confidence.”

Is the SEC killing the press release – not likely!

2008-08-07T05:22:00.001-04:00

On July, 30 the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) published its recommendations for public companies in their efforts to comply with the securities laws “while developing their Web sites to serve as an effective means for disseminating important information to investors”.

It sparked a hot debate among IR and financial PR professionals, who are trying to figure out what the impact is. Many IR/PR agencies make good money writing and distributing press releases on behalf of public companies. Since a public company must announce any change in ownership and significant deals as well as notifications, earnings, profit warnings etc. to the public at large, the financial press release was the only way to go.

By opening the possibility of posting all of the above on a corporate blog, it could mean the “death of the press release” as one PR professional put it. IR and PR circles were abuzz with speculations how the major new distribution agencies such as PR Newswire would take it.

Public companies have been weary of using the Internet as a public space for the dissemination of material information, not in the least since they need to comply with Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg-FD) and Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) rules. The SEC is now opening the possible for companies to adhere to regulatory policies without using some of the more traditional methods such as financial press releases. If public companies would opt en masse to use the Web for information distribution, particularly for earnings disclosure, it would have a huge impact on IR and financial PR agencies as well as the newswires.

Thus far, most companies have been leery of using websites to provide investors and other audiences with regulated information, such as earnings.
Beth Harbin, director of PR for Southwest Airlines, is hesitant about changing its current system with PRN, though she acknowledges the positive benefits, which have helped carve out a place for earnings on the airline's website.
"Since we started our... site, we've always had a vision of making it extremely robust," she said. "We currently have earnings up on our website, as part of a system developed through [PRN]," she said. "It also puts that release right in the hands of the reporters who need it."

It is at this moment not clear what the full impact will be. The SEC document seems to indicate that the SEC wants to open the use of public companies’ websites as part of the whole process of disclosing information in accordance with the Regulation FD.

The SEC stated that it “believes that company disclosure should be more readily available to investors in a variety of locations and formats to facilitate investor access to that information. Investors are turning increasingly to electronic media and to company and third-party websites as sources of information to aid in their investment decisions."

It seems that the SEC does recognize a company website as a channel of distribution. The information must be disseminated in such a way, that it is available to the securities marketplace in general.

How can a public company guarantee that? By taking more affirmative steps so that investors and others know that information is or has been posted on the company's website.
Trying to avoid the costs of issuing a financial press release (of which many companies complain), would not only incur alternative costs (e.g., mailing list and distribution + follow up, SEO, administration, legal & accounting department) but could also jeopardize compliance with SOX.
What would therefore be the best option for public companies to ensure the availability of their information to the investor and securities communities? Correct, by sending out their announcement as a press release!

Using (only) their website for announcements will be risky. Companies will need to consider whether the postings on their websites are “reasonably designed to provide broad, non-exclusionary distribution of the information to the public.” This would entail serious organic SEO or in-house website management with tracking and reporting capabilities.

Another issue is the requirement that the website's capability must meet the “simultaneous or prompt timing requirements for public disclosure once a selective disclosure has been made." This puts a strain on a company’s resources. For practical reasons alone, sending a financial press release via the newswire remains the preferred option, since it will be pushed to Yahoo Finance, MarketWatch, MSN, CNNMoney, CNBC, Factiva, Forbes, Fox Business News, Lexis/Nexis, sites operated by major financial institutions and trading firms, blogs etc.

It relieves the public company from the burden to determine whether its website qualifies as a "recognized channel of distribution" and whether web posting achieves simultaneous disclosure. If you are the IR Officer, CFO, CEO or Legal Advisor of such a public company, you would have your work cut out for you, and the SEC doesn’t supply comprehensive guidelines or instructions to that effect.

The SEC's Advisory Committee on Improvements to Financial Reporting states in its final report: "Of course, the increased use of corporate websites is not intended to affect the valuable role that newswires and other news vehicles play in disseminating important company information to investors and the public."

Despite the fear of many IR and PR professionals – the SEC is not killing the press release, it just hands us another IR & PR tool.