Monday, November 5, 2007
PR: Vital Still?
Tuesday, October 30, 2007
Google’s Algorithmic Change: A Blow to SEO?
The problem that comes with SEO is that in the rush to employ the tactics involved in gaining higher page ranking, advertisers overlook the importance of a well-made site—the phenomena that search engine algorithms were designed to discover in the first place. Rather than focusing on ways to cut corners and out-smart search engines, resources should be put into optimizing sites through their characteristics. “Better rankings,” says P.J. Fusco of the ClickZ Network "come with better linking. Better linking starts within your site. Having a site map is a no-brainer, as are non-graphical site-wide navigation, footers, and related deep links … Implementing the 20 most fundamental elements of SEO best practices … should provide you with a straightforward approach to better visibility for your Web site in the major search engines.” By re-evaluating the algorithm, Google is forcing marketers to refocus their efforts, which will, hopefully, lead to more effective site building and link integration in the future. Even if it fails to accomplish that, perhaps in time, the cyclical pattern I see (marketers discovering ways to cheat the system, search engines responding by honing their ranking practices and the marketing community throwing a fit until they can find new ways to cheat) will produce positive results: an internet search so well tuned that it connects consumers with exactly the companies and products they need and want, while minimizing the waste absorbed by companies eager to connect with their targets. Either way, Google’s decision to update signals an opportunity for the marketing industry as a whole. The question now is how will that industry respond?
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Widgets: Online Advertising’s Newest Tactic
Monday, October 8, 2007
Modern Advertising: A psycho-visual balancing act
Marketers walk a fine line when they create and present advertising. On the one hand, it is important to grasp the attention of as many people as possible with the intended message; on the other, the message cannot feel as though it is being forced down viewers’ throats. Extraneous, over-the-top advertisements, whether they be high-volume commercials or flashing pop-up ads, tend to turn people off of the featured product or service. At the very least they spur potential consumers to turn off the radio, change the TV channel, or click to the next internet page—none of which lead to desired buying behavior. With this in mind, advertisers must improve the efficacy of the mediums they use, and many are already exploring their options.
It is no secret that traditional television advertising has been a point of some concern among industry professionals in the past few years. With online advertising gaining popularity and the influx of TiVo and similar DVR devices providing viewers a way to avoid commercials altogether, advertisers have had to be a bit more creative in the delivery of their messages. One change that looks to be quite promising is actually an idea borrowed from print advertising: tie-in ads. Despite obvious differences in formatting, the general idea remains constant from print to video. Simply put, advertisers research story options in appropriate magazines, newspapers, (and now TV programs) and then tailor ads to “tie-in” to the story, (see link for example) the idea being that if a potential consumer has seen/read/listened to a story about a particular topic, they will be more receptive to advertising that relates to it. Guinness has already found some success with this method. Last spring, the company created an ad specifically for a Discovery Channel program called Mythbusters, a show that assesses the validity of urban myths using scientific theory. In the ad (see graphic to the right), “one character asked another whether it was a ‘myth that Guinness only has 125 calories.’ After he is told the calorie count was accurate, a voiceover says: ‘Mythbusters, sponsored by Guinness.’" Further research will be required to ascertain whether or not the ad stopped TiVo viewers fast forwarding through the message (Guinness’s original goal), but those who did see the ad remembered Guinness’s name 41% more than those only exposed to traditional commercials. Percentages of this magnitude should provide strong incentives for companies to adopt this more expensive, but significantly more effective approach to television advertising.
Adjustments in ad presentation are certainly not confined to television alone, however. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Sites ranging from Google Inc. to Break.com have been experimenting intensively with replacements for the preroll, the video ads that users are forced to watch before viewing a clip.” Efforts to find the best compromise between corporate interests and consumer impatience have lead to innovations in the form of “skins”, ad graphics that surround the video player screen (see left-hand graphic), and “bugs”, graphics that slide over the bottom of the video-viewing screen, also know as “overlays”, and “tickers”. Though these presentations are much less invasive than their preroll predecessors, they are said to be producing good results for their implementers. Ogilvy Interactive found that “ads connected with online videos perform about three times as well as online sponsorship ads and banner ads when it comes to a consumer's brand recall… ‘it allows you to sponsor and create an association with good content,’ says Maria Mandel, executive director of digital innovations at Ogilvy Interactive.” Still, some are a bit skeptical of online advertising specifically because of the lack of control over “destination content.” Google removed ads from its social networking site, Orkut, in August following a complaint lodged by one of its advertisers against the inappropriate content displayed on personal profiles. Understandably, advertisers are wary of the potential ramifications of unknowingly connecting their brand with inappropriate or illegal activity. Google hopes, however, that efforts to improve context matching of advertising and media content will increase advertisers’ efficacy and feeling of security in the future.
In all mediums then, advertising has been making significant changes to the way they reach their targets. According to the LA Times, "Companies in the Internet space are changing their business models to have models which are consumer driven, not property driven." Indeed, this is the key to the advertising evolution that touches all media platforms. Understanding consumer preferences in message presentation will ultimately lead to the creation of a more receptive audience. Once the battle for receptivity is won, marketers can then focus on the messages being conveyed, but advertisers know that it does not matter how clever, catchy, or emotionally appealing their message is, without a receptive, attentive audience, that message is useless.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Videogames: The New Marketplace
Product placement in traditional video games, according to USA Today, has been part of the gaming world since the 1980’s when Sega decided to include Marlboro banners in its arcade racing games. Now, however, interactive product placements are part of the mainstream (see picture to the right). “Advertisers are figuring video game advertising into their budgets; money previously spent on TV and print is now being redirected to in-game advertising,” according to About.com. The next step some companies are already taking is placing actual ads in between the levels of traditional games. This choice is being met with a certain amount of unease by some in the industry who fear that by presenting targeted messages, advertisers might alienate the very consumers they hope to attract. A study undertaken by Neilson Entertainment and Activision revealed much more hopeful data. Jason Tuohey of Medill News Service reported in his article, Invasion of the Videogame Ads that 35 percent of male gamers say in-game ads help them decide which product to buy, and that over 50 percent of "heavy gamers" liked having real ads in the games because of the tone of authenticity they lend to the experience.
It is this quest for virtual authenticity that has spawned so many “imitation-life” games whose popularity extend across age and gender lines in an interactive approximation of reality. These are the games that have advertisers so excited, and it is easy to see why. Sims2 and others like it provide a life-like environment through which consumers navigate as they create families and homes, hold jobs, design products of their own for sale within the digital world (see picture to the left), and most importantly, interact with virtual versions of branded, physical products. While some are skeptical of the benefits to be gained through advertising budgets spent in virtual worlds, many are embracing this medium as a means of solidifying brand loyalty and encouraging brand experiences. As the USA Today article “What's in a name: Product placement in games,” states: “Play Crazy Taxi and a lot of your passengers will ask you to take them to Pizza Hut or KFC … Dive into Die Hard: Nakatomi Plaza...and you'll see Zippo lighters and Motorola cell phones…” By placing brands within easy reach of consumers in the virtual world, advertisers provide one more venue through which consumers can view, test, and interact with their products, hopefully leading to increased purchase behavior in the real world.
One thing I was surprised to note while reading through studies and articles exploring the significant prospects this medium offers was that companies seem to be missing out on an important opportunity, namely consumer research. The completely digital nature of virtual worlds would allow marketers to obtain substantial amounts of natural observation data that would be impossible to collect otherwise. The most effective consumer research is obtained through contextual research where company representatives spend time with consumers in their homes and observe how they use particular products. Observations from these sessions can lead to critical insight into the consumer mindset that can eventually culminate in the discovery of a breakthrough product. The downsides to this type of study rest mainly in the substantial cost in time and money as well as the potentially confounding effect of an outsider’s presence. The Observer Effect can lead to changes in behavior that might affect the data collected at the time, but in the virtual world, there is no danger of that. True, there is slightly less depth than comes with face-to-face personal interaction, but far out-weighing this drawback is the sheer quantity of product and brand knowledge, uninhibited by outside influence, and deeper than objective survey data, that is readily available. So far the marketing industry has done a relatively good job of keeping up with technological evolution and the opportunities presented by it. I am sure that in the coming years they will take full advantage of the wealth of information to be gained from casual, interactive gaming sites.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Consumer Engagement: Creating Bonds with Brands
Post 1:
I understand the desire to stand out in a world drowning in advertising clutter, but this retailer seems to be taking that stance a bit far. While I admit the name was intriguing and the clean, modern design of the store (as pictured in your post) was rather refreshing, there comes a point at which the question of identity should be addressed if a business is to thrive. Having read your blog, I went to the website and spent several perplexing minutes trying to decide whether the Center for Cosmic Wonder was, in fact, a clothing store as your post intimated or a combination art gallery and new-age spa. The average consumer will not spend that time to make such a distinction. Clearly, the sleek, “voyeuristic” experience that CCW created for its customers is both innovative and unique, but if new consumers are lost before they can participate in that distinctive experience, the point is moot. The only way to maintain market share in such a competitive industry is to grow. To ensure growth, businesses must engage potential consumers, but that can only be accomplished if consumers first understand the products or services being offered. An effective brand consists of identity and differentiation, but without a clear identity, differentiation merely leads to confusion and a dearth of engaged customers.
Post 2: Marketing Hipster: “Engage Your Customers or Die”
Online consumer engagement is vitally important to all companies, but most especially for those on the larger end of the spectrum. With the slow, but steady demise of mass media strategy, companies have to be creative in the way they reach and secure new customers. Creating individual connections with potential consumers is one of the surest ways of producing that all-important repeat-customer. People are looking for more from businesses in which they invest. Between knock-offs and generic brands, products themselves are becoming more and more like commodities, so the extra things (like personal contact) that companies incorporate really make the difference in customer loyalty. The issue of “how [businesses] go about engaging these online conversations while…protecting their brand and company” is a touchy one. Clearly, misinterpreted or misinformed statements, and their litigious consequences, would be detrimental to a company, but the opportunity cost of allowing consumers to form primary bonds with competitor brands far outweighs the potential risk—especially when that risk can be diminished, as Nathania suggested, through properly trained media and consumer-relations personnel. The concept of employing company spokespeople is not new. Essentially, it just extends public relations to a new medium, and tweaks the structure of the classic press release to accommodate the variation. In terms of “who should respond and how,” again, I propose the PR department working closely with other involved departments. Delegations from the product team or finance department should absolutely be consulted for the necessary factual backbone of the response, but the skills of the PR team are uniquely suited to addressing consumer concerns with minimal negative impact to the company.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Relationship Marketing: The Key to the Gen Y Conundrum
A study conducted by Saatchi & Saatchi designed to delve a bit deeper into this growing trend found that, “the defining value of this generation is "connexity": the importance of staying connected in order to grow… As a result, for brands to succeed tomorrow, they must forge connections with consumers that go beyond simple product function.” This means that marketers must show a genuine investment in their potential consumers: their likes, dislikes, and, most importantly, personality, in order to appeal to them. As companies try to evolve to better reach their target market, they create products and brand image that better suit consumers’ needs and desires because consumers are often actively involved in the development process. Consequently, companies build brand equity as consumers respond to the ownership they take in the brand. Perhaps the largest shot-in-the-arm for relationship marketing came in the form of networking sites such as myspace and facebook. Originally used for networking among individuals, these sites have opened up a whole new opportunity for marketers seeking to build relationships with their consumers. Companies have created profiles on myspace in order to “friend” loyal customers giving them access to discounts or other perks. In return, they are prominently displayed on the “friend’s” page where the brand is sure to get exposure to like-minded individuals, thus increasing brand permeation in the target population. Marketers utilize facebook “groups,” an application that allows users to create and search for pages devoted to their interests, in much the same way.
Marketing has become a dynamic enterprise. Young, modern consumers demand more from the brands that court their discretionary income, but once they have proven themselves, consumers also give back to the brand. Marketers’ main concern at present is reaching out to their target market in ways that show their sincere interest in each and every consumer and everything about which they care deeply. Bottom line: the more a brand can behave like a friend or facilitate social interaction or self-image, the more successful that brand will be at capturing the elusive Millennium Generation.