Marketing

In the era of social media and ‘conversation’ , ‘storytelling’ and ‘engagement,’ just how many brands really make a difference in people’s lives? According to research by Havas Media, the answer is only 20%. The Havas Media survey revealed that only 20% of brands have a positive impact on well-being and quality of life. Furthermore, the majority of respondents would not care if 70% of brands ceased to exist. The study, titled ‘ Meaningful Brands ‘, includes a metric called “The Meaningful Brand Index (MBI) ”, which uses consumer perception to measure the importance of brands in their lives. The research evaluated the brand contribution to: Individual Well-being (self esteem, happiness, satisfaction, connectivity etc.) and Collective Well-being (transparency, recycling, responsive, ethics, labelling etc.) Based on the opinion of 50,000 people from 14 countries, Havas created a ranking of the top 20 global brands. Surprisingly, only 1 auto-maker is on the list, and financial brands do not feature. The post Havas Worldwide | Meaningful Brands Report Infographic appeared first on MarketingEasy | Digital trends from around the world. Related posts: Alarming report: Brands leaving themselves exposed through social media mismanagement Twitter’s New Page Design Targets Brands Facebook Infographic | How Long Do You Think You Will Actively Use Facebook?

How SBS is reporting the Socceroos’ victory SBS1 had one of its biggest TV audiences in recent years on Tuesday night with a metro audience of 1.117m tuning in for Australia’s match with Iran which saw the Socceroos qualify for the World Cup. The game brought SBS a 14 per cent share of the free to air audience – putting it ahead of ABC1′s 10.3 per cent share and within touching distance of Ten’s 14.5 per cent. Meanwhile, the loss of the halo effect of The Voice has had an immediate impact on Nine. For the first time since launch, Seven’s renovation House Rules beat The Block by 1.159m to 1.131m. Nine’s Celebrity Apprentice continued to lose ground, with the boardroom showdown rating 596,000, putting it 20th for the night. The challenge part of the show did not make it into the top 20 at all. Masterchef, on Ten, was 15th for the night, with just 643,000 viewers. It was just ahead of ABC1′s 7.30, which rated 643,000 according to the preliminary overnight data from OzTAM. Seven won the night with a 21.4 per cent share. Nine was on 18.4 per cent. Among the key advertising demographic of 25-54, fortunes changes slightly. The Block beat House Rules and Masterchef moved up to tenth. More follows later The post Socceroos deliver big night for SBS while House Rules overtakes The Block appeared first on mUmBRELLA.

Paid search mistake: Assuming you've hit a wall Many practitioners see their paid search efforts plateau and assume they can go no further. They're wrong. Josh Dreller, director of marketing research at Kenshoo, explains why you can always increase CTRs, quality scores, and optimization with paid search. Don't be fooled into thinking you can't do better. view full article | Add a comment

The banner ad is dying. Or is it? Online ad revenues remain on a hockey stick trajectory, clocking in at a record $9.6 billion in the first quarter of this year (yes, a bunch of this is search and video, but still). Yet the demise of the banner ad has long been predicted, and some say the deathwatch is imminent -- possibly before the end of the year. That banners aren't working very well is common knowledge. You've seen the stories: You're more likely to survive a plane crash/become a Navy Seal/summit Everest/be the next Beatle or Elvis than to click on a banner ad. That consumers don't interact with banners is no secret. In fact, it's entirely possible that most clicks are robot and/or click farm generated. Then there's the banner experiment Ted McConnell cooked up, a totally blank ad (no copy, no image, no nothing) that saw interaction rates that in many cases exceed those of "real" campaigns. The result of all this inefficiency, unsurprisingly, is severe downward price pressure on banners, much to the chagrin of online publishers. As one publisher put it in a recent conversation, "It's more expensive to get readers, and then when we do we can sell them for less." Yet at the same time, publishers speak of a "voracious appetite" for display ads and banners. "As publishers we'd tell advertisers that we're unique and special, but really we're not," one publisher confided just this morning, "When demand for banners was too high, we'd just rent an audience. We'd rent from Google, from telemarketers, or rent email lists. The performance isn't that different, and the advertisers don't really care." So let's get this straight: Display advertising doesn't work, it yields ever-diminishing revenues, and advertisers can't get enough of it? Houston, we've got a problem. We are witnessing a meteoric rise in marketing solutions such as native advertising and content marketing, often at the expense of display advertising (and research indicates this is the budget being raided to pay for content creation). Is it possible that digital ad solutions have become too automated? Too "set-and-forget?" And by automated, I'm not just referring to technological automation, but also to monodirectional campaign thinking; "throw a banner at it" being the de facto solution -- the box that needs to be ticked off on the marketing plan. Automated buying, automated optimization, automatic personalization, customization, targeting, retargeting. All seem to be working less effectively for all parties involved: the buyers, sellers, and intermediaries in the display advertising value chain. The inevitable reaction to all-automated, all-the-time display is the more labor intensive content and social channels. The question isn't whether or not the banner will die. It won't. The question is whether it can lead a more meaningful, rewarding life in the future. To do so it must become less commoditized, productized, and automated, and more integrated with its more labor-intensive marketing brethren. Rebecca Lieb is an analyst in digital advertising/media for Altimeter Group. On Twitter? Follow iMedia Connection at @iMediaTweet.view full article | Add a comment

The benefits of e-commerce personalization are well known -- increased conversion rates, larger order values, and more engaged customers. But as with most e-commerce strategies that offer rewards, personalization comes with inherent risks. Understanding these risks and their causes --also known as personalization sins -- is an integral step in making sure your company develops and executes a successful personalization strategy. To avoid these risks, let's explore seven of the most common personalization sins committed by e-commerce companies both large and small. Collecting personally identifiable information (PII) without permission One of the fastest ways to alienate customers is to collect PII without permission. Luckily, with advances in big data, machine learning, and real-time analytics, PII is not needed to provide a personalized e-commerce experience to individual customers. However, if a customer is willing to offer select PII by filling out a profile, you must use the data in an appropriate way. Using customer data without permission If a customer willingly provides you with PII, do not take it as an invitation to monetize and use that data in any way you see fit. Don't personalize an experience using unauthorized consumer data without permission. For example, it would be creepy if someone who I had never met came up to me on the street and started talking to me about my time in the Peace Corps. This same creepiness applies online. When determining where to draw the line, put yourself in the customer's shoes and ask yourself, "Would I provide my PII in order to receive a product or service?" If the answer is no, don't do it. Relying on profile data and past purchase history Many retailers limit their ability to give consumers relevant shopping experiences by their over reliance on profile data and past purchase history. While this data is helpful, they provide a stagnant picture of the past, not the future. If you purchased a mattress last week, it's unlikely that you will purchase another one this week. Once you start showing interest in something else, this information can be of limited value. Limiting the power of big data Building off of the prior sin, retailers should leverage the power of big data and machine learning to identify contextual cues -- search terms, dwell time, and click path -- to determine what consumers want today. These signals occur across all consumer touch points. Advanced analytics tools are available to capture this type of data and turn it into actionable business intelligence. Focusing on conversion at the expense of shopper engagement Omni-channel is about delivering the best possible consumer experience regardless of channel or device. It's about extending your brand across all touch points and building a relationship with your customer that sticks. Any consumer experience that rushes the buyer to convert also runs the risk of alienating or detracting from the long term relationship. It isn't about a one-time conversion. It's about getting shoppers to return to your site again and again for repeat purchases. Not leveraging online data to empower employees Sales associates are at the front line of your company. If you do not invest in the digital enablement of these employees, you are doing your customers a disservice. Sales associates need access to the data necessary to provide customers with an in-person omni-channel experience --e-commerce catalogs, in-store and online product availability, and technology that leverages online data to create a better in-store experience. One size fits none Unfortunately, no single personalization strategy will solve your needs for relevant content across all of your interactions. If you are searching for that one silver bullet, stop. To consistently deliver relevant content or products, you need a breadth of personalization approaches and algorithms. These range from using search terms on landing pages for onsite search

That’s the example Google used today in announcing the formal rollout of its local carousel search results. I’m not opted in to this yet, but when I look at the screenshot there … I don’t have a clue where to focus. I’m dying to know how the average searcher looks at it, aren’t you? This is a post from Matt McGee's blog, Small Business Search Marketing. I Want to See an Eye-Tracking & Click-Thru Heat Map for ThisAdvertisement: Local Presence for National Brands Local Market Launch delivers business listings management and local presence solutions for national brands, multi-location businesses, franchises, and local SMBs through a growing network of channel partners, including directory publishers, newspaper publishers, broadcast media companies, digital media agencies and certified marketing representatives (CMRs). http://localmarketlaunch.com

Marissa Mayer is on the verge of completing 14 Yahoo acquisitions in just six months. Will she reinvent Yahoo?With Marissa Mayer at the helm, Yahoo is on an acquisition tear. One month after the company's $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr, AllThingsD reported yesterday that Yahoo is in talks to purchase Xobni, an address book app, for $30 million to $40 million. And today, news surfaced that the company is also about to acquire Qwiki, a popular video sharing app, for close to $50 million. If the two deals go through, Yahoo will have publicly acquired 14 companies in 2013; by comparison, last year it bought only two companies, and, in 2011, three. No Surprise, But What's the Strategy?When Marissa Mayer took over as Yahoo's CEO in late 2012, one of her first stated missions was to sniff out potential acquisitions in order to turn Yahoo back into a growth company. And with $1.2 billion in cash on hand--even after the Tumblr acquisition--she has room for several more big purchases before 2014."We're looking for smaller-scale acquisitions that align well overall with our businesses," Mayer said on a shareholder conference call in October 2012. Ken Goldman, the company's CFO, chimed in saying, "Our primary objective as a new management team is to leverage our assets, competitive strengths, and available resources to transition this company from financial stability to a growth business."What's puzzling to me, though, is the strategy behind these acquisitions on a whole. In just six months, Mayer the 14 deals have been spread over a wide variety of areas. You have to wonder if Yahoo is just shooting from the hip at this point, hoping that at least one brings in new revenue. Even though Yahoo is beating Wall Street profit estimates, its core advertising business is suffering, and it's clear that Mayer is looking for some way to make money.That said, two loose themes emerge from Mayer's deal-making moves, but I'm skeptical about both.Building Out MobileYahoo has an impressive 300 million mobile users, but that's about half Facebook's mobile user base. Mayer has been vocal about aggressively trying to capture a larger mobile audience. Last month, at the Wired Business Conference, Mayer said that the biggest goal right now is to have "Yahoo persistent on every smartphone, tablet, and PC for every Internet user."Of the acquisitions Yahoo has made so far this year, several were focused on expanding mobile capabilities, including Summly, a news app; Loki Studios, a gaming start-up; aLike, a recommendation app; and Ghostbird software, a photo app.Anecdotally, it seems Mayer is ready to attract the best mobile talent, too. Reports The Post:"Employees chosen to work on the all-important mobile mission are given the coolest and latest laptops, the best, most recently redecorated offices and prompt access to Mayer's office, according to interviews with several Yahoo insiders."But mobile expansion will be tough for Yahoo, even with a slew of upstarts and new thinkers in the space. Unlike its competitors like Facebook and Google, Yahoo never made the leap into hardware--which will make Mayer's hope to be on every device all the more difficult. Making Yahoo More Social Clearly Mayer's other big bet is to revitalize Yahoo by making it more social. Some were skeptical about Mayer's $1.1 billion acquisition of Tumblr--which only had about $13 million of revenue in 2012--but it's apparent Mayer sees the company as a vehicle to tap into one of the most active social platforms on the Web, along with a somewhat different advertising model. As Adam Rifkin writes: "In some ways, Tumblr is actually Facebook 2.0! As Facebook has become a real-life social network infested with parents, co-workers, ex-friends, and people you barely know, Tumblr has become the place where young people express themselves and their actual interests with their actual friends."But Yahoo's foray into social will be fraught with challenges. Tumblr's core demographic is the 18-to-24-ye

Like many kids, I once tried selling lemonade in my neighborhood on a hot, sticky, New Jersey summer day. I was excited when customer after customer handed me a dime in return for a short Dixie Cup of overly-sweetened drink mix. When the lemonade ran out, I was rich! What to buy. . . what to buy. . . Then my mother informed me that businesses have to pay expenses before claiming the profits. She tallied up the cost of the cups and napkins, sugar and lemonade mix and presented me with the bill. Whoops. Guess I should have charged more per cup. Rather than revise my business plan, I filed for bankruptcy and closed up shop. Thankfully, the bank of mom agreed on a greatly reduced settlement. Lesson learned. That was a long time ago, when people still walked around neighborhoods and carried change in their pockets. These days its even harder to run a profitable lemonade stand but lifestyle blogger Kim Stoegbauer from TheTomKatStudio.com has a few tips for young entrepreneurs. (And we won’t tell if grown-up entrepreneurs learn a thing or two as well!) Donate: Donate the proceeds to a local cause. Or encourage people to pay it forward and buy a cup for a fellow neighbor, the local postal worker, or dog walker! Advertise this on the booth using large signs and have brochures about the local cause available to hand out to customers. Grown-Up Tip: 41% of consumers bought a product because it was associated with a cause. It’s not only good for business, it’s good for your karma. Just add Iced Coffee: Expand the offerings to include other beverages like refreshing iced coffee to appeal to parents. While kids enjoy sweet lemonade, parents can sip International Delight Iced Coffee, which offers a variety of authentic coffeehouse flavors and light options for an ice cold pick-me-up that suits every taste. Grown-Up Tip: This information was sponsored by International Delight (There’s even a fun lemonade stand kit to go with it) but the concept is still sound. Expanding your line to include related items is a great way to add a few dollars to every sale. Yesterday, we went to Starbucks for coffee but ended up buying a muffin and an over-priced bottle of water. Add-ons work. Promote: Build a marketing campaign for the booth, a great way to meet the neighbors! Your children can create signs to advertise the booth at corners around the neighborhood, directing traffic to the stand. Tell your friends on your private Facebook page or through a text message or email. Grown-Up Tip: Do I really need to expound on the benefits of wide-spread promotion? Timing and location are critical: Encourage kids to research events coming up that would have good foot traffic moving past their lemonade stand. For example fairs, baseball games, street festivals and outdoor concerts are great options for good sales. Grown-Up Tip: Timing is also essential for social media campaigns. You may work 9-5, but if you’re customer shops online at midnight, that’s when she needs to see your sales Tweet. Here’s another post of ours about social media timing. Incentivize: Create incentive programs to keep children interested in their business throughout the summer. If they choose to donate the earnings, plan a special trip to the organization to drop off the check. Or if they are saving up to purchase something special, establish a “Money Earned” chart showing how close they are to their goal. Grown-Up Tip: Incentives work for grown-ups, too. Reward your employees with bonus perks especially after a big push to finish a project, run an event or a crazy time of the year. (Christmas in a toy store?) You don’t have to give out expensive gifts, small things like a pizza party for lunch or even a $10 Amazon card goes a long way toward insuring employee loyalty. Join the Marketing Pilgrim Facebook Community

The Perth arm of The Brand Agency has picked up nominations in the Radio Lions shortlist in Cannes for a Perth Zoo campaign, while McCann Melbourne’s Dumb Ways to Die has been given the nod for Best Use of Radio as a Medium. The Brand Agency Perth has three pieces of work, all for Perth Zoo, shortlisted in the Entertainment and Leisure sub-category. DDB’s Melbourne and Sydney agencies were both shortlisted in Cars and Automotive Services while McCann Melbourne’s Dumb Ways To Die was shortlisted for Public Health and Safety, Best Scriptwriting, Best Use of Music and/or Design and Best Use of Radio as a Medium. The list of shortlisted Australian entries: Alcoholic Drinks: “Space Bored” by Jaygrey North Sydney for Four Pines Brewery’s Vostok Stout Beer Clothing: “Airport Security” by Whybin/TBWA Sydney for M.J Bale’s men’s suits “Flightmare” by Whybin/TBWA Sydney for M.J Bale’s men’s suits Cars and Automotive Services: “Kirsty” by DDB Melbourne for Britax’s Safe-N-Sound Sict “Joe” by DDB Melbourne for Britax’s Safe-N-Sound Sict “Barbara” by DDB Melbourne for Britax’s Safe-N-Sound Sict “Road” by DDB Sydney for Volkswagen Group Australia’s Driver Fatigue Technology “Street” by DDB Sydney for Volkswagen Group Australia’s Driver Fatigue Technology Entertainment and Leisure: “Guitar Duet” by M&C Saatchi Melbourne for Tennis Australia Australian Open 2013 “Beady Eyes” by The Brand Agency Perth for Perth Zoo Autumn Visit “Prickly”  by The Brand Agency Perth for Perth Zoo Autumn Visit “Urine”  by The Brand Agency Perth for Perth Zoo Autumn Visit Public Health and Safety: “Dumb Ways to Die (3 minute version)” by McCann Melbourne for Metro Trains Best use of Music and/or Sound Design “Dumb Ways To Die” by McCann Melbourne for Metro Trains Best Scriptwriting “Dumb Ways To Die” by McCann Melbourne for Metro Trains “Flightmare” by Whybin/TBWA Sydney for M.J Bale Mens’ Suits Best Use of Radio as a Medium “Dumb Ways To Die” by McCann Melbourne for Metro Trains The post Seven Aussie agencies on Radio Lions shortlist appeared first on mUmBRELLA.

A series of eight pieces of outdoor advertising by McCann, based on the Dumb Ways To Die viral video, has been awarded a campaign Gold Lion in the outdoor contest in Cannes Leo Burnett Sydney’s “Small World” picked up a slew of Silver Lions Sydney’s Droga5 was awarded a Silver Lion for the “Dangerous” series as well as a Bronze Lion for “Upside Down” and “Corkscrew” pieces for Platinum Blonde. The list: Outdoor gold campaign: “Helmet” by McCann Melbourne for Metro Trains “Moose” by McCann Melbourne for Metro Trains “Toast” by McCann Melbourne for Metro Trains “Bear” by McCann Melbourne for Metro Trains “Snake” by McCann Melbourne for Metro Trains “Piranha” by McCann Melbourne for Metro Trains “Hair” by McCann Melbourne for Metro Trains “Kidney” by McCann Melbourne for Metro Trains Silver campaign: “Small World 1” by Leo Burnett Sydney for Coca-Cola “Small World 2” by Leo Burnett Sydney for Coca-Cola “Small World 3” by Leo Burnett Sydney for Coca-Cola “Small World 4” by Leo Burnett Sydney for Coca-Cola “Dangerous Debris” by Droga5 Sydney for Pinnacle Liquor Group’s Dry Rock “Dangerous Animals” by Droga5 Sydney for Pinnacle Liquor Group’s Dry Rock Silver Lions: “A Place to Remember (The Long Table)” by Grey Melbourne for Transport Accident Commission’s Road Safety “Small World Machines” Leo Burnett Sydney for Coca-Cola Bronze campaign: “Upside Down” by Droga5 Sydney for Pinnacle Liquor Group’s Platinum Blonde “Corkscrew” by Droga5 Sydney for Pinnacle Liquor Group’s Platinum Blonde The post McCann’s Dumb Ways To Die gets Gold Lion for Outdoor appeared first on mUmBRELLA.