Ms. Adverthinker

Google has been ranked the most reputable company in the country - a list it wasn’t on at all four years ago. See the entire article at AdAge. Google doesn’t spend any money to advertise its brand or services. According to Robert Fronk, senior VP-senior consultant, reputation strategy, at Harris Interactive:

“The positive perception of how you treat your employees, your corporate-social-responsibility efforts, and your products and services and the amount of media that can generate probably trumps any ad spend they would ever want to make.”

However, HP, a company that has recently re-invigorated its advertising to lean more to the hip and cool:

“…made not only the biggest jump from 2006 to 2007 — 21 spots, from No. 38 to No. 17 — but also the biggest jump in the history of the study.”

Coincidence?

Focus groups feel so old-school.  Marketers have been doing them forever and the methodology really hasn’t changed all that much since that “Mad Men” era.   With the crazy amounts of consumer-generated media available to marketers, it is odd that we would even bother convene focus groups to tell us what consumers think about the brands we represent: people are telling us–and the world–without our asking.  It seems that some companies are latching on to this new media better than others and using blog communities to gather relevant insights.  As reported in AdWeek:

“Now firms with expertise ranging from research and word of mouth to digital media are setting up closed communities for clients to tap into the nuances, the spontaneity and the language of consumers engaging in a leisurely change, a different dynamic to one where they sit face-to-face in a focus group for a prescribed period of time.  Some of the initiatives focus on a specific topic for a couple of weeks; others create a longer, ongoing conversation.

“‘…when you are a running a qualitative blog: You have people for 10 to 15 days, which is a huge  amount of time for them to think about their answers and to challenge your own questions, which makes a big difference in results.  What people say when they talk together is more interesting than what they say when they talk to us.  What they say peer to peer is more sincere and sometimes very intimate.”

“She’s married, well-educated, trendy and environmentally conscientious.  She works full time, is likely sleep deprived and feels that time is her most precious commodity.  Meet today’s 30-something woman.”  - Advertising Age.  The article goes on to say that women in their 30s don’t fit as easily into marketing buckets a baby boomers or male 18-35:

“Sure, they get profiled as mothers or career women, as health statistics or dating singles, but not often just as women of a 30ish age.”

Key findings from a Marie Claire survey reported in the article:

• More than half named environmental issues such as global warming and pollution as concerns.
• The relative youth of the 30-something woman allows her to be more casual about health issues, but that doesn’t mean they’re not on her mind.  Balance the health push with the realistic acknowledgment of everyday life and slip-ups for a more empathetic brand image.
• Today’s career woman doesn’t leave her business acumen at her desk.  She researches and shops products before spending any money.
• They are most concerned with their family and their own emotional health–in that order.

BMW, already known for being on the forefront of new media opportunities–evident by their introduction of BMW Films several years ago–is again proving itself to be a brand that can differentiate itself through digital media, with the launch of a campaign for the new 1-Series. Because the new vehicle is targeted at younger audience, BMW smartly chose to spend almost half their marketing budget online.

Reported in the NY Times:

“Almost half the spending for the campaign, estimated at $15 million to $25 million, is being devoted to online media. By comparison, executives at BMW of North America say, Internet ad spending for other models ranges from 1 percent to 15 percent of the total ad budgets.

“The online elements of the 1-Series campaign include letting members of Facebook…design virtual cars and send them to Facebook friends; buying dominant positions, known as take-overs, on the home pages of msn.com and yahoo.com; posting video clips on YouTube; and developing a microsite devoted to the 1-Series (bmwusa.com/new1).

“The campaign is indicative of efforts by mainstream marketers to alter their media mixes as consumers change their media habits. A recent survey by PQ Media projected that by 2012, advertisers will increase spending by 82 percent from 2008 in areas like search-engine marketing, online video and e-mail messages.”

However, while it seems like I would be in the target market (identified as 20-somethings and 30-somethings) for this new car, I can’t find the Facebook app or the YouTube videos. And, the microsite is hardly a microsite. It looks like any other car website where you can customize and price your vehicle. Am I missing something here? Someone, please tell me.

Well, maybe I will be able to find the traditional ads, which seem pretty cool too:

“There are some unconventional approaches for the traditional media, too. Three magazines — City, Dwell and Paste — are printing pure-white covers that are glued over the actual front covers of the issues; there are ads for the 1-Series on the other sides of the extra covers.

“And magazines like City and AutoWeek are running tiny ads for the 1-Series with numerical themes at the bottom of editorial pages, which double as page-number identifications.

“For example, there is an itsy-bitsy white car on page 26 of the April issue of the magazine City next to this sentence: ‘26: number of bones in right foot you’ll use to crush the gas pedal on the all-new BMW 1-Series.’

“At the bottom of page 60, there is a miniature red car and this sentence: ‘60: m.p.h. you can reach in 5.1 seconds with the all-new BMW 135i coupe.’

“Text Analytics–a general term for the mining and interpretation of written words–has been used for more than two decades, most notably by the defense industry as far back as the Cold War to read into the word choices and text of, say, a speech written by Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev.” — according to a recent article in Ad Age.

The article goes on to say that marketers are increasingly using text analytics to mine information from customer service surveys, e-mails, online forums, and blogs.  “…while the blogosphere and social networks have so far not proved great advertising media, text analytics offers the potential to make them stronger marketing vehicles.”

Dove used the tool to not only understand reactions to their campaign, but to gain an understanding of what motivates people, which issues are most important to women in their target group, and how to create better products and messaging for them.  All by using text analytics from content on its own message boards.

What a fantastic way to leverage social media tools with a quantitative analysis!

Product sampling has always been used by consumer-product companies on the premise: “try it, you’ll like it.”  But for sampling to work, you have to have a product for them to sample.  HBO has a product and in the past has offered limited-time-only access to its subscription channel in an effort to get people to sign up.  With technology now allowing online viewing of video for the masses, HBO is taking an interesting new approach to sampling: putting episodes of one its new series online for free.

“While the show has enjoyed wide critical acclaim, some viewers have checked out. The first week of episodes drew 316,000 viewers, on average, and the numbers have declined steadily, to an average of 196,000 in week four.

“Now the pay cable channel is doing something it normally does not do: give away some of the episodes. The first three weeks of “In Treatment” are available free on HBO.com, and the first four episodes are also on YouTube [see episode one here].

“HBO says the free episodes are part of a sampling strategy for the series that is unconnected to the ratings.”

This is a great idea for getting viewers hooked and wanting more.

“No matter which services you choose, the most important point is simply to use video.  Too many companies don’t have clips showing their products, their philosophies, or simple news announcements by their CEOs.  Business is a conversation, and video is increasingly how that conversation takes place.” — summary of an article in this month’s Fast Company that talks all about the various ways video can be used by businesses.

More confirmation that the marketing efforts for the Dark Knight will continue as planned, reported in BrandWeek:

“Promotional partners are standing by their programs and reportedly won’t need to scrap any related marketing materials.  The reason: they did not focus on the ghoulish Joker character, instead preferring to center their campaigns on the hero, Batman.

“That’s been the norm for brand/movie tie-ins for years, with corporate partners choosing not to align too closely with the bad guys.”

A new survey shows in-person events can boost purchase intent as high as 52%, according to a recent article in BrandWeek. If consumers attend brand-sponsored events–such as sports championships, walkathons and theme parks–purchase intent translated directly into sales about 50% of the time. And, sports-related events have the greatest impact.

“The special value of events, sponsorships and trade shows has to be considered, ” said Raymond Pettit, co-author and svp at MarketShare Partners in Los Angeles. “There are many connection points you can build at an event whether it is emotional, aspirational or awareness building–it goes beyond just counting audience attention.”

I wonder, though, about people that attend these events, wouldn’t they be more likely to buy the product anyway? Just the fact that they are attending the event shows a pre-disposition to like the brand.

Courtesy of Advertising Age this week, we learn that 2007 was the year that women tipped the scale to compose more than 50% of online users. What are they doing online?

• Shopping: travel, clothing, health & beauty products, financial products, and food. Women 45 to 54 were much more likely than men to make impulse purchases online when given limited-time offers or extra free items.
• Gaming: women are more likely to pay for play.
• Viewing video: news, movies previews, and music videos.
• Parenting: more than 43 million moms go online daily and spend an average of 85 minutes there.
• Socializing: women 25-34, with a college degree are more often to search for local dining and entertainment information, use instant messaging, visit social-networking sites, read blogs, and download music.
• Dating: when dating online, they lie about weight more often than any other attribute.
• Staying healthy: almost 84% of all women sought healthcare information online.

Reported in Brandweek, and based on findings from a new eMarketer report, here are some stats on the future of brandable widgets (”mini-Web applications that are downloaded and installed for use on personal computers, Web pages, blogs or social-network profiles”):

• 100,000 developers worldwide are currently working on widget programs.
• Facebook began allowing widgets on its site last May.  Since then, 13,000 widgets have been created for the site alone.
• Social networking sites are a big destination for widget placement.  In 2007, 13.6 million Web surfers between the ages of 12-17 were social network users.  That number will be 15.3 million this year and 17.7 million by 2011.
• Asked whether they thought mobile marketing or widgets would play a larger role in advertising strategies for 2008, 58% of marketers sided with widgets.

“Marketers spent $15 million creating, promoting and distributing widgets in 2007.  That number is expected to grow to $40 million in 2008.”

Is your brand represented in the widget world?

More on the influence and importance of design: this week the NY Times had an article contrasting and comparing the websites of Obama and Clinton as if one were a Mac and one a PC.  This further illustrates the point made earlier this week in the comparison of font use by the different presidential candidates–never underestimate the power of good design.  According to the NY Times article:

“The differences between hillaryclinton.com and barackobama.com can be summed up this way: Barack Obama is a Mac, and Hillary Clinton is a PC.

That is, Mr. Obama’s site is more harmonious, with plenty of white space and a soft blue palette. Its task bar is reminiscent of the one used at Apple’s iTunes site. It signals in myriad ways that it was designed with a younger, more tech-savvy audience in mind — using branding techniques similar to the ones that have made the iPod so popular.”

“In contrast to barackobama.com, Mrs. Clinton’s site uses a more traditional color scheme of dark blue, has sharper lines dividing content and employs cookie-cutter icons next to its buttons for volunteering, and the like.”

The article does question, however, if this “being a Mac” is good politics:

“While Apple’s ad campaign maligns the PC by using an annoying man in a plain suit as its personification, it is not clear that aligning with the trendy Mac aesthetic is good politics. The iPod may be a dominant music player, but the Mac is still a niche computer. PC, no doubt, would win the Electoral College by historic proportions (with Mac perhaps carrying Vermont).”

Coming off the Super Bowl surge of popularity for advertising (when commercials get higher audience than the game thanks to DVR devices), a NY Times had an article today noting the importance of the web for additional viewing of popular commercials. In fact, marketers should be thinking about ways to post all spots on the Internet on various sites:

“The ‘torture test’ for brands beyond their Super Bowl ads is how to make it easy for consumers to find the ads and engage with them, whether you put them on Web sites, on YouTube or make them easy to search for on Google,” said Pete Blackshaw, executive vice president at the Nielsen Online Strategic Services division of the Nielsen Company.

With broadcast production costs rising and media placement costs continuing to rise, it just makes sense to take the spots that have been produced for the paid media placement and use them in free media outlets that consumers actually seek out. As an advertising agency and strategic partner to our clients, we should be recommending that all produced spots are placed on the web.

This is from an article in Advertising Age:

“Research from internet ad network Mindset Media confirms the ad’s personification of Mac users as superior and self-satisfied.  Its recent Mac user ‘mind-set profile’–a psychographic ranking system that scores respondents on 20 different elements of personality–found them to be more assured of their superiority, less modest and more open of the general population.”

“Far fewer cohesive personality traits emerged among PC owners, likely because of the breadth of PC ownership.  Given that 95% or so of all computer users own a PC, those users essentially are the general population.  The one area where PC users did stand out as statistically different was in creativity–low creativity, that is.  Mindset Media found they tend to be realists who are emotionally steady and work well with what they’re given.”

This makes total sense.  I don’t think research really had to be conducted to learn these things, but it is interesting that now there are statistics to confirm it.

I saw Juno three times.  It was a great, heart-warming movie–obviously, I loved it.  When you see a movie that many times over a two-week period, you start noticing details that could have been missed.  My thoughts today turned to Tic Tacs.  Paulie Bleeker, the boy who knocks up Juno, had one vice according to Juno: orange Tic Tacs.  Throughout the movie he is eating them and at one point Juno stuffs his mailbox full of them.  I was craving orange Tic Tacs after the third viewing and I couldn’t tell you the last time I even thought about Tic Tacs.

Did the Tic Tac brand pay for that placement?  Are they doing anything to leverage that placement now?  I haven’t seen anything, but they should.

Today I read about a Tic Tac sampling event that encourages consumers to mix music tracks using the sound of Tic Tacs clanging around in their iconic box.  The target for this promotion is 18-24 year olds.  While I get that they are trying to connect music–which is important to this audience–to the Tic Tac brand, it just seems lame after witnessing the connection that Paulie Bleeker and Juno had to Tic Tacs.  That is what Tic Tacs should be using to connect to this audience: Juno.  Why aren’t they leveraging that product placement?