Social Search is the new SEO buzzword.

Facebook has just announced they have over 700 million users, and this makes them significantly larger than Google as the most popular site in the United States. Google search is now estimated at 250 to 400 million search a day, but did you know that Facebook serves over 150 million search queries a day?

Twitter execs recently reported they their search function is now handling an average of 1.6 billion queries per day, and they recently upgraded with an improved search infrastructure with the aim of making the results as personally relevant as possible. “Our ranking function accesses the social graph and uses knowledge about the relationship between the searcher and the author of a Tweet during ranking,” the company explained. This means that Twitter’s search index will now incorporate dynamic information such as information about the searcher and how users’ interact with tweets.

Search engines have been forced to respond to the tremendous growth of social media. As the demand for real-time search results increased, it became clear that users would no longer be constrained by the limitations of search engines, which have to index sites on the Web before displaying them on their results pages. In December 2009, Google introduced real-time search, which incorporates news results and Twitter updates into search results.

Google's universal search (which displays content from YouTube and other networks) is another way social media content has been brought into search results.

Apart from the incorporation of social media content into search results, social networking sites affect search engine rankings in other ways. On his blog, search marketing guru Danny Sullivan recently posted some interesting answers from Google and Bing on how they are addressing this subject. He reminds us that:

• Both search engines count referencing of a given piece of content via Twitter as an indicator of authority (apart from the links coming from those references).
• Both search engines attempt to compute the authority and quality of an author and give that author's tweets preferential treatment.
• Both track links shared within Facebook.
  

The emergence of social media as it relates to search results means that an article that a couple years ago generated 50 links might today generate 10 links and 300 mentions on Twitter and Facebook.

Now that Facebook has opened up their pages to be crawled and indexed, you should be looking for new ways to use social media to influence search results on Facebook and Twitter.

Ten years ago, SEO professionals told us that improved organic rankings were all about optimizing page-level elements -- keyword frequency, title tags, and the relevance (and inclusion of those keywords) in on-page copy. Five years ago, Google significantly altered the algorithm so SEO strategists added the importance of relevant inbound links that pointed to your website to their sales story.

Those things are still important today, but organic SEO results these days requires a well-designed and optimized website plus relevant inbound links and a strong presence across multiple sites on the Web.

That’s where social media has become so important to the search equation. A/B copy testing by several groups, including SEOmoz, have shown that the cumulative reach of Twitter can far out perform multiple inbound links. If you are not using social media to complement your search straegy, you are missing a great opportunity. A good search strategy is enhanced by the relevance and broadscale reach of your content, and that makes social media a major indicator of relevance to search spiders.

So how do your clients take advantage of the convergence of social media and search for their business?

Here are four things they can do right now:
1. They should market their content across as many of the major social media outlets as make sense and are likely to be frequented by their target group. The major search engines now factor in how many times their content is shared among Facebook users and retweets among Twitter users. The search engines assign a higher value of importance to a piece of content that is shared by multiple readers. So you need to encourage your clients to broadcast their content on Facebook, Twitter, and other sites that can reach their customers and prospects?

2. They should look for niche sites or bloggers that target the same audience as their prospects. The more places they can find to expose their content and build their web presence, the greater the opportunity for search spiders to find them and assign a higher PageRank. And they should always encourage the readers of their content to pass it along to other interested parties. If they can build a network of engaged followers on these social media sites, they will move up in the search rankings and stand a better chance of being found when someone searches for a keyword that includes their content. Be sure they have links to their Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn (if they serve B2B customers) pages on your website. Make sure you are helping your clients understand that they should also let their customers know they can engage with the brand via social media.

3. Encourage your clients to start testing Facebook’s PPC as an alternative and/or complement to Google pay-per-click. The Self-Serve Facebook Ad Tool allows you a lot of opportunity to test alternative visuals, headline and body copy. Use analytics and attribution to determine the effect of the impact on organic search traffic and continue to test until you find the best combination of ad message and targeting.

4. Keep a close eye on the progress of Promoted Tweets as Twitter continues to make strategic acquisitions to boost its advertising technology. The recent addition of AdGrok (similar in concept to Google's AdWords) and the purchase last year of Smallthought Systems, maker of a cloud-hosted Web analytics application, could finally give Twitter a legitimate revenue tool to create a self-sustaining business. Analytics software is critical to evaluate the efficacy of online advertising campaigns and make adjustments accordingly.

Both search and social media are here to stay, and the ever-increasing interdependence between these channels should be seen as an opportunity in any business category. The strategic use of both channels can result in increased marketing effectiveness, and now is the time to take the lead in getting your clients on board.

Importance of mobile marketing confirmed in new Google study.

A new study from Google, in partnership with IPSOS OTX Media CT, confirms the growing importance of mobile marketing and the need for your clients to capitalize on this new marketing tool.

According to Google, 79% of top advertisers don’t have a mobile optimized site.

This should be unacceptable to any advertiser, large or small, and represents a great opportunity for agencies to help their clients compete in today's digital marketplace..

The first thing agencies and marketers should do is read The Mobile Movement – Understanding Smartphone Consumers. This is a must read, with interesting and informative data on how smartphones are being used to help with our daily lives and our shopping purchase process.

Importantly, this study provides a great resource for agencies to convince their clients that the power of mobile marketing is simply too bid to ignore.

We all know there’s a mobile movement, and that smartphones are being used daily by millions of consumers. According to this study among 5,000+ adult (18-64) smartphone users, in the past seven days, 81% browsed the web, 77% used a search engine, 48% watched a video, and 63% stayed connected to our friends by visiting a social network.

What you may not know is the growing importance of the smartphone to our shopping behavior.
• 79% of users rely on smartphones to help with shopping regularly.
• 54% use smartphone to locate a retailer through directions, maps, or GPS.
• 49% compare prices to decide where to buy.
• 44% read product information and reviews.
• 40% look for promotions and coupons daily.

Smartphones are becoming an integral part of a multi-channel purchase process.
• 67% of users research product or service information on their smartphone and then buy in store.
• 23% research on smartphone, visit store to check out product, and then purchase online.
• 16% research on smartphone, visit store to check out product and then purchase on smartphone.
• 9% visit a store and then purchase on smartphone.

The Mobile Movement: Understanding Smartphone Consumers has a lot more information. For a free copy of the full report, go here. Or check out this video for a quick summary of the findings.



If you're one of those 79% of top advertisers don’t have a mobile optimized site, you need to read this report.

Are You Helping Your Clients Position Their Brand In Today's Digital Marketplace?

In previous posts, I've argued that the secret to new business success and client retention is to become an invaluable asset to your client's marketing team. That means you must help them in more ways that just creating advertising.

I recently saw an article in Marketing Management by Don E. Schultz, professor emeritus-in-service at the Medill School of Journalism. In the article, he argues that the concept of positioning espoused by Jack Trout and Al Reis in the 1970's is no longer valid in the 21st century. He cites several reasons for this hypothesis, but most prominent is his reasoning that "marketers don't control brand positions, concepts, images, or even experiences -- consumers do". He goes on to state that today's marketers have "only limited means to communicate with consumers today . . . to position the brand" and that "the brand manager's voice in the branding milieu is tiny and faint when compared to the branding experiences consumers receive from other sources -- such as peers, community groups, the brand's customer service group, the technical support experts, other employees, retailers, and distributors who are not even under the control of the brand manager or marketing department".

Professor Schultz concludes his argument with the question "does any of the brand baggage we've dragged into the 21st Century have any relevance or resonance today with us, our customers, or the marketplace?" Throughout the article, Professor Schultz makes it clear where he stands, which is evident with his description of positioning as "brand baggage".

An article like this can create a great opportunity for an agency to help their client or prospect succeed in a marketing environment that continues to change so rapidly. Professor Schultz is certainly right that the idea of one brand completely owning a position for all time in the customer's mind is outdated. But I don't think that idea was ever totally valid in the first place. Volvo has always been positioned as the epitome of safety, but that brand was never the only brand with safety features. So it never owned exclusive rights to that position.

Yes, things are different today than they were in the 1970's when the original concept of positioning was coined by Messrs. Trout and Reis. Yes, the proliferation of brands, sub-brands and line extensions has increased while the ability of marketers to reach masses of consumers has dwindled dramatically. Yes, there are new tools that all marketers should be exploring to discern how best to speak to today's customers.

But I've got news for you, Professor Schultz. The consumer has always been in charge.

When the marketing mavens in Atlanta tried to foist a new version of Coca-Cola on the world, consumers said no in dramatic fashion. The marketing business has always had its share of Edsels when consumers refused to buy into the marketer's attempts to position the product in the consumer's mind. Do you remember Quadraphonic sound, Apple Newton, Apple Lisa, PC Jr., the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin, the USFL? These were all well-positioned, sure-fire winners until consumers said "no thanks".

So the idea that positioning is no longer valid for marketers because the consumer is now in charge doesn't resonate well with me. Nor do the arguments that marketers have limited means to communicate or that every exposure and every brand experience outside of the brand manager's voice and control is suddenly more powerful. The sum total of the actual brand experience has always been more powerful than the statements made in formal branding communications. And they always will be. The challenge for marketers today is to use that to their advantage.

No matter how wired the world becomes in the 21st Century, there will always be a need for marketers to try to position their product or service offering in the mind of the customer. There will always be a need for marketers to search for competitive niches and unmet needs, and to espouse the most salient benefits to a target group of consumers. Success, as always, will be based on whether expectations are aligned with the reality of the brand experience. And agencies can play an integral role in helping their clients define or refine their brand positioning to capitalize on the new realities of a wired world.

Is the concept of brand positioning different in today's world?
Yes.

Is the concept of brand positioning more difficult in today's world?
Absolutely.

Is the concept of brand positioning nothing more than yesterday's "baggage" and thus dead in the 21st century?
Absolutely not.

That's what makes this a great opportunity for an agency to become an invaluable asset to their client. And a great selling story for new business prospects.

What do you think? Agree? Disagree?

Digital Technology Requires Changing Your Mindset and Model For Business Development

As the Web continues to impact the consumer decision journey and create a permanently altered landscape of empowered consumers and 24/7 brand interaction, some agencies have accepted this new reality and adjusted their approach to new business development. Others haven’t, and apparently need to be dragged, kicking and screaming, into today’s world.

I continue to be amazed at the number of agencies who treat digital communication tools, especially social media, as a secondary, or even tertiary, consideration for their clients and prospects. Even though their clients have moved beyond them and are increasingly seeking ways to engage their customers at every step of their interaction in the brand decision process.

Agencies have traditionally focused their efforts on push-driven brand marketing to woo consumers when they first consider products and on promotional efforts at the point-of-sale to influence them as they are about to make a purchase. That approach assumes that customers move through a traditional decision process (commonly viewed as a funnel) that starts with evaluating alternatives through input from past experiences, brand messages and word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family, then narrowing their choices and making a purchase decision.

Digital technology is changing all that. Consumers now read online reviews, compare features and prices on multiple web sites, and discuss options with total strangers on social networking sites. This information flow creates a new decision process where the evaluation of purchase options can grow exponentially as new input is accessed. Recent studies have indicated that while consumers enjoy this new empowerment for the most part, many are simply overwhelmed and want marketers to help them make smart decisions. They just don’t want to feel subjected to a hard sell. They demand a two-way relationship that is divorced from a one-way, company-driven sales mentality.

Agencies must development a new mindset about what their clients need and build a new model to meet that need.

This doesn’t mean that agencies should abandon traditional media. Despite the numerous predictions of the death of television, it is still the most pervasive and powerful communication tool a marketer can use. What it does mean is that agencies must begin to treat digital media tools, and especially social media, as something equal in importance to traditional media.

Too many agencies have stood by and watched their role and value decline with their clients as specialty digital suppliers have grabbed this turf and diminished their importance in the marketing hierarchy. It’s time for agencies re-evaluate their organizational structure and compensation models. It’s time for agencies to invest in social media through blogs and other digital tools. It’s time for agencies to re-define their role with clients and prospects as more than a creative and production vendor.

Clients need ideas that will transform their business like never before, and now is the time for agencies to step in as a partner in setting business strategy, designing products and services to meet changing customer needs and wants, and creating new revenue models for their client and for themselves. Clients need help in keeping up with the increasing availability of new digital tools and how to use them to their advantage.

Clients need more than new ads and a new web site; they need to know the best ways to build a bridge between their brand and their customers. But that need is not just how to effectively use email, blogs, Twitter, mobile marketing, viral marketing, pay etc., but how to mix them with traditional media to create the most impact and build brand advocates.

It’s time for agencies to develop a mindset and model that truly meets these new client needs. If we don’t, the agency business is doomed to becoming a second-class citizen in the marketing community. And that would be a shame for an industry that grew up with heroes like Leo Burnett, David Ogilvy and Bill Bernbach.

A New Role for Ad Agencies in Today's Marketing Environment

The primary role for ad agency execs used to focus on talking to clients about how to say the right things in a creative and engaging way.  The typical account manager spent most of his time thinking about how to send messages, e.g. what do we need to say to persuade people to buy our product or service?

Today that same account manager should spend the majority of his time talking to clients about how to build relationships with their customers -- what do customers need to know to make smart decisions? how do we reach customers on the go? how do we help customers share their experiences with their peers?

This is not a new message for a digital agency. Every advertising conference for the past ten years has predicted that the future is in building customer experiences, not just in producing great advertising. But it's time for every agency to recognize and understand the impact this change is having on the role all advertising agencies can, and should, play within client organizations.

As I have noted in previous posts, many clients are simply overwhelmed by the new digital tools and how to use them to their advantage. In today's challenging marketplace, clients are not saying to their agencies, "How can you help us make ads or a new web site," they're saying, "how much do you understand about our business in order to help us build a bridge between our brand and our customers." The question is not just how to effectively use email, blogs, podcasts, mobile marketing, viral marketing, pay-per-click, user-generated content, Twitter, etc., but how to mix them with traditional media to create the most impact.

There is no question that the new digital environment opens opportunities to redefine and expand the role agencies can play with their clients. Clients are dealing with a laundry list of challenges – a rebounding, but still sluggish economy, competition from companies and places that they never dreamed would impact their business, a continued drive for lower costs, and perhaps, most frightening of all, a growing realization of the power that a connected consumer has over their business strategy and success.

Clients need ideas that will transform their business like never before, and now is the time for agencies to step in as a partner in setting business strategy, designing products and services to meet changing customer needs and wants, and creating new revenue models for their client and for themselves.

This is, indeed, a new role for agencies. It will not only require new skills, it will demand that agencies expand their definition of what it takes to be a great agency. The agency of tomorrow will truly understand how to help their clients find the ideal marketing mix of creative, technology, media, user experience and analytics.

This new role for agencies is frightening to some, but is a great opportunity for all who embrace it to its fullest extent.

How Social Media is Impacting Public Relations and Why You Should Care

I just returned from an interesting and informative presentation on how social media is impacting journalism and public relations and wanted to share some insights with you. The program, titled "Industries In Flux: Media and Public Relations and the Impact of Social Media" was sponsored by PR Newswire.

The presentation featured a panel discussion from online editors at seattletimes.com, msnbc.com and techflash.com, as well as a senior social media director from Waggener Edstrom, a large PR firm. The panel discussion addressed the impact of social media on both breaking news and more traditional corporate and product public relations activities.

It was interesting to hear that while all three journalists shared some concerns about the potential loss of journalistic integrity and lack of oversight that social media brings to the dissemination of news, they all admitted its potential value to their organizations. As a result, all were incorporating social media tools into their everyday workflow, and continuing to explore new ways to use these tools to increase the interaction with their online readers. I was especially intrigued by the discussion on Google Wave, a new collaboration tool now in Beta test that looks like it has a lot of potential uses as an information-sharing tool.

It was also interesting to hear these journalists discuss the challenges and opportunities for social media as a vehicle for traditional public relations activities. The explosion of traditional and multi-media news release options comes at a time when the news industry is shrinking, which places a greater burden on both sides to be noticed and gain earned media time. When asked how to break through the clutter, or even to discern how to identify who to contact, one panelist wryly advised cyber-stalking through Twitter to begin a conversation with a journalist that might lead to their picking up a story.

The Waggener Edstrom exec offered an additional way to use social media for public relations -- do it yourself . While he was careful not to advocate bypassing the media for important news events, he related an example of shooting camera phone video of the opening of the Microsoft retail store in Phoenix and sending that out to the news media as well as directly to the public.

He knew that the opening of a single retail store was not a major enough event to warrant national coverage, however he wanted to generate as much publicity for his client as he could. So he spontaneously videoed the opening events and in-store activity.

Interestingly, two of the panelists had picked up his "down and dirty" video and ran with it on the assumption that it did not look "slick and doctored" and was therefore more likely to reflect true news value for their online readers. The general consensus of the panel was that social media offered tremendous upside as a public relations vehicle when properly utilized.

So what does this mean for marketers and their agencies?

First, I believe the increasing impact of social media on news and public relations is yet another confirmation for marketers that social media can play an important role in your marketing program. If you aren't embracing social media yet you should at least be experimenting with how to incorporate these new tools into your branding and sales program.

Second, as empowered consumers expand their use of social media as a replacement for more traditional media, it is imperative that marketers monitor the conversation to gauge marketplace reaction and trending discussions on their brand and category. Social media can be both a blessing and a curse as potentially harmful misinformation may be disseminated about a company or a brand. One example that was given during the panel discussion concerned a misquote by a reporter from Reuters during a Microsoft press conference. The misquote concerned the prospect of future layoffs and was immediately identified as potentially damaging to morale by an alert employee.

Simultaneous corrections were broadcast by Microsoft to multiple news outlets and online communities at Microsoft as well as to Reuters. A correction was then sent out by Reuters. The total time from the misquote hitting the wires to a correction was only 18 minutes. When you compare that response with the 72 hours it reportedly took Domino's executives to respond to a mocked-up video showing employee spitting on the pizzas before boxing and delivery, you can readily see the value of social media for crisis communications.

The use of social media as a public relations and media relations tool has implications for agencies as well. Of course, any good PR agency should be looking for ways to use social media for their clients in today's digital world. But there are also implications for understanding how to use social media as a business development tool. Clients want, and need, guidance on how to take advantage of social media and other new technology tools. By sharing success stories like the Microsoft misquote, agencies can help their clients understand and accept the value of social media for their brand marketing efforts. All agencies, not just PR specialists, would be smart to look for opportunities to discuss and recommend social media to clients and prospects.

Social Media As A Branding Tool - A Case Study

Many ad agencies continue to question the branding value of Social Media and remain reluctant to embrace it for their own branding efforts or to recommend social media tactics to their clients. This is not only short-sighted, it is simply not true according to Brad Nelson, Chief Tweeter at Starbucks. Brad recently shared his company's strategies and personal views on ways that Social Media enhances the brand value of Starbucks. His comments offer some interesting insights into how this market leader uses Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and mystarbucksidea.com to build their brand and how agencies should be viewing Social Media for branding.

According to Brad, Starbucks has embraced Social Media because of its growing popularity, but also because it works. He gave specific examples of how Starbucks uses Social Media as a key element in their branding strategy and also cited a recent Razorfish study in which 97% of Connected Consumers reported that a positive digital brand experience influenced their purchase behavior.

Starbucks uses Social Media five ways:

• As standard operating procedure for any new launch or corporate policy initiative.


• To monitor conversation and become aware of emerging issues that might positively or negatively impact the Starbucks brand or products.


• To provide contextual and complete information around issues or controversies (i.e. to make sure that all facts are available as well as to give their brand champions complete information).


• As a rapid response tool to issues or questions.


• To put a human face on the company by providing information in a personal and relevant manner.

As part of his presentation, Brad shared several examples of how Starbucks has used Social Media. As part of the new product launch for Via, Brad related how an unplanned leak 30 days prior to launch was generating initial skepticism about the quality and taste of an instant coffee from Starbucks. Starbucks used social media to engage their audience, provide taste test results and promote their sampling strategy. They credit social media with helping to change public perception from negative to positive and shortly after launch, Via was being touted by the blogosphere as "the start of a new category", "the right thing to do for Starbucks", and "a product that tastes as good as regular Starbucks".

Starbucks management is confident that social media, in conjunction with more traditional tools, has played a significant role in the success of the Via brand. Social media has also been used as the primary medium in successful promotions for Free Pastry Day and Red Cup Day.

Brad also related an interesting story of how Twitter and Facebook helped with an international crisis management issue. An update to the Starbucks website has referenced Taiwan as a Province of China. This is a very controversial issue, and the blogosphere began humming shortly after it was posted. The issue was discovered and acknowledged within 3 hours, and fixed within 24 hours, just as the traditional media outlets were discovering the story. Starbucks' fast response made further reporting a non-story and traditional media outlets moved on to other stories. This is a great example of how listening and responding quickly can work to the advantage of any brand.

As more case studies come to light on the value of Social Media as a branding tool, ad agencies must listen and respond. Social media is not a fad. It is a legitimate way to monitor and converse with your brand's audience, and agencies who continue to ignore its power and presence as well as its branding potential will regret it.

Maybe TV Advertising Is Not As Dead As We Think

With the rise in media and marketer interest in social media and other new technology and media tools, many industry observers have officially signed the death certificate for traditional advertising. But to paraphrase Mark Twain "reports of television advertising's death have been greatly exaggerated".

A February report from Association of National Advertisers and Forrester was featured in Ad Age and The Huffington Post with the cryptic headline "TV Ads Losing Their Effectiveness". That study was based on a survey of marketers where 50 percent said they believed television ads have become less effective due to the growth in DVR penetration and usage.

But a new study released by American Research Foundation begs to differ with those assumptions. The study, titled "Empirical Evidence of TV Advertising Effectiveness", analyzed 388 case studies from seven different research agencies and concludes that TV ads are still effective, if not more so. This ARF study is only one part of a major project currently underway at The Wharton School on "The Future of Advertising".

Among the conclusions to be released in the upcoming issue of ARF's Journal of Advertising Research are that threats to TV advertising posed by DVR's and clutter are overblown; print and online advertising are effective; and word-of-mouth about brands are largely driven by paid media ads.

According to ARF Chief Research Officer Joel Robinson, "we're trying to replace assumptions and mythology with factual evidence from independent research". He went on to support the ARF's objective viewpoint by reinforcing that "we are not a lobbying organization for any medium . . . we are on the side of truth".

Much of what these studies show is the need for more research, specifically on how to allocate funds among media and the full implications of growing consumer use of search and social networks, said Jerry Wind, Lauder Professor of Marketing at Wharton. "The major concern about the decreased impact of television as an advertising medium is unfounded, but there are still a lot of things we don't know.

Look for more updates on this and other media effectiveness research as they are published. In the meantime, what do you think? Will this new batch of research change your thinking on what to recommend to your clients?

Beyond Advertising - A New Direction for Ad Agencies?

In 2007, the IBM Institute for Business Value issued an insightful report titled The End of Advertising As We Know It in which they predicted that the next five years will hold more change for the advertising industry than the previous 50. Their study concluded that the accelerating shift of media experience and control to consumers and more self-reliant advertisers who are seeking more interactive, measurable formats will redefine how advertising is sold, created, consumed and tracked. As a result, traditional agencies run the risk of becoming irrelevant without a major shift in their approach and services offering.

The IBM study asks us to imagine and consider the consequences to traditional agencies in an advertising world where:

• Interactive advertising surpasses traditional mass media vehicles as the preferred advertising format.
• Ad space is sold through auctions and exchanges.
• An advertiser can know who viewed and acted on an ad, and pay based on real impact rather than estimated "impressions."
• Consumers self-select which ads they watch and share preferred ads with peers.
• User-generated advertising is as prevalent (and appealing) as agency-created spots.

Last month, IBM issued a follow-up report based on their conclusion that major advertising trends identified in the previous study are happening at a faster rate than anticipated, while agencies, content owners and distributors have not responded sufficiently to these changes. This 2008 study, titled Beyond Advertising. Choosing a Strategic Path to the Digital Consumer, addresses these changes in more depth and from a very pragmatic perspective. Importantly, this report offers some practical advice to agencies on how to leverage their strengths in the creative area in the near term while they look for ways to adapt their business model and services offering to address the new environment.

Some of their suggested areas for immediate focus are:

• Look for ways to broaden capabilities that can be integrated with traditional services offered by the agency as a way to diversify revenue and build a stronger client relationship at the strategic level.
• Begin to proactively experiment with new tools and services that can deliver and automate ways to analyze ROI.
• Restructure the organization to promote more collaboration by breaking down self-created silos across disciplines.
• Consider partnerships to complement services and expertise that may be lacking today.
• Look for ways to operate more efficiently through workflow automation, automated creative development tools and alternative media buying scenarios or partnerships.

One of their more intriguing suggestions is to redefine the agency role to be that of an "insights broker" that can analyze and integrate cross-platform sets of data to generate actionable solutions that better profile, target and measure ad campaigns. This represents a dramatic change from the traditional mass-oriented approach to analysis and measurement based on reach and impressions-based measures like cost-per-thousand.

The overall conclusion of the study is that agencies will need to adapt to this new environment in order to survive. Even while we must navigate the current economic environment that suggests a limitation on investment, agencies must start to experiment with and build these new capabilities now. The future will not just be the "end of advertising as we know it", it will be the end of the advertising agency as we know it.

To read the complete IBM study, go to this link:

http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/index.wss/ibvstudy/gbs/a1031045?cntxt=a1000062

Don’t underestimate the power of the customer when building your brand.

Last week, I attended a webinar titled “Brand Building in a Digital Age”. I was expecting a “how-to” seminar on incorporating social media and other new technology tools as part of the marketing mix. As it turned out, the webinar was more about the power of the customer and the importance of good customer service in an era of instant access to millions of potential customers via the Internet. But that’s okay, because the webinar did give me some new insights and appreciation for the importance of doing and saying the right things with customers.

I have always counseled my clients and trained my staff to be sensitive to the importance of balancing expectations with the reality of the brand experience. Creating the right expectation can cover a lot of areas, but the most important are these:
- Understand your customer’s needs and wants.
- Don’t over-promise what you can’t deliver.
- Be transparent about your policies and procedures.
- Make it easy for customers to alert you to problems.
- Listen to the customer and do your best to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.
- Fix the problem so that it doesn’t happen again.

Okay, none of this is brain surgery, but I am still amazed at how many companies ignore one or all of the above. And the potential negative impact on your brand has never been scarier than now. As last week’s webinar pointed out, we are all doing business in a virtual bazaar where customers have the ability to positively or negatively influence thousands of potential customers.
Several years ago, a Yankelovich study concluded that a positive customer experience was generally shared with 2-3 people while a negative experience was shared with 15. With the power of the Internet, those numbers are now mind-boggling as witnessed by the MotrinMoms reaction to a Motrin commercial they found offensive and insensitive.

If you missed the brouhaha last November, here’s a quick recap. On a Saturday morning, Motrin launched an on-line ad via their website touting Motrin’s effectiveness in relieving back pain in mothers who carry their baby in a sling. While the basis for the ad was probably true, they chose to use sardonic humor and a flippant tonality to imply that “baby-wearing” mothers only use the sling to make a social comment to others that they are an “official mom”.

Online moms did not respond to the ad by racing out for Motrin. They were offended by the suggestion that they carry their babies just to be “fashionable”.

By Saturday evening the ad had created a firestorm in the Twitter community, was the most talked about subject, and led one Tweeter to comment: note to self … never piss off moms … especially twitter moms … they can be a nasty bunch ;)

By Sunday morning, a MotrinMom had posted a video response on YouTube and at last count has generated at least 61 additional YouTube responses that have been viewed by over 575,000 people. The negative response also dominated the blogging community for days, and will continue to be available to millions via the “Google penalty” as one blogger termed it.
Even though Motrin responded quickly by pulling the ad and issuing official apologies to the general community as well as to specific email protesters, there is no telling how much damage they have inadvertently done to their brand. And they didn’t over-promise, they just did something stupid.

So what does that say about retailers who loudly proclaim their “once-in-a-lifetime” sale that happens again next week? And again the following week? Are you listening department stores? Or what about the automobile dealers, mortgage companies and all the other advertisers who trumpet their incentives and hide behind the fine print. The old-fashioned notion of caveat emptor (buyer beware) has been replaced by seller beware that you don’t ruin your brand and your business in a blind quest for profit because your customers will tell the truth to the world.
The rapid growth of customer review sites like Yelp and Angies List and the emergence of customer feedback sites like Measuredup and Planetfeedback should be enough for marketers to wake up and smell that coffee.

The customer is not only in charge, they are in the driver's seat.

Are You Taking Advantage of Online Video as an Advertising Tool?

Online video is one of the fastest growing advertising channels in the U.S., and several recent studies indicate that online video will continue to rise dramatically relative to other ad channels over the next few years. As an advertising tool, online video is expected to dramatically outpace growth in search, display ads and rich media.

The Pew Internet & American Life Project's major report on online video last year confirmed that the growing adoption of broadband has resulted in a dramatic increase in viewing online video. Fifty-seven percent of online adults have used the internet to watch or download video, and 19% say they watch some form of video every day. This number grows even more when respondents are qualified by connection speed. Three-quarters of broadband users (74%) who enjoy high-speed connections at both home and work watch or download video online.

While YouTube leads the way in online video adoption by a wide margin, many advertisers have been hesitant to use it as an advertising vehicle. National advertisers and agency heads have said that the user-generated content is too edgy or unprofessional to be considered a serious advertising medium, but that may be changing. Google CEO Eric Schmidt has admitted that YouTube has fallen short in ad revenues, but he has pledged to make monetizing the site one of Google's top priorities. YouTube has recently started airing long form independent films, which should raise its professionalism perception to prospective advertisers and agencies. Media analyst Mark Glazer predicts that “with the brains behind Google trying to solve the advertising problem at YouTube, there's a good chance they will find a breakthrough format or idea.”

We are beginning to see dramatic growth in viewership of premium content sites like Hulu, ESPN, Nickelodeon, CNN and ABC. Hulu now claims to have run 88 million videos. This is only a fraction compared to YouTube’s 4.2 billion, but many analysts suggest that Hulu will be the more successful business since Hulu can sell advertising in 100% of its inventory. According to one estimate, Hulu could generate $90 million in revenue in its first year, roughly the same U.S. revenue as YouTube.

Almost all industry analysts agree that professional-quality online-video content is particularly promising because it's what ad agencies, media agencies and media companies already know. Clients and agencies will feel more comfortable developing new content or re-purposing existing television content for the web.

It is particularly interesting to note that local retailers and other small and medium-sized businesses are beginning to use video to promote their services. Restaurants, legal practices and specialty retail shops are leading the charge, but local tourism attractions and financial services won’t be far behind. Their use is sparking the formation of yet another fast growth industry that specializes in online video production. Two startups to watch closely are http://www.pixelfish.com/ and http://www.turnhere.com/ . These sites offer high-impact, broadcast-quality video that is easy and affordable for even the smallest advertiser, and this is a natural area for local, independents and free-lancers to develop a new revenue stream.

Online video advertising is fast approaching a point to become a natural adjunct to any broadcast advertiser's media plan, as well as a lower entry cost medium for those who can’t afford traditional television. If you’re not using online video, it would definitely be in your best interest to evaluate its potential for your business.

New Business Prospecting: Understanding Your Client's Business

In a new study published by Reardon Smith Whittaker titled "A Client's Perspective On Agencies", there are many good insights and suggestions on how to tap into a new business prospect. In that study, 81% of respondents cited "understanding of your market" as a critical factor in their agency selection. The quality of the creative product is still important (69% said so), but I strongly believe that if you don't understand the client's business, then the greatest creative in the world won't win the account. Here is a link to that study: http://www.rswus.com/documents/Final2008AgencyClientSurvey_000.pdf

Several years ago, I spoke with Stan Richards, founder of The Richards Group, on what he considered the key ingredient in a new business pitch. Without hesitation, he replied that the ability to give the prospective client a new insight on their company or category was the key factor in winning new business. His business development team worked hard to find that insight, and then spent the majority of their presentation supporting that insight and its potential to grow the client's business.

In today's challenging marketplace, I would add the ability to help a client expand their marketing efforts into new digital frontiers is also a key factor in choosing one agency over another.

Clients are not saying to their agencies, "how can you help us make ads or a new web site," they're saying, "how much do you understand about our business in order to help us build a bridge between our brand and our customers."

Brand Content vs. Peer-to-Peer Content: Which is better?

Here's an interesting tidbit from a new Forrester study on Social Marketing -- brand-generated content still matters to socially connected consumers. Despite all of the marketing buzz that would have you believe that brand marketing has no future, here is a refreshing new report from analyst Lisa Bradner that brand content can actually have more value than peer-generated content. This is especially true for higher-priced products in highly competitive categories, but can be true for all products if the brand has established the right level of trust with their customer base.

The question then becomes "how do you build trust?" Well, it starts with being honest and avoiding the hyperbole of advertisingese that too many marketers still think is the way to get ahead. If the marketing lessons of TIVO fast forwarding haven't sunk in yet, it's time to wake up and realize that the customer is in charge, not the marketer. Today's customer has the wherewithal to select when, where and what content they want to consume. Take a look at this excellent presentation on today's consumer and the value of social marketing engagement by Eric Weaver of Edelman http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3948077690728844861&hl=en.

So if you've been asking yourself (or your CMO) if your company should have a social media program the answer is an unequivocal "yes". You cannot deny the fact that traditional outbound tools are becoming less relevant. Old school tactics of shouting and interrupting have been replaced by a new school of engagement. This is an era for marketing of being found, not being heard. Today's successful marketers need to build strong connections between customers and the brand, and increasing the use of social media in your marketing mix is a way to raise brand relevance, affinity, and loyalty.

It's Time To Wake Up and Smell the Digital Revolution

Why is it that some of advertising’s best and brightest still don’t get it when it comes to appreciating the impact that the web is having on the advertising business?

Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP and a man whose impact on the architecture of the modern advertising agency is unparalleled, recently wrote an article for The (London) Times on the digital revolution. In it, he tried to calm the fears of those in the traditional advertising business by comparing the impact of the Internet to that of television in the 1950’s. Here’s the lead paragraph from that issue of The Times:

Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, the British advertising giant, believes that the internet will not prove the death knell of traditional advertising channels. Writing exclusively for The Times, the advertising guru says that, despite “constant competition between the old and new”, the emergence of the internet will not “displace” other platforms. He likens the internet advertising threat to that posed by the advent of television in the mid-1950s.

To Mr. Sorrell, the Internet is just another new medium –albeit a very powerful one- and eventually the Internet will settle in along with other media as part of an integrated media buy. Unfortunately, his view on the subject is inflicting a grave injustice on those in the business who are uncertain about what the internet and the digitization of media will mean for them, their work and their jobs. The digital revolution unfolding today is about much more than the introduction of a new medium into the advertising mix. There is no question the internet as a medium is quite powerful and growing rapidly every day. Studies from Forrester, the Interactive Advertising Bureau, and many others chronicle this fact on a regular basis. But the advertising business is in for a much bigger storm than most, including Mr. Sorrell, can even imagine.

Consider if you will, the undeniable fact that marketers are continuing to shift monies away from advertising, which favors media, to direct marketing and promotion, which do not. While this has been happening for decades, the digital revolution has helped accelerate the shift. This means less advertising in the future and less money for media -- all media. Consider that all media are going digital and that this will fundamentally change how they operate and are consumed. We all know the impact that TIVO and VOD are having on the world of television. Its effect on the print medium is becoming more apparent everyday. I vividly recall a recent occasion when my daughter and son-in-law were visiting. Each morning I got up early, had my morning coffee, and read the local newspaper. My son-in-law also got up early, but along with this cup of coffee he powered up his laptop to read a digital version of the same paper.

The traditional definitions we use for magazine or newspaper or television or direct mail, will become meaningless to most consumers. To them, it will just be news or information or entertainment or games or great offers. Most folks in traditional media are not prepared for this -- and they are powerless to stop it. Yesterday, the media controlled the time, place and message. Today, with the digitization of media, the consumer does. It’s that simple. This new “consumer-centric” world makes traditional advertising and media very uncomfortable as they are used to talking to, or shouting at, consumers. Now, it's about marketers having a conversation with one consumer at a time. But the consumer determines when and where that conversation will take place.

Here in Seattle, this may not seem like news, because we are the most wired city in the U.S., and everyone is directly, or indirectly, involved with this new digital world. But believe me when I tell you that to the majority of the country this is still a foreign concept. Mr. Sorrell’s attitude and understanding of the digital revolution reminds me of a book I read several years ago by David Halberstam, titled The Reckoning. The author chronicled the rise of Datsun (now Nissan) and the concurrent decline of Ford, and attributed much of the blame to Luddites in Detroit who refused to believe that Americans would buy an ugly little box from Japan over an American made car just to save gas. Automakers in Detroit all drove American cars, lived next door to someone who drove an American car, and simply didn’t realize that the world was changing until it was too late.

I fear that Mr. Sorrell must live in that same sheltered environment if he believes that the Internet is just another medium. Digitization of media and communication means real-time interactivity and two-way conversations. Traditional media and advertising agencies that don't embrace this way of operating will go away. Consumers will leave them behind, and marketers will eventually refuse to fund them.

Sir Martin, it’s time to wake up and smell the digital revolution. The Internet is about much more than a new medium, it’s about the end of advertising and media as we have known it!