June 10th, 2009
Promotions Make Media More Measurable
We all keep hearing about the challenges of measuring marketing campaigns. It’s true, tracking the overall ROI of a campaign is not entirely possible since there is a large qualitative and not quantitative aspect involved. However, by adding a promotional element we can directly track consumer interactions & engagement.
Traditional media campaigns rely on eyeballs, meaning the amount of people who actually see the ad. However, as media costs continue to rise, audiences have become more fragmented, making them harder to reach. So how do you measure the success of these massive costs? Well, you try to figure out how many people saw the ad, it’s like measuring the success of a Google AdWords campaigns strictly by impressions, not very effective, since the majority of advertising messages are ignored by consumers. Traditional media relies entirely on one way communication, with as many people as possible, but then what? As advertising clutter continues to expand consumers ignore a larger percentage of the ads they see. All we have to do is click the skip button, change the channel, or turn our heads; which in most cases is exactly what we do.
Categories: Digital Advertising, Promotions 2.0
May 14th, 2009
iPhone Continues to Grow as Ad Platform
Madison Avenue is plowing more resources into a new marketing medium: Apple Inc.’s iPhone.
In the past several months, companies such as Burger King Holdings Inc., Zippo Manufacturing Co. and Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. have experimented with promotional software applications that can be downloaded onto the iPhone, or they have created ads that are placed within other popular applications for the device.
At the most basic, marketers are taking advantage of the iPhone’s advanced video and screen capabilities by creating streaming video ads. But some are taking things further by offering ads disguised as apps. The latter allow users to do such things as play games or manipulate images by touching the phone’s screen.
Many marketers find “app-vertising” attractive because the iPhone’s audience has grown so quickly. The iPhone now has more than 20 million users, and more are likely to buy in because Apple is widely expected to unveil a new model in coming months. Analysts estimate that Apple’s iPod touch, which can also run downloaded apps, adds at least 15 million more users to the market. Continue Reading…
Categories: Digital Advertising, Mobile Marketing, Sweepstakes
May 11th, 2009
Dave Matthews Band Facebook Contest
After a long break from the studio the Dave Matthews Band band traveled down to New Orleans to complete work on their new studio album, Big Whiskey and the Groogrux King, which will be be released on June 2. To promote the album the band has put together a social media promotion called DMB BIG WHISKEY AND THE GROOGRUX KING ADVANCE LISTENING PARTY CONTEST
DMB fans are invited to host a listening party and create a Facebook Event page scheduled for Memorial Day weekend and invite all their friends. The top 100 hosts will win a personalized advance copy of the new album to use for the listening party. Hosts must submit an entry form on the Advance Listening Party Contest Page by May 12th.
The host of the best listening party will win a trip to meet Dave Matthews and see the band perform live from the front row at their show in West Palm Beach, FL on Saturday, August 15th!
Categories: Mobile Marketing, Promotions 2.0, Social Marketing, Sweepstakes
Categories: Social Marketing, Viral Marketing
April 9th, 2009
Moving from Clicks to Conversions
For over a decade, Website publishers have relied on an old advertising model: Publishers provided advertisers access to online viewers, and the more desirable those viewers, the more online publisher charged for banner impressions. Like the early days of television this model worked (for a while), but as advertising clutter increased and consumers began to see banners as noise click-through rates have dropped to an all time low.
Marketers are now shifting their focus from a one dimensional awareness approach to integrated marketing strategies that leverage the engagement cycle to move consumers from awareness to conversion.
Unlike the sales funnel. Engagement is better thought of as a cycle, a series of touchpoints designed to create engagement with a brand in order to drive a purchase, each time in a meaningful and valuable way to both brand and consumer.
In the world of interactive promotions the engagement cycle is driven by three primary stages: awareness, activation, and conversion (or purchase). Throughout the cycle, marketers must measure in order to add value throughout the cycle.
Categories: Consumer Generated, Digital Advertising, Measurement, Promotions 2.0, Promotions Law, Sweepstakes
Categories: Social Marketing
March 17th, 2009
The Phone is the Next Big Thing.
The computer industry has hit upon its Next Big Thing. It is called a phone.
95% of consumers carry their cell phone at retail, making mobile the next big platform for marketers. Now PC makers are trying to get in on the action.
Emboldened by Apple’s success with its iPhone, many PC makers and chip companies are charging into the mobile-phone business, promising new devices that can pack the horsepower of standard computers into palm-size packages. Continue Reading…
Categories: Mobile Marketing
March 13th, 2009
Advertising in the Digital Age
The emergence of digital media has created some very fundamental and important changes in the world of advertising. New digital technologies are creating a wide range of new possibilities for two-way communication and measurement. The power of promotions to cut through clutter and capture consumer interest and attention is also beginning to blur the line between advertising and promotional marketing strategies. These changes are redefining the rules for advertising in the digital age. Continue Reading…
Categories: Digital Advertising, Promotions 2.0, Social Marketing, Sweepstakes
March 12th, 2009
How Facebook is taking over our lives
President Obama used it to get Elected. Dell is recruiting new hires from it. Microsoft’s new operating system borrows from it. Millions of new users are joining every week. So what’s next for Facebook?
Peter Lichtenstein, 57, recently became an official member of the Facebook army, 175 million strong and, Facebook says, growing at the astounding rate of about five million new users a week, making it a rare bright spot in a dismal economy. If Facebook were a country, it would have a population nearly as large as Brazil’s. It even edges out the U.S. television audience for Super Bowl XLIII, which drew a record-setting 152 million eyeballs.
But these days the folks fervently updating their Facebook pages aren’t just tech-savvy kids: The college and post-college crowd the site originally aimed to serve (18- to 24-year-olds) now makes up less than a quarter of users. The newest members - the ones behind Facebook’s accelerating growth rate - are more, ahem, mature types like Lichtenstein, who never thought they’d have the time or inclination to overshare on the web. It’s just that Facebook has finally started to make their busy lives a little more productive - and a lot more fun. READ MORE…
Categories: Social Marketing
Categories: Promotions 2.0, Social Marketing