Marketing Insights

Via Apcug.net

AD:TECH04 was a conference last May that was all about communicating, persuading and selling online. It combined 48 different speeches and panel discussions with exhibit halls filled with booths showing the interactive marketing applications of more than 100 companies. This article describes some of the highlights and it also has information about future AD:TECH conferences in 2005. Some of these ideas could benefit your group.

Allison Johnson from Hewlett-Packard gave the keynote speech. She asked: “How many tech products could you say you love?” She urged us to look at things from the point of view of our customers. Things that are important to them include humor, fun, authenticity and excitement. Instead of Hewlett-Packard bragging about its own success, its ads feature its customers bragging about their success. Your goal should be to build lasting, loyal relationships with your customers or members.

The panel discussion about measuring word of mouth effectiveness mentioned that consumers are the best and most effective advertisers. The consumers who are influencers share their opinions with other consumers. A consumer’s value to a company equals his lifetime purchases plus his virality. Virality is word of mouth that could affect a company’s sales. New forms of word of mouth include e-mail, message boards, blogs, mobile blogs, and consumer generated ads using a product such as iMovie. Steve Knox, from Procter & Gamble said that his company located 300,000 teenage trendspreaders. Trendsetters start a trend but trendspreaders connect new ideas to larger audiences and this can affect a company’s sales. Trendspreaders ask themselves: “Is this idea worth my support?” and “Is it easy to talk about?” The message must be fast, fun and simple.

This theme was developed further in the workshop about “Influentials” given by Ed Keller of NOP World Consumer. He said that “Influentials” are people who are active and trusted in their local communities. They are enthusiastic about learning and they share their opinions with people in many groups. They often are highly educated, have a clear set of priorities, have a belief in growth, and have the ability to create change. They are consumer advocates and market multipliers. They are leading indicators of consumer trends. They are like focus groups on steroids.

At a panel about kids and brand relationships, Nancy Neumann from Random House said their Web site was designed with these requirements: make it fun, keep it simple, and use plenty of graphics. Use e-mail to remind visitors, and give rewards to just about everyone for motivation, even if some of the prizes are virtual prizes. They give each child a personal page that the child can change but that would not identify the child. Children receive virtual plants and virtual pets. The site has a Mostly Ghostly writing contest and a Mostly Ghostly Graveyard Panic Game. It is not a coincidence that they also sell Mostly Ghostly books. Childrens books from Random House also have reader’s guides and teacher’s guides. Their Web page for children is called Kids@Random, and they also have Web pages called Teens@Random, Parents@Random, and Teachers@Random for each of these specialized audiences.

Kristen Yraola from Maybelline-Garnier said that her company also has a special Web site for teens that is designed to turn them into brand evangelists. Their Web site is designed to be irreverent, ironic and fun. It is “edu-tainment for the Fructis Tribe from the Fru Crew.” It includes “the teenage passion points of music, dating and online chatting and it talks to teens in a language that is relevant to them.”

Carol Kruse from Coca-Cola explained how her company’s Web site strengthens teen loyalty to this brand. Teens online are often multitasking, combining different activities including chatting, instant messaging, watching television, listening to music, doing homework, or playing games. On cokemusic.com they can create their own characters, create their own rooms, and fill those rooms with virtual furniture. She said this idea was so popular that there are more than one million rooms with more than eight million items of virtual furniture on Coca-Cola’s Web site. Registered users also get a Coke Music Pass, play games, take surveys, and hang out in Coke Studios. This is a social network for teens that mimics real life. Teens like to be brand ambassadors as long as the brand is cool.

Another keynote speech was given by Peter Weedfald from Samsung. He said that everything that his company does starts with the Internet: every product and every advertisement. Samsung’s Web sites get one billion hits per month. Often this is for information but sometimes it is for entertainment. For example, 150,000 people went to samsungusa.com to watch the simulcast of a Bon Jovi concert. He said “my products are my heroes” and “your brand is a medal that you must shine every day.”

At the panel discussion on “Brand Marketing in the Attention Economy” we were told that there is a difference between how marketing was done in the past fifty years, with a focus on the product, and how marketing is done now, with a focus on the consumer. According to Kelly Mooney of Resource Interactive, customers are saying: “Earn my trust, inspire me, get to know me, guide me, 24/7, make it easy, put me in charge, exceed my expectations, reward me, and stay with me even after you have my money.” She called them the Ten Demandments, and thinking along those lines make us more worthy of the loyalty that we seek.

At the panel on “Targeting User Segments on Your Web Site” we learned that chevymalibu.com asks questions to find out the level of your car expertise and what features of a car are most important to you. How important is entertainment? How important is safety? Do you want a lot of room for groceries or do you want to tow a boat? The Web site has a view of the car, scenery, music, and a virtual host who explains how to use the Web site. You can save the results of your work at the site so that you can show it to your spouse later.

The exhibit hall had many great companies with great products. I will tell you about them a little later, after letting you know about Eyeblaster. Eyeblaster’s booth had product literature mentioning their floating ads. When reading a newspaper online, I sometimes see a floating ad that covers up some of the words that I wanted to read. When this happens, I play one of my video games or do something else until the Eyeblaster ad goes away, and then I continue reading what I started to read earlier. Compared to this, banner ads are totally harmless because they do not interfere with the reader’s online experience.

Among the many other companies in the exhibit hall was Claria. Claria delivers ads to consumers whose online behavior indicates an interest in that ad’s product category. These ads are only sent to consumers who opt in. Consumers choose to opt in to receive music or software utilities for free.

Mamma Media Solutions creates pay-per-click advertising. They prepare banner ads for their clients and the client pays Mamma each time that someone clicks one of these banner ads.
CoolSavings provides printable coupons to millions of consumers from companies that want to reach these potential customers.

NOP World plans marketing campaigns that are designed to result in favorable word of mouth that leads to increased sales. They create compelling messages that inspire advocacy.

Google allows its customers to conduct national, regional, or local ad campaigns to get sales leads. Google’s personal representatives can help you plan your campaign. Your ad would appear when someone does a Google search using the keyword or Google AdWord that you chose. You would pay for each click to your Web site from that ad.

The Atlas Digital Marketing Suite is software to help you manage your digital marketing campaign. Their staff can work with your team as you use this software to create your campaign, including media planning, ad delivery, analysis, and optimization.

These were just some of the many companies that were in the exhibit halls to discuss their products and services.

This year AD:TECH will have five different conferences to bring the latest developments in interactive marketing to a city near you. The cities and dates will be:

• AD:TECH San Francisco - April 25-27
• AD:TECH Chicago - July 11-12
• AD:TECH London - September 28-29
• AD:TECH New York - November 7-9
• AD:TECH Shanghai - November 15-17, 2005