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Grey, Panasonic Skate to Where the Puck Will Be...at Christmas

Panasonic and Grey Advertising share how they developed an advertising campaign which avoided their competitors and sent their market share from 21 to 55%. I recommend the whole article, but you'll probably have to be registered (free) at AdWeek to read it. (The dancing angel, left, is from the Panasonic web site, but I'm not sure if he's in a commercial.)

Adweek: Grey, Panasonic Share Campaign Insights by Kathlen Sampey

Instead of buying media for the new campaign during the fourth-quarter holiday season, which is when electronics brands do their heaviest messaging, Mandel and his team decided to buy heavily in April and May and on radio. The reasons were threefold: entertainment electronics, especially TVs, are used every day; by advertising heavily in those months, the brand message would resonate more because competitors advertise more heavily in the fourth quarter; and running ads on radio during the evening rush hour drive time made consumers think more about the TV they were going home to watch, Mandel said.

The radio ads gave TV listings for programming that was being broadcast in high-definition, said Greenberg, which raised awareness about which channels had that capability and drove awareness and curiosity about Panasonic's plasma-screen televisions.

A Future of Better Advertising

Infinity Broadcasting is sponsoring a couple of speakers at Advertising Week called the Infinity Innovators. One of them, Carat Americas CEO David Verklin, set a different tone than the other executives complaining about advertising's 'broken model.' He says now is the time for advertising professionals to decided what future they'd like to have--and go for it.

MediaPost: High-Tech Future Will Create New Opportunities For Advertising by Michael Deibert

"Thousands of advertisers are going to use television who could never afford to use it before," said Verklin. He added that the end of the 30-second ad was "not something to lament," as the new technology would enable "advertising to the interested" to take hold.

Blogging for Visibility

An article at DM News has two excellent case histories with ROI reporting on retailers using blogs to improve conversion and customer involvement on their sites.

DMNews.com: Blogs and Bling Bling by Christopher Heine

"One of the great side effects of blogs is that they are search engine friendly," said Seth Greenberg, CEO of eHobbies.com, La Mirada, CA. "Once we realized this, we made a point to include better descriptions in blog posts. We look at blogs as an extension of our organic search engine marketing strategy. Paid keyword placements are costly and must be managed responsibly. We have thousands of products, so the more we show up organically in search, the less we need to rely on pay per click."  ...

"The page impressions tell us that people are spending more time at the site because of the blogs and are more likely to both purchase and come back," Gniwisch [of Ice.com] said. "The investment to blogs has paid off in the sales coming from them. However, we are not necessarily looking at sales as the end-all barometer. We are also looking at the whole package: PR, site ranking, traffic and being in the forefront of online marketing."

To make the effort click, Ice.com uses four freelance writers who invented characters like "Icegrrl" and "Rahulio" at the retailer's chief blog destination, www.sparklelikethestars.com. The fictitious entities hold court daily with a range of opinions on celebrity gossip and news, but the articles always end with a jewelry pitch.

Marketers Challenged to Own their Media

Rebel agency StrawberryFrog just won the Heineken account and is interviewed in the Wall St. Journal. Most of the article is about how agencies need to change, but the StrawberryFrog creative chief makes a telling point about how marketers ought to place their message into media. He says they should look for opportunities to 'own the media': sponsorships, branded entertainment, micro web sites, etc.

WSJ.com: Questions for ... Scott Goodson by Christopher Lawton (subscription required)

With the reality of media explosions and the Internet, StrawberryFrog prefers to invent our own media opportunities that clients can own.

Scott also has a wonderful statement about why StrawberryFrog won't be a typical flame-in, flame-out advertising boutique:

StrawberryFrog is a movement. It is not a business. We are all having the most fun we have ever had. We are really turning the industry on its head, working in a new way. It is really motivating. So you'll be talking to me hopefully when I am 115. We are here to stay. I think you get burnt out when you are just a business.

New Viral Marketing Cooperative

I heard about the Tickle web site and thought, "how cute." Well, it's growing up into quite the strapping teenager, perhaps soon to grow into a influential media professional. Tickle is now owned by Monster Worldwide, but shows no signs of being absorbed. In fact, the founders are flexing their power and expertise by creating a new media service called Tickle Grapevine. Grapevine brings together several major new social networking web sites and provides a suite of advertising tools including viral videos, interactive quizzes, emai tags, and programs like Brand Connector, described below.

However, I couldn't go on by without drawing your attention to Tickle's About Us at a Glance page which includes the Founders' Mission: Connecting People through Fun and Science. Gotta luv 'em.

Tickle Grapevine: Brand Connector (via iMedia Connection)

We introduce a little friendly competition to the "how well do you know me" routine and connect your brand to the entertaining experience. Users answer an interactive question related to your product, and the "Vote" button automatically connects them to a custom-branded landing page with results. Users can then guess how their friends will answer and send them the poll. Their friends will receive an email inviting them to see if their friend guessed their answer correctly. It's a fun, interactive experience between friends with your brand at the center of it.

Tesco Tracks UK Shopping Habits--Massively

Thanks to Tim Manners of Reveries for a heads up on an article about UK retailer Tesco compiling a huge database of British shoppers, their habits and preferences. These activities are the same that Experian and Knowledgebase Marketing are pursuing in the U.S., but everyone thought it was off-limits in the U.K. The big news is that Tesco is growing extremely successful by using this data.

Guardian Unlimited: Tesco stocks up on inside knowledge of shoppers' lives by Heather Tomlinson and Rob Evans

A subsidiary of the [Tesco] supermarket chain has set up a database, called Crucible, that is collating detailed information on every household in the UK, whether they choose to shop at the retailer or not. The company refuses to reveal the information it holds, yet Tesco is selling access to this database to other big consumer groups, such as Sky, Orange and Gillette. "It contains details of every consumer in the UK at their home address across a range of demographic, socio-economic and lifestyle characteristics," says the marketing blurb of dunnhumby, the Tesco subsidiary in question. It has "added intelligent profiling and targeting" to its data through a software system called Zodiac. This profiling can rank your enthusiasm for promotions, your brand loyalty, whether you are a "creature of habit" and when you prefer to shop.

Newspaper Ad Salespeople Shifting Focus

Nationally placed advertising has been a mainstay of newspaper advertising sales for a long time. Now Federated Department Stores is shifting much of its spending to TV and direct mail. Perhaps newspapers will survive by cultivating a local market. Not much margin there, unfortunately.

MediaPost Publications - Federated Spending Shift Could Spell Trouble For U.S. Newspapers, Firm Says by Michael Deibert

"I think what we're seeing is some progress in some areas where newspapers are making inroads, slight though they might be," said John Kimball. "In specialty retailing, for instance, it would appear that there's a marketplace there that's being untapped. Newspapers individually are also working very hard with advertisers in their own marketplaces that may not have traditionally been seen as such."

One-to-one TV on the Horizon

Here's why content providers like Bloomberg Television and the Food Network are now signing contracts to feed their programs to the phone companies (through companies like Broadstream), which can use their land lines for TV narrowcasting. You can get one from column A and two from column B, and don't forget to sign up for the high school graduation video feed.

MediaPost Publications: Scripps Television Inks IPTV Deal With Broadstream by Wayne Friedman

Unlike other technologies, IPTV can get to many more homes quickly. Many of the world's major telecommunications providers are exploring IPTV as a new revenue opportunity for their markets. Communications companies, like SBC and Verizon, are using IPTV to offer channels and personalized content.

TV Networks Court Influencers

Now the TV networks are courting the people who love being influential, especially the people who want to be see the first airing of any show and spread the word to their friends. If trying to come up with the most creative advertisement is risky, then trying to control someone who prides themselves on being 'on top of things' seem to be even riskier.

LA Times: TV Networks Pursue the 'Super Fan' by Meg James

Johnson gives new meaning to the term TV evangelist, and lately reaching people like her has become the Holy Grail of network executives. As the 2005-06 television season officially kicks off today, the six major networks have rolled out multipronged marketing campaigns to create the buzz that drives viewership. But this year more than ever before, those campaigns have been aimed at "super fans" — a chatty, peer-influencing group that networks believe can help them win the ratings wars. "They are the fuse that lights the firecracker, and really sets things on fire," said Lewis Goldstein, co-president of marketing for the WB network, which after two lousy seasons desperately needs to scare up a new hit.

Michael Benson of ABC seems to have a clue:

"If you do things right, you get higher 'talk value,' " said Michael Benson, ABC's senior vice president for marketing. This season, he's at it again: to hype "Commander in Chief," a new drama starring Geena Davis as the first woman president, ABC got the U.S. Treasury to OK the circulation of an undisclosed number of dollar bills with stickers of Davis' face covering George Washington's.

"It's about creating something that you want to tell your friends about, and show your family members," Benson said, adding this caveat: "You've got to make sure it's organic to the show, original and unexpected."

Tracking Chat Room Chatter for Trends

Marketing researchers, including those from Initiative Media, are struggling with how to use observations from chat rooms as a way to predict the popularity of launches for products and shows. It's not always as easy as it seems. For instance, competition between products, as well as competition among the influencers to be witty and hip, adds other currents to the flow.

NY Times: The Ad Industry Turns to the Web to Predict Hits by Bill Carter

...Initiative Media began looking at Internet chatter for the first time last year, adding a new element to the mix of methods of predicting early awareness of shows. Last year, when "Lost" defied all expectations by demonstrating a clatter of attention on the Web, Initiative began questioning whether the passive examination they were doing of the chat sites was simply not a proper way to measure advance audience interest in television shows, said Stacey Lynn Koerner, the executive vice president of global research for the agency, a unit of the Interpublic Group of Companies.

"I looked at the data for the show and it was No. 1 in terms of positive buzz," Ms. Koerner said. "I said, 'Ah, shoot, this thing doesn't work.' " But the consistency of the information forced Initiative to re-evaluate, to the point where just before the television season began, Ms. Koerner said, she began gingerly suggesting to advertising clients that they might want to take an extra look at "Lost."

Just-in-Time Marketing via Insider Information

The TrendCentral newsletter from Youth Intelligence reports a new type of branded entertainment. You have to sign up to find out where it's going to be!

The Cassandra Report: Flash Concerts

Ford Motors, Sony, and Cingular Wireless have created an interesting twist to the “flash mob” phenomenon. Capitalizing on the ultimate VIP desire, Fusion Flash Concerts stage ten free concerts in undisclosed locations around the country. The lineup includes big name artists like The Roots, Staind, Yellowcard, and Fat Joe, while other acts remain a surprise. Consumers register for free and receive vital concert information (ie: location) in e-mails and text messages. Fusion Flash Concerts also provide a blog about the concerts (“The Jermaine Dupri show in Atlanta was just plain nuts!”) and downloadable podcasts.

Email for Awareness

Over at the MediaPost newsletter Email Insider, Melinda Krueger shares her wisdom about putting links into your email. Net/net: it's a good thing when it's a good deal for your target, but don't do it just for tracking.

Email Insider: What I've Learned About Links, Part II by Melinda Krueger

Augie Ray, owner of a successful specialty e-commerce site and retail store, provides another important consideration. "If all I went on were CTRs, I wouldn't bother sending out e-mail. But people who come to the store mention them so often, it has become very apparent--even without clicks--that we are keeping ourselves top of mind via e-mail, and that our e-mail is an important relationship builder." Augie suggests that we ask ourselves: If there weren't a single link in this e-mail message, what impression would I leave with the reader?

Associated Press Evolves to New Formats, Perspectives

Associated Press has added a new service called "asap" targeted to 18 to 34 year olds and featuring news and experiences in new formats including multimedia, blogs, and wireless text. More than 100 newspapers have already signed up. It's not just the same old news in a new format.

Somehow, I don't think an old fashioned press release is going to get their attention.

NY Times: A.P. Fashions a News Feed for the Young by Katharine Q. Seelye

A prototype also included a photo essay on vendors of street food in cities around the world, a piece that highlights The A.P.'s global reach.

While bloggers often write about domestic events, rarely do they venture out to report firsthand on the outside world. The A.P.'s ability to do this could underscore for readers the strength of traditional news organizations that can afford to base reporters around the world.

"We have that existing cadre of correspondents and local hires in many bureaus who have things to say and stories to tell," Mr. Anthony said. But the service will not merely offer a youth-oriented version of articles and does not consider itself an alternative wire. Both Mr. Anthony and Ms. Gersh said they learned through focus groups and prototypes that young readers want a sophisticated view of the world and they want to be engaged. They said asap would use the word "you" more in its articles but would maintain A.P. standards.

How Corporations can Manage Blog Contributions

Over at iMedia Connection, John Cass of Backbone Media has a terrific article on how large companies can effectively manage the blogging community, using Macromedia as an example. This article is stuffed full of good ideas, and I've only clipped the sensible policies they use to guide their decisions and actions. Read the whole article for the amazing benefits they've found from encouraging the right kind of blogging.

iMedia Connection: Case Study: Macromedia and Blogs by John Cass

• Only those employees who have something useful to contribute -- with relevant and quality content in terms of product information -- blog.
• It's okay to personalize, but only about as much as their employees would in a face-to-face meeting; employee bloggers stick to product info.
• Product managers ask for feedback on products and request suggestions from customers.
• If Macromedia cannot implement a product suggestion, then they explain why
• The company actively watches online conversations about Macromedia, and when they see something that solicits a response, a Macromedia employee responds.

Marketing Kong with a Light Touch

Shades of the Cluetrain Manifesto, Universal has decided to try authenticity in the marketing of King Kong. I doubt this will be the start of a trend. People who've clawed their way to the top of the corporation can seldom be convinced to cede control. Unless to a king kong of director like Peter Jackson.

NY Times: Huge. Awesome. Irresistible. Just Not Overbearing by Ross Johnson

In a still more unusual sign of restraint, the studio is relying on Mr. Jackson to communicate directly with his own devotees, both through his official fan Web site (tbhl.theonering.net), and through postings to kongisking.net, which is run independent of the company. "It's very important that the information being fed to Peter's fans about 'Kong' is not studio sanctioned," said Ken Kamins, Mr. Jackson's longtime Hollywood agent who is now his personal manager. "Peter is a movie fan himself, and he knows firsthand the mentality of the geek fan. They don't want to be told by a studio what they're supposed to like, and they love it when they've all been invited in on a little secret."

A Kink in the Long Tail

Music aficionado Jason Fry, one of two writers for the Wall St. Journal column Real Time, has been avidly tracking the development of the long tail in music recordings, watching to see how quickly low-demand items become available--with some frustration. One of the bright spots is the Verve Vault, but Jason explains that many publishing companies have too low a profile to benefit from quickly digitizing their old stuff. Myself, I'm interested in some old TV specials which never seem to come up, like the Richard Chamberlain performance of Christopher Fry's The Lady's Not for Burning. I wonder if people can help each other by starting wish lists and if some Web 2.0 service might compile those wish lists (hint, hint, hint) so connoisseurs could help each other surface some of these obscure items.

WSJ.com - Real Time: A Peek into Verve's Vault by Jason Fry (subscription required)

Verve is a venerable label with a sterling reputation and a back catalog that's a retrospective of jazz history: To jazz aficionados, knowing a title is an exclusive from Verve's catalog is a draw in its own right. That gives the Vault instant cachet, but it also makes it a throwback in today's music world, in which most labels' identities have faded away to nothing, leaving the artist as the brand. (Quick: What label does U2 record for? 50 Cent? The Killers? OutKast?) Some labels -- Blue Note, Motown, Def Jam, to name three -- might be able to market exclusives on their strength of their own name alone, but few others could.

My Head Turned by Prototype Portal

I'm bowled over by a new web portal at www.Start.com. Just to remind you that Microsoft is a big diverse company, and some its people are very innovative, give it a look. I love this disclaimer at the bottom of the page.

this site is not an officially supported site. it is an incubation experiment and doesn't represent any particular strategy or policy. for other incubation experiments, see http://sandbox.msn.com. enjoy!

Quality Site Demonstrates Fly Technology

The new FLY pentop computer is extremely cool and gets the launch it deserves with this cool web site. Now this new tiny computer apparently costs thousands of dollars, and when the web site asks if you have a high-speed connection, it really means it! For those who can afford to play...go www.liveonthfly.com.

MediaPost Publications - Out to Launch by Amy Corr.

EVB created a marketing Web site for the FLY pentop computer. The site targets 9- to 14-year-olds and promotes the launch of a new computing platform from LeapFrog Enterprises, a manufacturer of innovative learning products. Live on the FLY is an interactive Web site that engages, entertains, and educates tweens using video. I enjoyed being able to doodle on a blank piece of paper while the browser was loading its content.

Simplicity is the New Black

In a profile of wine marketer Yellow Tail, CMO magazine bumps an emerging trend in product development and marketing: simplicity. We now have so many options, so much pressure to become educated consumers about everything we buy, that Yellow Tail is succeeded by making the decision process easier on the consumer. Part of that process is providing a product that is above average in quality, as well.

Straight Up - Editorial - CMO Magazine.

But while other wineries focus on prestige, Yellow Tail's maker has introduced simplicity into the mix. Casella Wines replaced hoity-toity attitudes with pure and simple fun. In doing so, it didn't just steal sales from competitors—it actually grew the market, says W. Chan Kim, coauthor of Blue Ocean Strategy.

Branded Entertainment Breaks into the Mainstream

Branded entertainment is not really new--it's been around at least since the early days of television, but it's beginning to be a discipline that marketers can use to build an emotional connection with their target market. Agencies which cater more to the marketers than the artists are being formed, and research is being recorded on the effectiveness of product placement. At the moment, the discipline also has its own publication, Inside Branded Entertainment.

VNU :: Branded Entertainment.

Branded Entertainment is a new and innovative style of advertising which perfectly blends marketing and entertainment. Since new studies show a growing ambivalence towards commercials, clever marketers have discovered how to showcase brands in television, film, music, talent and technology so that consumers pay attention. This integrated approach, which ties in product placement with invigorating sponsorships, creates a loyalty and an emotional connection to a brand never before seen.

InsideBrandedEntertainment.com was created so that you can stay on top of this innovative, exciting and evolving approach to branding

NBC Gets Experiential in its Marketing

Okay, at first we thought they were just advertising a new show by putting stickers on dollar bills, but now we realize that NBC is trying to get the target audience to participate in a certain activity...granting wishes. Now that's a much cooler idea.

MediaPost: NBC Fall Promo Strategy: Granting Wishes

NBC will surprise shoppers and restaurant patrons by purchasing their groceries or their meals. Cities will include New York City, Las Vegas, Chicago, Atlanta, Denver, Philadelphia, Sacramento, Milwaukee, Nashville, Salt Lake City, Buffalo, Los Angeles, Des Moines, Baltimore, and Spokane.

Shoppers will pay the retailers with specially stickered one-dollar bills, which will then be distributed to other customers, who will then be directed to the nbc.com Web site. Those new customers will be encouraged to use the specially marked dollars to fulfill the wish of someone else--which is the premise of the "Three Wishes" show.

TV VJ's Descended from Edison Carter

Reading about the movement toward TV stations using VJ's (video jockeys, I mean, journalists) that record and edit their own footage, brought flooding back memories of Max Headroom and Edison Carter (both played by Matt Frewer), pictured here in a shot from Max Headroom - Twenty Minutes Into the Future by Joe Struss. (Copyright for the TV series belongs to Warner Bros., and the Max Headroom character is copyright Channel Four.)

In the article mentioned below, Jon Fine notes that video journalism is being tested at the BBC as well as at Current TV. Also, WKRN is training local bloggers to shoot and prepare video footage to submit to the station.

BusinessWeek: Local TV's Brave News World by Jon Fine (via Reveries)

Guiding WKRN is Michael Rosenblum, the veteran TV producer-cum-consultant behind a video-production model that's often abbreviated to "VJ," for video journalist. In a VJ operation, your entire staff -- not just reporters -- can shoot stories. Your entire staff -- not just the editors -- can edit news segments, even on laptops while out in the field. You break the old dependence on an operation's (few) camera crews. In theory, you get more naturalistic programming -- think "documentary film," not "reporter stands stiltedly in front of building"...

Good Ideas, Budget Numbers Shared on American Express, US Open Sponsors

Great coverage by Stuart Elliott of the spending and tactics of US Open sponsors, especially American Express, which says it's becoming devoted to 'experiential marketing' where the audience and interact and have a more emotional experience. The percentage their budget spent on TV has dropped from 80% in 1994 to 35% in 2003. They may want rethink their story next time though--they seem to have succeeded in stealing Andy Roddick's mojo.

NY Times: US Open Sponsors Try Their Backhands by
Stuart Elliott, photo by Librado Romero

For instance, [American Express, Canon and IBM] are making extensive use of the Internet in ways that include special Web sites and embedding live scores of matches in banner ads. Some are also sponsoring podcasts of results and commentary. The marketers are also scheduling elaborate promotional events intended to pique the curiosity of fans who may ignore conventional ads.

Future Barriers to Email

In the current issue of E-ZineIQ, Strongmail Systems VP Dave Lewis encourages all email marketers to get on board with email authentication. He makes a strong case that legitimate emailers need to see the future coming up which includes reputation systems and the segregation of email by class (shades of snail mail).

He also predicts that with all the new challenges to sending volumes of email, senders will need much more sophisticated technology platforms, leading to the consolidation of email marketing toward using larger and larger email service providers. I don't necessarily agree with that, but I know that it's a heck of a lot easier for a marketing manager to delegate the technology issues than try and keep up. I hope that the technology will standardize to the point that competition among providers continues.

ChiefMarketer.com: Why E-Mail is Broken--And What to Do About It.

Fixing what’s broken with e-mail – trust and infrastructure – will yield enormous dividends to everyone in the e-mail eco-system, but especially legitimate senders. Imagine the day when trust is restored to e-mail. Your customers’ mailboxes would no longer be clogged with spam, so your messages would actually get opened and read. Delivery of your e-mail would be based on your own reputation, not on your skill at evading spam filters.