Thursday, February 26, 2009

the ROI of the tiger

Pondering over the FuturelabReconsidering the Advertising Industry’ report, and in particular chapter 5 ‘Walk the Digital Talk’

The chart below represents the view of a panel of 200 CMOs, polled by Sapient, who were asked about the skills they were looking for in their agency. My initial reaction was one of ‘if only ‘twere true…’



Futurelab also speculate:
‘Digital Agencies often miss depth in communication and strategy….Many “new media” agencies outskill and outthink traditional houses on the digital front. But they often lack the broader perspective that comes with true 360°, ROI based thinking….they chase the technology rather than look at the end customer’s actual media consumption. And all think of digital campaigns rather than using digital as a platform for relationship building.'

This segues neatly onto the ROI of the tiger…

In a recent post Collaborate Marketing's James Cherkoff quotes Nick Gonzales from Inside Facebook:

‘There’s currently a metrics vacuum in the social media space and it’s being filled with traditional metrics pulled from search and display. The only problem is that these metrics don’t make sense for brand campaigns in social media.’


I would argue that it’s even worse than that, in many cases its still the largely unmeasureable traditional advertising that’s viewed as more effective despite the fact there’s not even a ‘conversion event’ ie click through.

James also addresses the ROI question with regard to social/engagement activity.
‘Compared with what?’
With that in mind, allow me to relay to you a true story.

I recently pitched a digital engagement idea which would have delivered:
- Connection with a large core group of BrandX’s most passionate advocates
- Connecting those fans with each other in the brand’s space
- Invaluable data from the above and appropriate permission to continue to engage
- 6 months of activity where the advocates create and share content
- The ability to leverage that content for SEO
- A strategy to reduce dependence on paid search over time
- Something the advocates would ‘advertise’! (ie viral by nature)
- A permanent activity based asset for the brand to reuse.
- The activity was contextual to NPD delivering a reason to buy.
- NO MEDIA SPEND (£0) (zilch) (not a fucking sausage)
- All for the same price as the MEDIA ONLY of a one month press ad across half a dozen national titles.

Whilst the idea was well received the client bought the press ad instead.
Here were those metrics, something like 68% OTS (of 5.5m) at 2.9.
That means 68% of the ‘target audience’ might ‘see’ the ad about 3 times in that month.
These numbers, of course, identify reach only and not any depth of engagement.
Head => brick wall.

With nowhere else to turn I consulted the oracle.

‘The fundamental issue is that it is very difficult to enumerate an accurate "gain from investment" when it is clear that a lot of the new marketing has an almost osmotic effect and works indirectly.
And the defence is this. If the "cost of investment" is low, as is clearly the case in much of the new marketing, then it is equally clear that only a small impact on revenues will generate an impressive ROI. ‘


The upshot is; social media and engagement activities can only be measured in the context of contribution to the overall effectiveness of all the interdependent marketing activity, surely?

The quest continues….

Footnote:
One of Cherkoff’s commenters added:
‘Do you think Nike are worried about the metrics on Nike Plus?’
Totally agree, but can I just state for the record that if I hear Nike+ rolled out one more time as a case study I will literally chew my own leg off and gouge my left eye out with a spoon.

the product is the marketing #371

Was talking to a client the other day about products that are being used in ways other than how the brand might have anticipated. my example was Landrovers - adopted by hip-hoppers in the 'hood - which in turn led to the urban SUV's we now know.
Wish i'd seen this before that conversation.


One for the ladies?
Props to BrandDNA

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

most people won't read this

If I had a pound for every time I've heard some variation this...

Most people do not have an iphone.
Most people are not online most of the time.
Most people don't use twitter.
Most people will not upload a picture/movie etc
Most people will not leave a comment.
Most people will only buy the cheapest.
Most people can't be bothered with x.
Most people are not interested in y.
Most people are not on a social network.
etc etc.

Then what follows usually includes some of these words; eyeballs, reach, mass, target audience, demographics and some generalisation 'persona' profiling.
This is the language of carpet-bombers and spammers. And it is rife.

Here's some other things about most people:

Most people don't click on banner ads.
Most people use their pvr to skip TV ads.
Most people completely ignore posters on the tube.
Most people hate spam.
Most people use their mobile phone principally to communicate with other people.
Most people think it's rude to interrupt.
Most people use the web to connect with other people interested in the same stuff as them.
Most people are literally gagging for relevance and personalisation.
Most people are not interested in you they are interested in 'me'.

MOST PEOPLE ARE FAR MORE LIKELY TO CONNECT WITH MARKETING THAT THEY HAVE CHOSEN TO PARTICIPATE WITH, THAN MARKETING THAT IS FORCED UPON THEM.


diagram from Jonathan MacDonald's 'The Communication Ideal'

spam of the week


I'm looking forward to recieving my $800,000 USD and tickets for the 2010 World Cup in SA as special guest of Prince Charles.
I can only assume this is in recognition of my twitter influence status and, of course, my post of the month in January.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Connect with fans (CwF) + Reason to buy (RtB) = The Business Model ($$$$)

Pure gold! Techdirt's Mike Masnick on Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails' album release and connect with fans strategy.

Why is this important?
BECAUSE IT WORKS FOR JUST ABOUT ANY BUSINESS!

Connect With Fans (CwF) + Reason To Buy (RtB) = The Business Model ($$$$)



found this via hypebot

UPDATE:
It just gets better and better.
The ex-NIN drummer is at it for his solo project. Josh Freese story via mashable.

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Meatballs, marriage and Seth Godin – the London Session:

Popped down to the amazing Church House conference centre behind Westminster Abbey on Tuesday to hear Seth Godin talk, in a rare appearance in London.

As a nice touch the afternoon kicked off with a special ‘unplugged’ session with 50 Tribes members and an intimate Q&A with Seth before the main presentation.

Seth was on good form, delivering an almost ‘Greatest Hits’ set, covering the best bits and themes from Permission Marketing through All Marketers are Liars, Purple Cow, Tribes and big doses of Meatball Sundae, before fielding a 2 hour Q&A.

It seemed liked a mixed bag audience of die-hard Seth disciples, new converts and some others who had been dragged along by friends or colleagues to hear the gospel.

The key ‘penny drop’ moment for many of the new recruits in the audience came during the Q&A when someone asked a question around ‘What can I do in my organisation when the bulk of the people in the middle don’t ‘get it’ (in terms of new marketing, collaborative working etc) and are resistant to change’.

The answer was, of course: don’t bother with them.

Focus on finding the others who are embracing new ideas and change, work together with them, and if you can find two or three other individuals each and turn them around before long you have enough leverage to turn the mass in the middle who just want to do what everyone else is doing.

I bumped into Anjali (quel surprise!) - who has kindly summarised the day over at madebymany - and Craig from Sue Ryder Care again (we need to stop meeting like this!) plus I made a couple of new acquaintances – Helen Jerome from Wall to Wall (her company developed ‘Who Do You Think You Are' for the BBC) and had a nice chat with Marcel Baron from IBM’s innovation department.

The clip below is Seth freestyling on meatballs, marketing, marriage and dating. Shot with my Flip Ultra (Flip VRM outreach: I'd like to try the Flip mino...)


Seth Godin in London from eaon pritchard on Vimeo.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

thought for the day....

'The difference between ordinary and extra-ordinary is that little extra'

Thanks Sam.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

graham brown (mobileyouth) on: the next ten years

excerpt: 'we live in a network era - awash with industrial brands served by industrial agencies relying on industrial tactics using industrial metrics'



more thoughts on mobile and youth marketing - industrial vs social - on mobileyouth.

Saturday, February 14, 2009

mighty putty - learning to speak human



In the context of Learning to speak human, this made me laugh this morning.

question re: ad funded web apps a la Spotify...

Playing with Spotify, its a pretty cool service (don't know if it's the saviour of the music business yet) but i have the same question that i have for all of these ad-funded apps.

What happens when the advertisers pull out? People are ignoring the ads in Spotify the same way they are ignoring them in most other media.

Everything I read about Spotify includes something along the lines of 'the user only has to put up with an ad every 25mins..'
The ad funded model suits the users and the developer
but wheres the value for the advertiser?

Friday, February 13, 2009

Go Home Productions does Nike 'Ignite'



The audio/mix for this new Nike football spot was created by my mate Mark aka Go Home Productions.

The spot, featuring Arsenal v Man United, was first aired in Japan the other day during the Australia v Japan world cup qualifier.

Mark is a big Arsenal fan and has cleverly multi tracked himself chanting 'we've got Cesc Fabregas' into the crowd sections.

Think Tank...and the winner is - ME!


Managed to dodge the paperazzi this morning following my resounding victory in the Think Tank post of the month.

I now join Valeria, Dino, Jonathan and Charles in the Think Tank Hall of Fame.

This musing on Interdependence was the one that done it.
Thanks to everyone who voted.

And well done to Gordon, who ran a close second with the poetic I can Hear the snow, faintly falling through the universe.

Gordon and his posse were also kind enough to give me some valuable tips on punctuation and pointers on my 'eye wateringly dull' content.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

I can read movies by Spacesick



Ohio based Artist/illustrator Spacesick has designed these fantastic book jacket adaptations of classic films in a sort of retro-futuristic style.

There's 24 in all, have a look at them on the Spacesick blog. Excellent work.

Thanks to Clarence for the tip.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Trust - a ten year low for business

Check out these clips from the 2009 Edelman Trust barometer survey.

Mark Earls showed one of the slides at a 'influence and social networks' workshop we attended at NESTA the other day which showed how 62% (globally) of those surveyed trust business less than they did a year ago.

Though trust is up in emerging economies (ie Asia, S America). it's significantly down in 'established' economies (ie UK, US & Europe) and particularly in the industries associated with 'affluence' - auto and banking (no surprise there, then).

Edelman are calling this the 'trust divide'. The other big shift, as we know, is that now we are - more than ever - trusting each other over any other media.

Here's one of the clips with the stats I've mentioned.


Friday, February 06, 2009

the Shopkeeper's tweet readings

I've not been able to write anything here this week after watching Marcus's tweet reading series. I'm kinda thinking he has said the final words on social media/blogging etc. There is nowhere else to go after this. It's over...


Official Tweet Reading IV: Reading Valeria Maltoni from Marcus Brown on Vimeo.