Integration

Online video isn't the future, it's the present

Google Canada hosted a showcase last week in Toronto, complete with recent case studies and numbers from YouTube.

The following stats had several jaws hitting the floor:

• 10 hours of content is uploaded to YouTube every 60 seconds
• YouTube contributors produce 3000x more output than Hollywood
• Hollywood would need to premier 57,230 feature films a week just to keep up
• YouTube currently boasts 200M+ worldwide unique visits a month
• 25% of surveyed registered YouTube viewers watch more video content online than they do on TV

YouTube Demographics


• 55% suburban, 26% urban, 19% rural
• 71% employed, 15% students
• 47% married
• 69% college educated
(source)

Several case studies were featured, including a YouTube, HP and Fox Searchlight program called “Project Direct”.

Other highlights;
Mark Nicholson from ING Direct presented the Canadian Superstar Saver Search,
Paul McGrath from CBC presented some digital strategy including “The Hour” channel on YouTube

Here’s a little Advertising on YouTube primer to get you started:

Experiential Marketing

“Experiential marketing” could easily be dismissed as an overly fancy marketing term that applies only to events and trade shows. But in reality, it’s much more than setting up a booth and making sure you have cool swag to hand out that entices folks to stop and hear your sales pitch.

Beyond the spoken word
Just now being more frequently used as a new marketing approach, it's the evolution and extension of consumer brand experiences beyond traditional advertising. According to Wikipedia, it attempts “to connect consumers with brands in personally relevant and memorable ways –experiencing and participating in a brand moment, rather than the usual disruptive, passive advertising messages we are surrounded by today.”

Let’s face it – most of us, if we admit it or not, try to avoid or block out irrelevant marketing messages whenever possible and by any means available. Thanks to Norton, Google and Microsoft, I can’t remember the last time a pop up interrupted my online experience like a telemarketing call at dinner time. I also know lots of folks (not me of course) who happily subscribe to personal video recorders that let them zip through commercial breaks.

Now, contrast this ‘blocking’ attitude with experiential marketing – where consumers happily allow brands into their world. You don’t have to look farther than leading social networking sites MySpace and Facebook to see fan pages devoted to Starbucks (73,000 fans and counting), Absolut Vodka (26,527) and even older established brands like the Marmite Food Company (68,397) and In-and-Out Burger (6,402). How can this be?

You're on the list.
In our technology obsessed world where the internet, Xbox and text messaging replace common, face to face interactions, experiential marketing gives control to the consumer, who controls (with the help of technology) who’s allowed into their universe. It’s not unlike being stuck outside a nightclub waiting to get in. You’re either on the list and, with a backward glance to the unfortunates, whisked inside. Or you wait by the front door with everyone else, hoping to get tap on the shoulder while the party is still going on.

Some great work is being done.
And experiential marketing isn’t limited to online. MAX LENDERMAN is a Chicago-based creative director of GMR Marketing, and the former president and creative director of Gearwerx Experiential Marketing in Montreal. In his new book, Experience the Message: How Experiential Marketing is Changing the Brand World he offers compelling case studies on how experiential marketing helped to launch new brands and save older ones while delivering meaningful share, revenue and profit increases:

Absolut launched a new spirits brand Cut, by leasing two bars in Sydney and Melbourne. They put on DJ sets, band concerts and photo exhibitions in these spaces. Visitors to the Absolut Cut bars got a free bottle and consumers were given a chance to contribute their photos to the exhibits, generating what Absolut hoped would be a viral element to the campaign. Instead of using mass marketing to blanket the millions in order to reach the few, Absolut chose to target the few to eventually reach the masses.

Not only can experiential marketing tactics launch a brand without mass-media support, it can rejuvenate it as well. Take Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, a brand with a 20-year span of sales declines and loss of market share. With its small marketing budget, brand managers at Pabst decided to take an experiential approach and began sponsoring sub cultural events to reach the influentials such as scooter rallies, dodge ball tournaments, and fashion shows for peanuts. After losing 90% of its volume between 1978 and 2001, Pabst was in the positive numbers in 2004 with a 15% volume lift.

Experiential marketing is an incredibly interesting field opening up to marketers. With technology as a core component, we’re learning new ways to target, appeal to and retain customers. And in order for it to work effectively, we have to acknowledge that the decision making power is firmly in the consumer’s hands – and their willingness to experience our brand. It’s really no farther away than a mouse click, smartphone or remote control.

Teaching Marketing Is Getting Tougher And Tougher

I'm pretty certain people like Professor Kenneth Wong will have their say, but the more time I spend with University students, the more concerned I am about the health of Marketing education.

There's no denying that young people today live in a world where wikis, YouTube, Facebook and text messaging are as prevalent in their lives as electricity was in ours. Take a look at the recent news item where a student at Ryerson University faces expulsion for using a Facebook Group to enable a virtual study group for a chemistry class (which the university saw as cheating) - Globe And Mail - Ryerson Student Cheered At Expulsion Hearing. Companies are going to be facing some serious challenges as the students become the workforce of the future.

On one side, it's challenging to have classes at the University level on topics like Social Media Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, Web Analytics, Email Marketing and Digital Media buying, because there are few teachers available with the knowledge and insight... and even fewer approved textbooks. It's an area of study that is truly organic - constantly changing and evolving. Even some of the best Marketing companies out there still struggle with these competencies as agencies scramble to build them as centres of excellence within their own organization.

Strangely enough, on the other side, most students studying Marketing and Advertising at the University level are lured to the more traditional marketing agencies (working creative for 30-second spots, etc...).

Where's the disconnect?

Is Digital Marketing still not a large enough segment of the Marketing pie to get the attention? Is it a lack of education? Or, do young people not see the opportunity going forward as more and more ad dollars shift into the Digital side?

Whatever the answer - and, my guess is it's a combination of all three, the shift is happening.

While Marketing is never recession proof (usually the exact opposite), when dollars do get pulled, it's looking like they are getting shifted to cheaper and more strategic channels (like Search Engine Marketing and Email programs) than being entirely yanked from the Marketing line of business.

Bottom line, we need more Marketers understanding the Digital side of advertising. And, if you don't believe me (after all, I'm heavily vested in this area), just take a look at the statistics.

The Decline (and Rise) of the Creative Brief

Now that I've started my own company, I'm reminded of how critically important the Brief Document is to developing creative. And not just good creative, but insightful, smart, relevant and strategically sound creative.

If I had to assign a grade to the average Brief I've seen over the years, I'm afraid I'd be pulling the parents into the classroom to discuss my concern for the child's future. In fact, the future of the Brief, I believe, is in serious jeopardy unless changes are made.

When I first started in this business, Briefs were treated with the respect they deserved -- both by the account people developing them and by the creative people inspired by them. I use the word "developing" up there in the previous sentence because that's really what should be happening -- and back in the old days, that is what happened. Briefs were developed by account people who understood that Briefing Documents were their opportunity to inspire brilliant creative. They weren't just filling out a form or transcribing the Client Brief from one template to another template. (Or worse, doing nothing at all.) They were developing a Creative Brief that added value, a unique perspective, clarity, and most importantly, inspiration.

Client Briefs and Creative Briefs are not the same thing.

Client Briefs contain marketing data, extensive background, customer data, research, the demands of several constituents (product managers, their bosses, marketing managers, their bosses, etc.).

Creative Briefs should be an important distillation of Client Briefs -- not just a cut and paste of the Client Brief into the Agency Creative Brief template. The Agency Creative Brief is an opportunity for the agency to gain consensus. It should be used to ensure that there is a common understanding of what is being asked by the client. The focus should be crisp. Once developed, it should be discussed, face to face with the client to ensure that what they're asking for is being understood and communicated.

When I became an Associate Creative Director, one of the Account Directors with whom I worked suggested that I review the Briefs his account team wrote before they went back to the client or were briefed into a creative team. At the time I thought that was an unusual request. But then I realized that the Creative perspective on a Brief is different than the Account Team's or Client's perspective.

I've reviewed Briefs ever since. Upon review, I would have a discussion with the Account Person and if I had any questions or if I needed clarification, they could be addressed either by said Account Person or by the client before using up valuable Creative Team time. (Too often, the strategy gets figured out during the Creative Development process instead of during the Briefing process.)

By the time the Creative Team was briefed, the Brief would be strategically sound, clear and creatively inspiring. And that means, the creative product would be right the first time. (Right the first time from the client's perspective -- because the work would fit the brief like a glove.)

So how do you know if your Brief deserves a passing or failing grade?

1. There can only be ONE Key Communication Objective. It should be one sentence. No longer. And it should be directly linked to the Customer Net Takeaway section of the brief.

2. Think about the Consumer Problem. The Brief should clearly and simply communicate what the consumer problem is. Your product or service is the Solution to that problem. And the features and benefits are the Proof that your product or service delivers. (I've just told you the secret structure to any campaign in any channel. I guarantee it works.)

3. The Features and Benefits. They are not the same thing! Knowing the difference and communicating them clearly make all the difference.

4. The Product is not the Offer. Make sure the offer is clear and it'll be clearly communicated in the Creative.

5. There is such a thing as too much information. Say everything as economically as you can and everything will be that much clearer.

6. Target Audience. If there's only one target, great. If there's more than one target, then you probably need a matrix breaking down how the Key Communication Objective changes against each target.

7. What does the Target Audience currently think? And what do we want them to think once they've been exposed to our campaign? This is important because it gives the Creative Team inspiration for how to overcome customer objections to your offering.

There is so much more that could be written about the Brief. And you're probably reading this and thinking how basic it all seems. But if you can answer YES to any of the following questions, then it might be time to think about briefing differently.

1. Does it ever seem like the Agency/Creative Team isn't "getting it"?
2. Do you ever sit in creative presentations and think "this isn't what I asked for"?
3. Do your Creative Teams ask too many questions after they've already been briefed?
4. Does it ever take more than one round of Creative to get what you thought you were going to get?
5. Do you feel like your Agency isn't adding any value?

I guarantee that if you challenge your Agency to write a Creative Brief, (or as an Agency, if you take the time to develop a Creative Brief for your teams and your Client) you will get better Creative, faster. You will cut down on the rounds of changes/new concepts. And that means you will be paying for fewer hours.

People think "process" takes up too much time -- then end up paying for the extra hours when the work needs to be done the second time.

Stop the insanity. Fix the Brief.

C-Level Marketing

It used to be critical for every marketer to understand and apply the 4 P's of marketing. They are Product, Price, Place (Distribution) and Promotion. Seems a bit out of sync these days given the new world of marketing and the evolution of consumer interaction in the digital space.

I'm not suggesting we forget about the 4 P's, not at all. However, I propose we move up the alphabet and expand out. I believe we are now faced with 7 C’s of Digital Marketing. They are Content, Community, Conversation, Creative, Campaigns, Conversion and Commerce.

All play a very significant role together in today's ever changing marketing landscape. As search, social media, social networks, online video, virtual worlds, widgets, mobile and a host of other areas and elements gain in popularity, marketers must continually reformulate the way they approach and engage their audience. Today context is vital along with utility and, to a certain degree, entertainment. And, we can't forget about measurement. The need to quantify the effectiveness of our efforts is greater today (and I'd argue more attainable) than ever before.

Understanding how the 7 C's overlap, intertwine and are used in combination is just as important as the foundation set with the 4 P's. Change is good.

Marketing Campaigns Integrate:How to Make them Great!

I really get a charge out of attending marketing industry events. It’s a great opportunity to meet up with friends, colleagues and clients. At a recent outing, there was one topic that everyone was talking about – in the formal presentations and during informal discussions. The buzz was ‘marketing integration’.

Now, if you’ve been in this industry as long as I have, you too would find this curious; it’s extremely rare that the digital marketing industry achieves complete consensus on any topic. So, I took the time to discuss some specifics on how to successfully integrate marketing campaigns.

Here’s what I concluded after hearing what other industry leaders had to say: there is indeed consensus that the growing complexity in planning, implementing and measuring online/offline marketing campaigns has caused agencies and in-house marketers alike to seek ways to work together ‘smarter’. Specifically, marketers in all industries are looking for ways to:

• Simplify campaign/program administration and coordination;
• Ensure consistency of messages and brand throughout campaigns; and
• Ensure compatibility of evolving online and offline technologies.

All of these goals are laudable (and worth striving for) because they help businesses control their marketing costs and achieve/improve measurable results.

But, integration – i.e. trying to bring all campaign-related suppliers ‘under one roof’ – isn’t required to achieve all of these goals, nor is it a panacea. At ThinData, we have successfully achieved these same goals by taking an approach that can be best described as establishing respected-partnerships. Some of the critical elements of this approach include:

• Strong Project Management. This is one of the cornerstones to success. Clear, concise, and updated instructions that are regularly communicated between suppliers help to prevent confusion and conflict.

• Focus on the Client. Keeping clients actively involved and at the centre of the campaign helps to ensure that their goals – which naturally evolve – remain relevant throughout short- and long-term projects.

• Creating a Safe Learning Environment. Marketers in different agencies have different biases and skill levels. Bringing out the best performance in everyone requires jointly establishing practical ground rules for meetings, communications, acceptable standards and dealing with unexpected contingencies.

Here are some metrics that you can use to determine if integration is working for you and your clients:

Project Metrics – Projects are on time, on budget and run smoothly.

Business Metrics – Reduction in costs and risks regularly associated with project disruptions.

Interpersonal Metrics – Shared enjoyment working with respected partners and jointly discovering opportunities to innovate.

Client Metrics – Clients express their appreciation for working in collaboration throughout projects and regularly contract with you and your respected partners.

By adopting this disciplined approach to integration – as opposed to applying a more traditional method to integrating suppliers – you, along with your clients and respected partners will successfully address campaign complexities and truly thrive.

If, as a member of the interactive and digital marketing community, you have struggled with or overcome the challenges associated with marketing integration, I would be interested in your insights. Send an email to ceo@thindata.com or share with us here on the CMA Blog.

The Ultimate Decision

The Promise:
It came upon us as a promise, wrapped in the innocence of simplicity. The inner core of a brand captured miraculously in a simple question.

“How likely is it that you would recommend us to a friend or colleague.”

The Net Promoter Score was born. The brainchild of Fred Reichheld, a Bain & Co. Fellow and Dr. Laura Brooks of Satmetrix Systems. The sort of material that Harvard Business Review writes their cases about. In fact HBR did publish an article in Dec 2003 with the eye catching title “The one number you need to grow”. The equivalent of a viral campaign unfolded, supplemented with a book… global speaking engagements.

Just as a black hole, the simplicity drew everyone to it. The promise, incubated by field studies at 400 businesses (turns out to have been 50+ in the end) which held that if we managed our customers properly – our business would grow. To do so only required our focus on customers who are either our promoters (scoring you a 9 or 10), passives (scoring you a 7 or 8) or detractors (scoring you 6 or less). Wait a minute – that’s all our customers. Exactly, but we’ll get to that again at the conclusion.

The Formula: % of Promoters - % of Detractors = Net Promoter Score (NPS)

Therefore if 50% of your respondents were promoters and 20% were detractors – you netted out at a score of 30. The higher the score the better.

NPS we were told would accurately predict a company’s ability to impress customers, turn customers into advocates, and -- in turn -- become an indicator of potential business growth. Scientific proof that this simple metric was ultimately more powerful and meaningful than any other management theory about customer satisfaction, customer retention, passion, loyalty or …well anything. So simple even a CEO could follow it ;-^)

And so the market embraced the theory. From all corners of the world. Heavyweights like GE (Real Estate division) Philips, HSBC, IBM (Enterprise Content Management), LEGO, Enterprise Car Rental, Intuit, Schwabb, American Express, Microsoft and others.

A simple approach, developed by respected accreditted professionals, endorsed by a world class university adopted by companies. What’s so bad about any of this?

The Questions:
Cracks in the foundation started to develop because of the lack of support to the contentions. Namely that the NPS was not a strong predictor, that there was evidense of research bias in the support used to substantiate the NPS and that the ACSI was not uncorrelated with firm growth..

“We find no support for the claim that Net Promoter is the ‘single most reliable indicator of a company’s ability to grow.’ The clear implication is that managers have adopted the Net Promoter metric for tracking growth on the basis of the belief that solid science underpins the findings and that it is superior to other metrics. However, our research suggests that such presumptions are erroneous. The consequences are the potential misallocation of resources as a function of erroneous strategies guided by Net Promoter on firm performance, company value, and shareholder wealth.”

Source: Timothy Keiningham et al. July 2007 A Longitudinal Examination of Net Promoter and Firm Revenue Growth

Other studies, other experts, opinion leaders, bloggers (see below) added their voices to the boisterous cacophony – worthy of the NYSE trading floor on a black bear day.

Undaunted, NPS supporters countered (see below) with their own assertions the NPS being as good as more complex measures and for the most part avoiding any direct discussions surrounding the statistical annomalies brought forward by Keiningham.

In this quote, Dr. Masden acknowledges being part of the team at the London School of Economics that vetted the NPS Score and asserts its ongoing validity as a reliable method of linking customer loyalty to growth.

"As far as the current debate goes, anyone who has read the information being disseminated from the “anti-Net Promoter” camp quickly comes to the realisation that the one Net Promoter question is, at the very least, just as good as more complex proprietary measures, that are tough to translate to the average executive and employee. But that leaves me questioning: why are we hung up on the measurement? The real conversation needs to be about how to get an organisation to be customer-centric and what that can mean for a company’s future”

Source: Clickadvisor.com on Sept 17 Net Promoter: the ultimate debate on customer loyalty

The Stalemate:

There is too much of an industry and ‘cult’ established around the NPS for it to dissapear on the basis of the allegations laid against them. In defence and defiance they point out that we are all ultimately pursuing the same path. True.

One can argue that the NPS may have accelerated the customer centricity movement, the other important benefit is that in its simplicity it has refocussed the dialogue on using metrics which can be widely disseminated and easily understood. Well in the words of Tim Keiningham

“ I too believe that loyalty consultants and researchers have over-complicated the message (and the analyses) with more advanced statistics than it took to get the Apollo space missions to the moon. It makes it impossible for management to understand, communicate, and rally support. This is ridiculous!”

The Ultimate Decision:
Believe it or not up to this point was the easy part. The hard part is deciding for yourself what happens next.

Will there ever be one metric to fit all needs? Highly improbable – and any contenders will not be allowed to make unsubstantiated claims. Instead of waiting for the new simple metric, we must continue to move forward with as simplified a system we can devise, implement and gain compliance with.

There are many competing schools of thought (Customer Experience Management, CRM, Loyalty/Continuity, Value Drivers, Image, WoM) reflecting the different successful business models/brands in the market.

To understand which approach will work best for your brand you must identify three things:

1. who your profitable customers are

2. what kind of relationship your profitable customers wish to have with your brand
a.Share of Wallet: the traditional CRM-centric make me a compelling (price/promotional) offer and I’ll buy it from you (or perhaps your competitors) – a brand relationship centered on the transaction.
b.Share of Mind: the traditional marketing promotions/communications approach – focussing on the key value proposition – a rational based brand relationship.
c.Share of Heart: Customer Experience Management – How people feel about the brand experience. Experience seen as a price mitigator and continuity reinforcer – an emotion based brand relationship.
d.Share of Life: How customers see the brand as a longer term partner for their category requirements, solutions and corporate/sustainability responsibility – an ‘adult/mature’ brand relationship.

3. within the relationship type identify the activities the enterprise must do to instill the longer-term repeat purchase pattern it seeks.

The key in my opinion is instead of defining your brand as an advocate of a particular ‘school of thought’ and then trying to mold your customers to fit within that model, we must instead look and manage this from the customer’s perspective. Therefore come to recognize the ALL of these relationship types exist simultaneously among different groups of your customers. What and how you communicate will be best served by understanding the type of customer they are first and from there make the ultimate decision as to how to relate and evolve with your customers.

Cheers
Miro

Suggested Reading:
NPS Adovcates:
The Ultimate Question. Driving Good Profits and True Growth. Fred Reicheld

www.satmetrix.com

www.netpromoter.com

Dr. Laura Brooks’s – VP Satmetrix latest blog posting

The Satmetrix white paper describing the research

Research conducted by the London School of Economics

Dr. Marsden from Clickadvisor.com on Sept 17 Net Promoter: the ultimate debate on customer loyalty

NPS Contrarians
Loyalty Myths: Hyped Strategies That Will Put You Out of Business and Proven Tactics That Really Work, Tim Keiningham, Terry Varga, Lerzan Aksoy, Henri Wallard

A Longitudinal Examination of Net Promoter and Firm Revenue Growth

The Value of Different Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Metrics in Predicting Customer Retention, Recommendation, and Share-of-Wallet

January 2007 Maritz Research White Paper

COLLOQUY magazine article

Integrated Marketing Communications – Taking the 360 degree approach.

I had lunch with our agency account director this past Friday. It had been a while, so we had a lot to catch up on - a mutual friend’s promotion, what we did over summer holidays and celebrating the completion of a marcom project.

But there was one topic we spent a lot of time on, starting with our entrees right through to cappuccinos and waiting for the bill – the growing importance of integrated marketing communications, (IMC) and the challenges for the modern day marketing officer and advertising agency.

According to a recent report published by the American Association of Advertising Agencies, developing integrated marketing communications is the number one concern of senior marketing executives (followed by accountability, aligning their marketing organization with innovation and building strong brands). Of those surveyed, 91% believe that an integrated campaign is of critical importance to their success; however only 21% believe that their organization actually does a great job delivering it.

Taking a 360° view.
The answer for a growing number of marketers is to take a 360° approach, zeroing in on a target group likely to be receptive to a message – and surrounding it from every angle, using a variety of media to touch customers at different points along the decision-to-buy pathway.

Although it began as a media planning tool, 360° has since expanded to embrace the entire process of communicating with customers and prospects. In our new media world – having moved from manufacturer-controlled to consumer-managed, companies have been forced to rethink how to reach people. “If you are talking about reaching the consumer, you are missing the point,” says Wenda Harris Millard, chief sales officer at Yahoo! Inc. “You can reach anybody. The challenge now, because of media multitasking, is connecting with consumers.”

So using new media tools to deliver a 360° approach means understanding each one's relative strengths and ability to influence the consumer:

1. Talk to your media planners and understand the strengths and weaknesses of each - which ones work best at generating message reach? Conversion? Consideration? Purchase? Which offer efficient regional or local audience coverage?

2. New media options are creating new ways to measure engagement - and need to be included in the campaign metrics pages of your plan. For instance, what is the value to your brand of watching a video on You-Tube, writing on someone's wall on Face book, or collecting an email address?

3. Work closely with your research owls and see what the correlation of media usage is on conversion and purchase. What new media options are more efficient at delivering buyers than others? What's the cost per lead per vehicle?

4. And, since many of us see the poetry in program ROI calculations, it’s about getting the media investment to align cost-efficiently with the above insights.

To impress the marketing director with your dazzling command of the new media world, work with an agency that takes an agnostic approach to recommending different media. One clue - look for new agency roles including chief activation officer, or media integration planner as cues they understanding the new ways to connect with consumers.

I remember back in the day when I started my career in advertising. For those of us who didn’t go to OCA for a fine arts degree, a common way to get a foot in the door was through the media group. Spend a few years as a media estimator, then a media planner or buyer. Since the better paying jobs were in account services, in short order you were focussed on a role as an AE or Supervisor.

However today, with the amazing innovations in media, technology and the rapid pace of change, it seems to me some of the most important, coolest jobs found in any agency today are in the media group.

Now how 360° is that?

When Customer Service sells. And when it doesn't.

I'm going to forget that I'm a marketer for a moment and pretend that I'm only a consumer. I think it's important to do that every now and then (or whenever I'm not at work) because consumers don't think like marketers. They think like my Dad who doesn't understand what I do for a living.

My internet service provider used to be a company well known for its pitchbeavers. One day, that internet service crashed and said company could not seem to figure out why or how to get me back up to high speed. So I switched to Rogers for my home internet connection. Then, about a year later, I needed a new cell phone, so I naturally switched to Rogers Wireless. Then my wife and children needed cell phones. Rogers was the first place I thought of. Then I got telemarketed one day and was asked to switch my home phone to Rogers. So I did. Now, when Rogers goes into the dog walking business, I'll be there with my two labs and a leash.

The reason I've become one of Rogers' best customers isn't necessarily because they have better phones, or faster high speed access. It's not even that they put everything on one bill. Even beavers can do all of that.

It's simply that I have had excellent customer service experiences with them each and every time I've needed to deal with someone at Rogers. Now, I'll be the first to admit that I hate their Interactive Voice Recognition (IVR) system. (Please get rid of that thing!!!) But once I get a real person, they're always helpful, patient, kind and results-oriented.

Then I happened to walk in to a Rogers retail outlet about a month ago for a superficial issue with my Treo 650. The store's sales representative, Alex, told me I was eligible for an upgrade to the new 680. I bit. (Love a new gadget.)

Over the following week, I realized that the 680's battery didn't seem to hold a charge. By 9:30 pm, I'd be out of battery. I contacted the store and spoke to Alex. He emailed me back with an online solution which I tried right away. Didn't work. He suggested I come in to the store (not convenient since it's located at Queen's Quay and I live in North Toronto) for a new battery. So I did. He wasn't there but the other rep had the battery for me. The new battery didn't fit the new Treo. Not impressed.

Later that day, I got an email from Alex saying he would replace the whole Treo, that he was sorry for any inconvenience, and that his goal was to be sure I was happy with my purchase.

I couldn't believe that the customer service I experience whenever I call Rogers extended right down to store level.

All of this to say, why doesn't Rogers differentiate itself from everyone else by advertising something that is NOT a commodity in their very commoditized business? Customer Service. Their advertising is all about fewer dropped calls, the Fave Five, and everyone in the family wanting an internet connection. I don't get it. Any number of telco's can make the exact same claims, and are.

Rogers, you have an opportunity to differentiate yourself in your advertising. I'm doing my part as a consumer with this posting. Now it's your turn.

While I'm on the topic of customer service, I have to ask, is WestJet for real? Seriously. Their advertising shows flight attendants chasing people down in the street to return cell phones and giving the sweaters off their backs to passengers returning to a cold climate from a sunny vacation. Maybe they really can fulfill on those promises. But as a viewer of those commercials, I'm not buying or believing it.

If an advertiser has a valid point of difference (like stellar customer service), and they go so far over the top with their advertising campaign that it stretches credibility in the consumer's mind, they're wasting their money.

Got any amazing customer service stories? Share them with those of us who would be more than happy to put our faith (and hard earned money) into companies who think like marketers -- and consumers.

The New Math and Capturing the True Value of Your Advertising

Today there are many paths a customer can take to respond to your advertising. If you're not considering all the available off and online channels in your ROI calculations, you'll probably be understating the true value that advertising brings to your program.

It comes down to understanding the value of leads from different media sources and having the right plumbing in place to identify primary from secondary responses.

Call Now!
In the not too distant past, there were just a few basic ways consumers could be tracked and counted - primarily by telephone or Canada Post. It was a binary process to count BRE’s (business replay envelopes) and unique phone numbers to arrive at a fairly accurate return on marketing investment.

Fast forward to today and the tools available for Canadians to seek out information as part of their shopping experience is infinitely more complex. New communication channels are being invented and tested in developer labs, then launched as new portal features virtually every month.

Call Us Now has evolved to Contact Us Now!
In addition to offline media like print and TV, online connection points after hearing your advertising come from social media sites, blogs, RSS feeds and bookmarks, texting, web URLs, organic and paid search – to name but a few. So what is the true value of these leads? Does one generate a higher conversion rate than the other? Do some produce slower responses to your campaign than others?

To track how traditional media drive people online, some advertisers manage the situation by using a suffix on their call to action URL, like bestoffer.ca/daily. Studies have shown this is a somewhat futile effort, as fully 25% of people type in the wrong address - and end up at a “404 page not found” dead end. And it underestimates the value that advertising has on generating responses from other online tools.

Any Lunch Plans?
The first step in planning a multi-pronged tracking plan is to make nice with the company webmaster and go for lunch. They are invaluable in helping you understand site traffic and can usually provide extensive details on ‘typical’ weekly activity, including referring domains, organic and paid search, and net new or bookmarked visitors. Then,

1. Present advertising media selections to the webmaster so she can set up the right tracking URLs. Then you can follow customers from referring domains as well as leads from offline media.

2. Always drive traffic to unique “campaign” landing pages not the company home page. It's just way easier to track your responses.

3. Track conversion rates by referring source. This helps you understand which channels deliver more qualified buyers so you can refine your media investments and improve efficiencies next time out.

4. Understand the typical rate of traffic buildup and decline to your website when a program is in market. Then you can justify how long to count inbound leads – even after the program has ended.

If you’re looking for some starting advice and counsel in this area here, it’s worth a visit to the Marketing Management Analytics website based in Wilton, CT. They’ve been developing some innovative new measurement tools to help marketers assess and track the combined impact of sales from offline and online media.

I'm sure they'll know where you came from.

CMA eMarketing Professional Certificate Course Starts In One Month.

Quick reminder that the fall semester of the Canadian Marketing Association's eMarketing Professional Certificate Course is just one month away.

I have taken on the responsibility of instructing the course from Ken Schafer of Tucows and have also revamped the course materials, updating the outstanding sessions originally crafted by Ken.

The course covers web site best practices, usability, social media, email, search, eCommerce, privacy, analytics and online advertising with practical examples, case studies and stimulating discussions over a 15 week period. Students will leave with a solid foundation of today's digital landscape and a superior marketing skill set in order to go forth and make their own mark in the growing medium.

It starts up September 26, 2007 and there are only a few spaces left. For those interested in taking a deep dive into the ever evolving world of digital marketing, don't delay.

Kick start your future with the CMA's eMarketing course. For more information, or to register for the course, please visit the CMA website. I hope to see you there.

UPDATE: I forgot to mention the course is available in Toronto and Montreal. Mitch Joel, and Dave Haber of Twist Image will be the course instructors in Montreal.

Are You Ready to WIKI?

Many organizations in Canada are starting to investigate if it makes sense to set up a WIKI for their employees. Nowadays, with so many people working remotely from different regions of the country, or different countries around the world, establishing a WIKI is a great way to facilitate collaboration and discussion, regardless of where people are located.

Take the Wiki Wiki?
“WikiWikiWeb” was the first site to be called a wiki by Ward Cunningham, a U.S. computer programmer who invented the concept in 1994. It began when a counter employee at the Hawaii International airport told him to take the "Wiki Wiki" shuttle that runs between the airport's terminals. A Hawaiian – language word meaning fast or quick, "wiki wiki" is useful to know at any airport come to think of it.

What is a WIKI?
Simply put, a wiki is a database used for creating, browsing and searching web pages. A wiki enables documents to be written collaboratively, in a simple language using your web browser. A defining characteristic of the technology is the ease with which pages can be created, updated and linked to other content areas in an organization. Today, Wikipedia, is arguably the most well known online wiki, used by millions of people around the world.

Doing it WIKI-style!
Any project that requires collaboration or input from more than one person in an organization is a WIKI candidate. For example, a national sales director based in Toronto wants to build a resource of winning selling techniques to share with the Chicago office.

He kicks off the project by creating a WIKI page on the company intranet site. Together with a his team, they write about proven tools, methods and techniques to close deals for a particular product or selling cycle. They also include a section on handling customer objections plus links to internal resources, competitive documents and sales visuals.

In short order, the sales director and his team have built a centralized resource of best practices that can be added to and updated easily and quickly. Plus it’s a great training resource for new employees.

What about Security?
With any collaborative tool, there are safeguards you can follow to ensure only high value information is included. To manage security or check for inappropriate content, companies assign folder managers who review incoming files before they go live. However a WIKI can be set up to include comments in real-time and appear almost instantaneously online.

The possibilities are impressive - a Vancouver based software company collaborates with their technology partner in India and builds a WIKI of product specifications and local market user testing feedback. Or a Toronto advertising agency sets up a wiki for the retail detail team to log store check reports and competitor activity by market.

Walk before you Wiki.
Setting up a wiki is surprisingly straightforward and doesn’t require large technology investments, expensive software or long lead times. For an excellent overview, read WIKINOMICS, by Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams. You can download the software for FREE at mediawiki.org.

I Heard It Through The Grapevine

Brand Matters recently moderated an industry panel discussion on branding in a new media environment. As the moderator, I had prepared a high-level discussion guide of topics relevant to this subject, but even still I couldn’t predict how the audience would react to the panelists’ comments and my view of what is relevant. I had difficulty giving into an audience controlled environment, but I knew that this situation would be the most engaging and spontaneous for all participants.

Examples of campaigns that used new media were incorporated into the discussion through the use of audio and visual equipment. This was a new addition to the panel format. In addition, I’m also uncertain how this blog post will be accepted and valued by readers. So, it could be reasoned that I am using new and interactive media to support my industry involvement activities. The issue is: Does this mean that I have given up control of my marketing tactics? Given into the audience as the artist? “Let go” of manipulation? And, perhaps most importantly, am I empowered?

Michael O’Connor Clarke of Thornley Fallis Communications observed the idea of “the artists formerly known as the audience,” suggesting that you can offer your audience the ideas and perhaps give them a nudge in the direction that you would like to see your marketing tactics take, but ultimately it’s the audience that gets to decide how they will be engaged. One of the key insights was that a large portion of the content that young people view online has come to their attention from someone they know – through the grapevine so to speak. This reasoning gave way to Strategy Magazine’s Mary Maddever’s insight that marketers should focus on creating something great so that the audience is inspired to “pay it forward.” She recognizes that “the dinosaurs (of marketing) can’t let go of manipulation,” but marketing activities have shifted from mere entertainment and expenditures on buying time to a goal of providing inspiration through expenditures on content creation.

Now, I see how this may sound very “pie in the sky” and even a little bit corny, but inspiration can be relevant in many different contexts. Of course, the most appropriate is the inspiration to purchase, but this action could begin with the inspiration to pass on a good joke. New and interactive media offers its audiences more choices in how they receive and consume marketing initiatives. The challenge for marketers is how to develop those choices in a way that makes it difficult for consumers to tune their message out completely and difficult to morph their message into something that has a negative effect.

It’s also necessary for marketers to establish options for themselves so they can be prepared for all types of reactions. I’d say good practice is to be ready to engage new tactics if those audience reactions open up new avenues for your message to take. So we can give up manipulation, but there will always be elements of control.

Why isn't radio advertising better?

I had an iPod adapter installed in my new car when I got it last April. Not too hard to believe, I suppose. But the reason I did it is because radio advertising does a better job of annoying me than it does of inspiring me.

Exhibit A: Sean from Spence Diamonds. I suppose there is something to be said for the fact that I even know the guy's name and I know he's the spokesperson for Spence Diamonds. But I would never go into a Spence Diamonds store because I find their commercials so off-putting. Nails on a chalkboard is the only way to describe it.

Exhibit B: Christine McGee from Sleep Country. Both of my kids sing the jingle when it comes on the radio. And admittedly, Sleep Country is a proven marketing success story. But I literally turn the channel every time one of her spots comes on.

Exhibit C: Just about everything else you can hear between the music and the inane DJ banter. Everything just seems to lack any creativity or originality.

In our all-staff status meeting last Monday morning, one of our creative folks presented just a few radio spots from the recent Crystal Awards -- the best in radio advertising. Every spot was better and more creative than the next. Funny, engaging, creative in their use of music, creative in their use of sound effects, creative conceptually.

Terry O'Reilly from Pirate Radio is a guru of Canadian Radio advertising. He speaks brilliantly on the topic and is perceived to be one of the best in the business. Where are his disciples? I'm sure they're out there. Perhaps I don't listen to the radio enough. But there is no denying if they are out there working, they are the exception, not the rule.

The Crystal Awards prove that creative work can be done for radio. O'Reilly himself has said it is the medium that offers the most untapped potential in that it is inexpensive to produce, it can be turned around quickly, and it allows you to be creative if you have it in you to be.

I am seriously challenged to think of one recent radio spot that had me thinking, wow, now THAT'S using the full potential of the channel.

Can you think of one? Here's the criteria: Entertaining. Memorable (spot and product). Smart.

Merging the Cultural Divide between Marketing and Analytics

I attended an excellent CMA breakfast Roundtable on Corporate Culture between Analytics and Marketing a few days ago. The theme was how to better integrate the areas of marketing and analytics such that more optimal and quicker solutions using database information could be produced. There were representatives on the panel from both Marketing and Analytics. One emerging concept was the notion that the marketing role itself is changing. It is no longer acceptable for marketing to view analytics as simply a group of 'techies and pocket calculators'. Marketers have always realized the importance of services coming from the analytics area but traditionally, there has been a lack of willingness by marketers to obtain a more detailed understanding of these solutions. This is changing as marketers become more immersed in the details of some of these solutions. New skill sets are required by the marketers; such as the ability to understand and interpret numbers.

Conversely, on the analytics front, we are beginning to see their roles evolving as they try to better understand the business area and its functions. Through this increased level of understanding, they are better able to communicate the efforts of their labor to the marketing person of that business unit. Communication improvement on the part of the analytics group can only lead to better actionable implementation of their solutions.

But how to do this? Simply stating the obvious does not achieve results. Rather it is through actions such as reward and compensation schemes that promote this type of integration, as well as establishing workplace environments that have the analysts and marketers physically sitting alongside each other.

The obvious and best way, albeit long-term, to bridge this cultural divide as expressed by the Roundtable panelists, is through organic growth where one hires the right skill sets for both marketers and analysts. The company can then harness this base skill sets through mentoring and on the job experience thereby allowing these individuals to grow into these desired roles.

One interesting point from one of the panelists was that this cultural divide could be better bridged by having more senior level representation at the executive level. To some extent, we are seeing this evolution through the creation of a new marketing role entitled the CMO (Chief Marketing Officer). However, I would argue that consideration should be also given to the analytics area at the executive level. In the U.S., many organizations have created executive roles within this area called the CDO (Chief Data Officer) in addition to the CMO. The CDO is responsible for all the data that is used for analytical solutions within the organization. It is different and very separate from the other technology executive roles such as CIO (Chief Information Officer or CTO (Chief Technology Officer). As we begin to see more evolution within the marketing and analytics areas, it will not be uncommon to observe both a CDO and CMO at the executive level for many organizations in the not too distant future. Cultural divide will then become an historical item of the past.