Now that Facebook has eliminated free reach, brands have to rethink and reformulate their Facebook strategies. Just 24 months ago, brands were wondering what the relationship between branded websites and Facebook should be and where should traffic and interaction be directed. But today they are bracing to be extorted yet again by Zuckerberg & Company and refocusing on owned and controllable properties. Reducing access to followers and fans has turned Facebook from an owned or earned property into paid media. From January forward anything that looks or smells like branded content will only get through if cash changes hands. This effectively kills carefully constructed editorial and posting strategies since no one will actually see a post unless it’s sponsored. The editorial/advertising one-two punch is over. Staffing teams of content producers and community managers to monitor, post and respond in real time knowing that the content will reach less than 5% of the fan base is now wasteful. Brands thinking that they would manage customer service issues, engage customers or showcase different facets of their product, service or company are mostly out of luck. Brands hoping to leverage massive traffic and consumer interaction once provided by Facebook, have to decide to Read more…
Everybody knows that YouTube is the second most used search engine. Everybody knows that YouTube is SEO optimized. And everybody knows that more than 1 billion unique visitors watch more than 4 billion hours of video on YouTube each month. That’s why 100 of the top 100 advertisers post videos and create channels on YouTube. But did you know that most brands post videos without much of a strategy and hope for the best? Or did you know that many brands post videos that don’t match the interests or viewing patterns of their most likely customers or prospects? That’s the insight Pixability brings to the table in measuring and analyzing YouTube as a communications platform. Their study of the Consumer Electronics vertical on the video platform, which analyzed 18.9 billion CE views on 113,780 specialized CE channels, turned up these ten expected and not-so-expected observations: Brands are Minority Publishers. Only 23% of CE views are attributable to brands. Three-quarters of the videos about phones, tablets, computers, cameras, wearables, etc. come from other sources, some of which have significantly more credibility and share-ability than the leading brands. Viewing influences purchases. Videos about tablets and smartphones prompt more than 334 million views Read more…
Content strategy is a paradox. Every brand needs to figure out its content play. But there is already more existing content than anyone can ever consume. In an environment boasting millions of tips, tricks and hacks, billions of reviews, how-tos and infographics, trillions of recipes, diets or exercise routines and zillions of videos on every conceivable topic, savvy marketers want to know what content is the strongest lure, how much content is enough, which combination of content is the most potent and which content converts browsers into buyers fastest. As a result two kinds of content strategists are emerging. The definition of the practice and the deliverables often mirror the skills, perspective or experience of the practitioner. In thinking about deploying content strategists, consider two major tasks. Each requires a different kind of strategist with distinctive skills sets. Systemic. Somebody has to figure out what is the best way for a brand to present itself and its story across platforms and channels. This strategic work requires a clear and consistent understanding of business goals and brand assets, which are mapped to customer actions and intentions with the idea of creating relevant, useful and resonant conversations and interactions. A systemic Read more…
Data is the new black. Touted as a silver marketing bullet, data and scientific thinking will guide creativity in an evolving social and mobile universe. This is the rationale underlying the launch of OgilvyAmp, essentially an aggregation and rebranding of the data wonks buried among Ogilvy’s global offices. This is a great PR move, which exaggerates Ogilvy’s IBM-driven capabilities and differentiates the WPP agency from the rest of us who manage and analyze data for clients. Yet in spite of these press-worthy moves and the widespread availability of proven data collection, mining, processing and automation tools mainstream marketers aren’t walking the walk. So why would rational competitive marketers underutilize tools that could make them smarter, faster and richer? Here are 6 stumbling blocks. Math Phobia. Most of us suck at math or are still traumatized by residual math anxiety from school. Couple this with the general feeling that math constrains creativity and you have an attitudinal bias against using the data at hand. Talent Deficit. The top math guys don’t work in marketing or advertising. Agencies, marketers, e-merchants and publishers are constantly trolling for hard-to-find analysts, modelers and database marketers but come up short. For math savants, advertising is baby Read more…
At the dawn of the wearables age, the competition among brands introducing smart watches is a proxy battle for who will win at miniaturization, processing and big data integration. That’s why in spite of limited functionality or utility there’s a land rush among brands to stake out positions and develop attentive audiences for technologies that will evolve to sci-fi levels. Initially smart watches appeal to early adopters, gadget guys and geeks of both genders. From the manufacturers’ perspective, gaining early brand preference equals limitless long term potential. Several factors will govern the pace of innovation and the scale of product differentiation. All smart watches rely on the Google-owned Android Wear operating system. Unlike the Android mobile OS, which has morphed into hundreds of variations, Google intends to tightly control this technology; the second version of which is slated for a mid-October release. If all manufacturers use the same basic operating system this levels the playing field. At this moment, all smart watches are satellite devices synched and linked to smart phones. In the future miniaturization and software improvements will enable them to be independent devices. But today they are totally dependent on a smart phone for Internet access and most Read more…