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Archives for 2010

Brands Really Can Connect With Consumers Through Online Video Ads

hulu Brands Really Can Connect with Consumers Through Online Video AdsWhile the consensus for years has been that consumers won’t accept watching ads (at least not too many ads) in online video like they do while watching television, a report from comScore tells a different story. It turns out that consumers who watch full-length programs on a site like Hulu.com are more willing to watch ads than advertisers originally thought, particularly if watching a few more ads per hour means the online video service will remain free to use.

For example, the study shows that most people who watch programs on Hulu.com are actually avid television viewers who choose Hulu.com not primarily to avoid ads but because they missed a program when it aired on television or to watch several episodes of a program at one time. Only 38% of the 2,000 people surveyed claimed to watch programs on Hulu.com because there are fewer commercials. The study also showed that respondents are willing to watch up to 50% more commercials per hour to keep the site free.

Considering the fact that (by number of viewers) Hulu.com is the second fastest growing online video site and the second largest online video site (but still significantly behind the market leader, Google video sites, which includes YouTube.com), these statistics are important for brand advertisers. It turns out that a medium which was once considered to be anti-ads might not be anti-ads at all, and that’s a big opportunity for brands to connect with consumers!

The trick for brands is to find the types of online videos where consumers are willing to accept watching ads. Clearly, not all online videos (and not all ads) are equal, and different video site are equally different. In other words, blanket online video advertising strategies will cause you to miss opportunities to connect with engaged, and targeted consumer audiences. A better online video advertising strategy is a highly segmented one.

What do you think about online video advertising as a marketer? How about as an online video viewer? Does your opinion change? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: Flickr — Gary Vaynerchuk’s Wine Library TV on Hulu.com

Awareness Social Marketing Hubs are the New Way to Network

Keeping the social networking wheels turning and moving is the secret to any online networking success. Social media marketing has evolved significantly over the last few years. There are numerous social media consultants both online and offline whose goal is to help clients through social media awareness and exposure. There are many companies, both large and small, who work tirelessly through social networks to get noticed and for their voices to be heard.

Where major social networking resources like Facebook and Twitter have become ever so popular, there has arisen a newer, more relevant tool that is making quite an impression for corporations and online businesses. Awareness Social Marketing Hubs seems to be the new ‘kid on the block’ with a highly creative business concept that brings together multiple forms of social networking platforms for clients.

The hub is different in that it integrates several platforms for the client, manages them and seeks to bring results to the client through exposure, awareness and essentially, just being social.

The Awareness Social Marketing Hub gives marketers the ability to centralize social marketing programs and simplify the management and execution of social marketing strategies across multiple channels.” Article

Much of the glamour and attraction about Awareness Social Marketing Hubs is perhaps the convenience and expertise that is placed behind the concept. The folks who orchestrate the idea know exactly what they’re doing, and they do it quite well. They take several brands or channels of networking and integrate them seamlessly into one “way” of implementation. The client doesn’t have to worry about switching back and forth and back again each time they want to make contact within a social network hub. The point of communication spans across the pre-determined fields and they are able to maximize the contact(s) that they have with each client.

Will companies see the inherent benefit of this type of social marketing? Will online companies catch on to the idea of a marketing hub and acclimate it to their marketing strategies? How likely is it that the idea and concept will be viral enough to transcend into smaller hubs, like niche communities in arts or technology? Here are some of the features and benefits of the concept and idea of Awareness Social Marketing:

  • The marketing concept of the idea is more centralized and highly strategic in its reach. Because it transcends so many channels, it has the ability to reach multiple communities and maximize its effect.
  • It offers a “one-click” publishing model across several channels at once. This is attractive to many clients since significant time is spent when you’re trying to post to several social networks. One-click eliminates that and more time can be spent on producing quality, relevant content.
  • All of the pertinent information can be entered once into one central location and delivered to the channels automatically. This includes uploading photos, entering texts and links and sending them to Facebook and Twitter.

So which direction do you think this new technology is headed? Given that there is already success with the concept with major companies like Kodak, Sony, Best Buy, USA Today, Progressive Insurance and other major companies (source), the idea is not only catching on but is absolutely viral from all aspects. Working out any glitches will be a part of any major project of course, but streamlining systems for clients is absolutely a plus for any company. I am going to keep my eye on this one because I do believe there are many great things in store. Will you be following them as well? What is your idea about this innovative concept?

Slaying the Dragons: Social Media in a Corporate Context

Are you worried about wild beasts lurking in the thickets of social media?

Here be dragons

Some companies seem to have been waiting behind the defensive walls of their own territory for the all-clear, before venturing out into the wilder reaches of social media. There be dragons!

Exploration can be unnerving, and sometimes it can be difficult to know which path to follow, but luckily there are some experienced guides around – and here’s one way of following them.

Communicate magazine staged their first Social Media in a Corporate Context conference back last June, and so naturally it’s high time for another. I thoroughly enjoyed the last one, and this one looks just as interesting. The theme is:

“How to Use Social Media Strategy and Web 2.0 Tools to Engage all Your Audiences”

And that is, surely, what we all want to know – because it isn’t an easy task.

Some companies are doing a great job at this; others are looking to learn from those pioneers who have broken a trail (sometimes by acquiring some painful blisters) for others to follow. It’s never easy to learn in public – and social media is very public indeed.

If you’ve not set foot on the trail yet, and are rather anxious about the dangers lurking in the trees, here’s an opportunity to learn from some experienced guides.

Once again, Communicate have put together an impressive list of communicators from across the patch: public and private, internal and external, corporates and agencies. These people are out there hacking down the brambles and clearing the paths – and they’ll be talking about topics spanning the corporate interests: the media site, the investor relations site, corporate blogging, managing social media, internal communications and technologies.

Right up our street in fact – are you surprised I’d think this was fascinating stuff?

Book this week for a double discount

Make a note in your diary: 28 April, at Chelsea Football Club, Stamford Bridge in London.

We’re delighted to be involved with the Social Media in a Corporate Context conference, and we’ve negotiated an additional £50 discount over and above the early bird discount for friends of Corporate Eye (that’s you!). Just so you know, the early bird discount ends 1 April.

To book your place, call Felicity Stewart on 020 7498 7008 or email felicity.stewart@communicatemagazine.co.uk quoting reference number 606.

More details available here, including the programme and summary video from last year – speaker biographies will be going up later this week.

What Makes for Effective Investor Relations Sites? Part 13: Make Your Site More Mobile Friendly

It is a cliché, but like all clichés, there is a grain of truth to the saying “We live in an increasingly mobile society”. I know it is true for me. I seldom use a landline telephone any more, my email comes over my iPhone and my children never write me letters – it’s always a text or an email, sent from a coffee shop or the back seat of a car. Even my dictionary is contained in an app on my iPhone. Yet when it comes to investor relations web sites, many companies expect shareholders to be seated in front of a desktop computer with a broadband connection. Yes, I can get to corporate investor sites on my phone, but waiting for an image rich page to download on my mobile is like watching paint dry – and I’m much more patient than my twenty-something children.

Aviva Stay In Touch Page
Click to enlarge

This is all by way of saying that more companies should pay attention to methods for delivering their message to mobile devices quickly and easily. I have seen more of this type of accessibility on web sites of European companies than for American companies. I’m not quite sure why this should be other than a general observation that Europeans seem to have been quicker to adapt many types of mobile phone technologies.

The insurance company Aviva does a good job of this. As you can see from the screen shot of their Stay in Touch page, you can access news feeds and email updates. Further, they make available a mobile site, which is devoid of graphics and therefore loads quickly. And they put all of this on a single page. It is a very efficient design that quickly allows shareholders to decide how they wish to receive information when not seated at their desk.

In this series:
Previous post: Debt information
Next post: Individual investors

Apple and Google – Friends or Foes?

iphone_droidThere was a time, not that long ago, when Apple and Google could nearly be called friends.  In a recent article on Ad Age, Danny Sullivan describes the partnerships the two companies shared, and it’s an interesting read.  However, it looks like things are changing.  Google launched the Droid, which competes with Apple’s iPhone.  Google launched it’s own Internet browser, Chrome.  Apple already had Safari.  Google is the preferred search engine for both Safari and the iPhone.  Or at least, Google was.

What’s next for the Apple and Google relationship?

Well, Google recently launched its own social network, Google Buzz (available through Gmail, Google’s email application), and rumor has it, Apple is hoping to launch its own social network, iGroups, through the iPhone.

What strikes me as particularly interesting when looking at these two brands is the disparate brand promises.  Google promises first and foremost, the best search tool, and secondarily, a Web application or tool for everything you can image.  True, Google isn’t there yet, but the company certainly seems to be moving in that direction.

On the other hand, Apple promises first and foremost, cool technology and gadgets, and secondarily … well, I can’t really think what Apple promises secondarily.  Regardless, these two companies offer very different brand promises, but with the desire to expand their brands, they’re encroaching on each other’s territory.

And looming in the background trying to expand and steal market share of its own is Microsoft whose successful launch of its Bing search engine has drawn some attention back to the company that seemed to be missing the boat for a long time.  Microsoft’s brand promise of delivering the software people need to do their jobs must seem too constraining these days.

In fact, the current environment between these companies seems to foster brand expansion, while most other industries are realizing the benefits of brand contraction and focus.  This is an interesting competition to watch.  Who will end up on top?  Will one company take the lead or will the varied players each remain with their own niches of strength?  One would expect the latter to hold true, but you never know with these three companies.  What you expect to happen might not happen at all.

One thing is for certain.  As Google, Apple, and Microsoft battle it out and redefine their brand promises in keeping with coming expansions, consumers are getting access to more useful and cool products faster than ever.

Image: Flickr

Tweets from the Suites: How Execs Use Twitter

What's Happening

In CEOs Take on Twitter, Business Week looked at the Twitter pages of some C-level execs, and asked them for brief comments about their Twitter use.  The result was actually very interesting.  Since almost all of the people they looked at are in the high tech/social media/PR/etailing sector anyway (think Zappos, TechCrunch, Sun), it’s perhaps not surprising that they are tuned in to the Twitterverse.  But taken together, their insights about tweeting make up a pretty good index of what makes Twitter important.

The sole outlier in this tech-heavy group was Michael Hyatt, CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers.  (For those who don’t follow the book trade, Thomas Nelson is the leading publisher of bibles and Christian books.)  Hyatt describes himself as an avid blogger—and a quick review of his Twitter page reveals frequent tweets that mix the personal with the informative.  Most important:  They do not appear to be churned out by staffers.

The Business Week story appeared in August of 2008, so in a way it’s old news.  But the time lapse permits us to see what has happened to the profiled tweeters in the meantime.  And we find out that Michael Hyatt—whose stats in the article were Following: 146, Followers: 1,059, and Updates: 2,045—now has (wait for it) 74,776  Followers and has racked up an impressive 9,809 Tweets.  He is Listed 2,124  times.

Hyatt’s Twitterstream is a textbook example of how to convey personality online (“We just finished Vespers.  Now off to a birthday party.”) and engage community (“I’m giving away 50 free copies of [book title].”)  He answers nerdy questions (“Yes, I just used the Amazon Associates tools, plus a little CSS styling.”) and describes relatable experiences (“We had such an amazing evening. There is something so healing about being with people who know and understand you.”)  Along the way he slips in PR for his blog (“I have two ads left for sale on my blog for March . . . ”)

He retweets his family’s updates (daughter Marissa is chronicling her attempt to quit smoking) along with links to useful content (“7 Ways to Build Your Author Brand Online”), relevant events, and topical stories.  Last but not least—and best of all, or worst, depending on how you look at it—he ghost-tweets a Twitterstream for his dog, @NelsonHyatt.  Sample:  “I can’t believe @MIchaelHyatt left me in the car while he went browsing in the bookstore. Hello! Obviously, I can read!”

@Nelson has 464 Followers and he answers all their comments.

@Michael almost never mentions Thomas Nelson directly, by the way—just an occasional oblique reference, like this one from 15 minutes ago:  “I’m sitting in a Nonfiction Publication Board, discussing five prospective new books. Excellent proposals!” That tweet demonstrates exactly how to evoke positive impressions of a company without appearing in the least promotional.

I’ll follow up on some of the other Tweeters profiled in Business Week, and if there’s anything interesting, there will be another post.  But in the meantime . . . anyone who wants to see corporate tweeting done well for a mainstream company should take a look at Hyatt’s achievement.  Though it’s not the only good approach, it’s an example of one that works.

 

(Thanks to rvacapinta for the original boardroom photo.  It’s been modified a bit for this illustration.)