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Archives for May 2011

Financial Brands Enjoy Mobile Banking Growth in Europe

In a new study from comScore, it was reported that mobile banking is on the rise among European consumers. In fact, 8.5% of mobile subscribers in the top five European markets (United Kingdom, France, Spain, Germany, and Italy) accessed their bank accounts via a mobile phone in March 2011. That’s 20 million mobile users.

It appears that the growth of smartphone use is driving much of the mobile banking growth in Europe. In March 2011, 70% of mobile banking in the European market was done via a smartphone device. In fact, those smartphone users who are banking via their mobile devices have grown by 40% since August 2010. It’s safe to assume this growth is not going to stop anytime soon, particularly since smartphones account for only 35% of the total mobile user population in Europe.

Data security remains a concern for consumers, but clearly, there is a large audience of financial consumers in Europe who are willing to put those concerns aside for the convenience of mobile banking. In addition to accessing bank accounts via mobile devices, consumers also accessed electronic payments and credit cards.  France saw the highest penetration of mobile users who accessed bank accounts during March 2011 of the top 5 European markets as follows:

  1. France = 10.3% penetration
  2. Spain = 10.2% penetration
  3. United Kingdom = 8.6% penetration
  4. Italy = 7.5%
  5. Germany (the largest smartphone market in Europe) = 6.8% penetration

Another interesting finding in the comScore report tells us that men are two times more likely to use mobile banking than women. Furthermore, the 25-24 year old demographic is most likely to use mobile banking.

What does this data tell financial brand managers? The days of thinking consumers are too afraid of security issues to bank online or via mobile devices is over. It’s time to create the useful and convenient apps and tools that consumers need to make banking on the go easier than ever. Smartphone device and table device targeting should be top priorities for the next year.

What do you think? Is your brand ahead of the curve when it comes to mobile brand marketing or behind? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: stock.xchng

Corporate Eye Summary May 28, 2011

  • Lessons from Social Media Mistakes
    I hope you’re enjoying our series of occasional guest posts; I know I am. It’s always interesting to hear a fresh perspective. This post is from Jamie Davies. Three Case Studies Big Business Can Learn From If you follow all the popular media outlets online, then you might have recently seen the controversy over the […]


  • What the TweetDeck Acquisition by Twitter Really Means in 5 Simple Bullet Points
    Just yesterday, I published a post here on the Corporate Eye blog about predictions related to Twitter ad spending over the next year. In that post, I wrote the following: “Twitter’s recent focus on tightening the reins on third-party apps and acquiring popular properties like TweetDeck are an indication that Twitter is actively looking for […]


  • Twitter Ad Spending Will Grow by 456% in Two Years
    In 2010, Twitter began allowing advertisers to publish ads in its first widespread attempt to monetize the popular site. During that year, Twitter earned $45 million dollars worldwide in ad revenues (100% of those ad revenues came from the United States). By 2011, those ad revenues had more than tripled to $151 million worldwide ($140 […]


  • Balfour Beatty : Building for the Future | FTSE 100 Website Reviews
    In these straitened times it is perhaps unsurprising that the construction sector is a little more down on its uppers than usual.  Because of this, Balfour Beatty aren’t actually in the FTSE100.  At present.  They’ve been in and out like a yoyo the last couple of years and are currently out. However, for the purposes […]


  • Interview with Stuart Bartram: Catching The Digital Wave
    Aviva have had one of the top corporate sites for many years with the team led by Stuart Bartram. He’s recently left Aviva, and we were delighted to have the chance to interview him. He reflects on how he caught the digital wave, which corporate sites he rates, and offers some key lessons in getting […]


Microsoft, Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and the Story of a Brand Champion Successor

I’ve written about brand champions on the Corporate Eye blog before. While I think Hugh Hefner of Playboy is the ultimate brand champion, I also believe that Steve Jobs of Apple is an excellent example of a brand champion. You can read some of my thoughts about Steve Jobs as a brand champion in:

I also think that Bill Gates was a great example of a brand champion. His role in Microsoft’s success and his powerful advocacy and guardianship of the brand were two of the reasons Microsoft grew to be one of the most powerful brands in the world. However, when Bill Gates retired from his role as the leader of Microsoft and handed the reins over to Steve Ballmer, a big gaping hole was left open with no one to fill it.

For many reasons, Steve Ballmer is not the brand champion that Bill Gates was. One could argue that his demeanor doesn’t lend itself to the role of brand champion, but as Microsoft’s disappointing results and lackluster product launches over the past few years have shown us, he’s not getting the job done from the numbers side either.

In a recent article on Inc.com, writer Renee Oricchio asks, “Is a Gates Comeback Inevitable?”  It’s actually a good question. Could a return by the Microsoft brand champion turn the company around? It certainly couldn’t hurt. While it’s unlikely that Gates would return to his prior role at Microsoft (but never say never), Oricchio makes a good point when she writes, “Microsoft is in a malaise. It needs more than a new CEO who looks good on paper with the right background in launching new products, trimming the fat, blah blah blah. There are plenty of folks around with that kind of resume. But, Microsoft needs to be inspired again. It needs to return to its take-no-prisoners swagger. It needs a return to its greatness.”

A strong brand is a focused brand and Microsoft has lost its focus. The company has stalled in the widespread consumer perception of the brand.

I still have hope for Microsoft. I want them to find a true brand champion successor to Bill Gates who can bring the company back to its days as an industry leader with innovative products that make people’s lives better and easier. Consumers want to have that emotional involvement with the Microsoft brand back again, but after years of failing to meet consumers’ expectations for the brand, the company has work to do to rebuild consumer perception, trust, and loyalty.

I think Microsoft can do it. Who will champion the brand? Many experts are calling for Steve Ballmer to be replaced. Let’s hope that his replacement understands what made Microsoft great, and let’s hope shareholders will allow his replacement to take the necessary steps to rebuild the brand.

What do you think? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: Flickr

Lessons from Social Media Mistakes

I hope you’re enjoying our series of occasional guest posts; I know I am. It’s always interesting to hear a fresh perspective. This post is from Jamie Davies.

Three Case Studies Big Business Can Learn From

If you follow all the popular media outlets online, then you might have recently seen the controversy over the video that GoDaddy.com founder Robert Parsons posted on his personal blog last March. In the video, Parsons goes on an elephant hunt in Zimbabwe, kills a ‘problem’ bull elephant, and then videos the villagers graphically slaughtering it for meat the following morning, all while zooming in on the GoDaddy.com logo on many of the villagers baseball caps.

Naturally, the blogosphere exploded when a senior editor, Cord Jefferson, of GOOD Magazine covered the story, criticizing Parsons for “shameless branding.” Since then, coverage has gone viral, as major media outlets, such as The Huffington Post, have linked back to Parson’s video on his personal site. Jefferson later published an article offering tips to GoDaddy.com clients who are interested in severing their ties with the company due to this blunder.

Although Parsons prides himself on being a ‘maverick’ when it comes to managing his social media presence and his business, his example is definitely one that big business wants to avoid at all costs.

Keep Your Personal Life Private

In fact, from his example we can learn the first lesson of social media for big business: compartmentalize your social media presence. This lesson should apply to all levels of the business, from the lowest level of employees up to the CEO of the company. Yes, in some cases it will be important for upper-level employees and company leaders to show their personal lives in order to help brand the company; however, even these ‘personal sides’ are highly produced within the company. So, if you’re not a part of that project, then it’s best to filter personal details and be aware of how they can create a stir if they are not carefully thought out.

Action Tip: how much information is too much information? Drawing the line between personal and professional is difficult, but preparing guidelines in advance would help define the boundary – which will depend on the corporate brand. Thought put into how to keep the two distinct, operationally, is advisable. For example, if an individual is running two separate Twitter accounts, one personal, one professional, then using different tools for each one might help avoid off-brand tweets.

Be Aware of the Consequences of Your Actions

Last summer, UK furniture dealer Habitat tweeted a series of messages that linked certain discounts and specials to various hashtags, which would have been fine if the hashtags hadn’t been completely unrelated. The most egregious example of this hashtag spamming occurred when Habitat tweeted regarding the Iranian elections: “#Mousavi Join the database for free to win a £1000 gift card”. In response to the scandal, Habitat removed the tweets and apologized long after the transgression. Tiphereth Gloria of Social Meda Today wrote that Habitat’s policies are “typical of a traditional, push marking, corporate PR approach. Admit nothing, apologize for nothing, do not engage in conversation, advertise, advertise, advertise.” It’s this traditional approach that big businesses need to move away from; they must show that they understand how their social media actions affect others, and they have to be willing to follow up.

Action Tip: this is a training issue: mistakes such as this can come from lack of experience in the medium. Establishing an agreed list of acceptable hashtags for corporate tweets could reduce this kind of mistake. The list would need to be regularly reviewed and updated; things move fast.

Appreciate Your Audience

Social media is, at its core, a communicative vehicle, which means there is someone who creates a message and someone who receives that message. All problems with communication can be linked to one of those three things: speaker, message, audience. Because of this, it’s important that social media managers at big businesses do everything they can to make sure they understand the expectations of their audience and how their message will affect their audience.

Unfortunately, the people at Groupon who tried to make a Super Bowl ad go viral did not fully appreciate their audience. The New York Times blog reported in February of 2011 on the satirical Public Service Announcement that caused quite a stir on Twitter minutes later. The video seemed to make light of Tibetan refugees. The idea behind the video was to drive traffic to the Groupon site, where consumers could not only save money but also make charitable donations.

But they got it wrong. It wasn’t clear that Groupon was mocking old Public Service Announcements and themselves and that, in fact, the campaign did have a charitable side. And, it wasn’t until a huge uproar occurred online that Groupon apologized, removed the offending ad, and tried to make amends.

From this case we can learn that social media managers and marketers at big businesses must use all the resources at their disposal to learn as much as they can about their audience. Yes, the Super Bowl audience tends to appreciate a lot of humorous ads, but at the same time, the Super Bowl draws viewers who are not often aware of current trends in social media, so they might not have been familiar with the funky brand image that Groupon had already cultivated up to that point.

Action Tip: videos can be expensive to create, but even more expensive if they are wrongly targeted. A small focus group involving key members of the target audience before launch could have given a clue as to the likely reaction – or at least been a support if the real-life response differed from that of the focus group. Having a few key influencers ‘on your team’ and signed-up to the message can be a big help.

Summary

From all three cases, we see that doing the following matters in case of a message gone wrong:

  • admit the error in the social space where the error was made (for example, Dominos CEO responded on YouTube to the YouTube video of his staff and their ‘prank’)
  • apologize – make a genuine apology, and contact directly those who have complained
  • take corrective action – contact key influencers in the target audience, asking them for feedback on how to make amends, and be seen to use the feedback.

This guest contribution was submitted by Jamie Davis, who specializes in writing about Masters degrees.

What the TweetDeck Acquisition by Twitter Really Means in 5 Simple Bullet Points

Just yesterday, I published a post here on the Corporate Eye blog about predictions related to Twitter ad spending over the next year. In that post, I wrote the following:

“Twitter’s recent focus on tightening the reins on third-party apps and acquiring popular properties like TweetDeck are an indication that Twitter is actively looking for ways to monetize the site beyond the standard timeline interruptions. These steps are also likely to provide even more demographic and behavioral data about users, which can boost ad targeting and returns for advertisers.”

Today, I want to dive a bit deeper into the future of the Twitter brand given its recent focus on third-party apps and Twitter’s acquisition of TweetDeck.

There are a number of reasons why increasing restrictions and control related to third-party app development are important to the Twitter company and brand. Those are the same reasons why Twitter purchased TweetDeck for a rumored $50 million (for now the TweetDeck team will stay unchanged in its London location). Remember, this is a business. At the end of the day, it all comes down to sustaining and growing the business over the long-term, and that depends on money.

So what does the TweetDeck acquisition by Twitter really mean? Here it is in five simple bullet points:

  1. Twitter needs to continue to find ways to monetize the site above and beyond the advertising currently allowed. TweetDeck offers such an opportunity.
  2. Twitter needs to have more control over its users’ actual usage, demographic and behavioral information. TweetDeck users don’t have to visit Twitter.com at all, which means their data is out of Twitter’s reach.
  3. Twitter needs to have access to more of its users’ daily Twitter-related activities. Again, TweetDeck users don’t visit Twitter.com, which is a big missing link for Twitter in terms of marketing, audience segmentation, advertising sales, and more, particularly since many TweetDeck users are considered to be power Twitter users (i.e., the most active and influential Twitter users).
  4. Twitter needs to keep third-party apps that keep users from actually visiting Twitter out of the hands of potential competitors. In the case of the TweetDeck acquisition, that potential competitive threat was UberMedia, a company that develops third-party Twitter apps and services.
  5. The Twitter brand needs consistency across user experiences. Acquiring TweetDeck is a step in the right direction toward developing a more consistent brand perception across touch points.

What do you think? Will Twitter’s strategy work in the long-term? It seems to me that they’re moving in the right direction, but with the fast-changing web audience, it’s hard to predict if their efforts will work. Leave a comment and share your thoughts about the future of Twitter and the Twitter brand strategy.

Image: TweetDeck.com

Twitter Ad Spending Will Grow by 456% in Two Years

In 2010, Twitter began allowing advertisers to publish ads in its first widespread attempt to monetize the popular site. During that year, Twitter earned $45 million dollars worldwide in ad revenues (100% of those ad revenues came from the United States). By 2011, those ad revenues had more than tripled to $151 million worldwide ($140 million from the United States and $11 million from the rest of the world). New predictions show that number is expected to climb by over 65% in 2012 to a total ad spending revenue for Twitter of $250 worldwide ($225 million from the United States and $25 from the rest of the world).

It’s safe to say that Twitter’s advertising initiatives to monetize the site are working, but there is still a lot of room for growth and many opportunities available to boost those earnings without damaging the user experience that people expect from Twitter.

Twitter’s existing advertising program isn’t all that intrusive. For example, it’s easy to ignore the sponsored tweets that appear in trending topics or within your Twitter timeline because they’re not overwhelming and don’t clutter the timelines of users who follow a handful of active tweeters. At the same time, it’s easy to click on those that interest you in order to learn more.  The trick for Twitter is finding additional monetization opportunities that don’t negatively affect the existing user experience. Users have strong expectations for how the site should look and perform. That must not be damaged.

Your company needs to do the same time when it comes to monetizing content and selling products through social media marketing. Don’t let your monetization and marketing efforts damage the user experience and customer expectations for the brand.

Twitter’s recent focus on tightening the reins on third-party apps and acquiring popular properties like TweetDeck are an indication that Twitter is actively looking for ways to monetize the site beyond the standard timeline interruptions. These steps are also likely to provide even more demographic and behavioral data about users, which can boost ad targeting and returns for advertisers.

What type of advertising or monetization efforts are you willing to accept on Twitter? What are your customers willing to accept from your brand?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

via eMarketer

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