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Susan Gunelius

Susan Gunelius

Why You Need to Harness the Power of Visual Branding

visual branding eyeglassesHuman beings are very visual. We’re physically and emotionally affected by what we see. An image might make us feel something deeply or it might motivate us to take some kind of action. Images can stand alone or greatly enhance words, and you can use them in your brand marketing efforts to boost results.

Visual branding has gotten a lot of attention in recent years as digital and mobile platforms have improved and made it easier and less expensive to add visuals to marketing campaigns across a broader set of media and distribution channels. Furthermore, research shows that visuals improve marketing campaign performance in both online and mobile spaces.

With that in mind, you need to prioritize visual branding as part of your integrated marketing strategy, and you need to convince your leadership team that investments should be made in the creation and procurement of high quality, unique visuals. Here are five primary ways visual branding can improve marketing results:

1. Visual Branding Evokes Emotions

Images can instantly elicit emotions that connect consumers to your brand. Think of ads you’ve seen for charitable organizations, particularly those dedicated to helping sick or starving children and abused animals. Visual branding is a cornerstone of nonprofit branding, but it can be applied to any brand. Take a look at Nike ads. Even Google has embraced visual, emotional branding in recent years with marketing campaigns that focus on visual storytelling.

2. Visual Branding Gets Noticed

People’s eyes are typically first attracted to motion (e.g. online video content or animated GIFs) or color (e.g., colorful images). A web page or print ad filled with words can be designed so white space and typeface draws consumers’ eyes through the copy. However, they’re far less likely to instantly click away or turn the page if a moving element or colorful image captures their attention.

3. Visual Branding Drives Sharing

Did you know that online content which includes an image typically gets more social media shares, particularly on Facebook, than content that does not include image? There is a reason why sites and tools like Vine and Instagram are so popular. People love to share visual content. Make sure you offer some visual content from your brand for them to share, too.

4. Visual Branding Is Memorable

Some images are hard to forget, but even the most mundane image increases memory and recognition for many people who are visual learners. If you rely on text alone, you’ll miss a segment of the consumer audience who is better able to recall images than words.

5. Visual Branding Is Quick and Easy to Consume

As the saying goes, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” While text can give context to images and tell a more complete brand story, an image can communicate a great deal very quickly. Today’s consumers move quickly, particularly online. Visual branding provides another way to communicate your messages to an audience that might never stop to read your content or messages.

How do you integrate visual branding into your marketing plan? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: Alfonso Romero

Google Surpasses Apple for Mobile Ad Traffic for the First Time in Q1 2014

apple androidThere was big news in mobile advertising this week, and it’s a sign of a significant shift that brand marketers need to know about. For the first time, Google’s Android surpassed Apple’s iOS and took the top spot for mobile ad traffic for the first quarter of 2014. The data comes from Opera Mediaworks’ Q1 2014 State of Mobile Advertising report.

Not only did Google steal the number one global mobile ad traffic position from Apple with 42.8% of mobile ad traffic compared to 38.2% for Apple, but it also had big gains in year-over-year monetization. At the end of the first quarter of 2014, Android accounted for over 33% of mobile ad revenue, which is a 24% increase over its 26.7% of mobile ad revenue at the same time in 2013.

Focusing on just the U.K. market, Apple’s iOS still holds the top spot with 55% of ad impressions and 66.9% of ad revenue. This isn’t surprising considering Apple’s dominant market share position with 62.3% of unique U.K. users tracked by Opera Mediaworks having iOS devices compared to just 18.6% for Android and 14% for BlackBerry.

The report also offers some statistics related to U.K. mobile users’ preferences and behaviors. For example, U.K. mobile users prefer mobile apps, not mobile websites. Opera Mediaworks determined this based on ad impressions, with mobile apps accounting for 72% of ad impressions in the U.K. market, which is significantly higher than what was found in the global market (31%). Furthermore, U.K. mobile users aren’t afraid to click on mobile video ads. In fact, mobile video ads account for one in seven mobile ads in the U.K., which is much higher than the one in 40 ratio identified globally. As a result, click-through rates on rich-media ads are nearly twice the click-through rates on banner ads in the U.K.

Google’s Android has been the dominant platform for some time now, but app developers and advertisers continued to put their time and money into Apple’s iOS. It’s easier from a development standpoint to develop for Apple’s standard operating system than it is to develop for Google’s operating system that can differ from one device and one manufacturer to another. However, ad traffic and ad revenue statistics are showing that there is a shift happening, and ignoring or de-prioritizing Google’s Android is not a good strategy anymore.

What do you think? Is your brand focused primarily on Apple iOS or does your marketing strategy give Apple iOS and Google Android equal attention? Leave a comment and share your thoughts on the mobile shift and what it means to brand marketers.

Image: Karlis Dambrans

Brand Marketing on YouTube – It’s Not Just for Young People

youtube laptop tvDon’t discount YouTube for marketing your brand. While YouTube has a reputation as a site for young people to watch and share short videos, the audience is actually a lot more diverse. In fact, 50% of the U.K. YouTube audience is over the age of 35 and 90% is over the age of 18.

That’s just two statistics released in a new study conducted by Google and Ipsos MediaCT. The YouTube Audience Study surveyed over 1,500 people between the ages of 13 and 64 in the U.K. during mid-2013, and the results reveal interesting opportunities for brand marketers.

Here are some compelling statistics about U.K. YouTube users that might make you rethink how you’re using YouTube to market your brand:

  • 48% are connected to more than 100 people online.
  • 50% talk about the content they watch on YouTube with other people.
  • 44% share videos they watch on YouTube with other people.
  • 50% share or reshare links.
  • 31% are amongst the first to try new products (vs. 14% of non-YouTube users).
  • 58% tell everyone about the brands they love (vs. 33% of non-YouTube users).
  • 41% have taken an action after watching an ad on YouTube.
  • 56% are male.
  • 65% have medium to high incomes.
  • 99% have medium to high education.
  • 89% use the internet daily.
  • Music videos are the most popular (59%) followed by comedy (44%) and how-to/do-it-yourself (40%).
  • 60% watch YouTube videos to be entertained.

While brand videos and ads are certainly not the first things that YouTube users in the U.K. look for, they’re not entirely averse to watching branded content on YouTube. More than one in three (36%) of U.K. YouTube users would rather watch a brand video on YouTube than a commercial, and 34% think that more companies should use YouTube to help them learn about those companies and brands. Furthermore, 28% of U.K. YouTube users believe that the site is a great place for brands to connect with them. More than one out of four U.K. YouTube users are motivated to make purchase decisions based on brand and user content as well as ads that they see on the site. For example, 27% get ideas for things to buy from YouTube videos and 26% say that YouTube helps them decide which products or brands to buy.

A particularly interesting part of the study results identifies when and how people in the U.K. use YouTube. For all locations, people used their smartphones to access YouTube more than any other device. These locations included at another person’s home, at school, on-the-go, at a restaurant or store, or at a social gathering. U.K. YouTube users were only more likely to use desktop computers to access YouTube when they were at home or work. For all categories, users were least likely to access YouTube with a tablet device. However, it’s important to keep in mind that the survey was actually conducted nearly a year ago. If the study were conducted again now, recent trends in increased mobile device usage means that it’s likely tablet usage would be much higher as would smartphone usage while desktop usage would likely be down at all locations.

Are you leveraging YouTube appropriately to connect with your target audience for brand marketing? It’s not just for kids. According to this study, your audience is using YouTube.

Image: Thomas van de Weerd

Delivering Brand Experiences the Southwest Airlines Way

southwest airlinesSouthwest Airlines has been a leader in integrating social media into its corporate culture for years. The Nuts About Southwest blog achieved notoriety years ago as a great example of employees being given the opportunity to advocate a brand. As a result, Southwest Airlines developed a well-known reputation as the “anti-big” airline. The brand is fun and more approachable than larger competitors, and that brand image is carried through both internally and externally. Just spend some time on Southwest Airlines’ social media accounts and you’ll get a feel for the brand’s personality very quickly.

With that reputation in mind, it’s not surprising to find that a recent video of a Southwest Airlines flight attendant energizing the pre-flight safety announcement with humor was recorded and went viral. Consumers who were already familiar with the Southwest Airlines brand image felt more connected to the brand. It reflected the brand experience they’ve come to expect from Southwest Airlines. For consumers who were not familiar with the Southwest Airlines brand, the video introduced them to the airline’s unique brand personality by giving them a front row seat to the real Southwest Airlines brand experience.

You can watch the video below. After you watch it, ask yourself how closely your brand image and personality are integrated into your company culture? Is the integration strong enough that employees are able to and encouraged to live that brand personality and deliver the promise of the brand in every customer interaction and brand experience? Today, brands that leverage their employees as brand advocates are at a significant advantage in the competitive marketplace. However, you can’t simply tell employees what your brand personality, image, and promise are and expect them to support the brand and live the brand promise. They need to believe in the brand enough to want to advocate it just as consumers have to believe in the brand enough to want to buy it.

Give your employees a reason to believe in your brand by developing a corporate culture that delivers the 3 Es:

  • Educates them about the brand promise, image, and personality.
  • Encourages them to live the brand promise by integrating it into your corporate culture and code of ethics.
  • Enables them to advocate the brand through online and offline interactions.

Image: Aero Icarus

Brands and the Disease of Data Paralysis – The 3-Step Cure

marketing big dataIs your brand suffering from data paralysis disease?

Your brand might have data paralysis disease and your business results are already suffering. If you’re slow to take action and unwilling to take risks that can’t be supported by metrics, then your brand will suffer from data paralysis disease.

Don’t worry. It’s curable.

The first step to curing data paralysis disease is recognizing the symptoms listed above. Once you admit that your brand has a problem, you can make the necessary changes to cure it.

Step 1: Accept the existence of conflicting data.

In simplest terms, data paralysis happens when brand marketers have access to so much data that they become overwhelmed. They’re incapable of narrowing their focus and distilling real meaning from the data. If a piece of data doesn’t fit their expectations, decisions come to a grinding halt.

If there is so much information in your way that you can’t move forward, then you’re enabling conflicting data to paralyze your brand. To cure your brand of data paralysis, you need to learn how to avoid getting so caught up in the details that you can’t see the big picture.

Step 2: Accept that numbers can lie.

Data can be massaged to tell a wide variety of stories. Therefore, making decisions based on the data provided to you by other people should be done with consideration for the source.

In other words, don’t believe the first numbers provided to you and stop forward momentum on an initiative because that set of data didn’t support its viability. This is self-imposed data paralysis, and you need to be prepared to question the numbers from time to time.

Step 3: Accept that you can’t always wait for data.

Quick decision-making is what separates an agile business that can seize opportunities from the pack. Data takes time to compile and analyze, so it’s critical that you have a constant flow of data through marketing automation and an experienced and intelligent analyst team.

However, you can’t always wait for all of the data to come in. The best leaders know that part of business success often ties to risk-taking, and that might mean making decisions before you have access to all of the numbers.

To cure your brand of data paralysis disease, you need to recognize the limitations and opportunities that data provides, but don’t forget the human element required to effectively analyze that data and make decisions based on it (or without it).

Image: lustfish

The Gap Between Brand Marketers, Agencies, and Customer Lifetime Value

mind-the-gapWhat tactics are most effective to improve customer lifetime value for brands? That’s one of the questions Econsultancy and Sitecore aimed to answer in their recent research study, Customer Lifetime Value: Building Loyalty and Driving Revenue in the Digital Age.

In a study of both brand marketers and agencies, primarily from the United Kingdom (45%) and in other parts of Europe (22%), it was revealed that while there is consensus on the importance of building customer lifetime value, there is great disparity in how that customer lifetime value should be developed.

The biggest gap was found in how brand marketers and agencies valued the effectiveness of loyalty programs for building customer lifetime value. 31% of agency respondents to the study survey ranked loyalty programs as one of the top three most effective tactics to building customer lifetime value while just 18% of brand marketers ranked loyalty programs in the top three. On the other hand, 42% of brand marketers ranked the effectiveness of improvements to customer services in the top three while just 34% of agencies did the same.

Let’s take a closer look at how tactics stacked up in the minds of brand marketers versus agencies.

Tactics Ranked as Most Effective by More Agencies than Brand Marketers

  • Loyalty program: Agencies = 31% vs. Brand Marketers = 18%
  • Customer segmentation/personas: Agencies = 32% vs. Brand Marketers = 24%
  • Multichannel/omnichannel marketing: Agencies = 21% vs. Brand Marketers = 13%
  • Focus on online experience: Agencies = 27% vs. Brand Marketers = 22%
  • More effective use of data: Agencies = 30% vs. Brand Marketers = 26%

Tactics Ranked as Most Effective by More Brand Marketers than Agencies

  • Improvements to customer services: Brand Marketers = 42% vs. Agencies = 34%
  • Cross-selling/upselling: Brand Marketers = 29% vs. Agencies = 22%
  • Better advertising and flow of messaging: Brand Marketers = 12% vs. Agencies = 9%
  • Improved pricing for repeat purchases: Brand Marketers = 15% vs. Agencies = 13%
  • Subscription models: Brand Marketers = 12% vs. Agencies = 11%
  • Increased investment in marketing technologies: Brand Marketers = 10% vs. Agencies = 9%

Interestingly, 34% of brand marketers and 34% of agencies rated personalized interactions (via email or online) as one of the top three most effective tactics for improving customer lifetime value.

The gap between how brand marketers and agencies view the effectiveness of tactics used to build customer lifetime value is concerning because the misalignment in thinking can lead to miscommunications, frustration, increased time required to implement programs, and decreased results. Brand marketers must ensure the agency they work with isn’t pushing their own agenda but rather supporting the brand’s goals in the most effective ways possible. At the same time, brand marketers need to stay open to new ideas, new tactics, and the evolving world of marketing and consumer behaviors.

Bottom-line, there has never been a more critical time for brand marketers to build open, agile, and honest relationships with agencies. Take the time to determine if gaps exist between the way you and your agency think—not just about building customer lifetime value, but about all aspects of your marketing strategy and opportunities. Navigate through those gaps with your agency, and your short-term and long-term results should improve. As a result, customer lifetime value should improve, too.

What do you think?

Image: Philip Jackson