Corporate Eye

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Susan Gunelius

Susan Gunelius

Brands Not Impressed with AOL-Microsoft-Yahoo Ad Sales Consortium

This week, AllThingsD broke a story that made media buyers sit up and take notice. However, not all of the noticing was positive. It seems that AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo! are planning to ban together. In an effort to compete against Google and ad networks, AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo! are rumored to be planning to sell each other’s display advertising inventory

In a nutshell, if one of the three companies receives a display advertising order that it cannot fulfill, its salespeople will fill the remainder of that order with display ads from the other two partners’ inventory rather than going through third party ad networks. The deal should help AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo! retain more ad revenues than they do when they rely on third party ad networks to backfill incomplete orders.

The three companies also hope that the new partnership will make it more attractive for advertisers to buy ad space directly through them rather than through ad networks. Of course, AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo! make more money when they cut out third party networks, so the partnership has the potential to benefit all three companies if it actually works. Remember, these are three large, slow, and challenged companies. Can they work together successfully?

On the other hand, AdWeek reports that brands and advertisers are not as excited about the new AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo! consortium as the three companies might have hoped. Media buyers wonder how the new partnership will actually help them. They question whether the benefits are strictly going to come in the form of increased revenue for the consortium or will buyers receive added value beyond the “convenience” of buying through a single source. For large media buyers, that “convenience” isn’t a big selling point.

AdWeek also provides insight from Forrester Research  analyst Joanna O’Connell who believes the partnership is just a short-term step that is more of a band-aid solution rather than one that holds great strategic potential.

At this point, AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo! aren’t talking. They haven’t confirmed their partnership plans, so media buyers, advertisers, brands, and competitors can only speculate. The question everyone is waiting to get answered is will these three companies be able to successfully pull this partnership off and how will advertisers and media buyers benefit from it? We’ll have to wait and see what the answers to those questions are once AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo! come clean with their plans.

What do you think of the rumored AOL, Microsoft, and Yahoo! consortium? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: ilco

Which Are the Most Active Companies and Brands in Social Media?

This week, Dachis Group unveiled its Social Business Index which ranks 20,000 companies and 26,000 brands based on their social media activities. The companies and brands in social media ranking is updated every 15 minutes and a rolling ticker on the Social Business Index website displays real-time stats just like Wall Street stock prices.

The Social Business Index allows users to sort the ranking information by company, brand, industry, region, business size, ecosystem (i.e., two-way conversations), and subsidiary. For quick updates on the big movers and the top performers at any given moment, the site’s home page offers quick snapshot lists. Of course, you can also dive in deeper to get more data and slice and dice it for your own analysis.

The rankings are determined using publicly available information as well as data that Dachis Group purchases from other companies. As you might expect, big companies and brands in the online and social media space like Facebook and Google rank high. However, as you dig past those big names, you can find some really interesting information in the Social Business Index (you do have to register for a free account and sign in to see the full list).

As I write this article, the following companies and brands hold the top 20 spots as the most active in social media:

  1. Facebook, Inc.
  2. Google, Inc.
  3. News Corporation
  4. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
  5. Coinstar, Inc.
  6. Time Warner Inc.
  7. Adidas AG
  8. The Procter & Gamble Company
  9. Whole Foods Market, Inc.
  10. Nike, Inc.
  11. The Walt Disney Company
  12. Buffalo Wild Wings, Inc.
  13. H&M Hennes & Mauritz AB
  14. American Eagle Outfitters, Inc.
  15. Best Buy Co., Inc.
  16. Burberry Group plc
  17. Forever 21, Inc.
  18. Nokia Corporation
  19. PVH Corp.
  20. Industria de Diseno Textil, S.A.

Some industries rank better overall in the social business index than others. Internet content providers, Internet search and navigation services, book publishing, media, and movie theaters take the top five spots in the ranking by industry.

This is a great tool to track which companies and brands are doing great things in social media. You can zero in on your industry or region and benchmark companies and brands that rank high on the Social Business Index. Keep in mind, the Social Business Index just launched, but with Dachis Group behind it, I suspect it will grow and get even better in the near future.

Image: DarkSide

Brands Find Success with Mobile Coupons

Mobile marketing is it these days, and brands are aggressively experimenting with the available mobile technology to connect with consumers when they’re on the go — particularly just before they make a purchase and while they’re making a purchase.

Currently, a widespread, easy, and convenient mobile coupon distribution system is lacking. In other words, brands can make coupons available through mobile applications, mobile websites, text messaging, and so on, but it can still be challenging for consumers to redeem those coupons.

While it seems to consumers that it should be easy to use a mobile coupon, Tiffany Tan of Clorox Co. explained to eMarketer, “the reality is that most retailers where consumer products are sold don’t have a universal coupon reader system at the point of sale.” Tan is confident that technology advances will catch up to consumer demands related to mobile couponing. She gave eMarketer her list of what her team would love to see in the future of mobile couponing:

  • The ability to target based on prior purchases
  • A mobile coupon experience that happens at the shelf

Chris Duncan of OfficeMax offered another perspective on mobile couponing to eMarketer. Currently, OfficeMax uses mobile couponing as part of its loyalty program that ties into its mobile app. Duncan’s views on mobile couponing challenges differ from Tan’s. Looking at mobile coupons as a loyalty driver and reward system, he views the challenge not as technology but in “getting engagement from a critical mass.”

Duncan sees the advantage to mobile marketing as its speed, but OfficeMax views mobile as a complementary part of its broader couponing and marketing strategies where mobile often becomes a component of a larger marketing effort that includes all channels.

Regardless of which view point you support related to mobile marketing and couponing (or if you have a different view on mobile marketing entirely), there is no denying that mobile is where consumers are and brands need to be there, too. There is no recipe for success yet, and technology is continually changing. As Tan told eMarketer when discussing the Clorox target audience of mothers, “With over half of the population on smartphones by the end of this year, we want to make sure that we are everywhere she is.”

The question for brand managers is this — is your brand everywhere that your target audience is?

Image: bydwiel

How Twitter Psychology Affects Consumers and Brands

It’s not a revelation that brands should have a presence on Twitter. Consumers spend a great deal of time on the most popular microblogging site, so it makes sense for brands to spend time there, too. It’s a perfect place to engage, share useful information, and build relationships that lead to brand loyalty and brand buzz. But did you know that you might be doing some things on Twitter that are destroying your brand’s chances for success?

WhiteFire SEO created a great infographic that highlights the psychology of Twitter so you can get a better understanding of the activities that interest users and the activities that annoy users. You can see the infographic below.

According to the infographic, over-tweeting is a big turn off. The reasons people unfollow other people (or brands) on Twitter are:

  • They tweet too much = 66%
  • Their tweets seem automated = 58%
  • They share the same link multiple times = 47%
  • They don’t tweet = 38%
  • They tweet about themselves all the time = 34%

It’s interesting that people are more likely to unfollow a Twitter user who tweets too frequently than they are likely to unfollow someone who doesn’t tweet at all. This is an extremely significant statistic because it supports what social media marketers tell companies all the time. If your Twitter updates sound like corporate rhetoric or sales pitches or if your updates are entirely self-promotional, no one will want to follow you. Instead, successful brands on Twitter are the ones that provide useful information to their audiences, share their audiences’ content, interact with their audiences, and do so in a personable voice.

When it comes to tweeting too much on Twitter, the Twitter psychology infographic shows that 36 or more Twitter updates is too much. Of course, this isn’t a rule, but when in doubt, it seems that tweeting less frequently is a better strategy than tweeting more frequently.

Another interesting fact is how people find other people (or brands) to follow on Twitter. Most find people to follow through a retweet or @mention from someone else that they already follow. Here are the specific details related to why people follow other people on Twitter:

  • See a retweet/mention from someone they follow = 55%
  • Follow back someone who follows them = 42%
  • Found by searching for related interests = 32%
  • Suggested by Twitter = 16%
  • Recommended in a follow Friday tweet = 13%

According to the infographic, most people follow other Twitter users when they see those other people in retweets or @mentions by others in their Twitter streams. That means brands need to get retweeted! 9 out of 10 people will retweet useful information and 8 out of 10 will retweet humorous content. Other ways people will retweet content on Twitter is if that content is published by a personal connection or celebrity. If your brand doesn’t have personal connections yet or a celebrity relationship, then offering an incentive is likely to get 3 out of 10 people to retweet your content.

Marketing Brands as Social Groups – Why It Works So Well

Its a fundamental human desire to want to be part of a group. People seek camaraderie and a sense of belonging. Some brands are marketed in such a way that people want to be part of the group of consumers who buy that brand. For example, do you want to be in the Mac social group or the PC social group? Are you a Pepsi group member or a Coke group member?

People want to connect with other people, not companies or brands. That’s why brands that are successful at becoming relationship brands (like Apple) have a loyal and vocal band of brand advocates cheering them on. It’s not because the relationship brand is so important to them but rather, it’s because of the relationship those people feel like they have with the other people who buy and use the brand.

The social web has enabled people to come together in groups to share branded experiences and conversations in a way that brands couldn’t even dream of 10 or 20 years ago. The trick for brand managers is to shift from marketing their brands at consumers to marketing brands with consumers where consumers feel like they can choose whether or not the social group that uses the brand is the right group for them to join.

Think of it this way — when consumers decide to follow a brand’s Facebook page, they’re considering two primary factors in the decision-making process: what’s in it for me if I follow this brand’s Facebook page (i.e., discounts, exclusive information, and so on) and do I want all of my Facebook friends to see that I’m part of the group of people who follows this brand’s Facebook page?

Now, consider a couple of powerful relationship brands that already have large social groups of consumers supporting them. For example, it’s fairly safe to assume that a loyal Harley Davidson customer would be proud to follow the Harley Davidson Facebook page. In fact, Harley Davidson customers who use Facebook would probably feel left out if they didn’t follow the Harley Davidson Facebook page.

Therefore, you need to get creative and start thinking of how you can create a perceived us against them mentality that positions your brand against the competition through the lens of social groups. Make sure consumers understand what your group offers and means to them, and then let them decide if they want to join the group or not.

Image: bradleygee

Mobile and Online Video Advertising Grows Quickly for U.K. Audience

In a new study by comScore, both mobile advertising and online video advertising growth rates were analyzed. The results show that both mobile and video advertising are growing and reaching a particularly large audience of younger consumers between the ages of 15-24.

For online video advertising, 63.1% of U.K. consumers (who identified themselves as computer and/or smartphone users), were exposed to a video ad during the month of June (21.2 million people). Interestingly, the number of video viewers has remained fairly stable in the U.K., but the number of people who saw video ads is growing steadily and was up 15% for the second quarter of 2011 versus the first quarter.

Mobile advertising is growing even faster than online video advertising with a 28% increase from the second quarter of 2011 to the third quarter. 25% of U.K. smartphone users remembered seeing a mobile ad during the third quarter of 2011, which equates to 25% of mobile users. The frequency with which consumers recall seeing mobile ads is growing even faster. The third quarter of 2011 saw a 28% increase in the number of people who recalled seeing a mobile ad at least once per week. The number of people who recalled seeing an ad almost daily rose by 52%

Online display advertising is still the powerhouse when it comes to online advertising with 40 million U.K. Internet users seeing online display ads during the second quarter of 2011, which equates to a 95.3% penetration rate. There are a couple of reasons why online display advertising is still so popular. First, companies already have budgets set aside for online display advertising. However, marketers are still fighting for budget dollars so they can make a shift to include more mobile and video advertising in their marketing plans. Second, there are a lot of online display ads for people to see each day simply because that’s where advertising budgets are being spent.

It’s safe to predict that mobile and video advertising are going to continue to grow in the future. In fact, we’ll probably start to see faster growth rates for both than we’ve seen in recent years. With more people using smartphones that enable them to view both mobile ads and video ads, there is no doubt that more companies will start to recognize the opportunity to connect with consumers through their mobile devices, and budget investments will increase.

Is your company already investing in mobile and video advertising? Leave a comment and share your experience and thoughts.

Image: stock.xchng