Corporate Eye

...compare, compete, excel

Brand

QR Codes Find New Life for Brand Marketing in China

QR Code ChinaQR codes were the big buzz a few years ago, but their popularity among U.S. consumers never reached the potential that brand marketers had hoped for. What seemed like a great way to connect mobile consumers with a brand’s digital offerings was viewed by most consumers as inconvenient.

The future looked bright for QR codes in 2011 when QR code scanning skyrocketed by 4549% during the first quarter and 14 million U.S. consumers scanned QR Codes during June. At the time, people who scanned QR codes primarily did so to access discounts, coupons, deals, and information.

However, just a few months later in September 2012, a study found that 60% of U.S. consumers who scanned QR codes did so only one time. Not only did QR codes have a barrier to cross in getting people to try them but also in getting people to use them again after the first trial. That study echoed the results of the June 2011 study and found that people wanted QR codes that gave them access to discounts, coupons, and information about a product or service.

In Europe, hope wasn’t lost for QR codes in 2012. A report from that year found that the number of Europeans who scanned QR codes nearly doubled during 2012 to 17.4 million users. That number was equal to 14.1% of the total smartphone audience in Europe at the time.

A Different Story in China

The debate over the effectiveness of QR codes for brand marketing abated as more marketers shifted budgets away from QR codes in favor of other mobile marketing tactics. However, while all of that was happening in the West, QR codes were doing quite well in Japan and South Korea. Now, Advertising Age reports that QR codes are alive and well and living in China bolstered in part by the highly popular mobile app WeChat (272 million monthly active users), which includes a QR code scanner as part of its social and ecommerce features.

Why are QR codes so much more popular in the East? AdAge speculates that consumer behavior and integration into popular apps like WeChat are two of the primary reasons:

One likely reason for QR codes’ success in China, the world’s No. 1 smartphone market, is that many consumers are more accustomed to mobile internet than desktop computers. To them, using a phone to scan a code comes more naturally than typing a web address. Numbers on usage are hard to come by, but mobile coupon company Imageco tallied 113.6 million QR codes scanned in China in October 2013, up more than 38% from the month before. Some in China use personal QR codes to identify themselves on social media. The codes are also at the heart of a price-comparison app called Wochacha, with 140 million users.

Western brands have had success with QR codes in China, but that same success hasn’t happened at home. Are QR codes dead or is there a chance to give them new life in parts of the world where they haven’t performed well in the past? Ease of use, timeliness, relevance, and payoff are the biggest factors to motivate Western consumers to scan a QR code—not just once but again and again. Can the consumer perception of QR codes be redefined as advances are made in developing visual QR codes that are prettier, interactive, animated, and more interesting? What do you think?

Image: bfishadow

Facebook Gets More Ad Spending but Twitter Gets More Clicks

money social media ad spendingTwitter ads get more clicks, but most brand marketers are still spending far more of their digital advertising budgets on Facebook ads. That finding comes from new research by Resolution Media (an Omnicom company) in its first annual Social Trends Report and is similar to results of Social Bakers’ State of Social Media Marketing and Advertising 2014 report. However, advertisers are ramping up their Twitter ad spending considerably.

Resolution Media analyzed 2013 ad performance data from social ad campaigns of over 20 of its clients. These clients represented over $37 million in social media ad spending on Facebook and Twitter during 2013. Companies analyzed represent some of the biggest and most recognized brands in the world, including Pepsi, McDonald’s and HP, and they come from seven industry categories: consumer packaged goods, business and consumer services, financial services, technology, retail, media, and tourism and hospitality.

The research found that brand marketers invested 127% more on Facebook ads in 2013 than Twitter ads, but Twitter ad performance is improving and Twitter ad rates are dropping, making it far more attractive to advertisers. The Resolution Media report also notes that Twitter ads are being integrated directly into consumers’ lives, particularly through real-time television integration. In the fourth quarter of 2013, the 20 clients analyzed by Resolution Media increased their Twitter ad spending by 361%. Facebook spending increased during the fourth quarter as well but at a smaller growth rate of 211%.

However, all news isn’t great for Twitter ads. A separate report released recently by Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. found that 40% of Twitter users believed they had never seen an ad on Twitter, and three out of four Twitter users who recall seeing ads on the platform think the ads they’ve seen are irrelevant to them.

What This Means for Brand Marketers

Facebook has a considerably larger audience than Twitter (over 1 billion monthly users for Facebook versus fewer than 300 million per month for Twitter). Facebook advertising has also been around longer than Twitter advertising. Both are viable options and Twitter advertising should continue to become more attractive as advertising opportunities on the platform continue to be refined and expanded. However, Twitter and Facebook have evolved in recent years. They are very different sites today, and they attract different types of people for different uses.

With that in mind, the data from the experiences of these 20 brands isn’t necessarily indicative of what your brand would experience on either Twitter or Facebook. Both of these sites’ audiences are maturing, and it’s more important than ever to match the message, offer, and experience to the platform and audience. For years, marketers have talked about the future as a time when a mobile-first strategy will be critical. We’re getting close to that time, but one thing is certain. We’re definitely already at a time when platform-first is a strategic imperative in much of our tactical marketing implementation.

What do you think?

Image: Svilen Milev

Luxury Hotel Brands Prioritize Mobile Marketing

ritz carlton luxury hotelLuxury brands are prioritizing mobile marketing more every day. Luxury brand mobile apps are common today, but luxury hotel brands are still struggling to find success with mobile consumers.

According to The Digital IQ Index from L2, luxury hotel mobile sites are lacking fundamental functionalities that are offered by online travel agent mobile sites like Kayak, Travelocity, and Expedia. Consumers want to quickly and easily find and book a hotel using their mobile devices, but luxury hotel mobile sites are inferior to online travel agent sites in almost every way.

Specifically, L2 found the following factors lacking in luxury hotel mobile sites:

  • Too many clicks are required to book a room using luxury hotels’ mobile sites.
  • Many luxury hotels’ mobile sites are only offered in English.
  • Mobile luxury hotel sites don’t offer enough reviews.
  • Many luxury hotels’ mobile sites don’t offer maps.
  • Many luxury hotels’ mobile sites don’t offer full-screen images.
  • Many luxury hotels’ mobile sites don’t offer video.
  • Fewer than one in two luxury hotels’ mobile sites offer information about local activities or travel guides.
  • Many luxury hotels’ mobile sites don’t offer form auto-fill.
  • Nearly two out of three luxury hotels’ mobile sites don’t provide swipe functionality or tablet-optimized calendars.

As you can see from the problems listed above, there is a great deal of room for improvement for luxury hotels’ mobile websites, particularly since 83% of luxury hotels simply transfer their desktop sites to the mobile environment. Many of the features that consumers actively look for, such as reviews and full-screen images, are offered by online travel agent sites. Furthermore, most luxury hotels’ mobile sites don’t provide auto-filling of information for forms. Booking a room and having to re-enter information multiple times using a smartphone creates a terrible user experience. It’s not surprising that the majority of mobile consumers book hotel reservations through an online travel agent. Kayak and similar sites offer all of the features that consumers want when booking travel, and it’s all easily accessible in one place.

Not only are luxury hotels missing the mobile opportunity by creating inferior mobile sites, they’re also missing out on traffic and conversions. According to L2, 94% of first-page booking listings on Kayak are filled by online travel agents. Only 1.3% are luxury hotel brands. Considering there were 1.6 billion searches conducted on Kayak last year, you can bet that the lack of first page listings for luxury hotels resulted in significantly fewer direct bookings.

Even mobile apps are imperfect for luxury hotel marketing. Property-specific apps can look great and offer many unique features, but a company with many property locations would need to create separate apps for each property. Not only is this cost prohibitive, but few consumers would download more than a few apps from the same hotel brand. Creating a single app for all properties poses its own set of problems. The number of clicks to find information and book a room must be minimized, all content must be up to date, and speed, convenience, and security must be front and center for consumers.

The good news is that 89% of luxury hotel brands plan to invest in mobile sites in 2014, which is up from 63% in 2013. However, those investments won’t help boost sales significantly unless the new mobile sites offer the features listed above that consumers want and are used to getting from online travel agents.

Image: meHolidays licensed CC By-ND 2.0

15 Statistics that Support a Mobile First Brand Marketing Strategy

global brand marketingHave you prioritized mobile in your brand marketing strategy yet? Even if  you don’t put mobile first in your marketing plan, it needs to be high up on the list of priorities.

Remember back in 2010 when smartphone adoption in the United States and Europe hit 30%, and comScore reported that social media was one of the fastest growing mobile activities? How about in 2011 when 35% of all Yelp.com searches came from a Yelp mobile app? Fast forward to 2013, and more consumers than ever are using their mobile devices to seek out information and make purchase decisions while they’re in brick and mortar stores.

A new infographic from Unified Social suggests that smart social marketers think of mobile first. That statement is supported by a long list of statistics, which prove how important mobile brand marketing has become in 2013. Following are 15 of those statistics, which you can see visualized in the infographic below:

  1. Global shipments of tablets will surpass desktop computers in 2017.
  2. 78% of Facebook users in the United States access the site via mobile devices.
  3. Facebook Page posts from mobile devices are 39% more engaging.
  4. Mobile advertising comprises 41% of Facebook’s revenue.
  5. Facebook has 16% market share of global mobile advertising.
  6. 60% of Twitter users are mobile.
  7. Mobile Twitter users are 79% more likely to use Twitter multiple times per day.
  8. Mobile Twitter users are 66% more likely to retweet content.
  9. Mobile page views on LinkedIn increased by 250% in 2013.
  10. 59% of Yelp searches come from mobile.
  11. 40% of YouTube video plays in the United States come from mobile.
  12. Mobile advertising makes up 25% of YouTube’s revenue.
  13. Mobile Pinterest usage increased 60-fold in 2012.
  14. Pinterest content is shared nearly three times more often on mobile devices than via desktop computers.
  15. Overall, mobile users share content twice as often as desktop users.

If mobile marketing isn’t a priority for your brand, you’re already behind your competitors. Ignore these statistics at your own risk (and at the risk of your brand’s success in the future). Your competitors have likely already created a mobile-first marketing strategy. At the very least, they’ve probably prioritized mobile in their marketing plans. Don’t let your brand fall further behind, because at some point in the near future, you won’t be able to catch up anymore.

Email Marketing Open Rates Down Since Gmail Tabs Launch

email marketinhg networkThe new Gmail Tabs feature, which rolled out to all users last month, appears to be having a negative impact on email marketing open rates. That’s according to research from MailChimp and is the opposite of what research from Return Path found. However, there is a reason for the discrepancy. Let’s take a closer look.

The Return Path study looked at email open rates during the week after Gmail Tabs rolled out fully. The MailChimp study looked at email open rates after the first week that Gmail Tabs launched in order to account for “shiny new toy syndrome.” You can follow the preceding link to learn about the Return Path study results. Following are some interesting details about the MailChimp study. Keep in mind, neither study can factor in the adoption rate of Gmail Tabs, so the data is limited in that respect.

MailChimp analyzed every delivery to a Gmail inbox over the past year from its database (12.5 billion emails with more than 2 billion unique opens) to identify open rate trends. Next, the data was narrowed to six weeks around the Gmail Tabs launch, which equated to 1.5 billion emails. Finally, the analysis of open rates was done by Matt Grove of MailChimp as follows:

“Gmail published their blog post about the tabbed inbox on May 29, which was the 22nd week of 2013. The week after that announcement, we actually saw increased open rates. Everyone likes a new toy, and the added attention that changing the inbox brings probably skewed results that week. To compensate, I skewed my concept of the “event” to the week after the attention died down. That’s when I saw a small but definite drop.”

As you can see from Matt’s explanation, his research corroborates the Return Path research, which saw open rates increase after the launch of Gmail tabs. However, a week later, open rates dropped. Matt explained his findings as follows:

“Before the tabbed layout, open rates to Gmail had been above 13% for 15 weeks. They never dipped below that threshold unless there was a specific holiday. The open rates stayed down for three consecutive weeks. From looking at a year and a half’s worth of data, I can say that kind of behavior isn’t normal.”

MailChimp is continuing to monitor how Gmail tabs are affecting open rates. In the meantime, they suggest that convincing the people on your email marketing lists to move your messages to the Primary Tab in Gmail is the best way to get there. The MailChimp team has tried a variety of tactics to get email marketing messages to automatically go to the Primary Tab but they’ve had no luck so far. They also suspect that if promotional email messages do end up in the Primary Tab by bypassing Google’s methods of flagging them as promotional, Google will respond quickly by modifying their methods and ensuring those emails aren’t missed in the future.

Bottom-line, it’s not surprising that Gmail tabs are negatively affecting email open rates for brand marketers. However, brand marketers have to create amazing, relevant, and meaningful content. Be useful and timely with your email marketing messages, and you might just motivate Gmail recipients to move your messages to the primary tab.

Image: Sergio Roberto Bichara

Lands’ End Responds to Gmail Tabs

mouse arrow clickWhen Google launched Gmail Tabs in June, brand marketers had reason to be concerned. Suddenly, email marketing messages were automatically removed from the inbox that Gmail users see when they open their email accounts. Instead, email marketing messages were moved from the Primary Tab to a separate Promotions Tab. Gmail users need to click on that Promotions Tab in order to see and read brand email messages.

At first, reports showed that the introduction of Gmail Tabs didn’t have a significant effect on email marketing message open rates. However, once the “shiny new toy” effect passed, reports showed the opposite is true. Open rates have gone down for email marketing messages since Gmail Tabs came on the scene.

What’s a brand to do? Lands’ End hopes that making customers feel like they’re missing something is the answer.

In a promotional email message sent to Lands’ End marketing email subscribers last week, Land’s End used a message subject line that cleverly taps into consumers’ emotions. The subject line warned customers to, “Move us to Primary and never miss another deal!” It’s safe to assume that most consumers who have opted in to receive Lands’ End promotional email messages won’t want to miss a great deal from the brand they love. This is a great subject line that is highly relevant to the target audience and includes a clear call to action.

When recipients clicked through to view the full Lands’ End email message, the copy clarifies the problem for customers and shows them how easy it is to make sure they don’t miss any great deals from the brand. The copy read:

Gee… missing something? With Gmail’s new inbox settings, your landsend.com emails will end up in the “Promotions” Tab. Which means you may miss our announcements on new arrivals and savings events. It’s an easy fix!

The copy goes on to provide two simple steps to move Lands’ End email messages to the Gmail Primary Tab and those steps even include a screenshot, so consumers clearly understand exactly what they need to do. Those steps tell recipients to:

  1. Open the Promotions Tab, click on the Lands’ End email, and drag it into the Primary Tab.
  2. When asked if you want future LandsEnd.com emails to go directly to your Primary Tab, click “Yes.”

Of course, recipients could always move Lands’ End email messages back to the Promotions Tab in the future, but they could also unsubscribe. The important point is that brand marketers need to remind consumers of how the brand’s email messages can benefit them so they’re motivated to move those messages to their Gmail Primary Tab. Remember, all Gmail users are not tech savvy, so as Lands’ End did, be sure to explain how to move your brand email messages to the Primary Tab. Don’t assume they can do it without some help.

Have you asked your subscribers to move your brand email messages to the Primary Tab yet?

Image: Leonardo Barbosa