Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim: Twitter Users Refer Videos – A Lot
Twitter does a lot of things for a lot of people. It’s obviously not for everyone (which is a dirty little secret of the social media industry) but it is very powerful with the right folks. One of the uses of Twitter is passing along favorite video clips. In fact, some recent ‘research’ by TubeMogul as reported by Mashable shows far and away Twitter’s dominance in passing video through the social graph (or whatever pithy term you want to call social networking as a whole). Here’s a picture to ‘prove’ it by examining the growth of this activity.Continue here Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim
Lowe Roche - Digital
Tomorrow is portfolio night at Lowe Roche. So if you’d like to apply for a summer internship, RSVP to iwantajob@loweroche.com, and then make your way to 260 Queen Street West, Suite 301 at 5:00 pm tomorrow to apply...Lowe Roche - Digital
JWT AnxietyIndex: Brand Answers for an Anxious World: Philip Morris, Clorets see co-selling opportunity in Japan
As mentioned in a previous post about co-branded kits of canned coffee and packages of smokes, cigarette brands facing declining sales and a shrinking market are looking for ways to steal share and reinforce loyalty wherever possible. The latest effort by Philip Morris leverages the ever-present concern of the smoker—smoker’s breath—by offering a box of cigarettes bundled with a pack of new Clorets gum in a two-in-one package.
This is a good example of turning an issue of consumer anxiety arising from one brand into a co-selling opportunity with a second brand that solves the problem, resulting in a win-win for both. Philip Morris gains a chance to convert new users, while Clorets gets its new product into the hands of a potentially core target. This is also an example of creatively re-imagining how your products are sold, one of our recommendations for brands in our Recession Handbook. Read @ JWT AnxietyIndex: Brand Answers for an Anxious World
This is a good example of turning an issue of consumer anxiety arising from one brand into a co-selling opportunity with a second brand that solves the problem, resulting in a win-win for both. Philip Morris gains a chance to convert new users, while Clorets gets its new product into the hands of a potentially core target. This is also an example of creatively re-imagining how your products are sold, one of our recommendations for brands in our Recession Handbook. Read @ JWT AnxietyIndex: Brand Answers for an Anxious World
Media Decoder: Speed Read for Wednesday, May 26
Highlights from today’s media coverage:
1. The Justice Department is looking into allegations that Apple tried to prevent music labels from giving exclusives to Amazon, according to several sources.
2. Conde Nast introduced the new Wired iPad app, calling it “a revolution.”
3. According to one tracking service, ad spending rose in the first quarter — the first such increase since 2008.
4. Who will win “American Idol”? With Simon Cowell making his farewell, does anyone care?
Media Decoder
1. The Justice Department is looking into allegations that Apple tried to prevent music labels from giving exclusives to Amazon, according to several sources.
2. Conde Nast introduced the new Wired iPad app, calling it “a revolution.”
3. According to one tracking service, ad spending rose in the first quarter — the first such increase since 2008.
4. Who will win “American Idol”? With Simon Cowell making his farewell, does anyone care?
Media Decoder
PSFK: Razorfish Releases 2010 Outlook Report
Razorfish has released their sixth annual Razorfish Outlook Report, identifying and evaluating key trends affecting chief marketing officers – and everyone in the marketing and advertising industry, really. While in prior years, the focus may have been on a “digital” outlook, this year’s report insinuates that digital is an integral part of marketing, advertising and business in general – and shouldn’t be classified any differently.
The report draws upon essays from thought leaders, as well as an analysis of Razorfish clients’ media spend in 2009. While the full report is worth the read, covering topics like publishers to watch, examples of how to become a social brand, the ad exchange ecosystem and performance metrics – we’ve culled some key insights, and most surprising points – below;
* Innovation pays dividends (particularly during a recovery): Indicating signs of a recovery, Razorfish clients increased their media spend by 4 percent in 2009 versus a 13 percent drop in 2008. Razorfish cites that brands that invested in innovation during the recession – including MillerCoors with the cold-activated can, and Mercedes-Benz USA with the launch of the E-Class sedan – will fully benefit from the turnaround, while those that didn’t innovate will now have to play catch-up to competitors that made a down-market investment.
* Recessions are also a time for experimentation: Several Razorfish clients invested in new digital media platforms for the first time in 2009. The most popular channels for experimentation in 2009 included data brokers, digital out-of-home, and ad exchanges.
* Your SIM score – how a brand ranks in Social Influence Marketing – is your new brand health metric; both on and beyond the social web.
* Customizing to the masses: Progressively shifting above-the-line (ATL) budgets to 1:1 channels – like mobile phones and tablets – can double media efficiency at scale.
* Measuring what matters: We know brands/clients love data – the challenge is in collaborating to determine exactly which metrics a brand can realistically act on. Razorfish recommends implementing a RACI chart – to identify metrics that will ultimately ensure a brand is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed.
* Social media is less a form of “media” – and more a marketing and public relations imperative: Given the low cost of purchasing social ads, social media garnered only 4 percent of marketers’ media spend. The larger cost driver of social media lies in labor costs – which aren’t tracked as media spend.
* Increased Competition for Google: About 45 percent of Razorfish clients’ media spend in 2009 was invested into portals and search – with Google still the lead. However, Razorfish expects the combination of Microsoft Bing and Yahoo! to challenge Google’s dominance.
* Think and act small – or local – is an insight and theme discussed at the last PSFK Conference in NY. It is echoed by Razorfish, citing that many clients are learning to do this as they grow globally – vs. the status quo notion of “thinking globally and acting locally”. Providing additional context, David Deal, vp of marketing for Razorfish, adds:
Global marketers need to immerse themselves in the increasingly sophisticated and fragmented micromarkets around the world — thinking and acting locally several times over if you will. For instance, Razorfish Strategy Executive Joe Crump contributes a tantalizing point of view on Brazil, an increasingly powerful and digitally savvy market crucial to global players like Nike. Joe discusses “Classe C,” an increasingly upwardly mobile economic cluster of 70 million people who are shaping the future of Brazil. Joe asserts that the digitally savvy Classe C has rapidly made Brazil too important for any serious marketer to ignore. Joe is now launching research into Classe C that will be unveiled later in 2010.
For those of you that need to visualize your data, a compilation of charts and graphs from Razorfish’s report can be found here...PSFK
The report draws upon essays from thought leaders, as well as an analysis of Razorfish clients’ media spend in 2009. While the full report is worth the read, covering topics like publishers to watch, examples of how to become a social brand, the ad exchange ecosystem and performance metrics – we’ve culled some key insights, and most surprising points – below;
* Innovation pays dividends (particularly during a recovery): Indicating signs of a recovery, Razorfish clients increased their media spend by 4 percent in 2009 versus a 13 percent drop in 2008. Razorfish cites that brands that invested in innovation during the recession – including MillerCoors with the cold-activated can, and Mercedes-Benz USA with the launch of the E-Class sedan – will fully benefit from the turnaround, while those that didn’t innovate will now have to play catch-up to competitors that made a down-market investment.
* Recessions are also a time for experimentation: Several Razorfish clients invested in new digital media platforms for the first time in 2009. The most popular channels for experimentation in 2009 included data brokers, digital out-of-home, and ad exchanges.
* Your SIM score – how a brand ranks in Social Influence Marketing – is your new brand health metric; both on and beyond the social web.
* Customizing to the masses: Progressively shifting above-the-line (ATL) budgets to 1:1 channels – like mobile phones and tablets – can double media efficiency at scale.
* Measuring what matters: We know brands/clients love data – the challenge is in collaborating to determine exactly which metrics a brand can realistically act on. Razorfish recommends implementing a RACI chart – to identify metrics that will ultimately ensure a brand is Responsible, Accountable, Consulted and Informed.
* Social media is less a form of “media” – and more a marketing and public relations imperative: Given the low cost of purchasing social ads, social media garnered only 4 percent of marketers’ media spend. The larger cost driver of social media lies in labor costs – which aren’t tracked as media spend.
* Increased Competition for Google: About 45 percent of Razorfish clients’ media spend in 2009 was invested into portals and search – with Google still the lead. However, Razorfish expects the combination of Microsoft Bing and Yahoo! to challenge Google’s dominance.
* Think and act small – or local – is an insight and theme discussed at the last PSFK Conference in NY. It is echoed by Razorfish, citing that many clients are learning to do this as they grow globally – vs. the status quo notion of “thinking globally and acting locally”. Providing additional context, David Deal, vp of marketing for Razorfish, adds:
Global marketers need to immerse themselves in the increasingly sophisticated and fragmented micromarkets around the world — thinking and acting locally several times over if you will. For instance, Razorfish Strategy Executive Joe Crump contributes a tantalizing point of view on Brazil, an increasingly powerful and digitally savvy market crucial to global players like Nike. Joe discusses “Classe C,” an increasingly upwardly mobile economic cluster of 70 million people who are shaping the future of Brazil. Joe asserts that the digitally savvy Classe C has rapidly made Brazil too important for any serious marketer to ignore. Joe is now launching research into Classe C that will be unveiled later in 2010.
For those of you that need to visualize your data, a compilation of charts and graphs from Razorfish’s report can be found here...PSFK
Business Insider: 10 Things You Need To Know This Morning
Good morning! Here's what you need to know:
* Boom! Apple
is now officially worth more than Microsoft (and therefore, the second most valuable company in the world, after Exxon). Want to know more? Here's some perspective.
* Speaking of Microsoft, the shakeup at their entertainment and devices division continues.
* Not all is rosy for Apple though. The Feds are said to investigate its music store practices.
* Facebook says they don't want to kill Foursquare, just integrate it.
* Google Chrome keeps gaining marketshare, especially among early adopters -- which is exactly how Firefox grew to overtake IE. Does this spell the death of Firefox?
* Meanwhile Google is stepping up its lobbying efforts in Washington.
* Wired magazine is coming to the iPad.
* Speaking of Wired, they have an amazing two-part story on Foursquare's early days.
* Interesting idea! LinkedIn is turning into a social media client with deeper Twitter integration.
* Interesting video of the day: über-VCs Fred Wilson and Ben Horowitz debate "Fat vs Lean Startup."
Read more: Business Insider
* Boom! Apple
is now officially worth more than Microsoft (and therefore, the second most valuable company in the world, after Exxon). Want to know more? Here's some perspective.
* Speaking of Microsoft, the shakeup at their entertainment and devices division continues.
* Not all is rosy for Apple though. The Feds are said to investigate its music store practices.
* Facebook says they don't want to kill Foursquare, just integrate it.
* Google Chrome keeps gaining marketshare, especially among early adopters -- which is exactly how Firefox grew to overtake IE. Does this spell the death of Firefox?
* Meanwhile Google is stepping up its lobbying efforts in Washington.
* Wired magazine is coming to the iPad.
* Speaking of Wired, they have an amazing two-part story on Foursquare's early days.
* Interesting idea! LinkedIn is turning into a social media client with deeper Twitter integration.
* Interesting video of the day: über-VCs Fred Wilson and Ben Horowitz debate "Fat vs Lean Startup."
Read more: Business Insider
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
brandchannel.com: Peter Arnell - Branding’s Bad Boy Gets Contemplative
As a brander for hire, Peter Arnell is about as high-profile as they get. He was behind the global launch of the DKNY brand, a force propelling McDonalds’ “I’m Lovin’ It” theme, revamper of the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami and designer of the new logo that Pepsi is rolling out in various iterations across its global markets. He has helped overhaul Samsung, Banana Republic and scores of other brands.
Yet the 51-year-old owner of ARNELL in New York also is known as the author of clunkers such as draping Celine Dion over the hood of a Chrysler and, of course, the expensive redesign of Tropicana packaging last year that PepsiCo abruptly jerked from the market because it didn’t want to wait for consumers to catch up with the new look and nomenclature. Fiat unceremoniously delayed Arnell’s pet green-car project, Peapod, after taking over Chrysler last year.
Along the way, Arnell has formed operating principles not only for his client work but also for the “personal branding” that has become one of his hallmarks, especially after he lost 256 pounds on a two-year diet several years ago. And he has rolled them up into his new book, Shift: How to Reinvent Your Business, Your Career, and Your Personal Brand.
You mention in the book that you love Italy. You have a “surrogate family” in Milan. What have you learned about branding from the Italians?
I learned a lot from the Milanese about how to have an integrated model of design. There, learning architecture is as common as getting a bachelor of arts in America, and it’s a great training ground for discipline, focus and comprehension. I also observed early on the value of their integrated model from a brand perspective.
Why did you write this book?
It was part fun, part truly believing that I could share some interesting dimensions of my life and work and experiences and how they affected me personally.
You had a start-stop situation with your first publisher, Harper Collins.
That was real simple: The publisher turned out not to have an appetite for the book. But working with Broadway Books has been a pleasure. I think it turned out all right.
Why did you focus on personal branding rather than “branding branding“?
With the economy being what it is, people are seeking individualism and identity. There have been more startups at home, and the job market is really hard. I wanted to enable people to provide more value to their own brands.
In Shift, you say that you “never have to blame yourself” when it comes to your personal brand. What do you mean?
You’re born with your DNA. The idea is to shape it and know it and evolve it. You don’t have to make excuses for it or hide it.
How is your own personal brand doing? You’ve had a rough time of it over the last couple of years, especially with the Tropicana packaging thing and Peapod.
Lots of other people had problems with Tropicana [packaging]; I didn’t. That’s a way to look at it. The subjects that we’re involved in are extremely controversial to some people. Things evolve constantly. You, as a brand, keep on learning and growing. What we did with Tropicana and the packaging was greatly affected by critical bloggers; some people who write them tend to hide behind them. They don’t come out front and have a dialogue about things; they just voice their opinions.
And Peapod?
The project was ready for market and on schedule, and we had come a long way, with [California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger] promoting Peapod in Los Angeles. But it just wasn’t a priority for Fiat, I’m assuming. I don’t know. I don’t have a relationship with them.
On the other hand, PepsiCo seems to be picking up your new Pepsi logo quite nicely. By the way, how did a similar design end up being the logo of the Obama campaign in 2008?
That makes for fabulous stories, but anyone who understands the integrity of these things would realize that there could have been no identification between the two things at all. But never in my life have I seen more attention to a logo!
The project has been fabulous and really interesting and, I do believe, successful on many fronts for PepsiCo, and I don’t think that anyone was upset by the publicity [about the logos] on any front. It’s nice to see it slowly evolving throughout the whole world – Thailand, China, Italy. There’s a lot of adoption of that [Pepsi] logo.
What’s the most important takeaway from Shift for professionals in your business who want to do a better job with their own personal brands?
People who are great may not know they’re great. They don’t have an audience. So by networking with friends and family, you can get confirmation of your strength necessary to grow, and that’s really important. People who do stay focused on themselves with great motivation can move quickly to provide other people with lots of value. You just need to have friends everywhere who drive your dreams alongside you.
A lot of people become prisoners of their own dreams, so invite people into dreaming with you. I hope the book invites them to do that. Please read @ brandchannel.com
Yet the 51-year-old owner of ARNELL in New York also is known as the author of clunkers such as draping Celine Dion over the hood of a Chrysler and, of course, the expensive redesign of Tropicana packaging last year that PepsiCo abruptly jerked from the market because it didn’t want to wait for consumers to catch up with the new look and nomenclature. Fiat unceremoniously delayed Arnell’s pet green-car project, Peapod, after taking over Chrysler last year.
Along the way, Arnell has formed operating principles not only for his client work but also for the “personal branding” that has become one of his hallmarks, especially after he lost 256 pounds on a two-year diet several years ago. And he has rolled them up into his new book, Shift: How to Reinvent Your Business, Your Career, and Your Personal Brand.
You mention in the book that you love Italy. You have a “surrogate family” in Milan. What have you learned about branding from the Italians?
I learned a lot from the Milanese about how to have an integrated model of design. There, learning architecture is as common as getting a bachelor of arts in America, and it’s a great training ground for discipline, focus and comprehension. I also observed early on the value of their integrated model from a brand perspective.
Why did you write this book?
It was part fun, part truly believing that I could share some interesting dimensions of my life and work and experiences and how they affected me personally.
You had a start-stop situation with your first publisher, Harper Collins.
That was real simple: The publisher turned out not to have an appetite for the book. But working with Broadway Books has been a pleasure. I think it turned out all right.
Why did you focus on personal branding rather than “branding branding“?
With the economy being what it is, people are seeking individualism and identity. There have been more startups at home, and the job market is really hard. I wanted to enable people to provide more value to their own brands.
In Shift, you say that you “never have to blame yourself” when it comes to your personal brand. What do you mean?
You’re born with your DNA. The idea is to shape it and know it and evolve it. You don’t have to make excuses for it or hide it.
How is your own personal brand doing? You’ve had a rough time of it over the last couple of years, especially with the Tropicana packaging thing and Peapod.
Lots of other people had problems with Tropicana [packaging]; I didn’t. That’s a way to look at it. The subjects that we’re involved in are extremely controversial to some people. Things evolve constantly. You, as a brand, keep on learning and growing. What we did with Tropicana and the packaging was greatly affected by critical bloggers; some people who write them tend to hide behind them. They don’t come out front and have a dialogue about things; they just voice their opinions.
And Peapod?
The project was ready for market and on schedule, and we had come a long way, with [California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger] promoting Peapod in Los Angeles. But it just wasn’t a priority for Fiat, I’m assuming. I don’t know. I don’t have a relationship with them.
On the other hand, PepsiCo seems to be picking up your new Pepsi logo quite nicely. By the way, how did a similar design end up being the logo of the Obama campaign in 2008?
That makes for fabulous stories, but anyone who understands the integrity of these things would realize that there could have been no identification between the two things at all. But never in my life have I seen more attention to a logo!
The project has been fabulous and really interesting and, I do believe, successful on many fronts for PepsiCo, and I don’t think that anyone was upset by the publicity [about the logos] on any front. It’s nice to see it slowly evolving throughout the whole world – Thailand, China, Italy. There’s a lot of adoption of that [Pepsi] logo.
What’s the most important takeaway from Shift for professionals in your business who want to do a better job with their own personal brands?
People who are great may not know they’re great. They don’t have an audience. So by networking with friends and family, you can get confirmation of your strength necessary to grow, and that’s really important. People who do stay focused on themselves with great motivation can move quickly to provide other people with lots of value. You just need to have friends everywhere who drive your dreams alongside you.
A lot of people become prisoners of their own dreams, so invite people into dreaming with you. I hope the book invites them to do that. Please read @ brandchannel.com
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