Enterprise 2.0 – Sports Marketing and Sponsorships
Enterprise 2.0 – Sports Marketing and Sponsorships
Consider the multiplyer effect of combining tangible marketing efforts and traditional marketing with the reach, speed and penetration of online CPM. Even negative events drive attention online much more rapidly than in traditional media. (Dominos, United Airlines etc.). While both of these are also brand & reputation examples, the real key is in the viral activity that was created and the rapidity of the spreading message.
Combining online marketing with traditional marketing generates substantial leverage for sponsors, teams, and fans/consumers alike. The ability to identify, reach and penetrate markets and niches in ways never before possible and with measureable and quantifiable results as compared to traditional spends is the reason individuals like Chad Hurley (YouTube-Google) have become involved at the highest levels of motorsports. Social Media represents an infinite number of channels for reaching and interacting with groups and individuals that affect your business.
Online media channels offer the ability to interact directly with costumers and business interests that drive corporate revenues and YOUR brand, using a variety of media and quantifiable micro channels. Online strategies can provide your company with new sales opportunities, promotional leverage, and even Voice of the Customer influence on product designs and purchasing decision making – increasing revenues at very cost effective margins.
Online campaigning provides cost effective acceleration of CPM, as well as additional ways to establish loyal customer communities and evangelists that influence purchasing decisions that involve your brand.
Technology enables companies to not only listen to discussions about their brand and offerings, but to actively participate in discussions WHILE purchasing decisions or comparisons are being made.
For the first time in our lifetimes, business intelligence can be direct – and both the demand and supply sides enhanced using a combined offline and online medium of exchange. Sales cycles can be shortened, analytics used to establish how a brand or sale message can be in the right place at the right time, and predictive calculations can even be applied to predict market and customer movements.
For marketers – this means budgets can be more effectively allocated, results determined more accurately, and promotions and campaigns designed for maximum effectiveness. Using online mechanisms and multiplyer effects, a traditional spend can be amplified and longer tails of interest created and sustained.
Online market analysis can also tell you what your competitor is doing, and how effectively. It may even uncover hidden vulnerabilities at your company and theirs that can be owned by the first mover. You may even discover stealth projects and product launches that you never knew existed, and if tools are run on yourself – you may know where your own investment efforts might be compromised in order to take protective measures.
Do you know what your competitors are doing and where they have had successes or mistakes? How would you like to accelerate your learning, and avoid the costly missteps? Have you considered how to use your competitors marketing spends to actually drive attention in your direction?
Brand monitoring and market monitoring policies and procedures effectively protect brand equity and massively reduce risk profiles. Pre-emptive measures can be established for your brand, and knowing a competitors vulnerability – you can determine whether exploitation of a weakness is appropriate or not.
For the first time ever, customers have a voice and are requiring companies to listen and act accordingly. Those who do not embrace the online medium are rapidly losing market share to those that do. In a Darwinistic sense, obsolescence is being greatly accelerated as the world changes.
Is your company evolving?
Keep in mind that customers can instantly search for information about your company, products, prices, services etc. It is far better business to produce, control, and participate in this information flow than to either have a competitor provide dis-information, or let your corporate identity online be created by the masses.
Do you know what the world is saying about your company and how it is impacting your bottom line?
Social Media “yeah, we have that covered”
This is commonly heard in our Digital Media practice at CLS Global Solutions.
The euphemism is a great qualifier because it indicates a level of understanding of the digital marketplace. Often the comment is followed by an abrupt change of topic due to discomfort.
We then ask – “What do you measure, how do you measure and in what units” and “what data analysis techniques did you use to substantiate the business case and prioritization?” “Did your agency or web team ask these questions”?
Then it dawns on them. These are prudent business questions the company had never considered prior to charging off to chase the online market. With squirming in front of the execs.
More feebly this time, “I think we’ve got that covered.”
“We were told we needed to be X% on Facebook/Twitter. No we don’t have a quantified business case or justification.”
Sound familiar?
Social Media is NOT a channel, and goes far beyond Facebook and Twitter.
There are literally infinite combinations to consider that might fit business objectives more exactly. Knowing your state of readiness, capabilities, where your target audience is and exactly how to engage with them is critical. This means doing your homework, architecting a plan and implementing precise tactics.
Success is by design, and market responsiveness comes from a solid architecture.
Every market entry should have a plan with goals, objectives, and measurable performance. Perhaps there is simply a lack of understanding of fundamentals, processes and measurements. Sometimes “coverage” consists of randomly initiated and disconnected approaches resulting in an ineffective online presence borne of online trial by error, ad-hoc efforts, lack of ROI focus and gap in comprehensive oversight. Many companies start with DIY (Do It Yourself) – and rapidly realize red ink.
Survey the land, design and build the bridge to suit, THEN cross.
What would it be worth to KNOW what types of online investments make sense? Would you like to design in the returns that match corporate objectives or find out by accident that they don’t?
Knowledgeable executives:
• Know the online world touches every aspect of their company.
• The pace and fluidity of the online marketplace and have done their research.
• Engage expert guidance in order to generate business intelligence and ROI based road mapping.
• Know that “reactive” and “planned” are contradictory. This is a new paradigm and change is constant.
• Require that their employees understand every touch point their company has with the digital world.
• Avoid agencies that gloss over metrics and measurements, or fail to demonstrate quantified business cases
• KNOW how each aspect of their business is perceived online and what daily activities are taking place.
The decision makers who track their credit score and investment performance to the minute using online resources – fail to understand that this same empowerment exists with regard to how their company interfaces with social media. We show them HOW at executive and functional levels.
Have you “got it covered”?
Where does your company fall on this spectrum?
Are investments made based on business cases supported by factual data, or are they guesswork?
Why take the risk and waste dollars on trial and error?
What is covered? How do you know?
• How is the business case and roadmap constructed? How does this map to objectives?
• What research was conducted?
• What were the information resources – and where did they get the information from? How is it validated?
• How did you prioritize and select that investment? What are the competitive factors used?
• How are you measuring ROI? What metrics are being used? How do you know these are the right ones?
• What types of contingency plans and policies are in place? Are there any gaps or variables?
Social Media Intelligence
Intelligent Social Media is the Web Strategy practice of factual business case construction, starting with comprehensive benchmark.
Every activity undertaken on the web can be digitally monitored and measured. A web strategy recognizes that social media consists of thousands of channels and matrixes that need to be custom fitted to a business objective roadmap and implementation plan. When executives are provided a web strategy based on a quantified business case, they understand how ROI is derived and measured, they understand the exact state of “social media readiness” and they know the steps and investment necessary to be successful.
Are you Social Media Intelligent?
What is your state of Readiness?
• How are you doing business online right now? Is it producing the measureable results you desire?
• Do you have a plan in place with milestones, roadmap sequencing and coordination across all departments?
• Are there any revenue streams that you haven’t tapped? How do you validate this today?
• How do you identify, monitor, quantify and manage risks?
• Do you know exactly what and how your competition is doing? Why not?
• Do you know where you are vulnerable? (Your competition may…)
• Do you have appropriate policies and procedures in place across all functions of your organization?
• Are you aware of every possible touch point your company has and what these represent?
• Have you conducted an objective audit of activities to validate online assumptions, opportunities and risks? Do you audit expenditures frequently and adjust toward cost effective digital solutions?
What makes us different?
CLS Global is a professional services firm specializing in digital/web strategies and interim technology leadership.
We always kick off our projects with a benchmarking. ALWAYS.
We generate relevant online business intelligence first and then provide our client with a prudent planning and implementation structure based on corporate objectives. You would question a physician who prescribes a pill without conducting diagnostics, wouldn’t you?
We specialize in several areas of Web Strategy:
• Online Competitive Intelligence
• Online Marketing Audits
• Brand and Reputation Management
• Product and Services development for Internet based companies
Our methodology is proven to:
• Increase revenues and revenue growth streams
• Increase margins
• Decrease costs, misalignments, risk
• Increase brand and brand awareness
Compensation is based on a fee based structure and a % of the increased revenue growth or cost recovery.
Daytona 500 Winner – without a plan?
It’s never gonna happen. Competition is too fierce, stakes are too high.
When it comes to being online, does this sound like your business? It doesn’t have to.
This note is in response to meetings with Hendrick, Gibbs Racing, Interstate Batteries and a bunch of the Good ‘Ol Boys (and Girls) headed to the big round and round known as Americas Race.
The Daytona 500.
There are numerous metaphors useful to describe our work – depending on the audience. We understand all types of sports marketing and Web Strategizing – but this week I want to address the motorheads.
Anyone can mash a throttle and go careening off the walls. Only those with a set of objectives and a finely architected vehicle and campaign stand a chance of winning against highly prepared competitors.
Online is no different. Except the environment and rules are constantly changing. So, if you don’t have a structure and process for something as contained and regulated as oval racing, and no expertise to call on…. you should probably stay in the stands.
Actually, that’s not fair. What you should do is find a coach to get you up to speed at lowest risk, best bang for the dollar, and most thorough coverage. If you want to enter the online race and be credible – do it right.
Racing is a process. Race preparation, just like planning a Web Strategy – is a constant working and reworking of variables and factors that influence change. Design is both an art and a science. So is online business.
We just happen to be good at both.
The value differentiator at CLS Global is that we implement a prudent and scalable business methodology (based loosely on Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey, and Accenture/Microsoft models).
Most advertising or marketing agencies don’t have any idea what I’m talking about here. Enterprise software designers and NASCAR crew chiefs sure do though. So does any business that has been burned by chasing hype.
With no dicipline, you cannot possibly compete on a dollar for dollar basis. Without the dicipline, you cannot have successful market responsiveness or change management agility. You are going to get yur ass whupped.
Racing teams follow a process for successful campaigning. After all – when was the last time someone won a major event without a large R&D sand planning effort prior to entering a race series?
You don’t build a winning car with mismatches pieces, and you don’t build a profitable online business on guesstimates.
Why would you waste your resources or risk your company online this way? Disjointed pieces, no plan, reacting to market pressures….these are attributes of passengers, who are not incontrol of their fate.
We create winning drivers and teams who OWN their competitive space. We build successful web strategies, online businesses and campaigns for sports and motorsports related businesses, from teams to sponsors.
Often this entails creation of online communities around a common interest or associated interests. Why? Because we believe that engagement online has serious mutual value – for the Fans, and for the companies involved.
We believe that the internet offers the richest media options, and the best experiences. Plus – it’s digital. Ones and Zeros. Completely measureable by the very computers that run it. If you know how and what to measure.
We KNOW we are on the right track.
When Chad Hurley joined USF1, he made no secret about the value and critical nature and profitability from using online media to build an online community of fans around USF1 and their sponsors.
Do your research, know your objectives – then scale up accordingly. One size does not fit all. If an agency is telling you to get on Twitter or Facebook and doesn’t have the data to support a viable business case – run away and call us. We can walk you through this. Enter the race with knowledge and a plan.
Start by knowing exactly what you are getting into and why. Begin with manageable components (rent a go-Kart first), then progress to the next level. The by-product of smoothness is speed and agility/responsiveness.
We also KNOW that companies who do not have a planned and carefully architected online presence will fail.
If you don’t use R&D to get a planning and constructing edge, your competitors will. The key is to hire someone who not only can demponstrate a solid methodology, but can also think outside the box.
Would you rather have us working for you, or for them?
Design for success or get your ass kicked by someone who did.
Have fun Y’all…we’ll be in the Wind Tunnel.
The Big Squeeze
Social Media Sites are squeezing out traditional media in terms of time, advertising and audience.
In terms of advertising impressions in the US, sites like Facebook and Myspace account for more than 20 percent. These sites are the aggregation of the longtail of marketing, so LongTail is alive and well, however consolidated.
The Long Tail of the Internet is largely being aggregated by social media sites that offer a platform for the huge number of small content generators. This is putting pressure on portals and the traditional media in terms of advertising because their shares of both time and page views are declining.
So what is the way forward? Instead of trying to challenge these sites, traditional media should find a way to benefit from the attractive platforms.
By combining the mediums, a variety of multipliers can be brought to bear.
We at CLS Gobal have been blowing this horn for some time. Yet we also recognize the cycle of centralization/decentralization and the societal resistance to conformity or domination by a few entities, regardless of type.
How do you know what’s attractive for your business?
Make sure that you do a VERY comprehensive online intelligence sweep that includes your interests and those of your competitors.
Armed with data about where your targets are and how they want to be communicated with, you can construct a roadmap of engagement.
Without the research – you are simply guessing.
And the last time I checked – guesswork didn’t come with a predictable ROI.
The last time Madison Avenue was in control was in the 60’s, and there were controllable media networks, only three in television. These are the braintrusts attempting to convince you they have Social Media figured out.
My 13 year old knows more about online media placement than most agency execs. Her question is – Why don’t they just do their homework?
If you feel caught in a quandry, give us a call. We provide the real world online analysis so that you can build and implement viable strategies that have highest ROI and lowest risk.
Sponsorship ROI Opportunities in Motorsports
Enhancing Sponsorship ROI Opportunities in Motorsports
StuWiley
Teams are beefing up their offerings with media, track assets and other elements not typically found in a car sponsorship package.
To better entice brands, teams are looking for innovative ways to add value to the sponsorship package, rather than slashing prices, although there’s plenty of that going on as well, industry sources said.
That added value could come in the form of space in industry magazines, websites or radio broadcasts, as well as track assets such as time on the SprintVision video board. Teams are sometimes buying that inventory to enhance the package of assets for prospective sponsors. This is where enhanced online presence offers additional leverage over traditional media, and is the direction teams such as the newly formed US Formula 1 operation are headed. When people like Chad Hurley of You Tube get involved, you know you are on the right track.
CLS Global is in the middle of this mix, providing teams, sponsors and organizers the ability to develop and tap into online communities and create fan based social media ROI campaigns in order to provide high returns for motorsports related interests. Teams that offer sponsors additional value in the form of ready made online customer bases and opportunities for market penetration by sponsors carry a premium.
“In the past, you wouldn’t have those conversations with other people in the industry because you feared that someone would steal your sponsor,” said Steve Lauletta, president of Earnhardt Ganassi Racing. “Now everyone realizes that you’re better off at least getting a percentage of a sponsor’s dollars instead of trying to get all of the sponsor’s dollars.
“What you’re seeing is a greater collaboration between teams and other parts of the industry to be creative and make these packages more valuable.”
The fractured nature of NASCAR assets has sometimes been a turnoff to brands. There’s practically no one-stop shopping—talk to the track for a track deal, talk to the team for a car deal, talk to the broadcaster for a media deal, talk to NASCAR for a league deal.
Teams think they can offer a more well-rounded sponsorship package by bundling these assets into one package for the brand while holding the line on price.
“Keeping price integrity is hugely important,” Corcoran said. “Fire sales might get a team by in the short term, but it hurts the industry. And we see plenty of companies come through just looking for a bargain.”
There’s also the specter of a busy free agent class next year that includes Kahne, Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch and Greg Biffle, among others. With so much anticipated driver movement, new sponsor opportunities will emerge and it might make sense for brands to sit on the sidelines and re-emerge next year.
“For the most part, teams are doing a good job holding steady on prices, but they are willing to negotiate,” said Moffitt of MCG Sports. “What you’re not going to see next year is a lot of new money in the sport. But for the companies that have suffered from sticker shock before, now is a good time to look at the opportunities that are out there.”
QuickTips: Your Brand and Social Marketing
Overcome the Mystery of Social Marketing:
A recent bit of discussion with one of our clients reminded me to recycle this quick tip list. Our charter was to assist a 90 year old company with a very established and entrenched dealer channel to come to grips with a web future.
1. Monitor and Listen to understand customer needs. First, retain a digital consulting firm that understands how to use various brand monitoring tools and applications in order to understand the needs of your customers in the real time social web. As part of your overall budget, allocate a sufficient amount of attention to the monitoring and tracking of your customer base and trends.
2. Use content sharing tools. These enable customers to share corporate created content such as videos, blog posts, images, and contests. There are numerous sharing tool vendors that can be used to Vendors such as Share This can quickly get a brand up and running. The use of these tools quickly promotes corporate content out into the social media.
3. Create Brand related competitions and user contests. Develop programs that maintain the brand experience while emcouraging memembers to share the experience with others. Recently there has been a surge in Facebook applications along the lines of “which one of your friends is a Band Geek” who appreciates musical instruments, purchases sheet music and gift products”. Ask for the public to vote on favorites then broadly amplify the results. Encourage the sharing.
4. Highlight consumer created content from “Endorsees”. If celebrities or endorsees are using your products and talk about them, echo it back and highlight from your own efforts. Create cross promotional traffic and share the attention. Solicit additional reviewers and pundits to engage in discussion about your value proposition. Highlight users of your products in your blog, from Twitter, or other social technology “Listen to Cary Judd playing our prototype electric guitar” or “submit your best Ukalele tune”, allow users to share and spread it to their own websites. Encourage and promote submisskions to YouTube and other media sites.
5. Develop or sponsor lifestyle communities and actively engage in discussions of all types. Branded communities, social networks, or bloggers can all be reached using traditional media relations tactics. Know what social media platforms are frequented by your market, and join in.
Commuity influencers can be identified and engaged with the help of your online media consultants. And make sure that you invite your dealers to participate, providing incentives to do so. Not unlike traditional product trial programs, you can develop brand affinity in the social space through testimonial and endorsement programs. The trick however is to become a platform to uplift their voice (positive or negative) and support community interests while indicating a willingness to address the negatives – and not just insert or push your own agenda or product sales pitches.
Media 2010
Companies with end to end solutions that have a high degree of digital presence are expected to fare the best in 2010. No-where is this more apparent than with established brands that fit well with Voice of the Customer and community engagement models. Scaling does not have to be enterprise level in order to be highly cost effective, as long as the correct amount of attention is placed on identifying markets and customer placements on various web platforms, and penetrating them with invitational rather than broadcast messaging.
While moving marketing allocations and spends online has proven out to be cost effective, don’t rely simply on banner ads – rather look for creative value ad opportunities and vehicles to provide information or edutainment messages to customers of interest. By providing something with value and substance, engagement becomes a partnership instead of the historic one way street. By allowing and encouraging your customers to help craft messages and help determine what needs and interests that a company can service, you are ingratiating yourself in their domain of choice, and key customers and influencers will by definition opt into accepting advertising and value proposals put forth.
Fail to meet the partnership bar however, and you can expect to fall into the “ignore” category. If you are not addressing online markets in terms of customer engagement, retention, and analytics –good luck.
For some reason the requirement for active participation with mutual value has yet to be embraced by many marketers and agencies. If you are working with an agency that is still trying to penetrate markets with a % advertising allocation approach across Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Google etc. without the foundational understanding of required people to people involvement, you should look for a different agency. Push is out, Pull is in. High touch does not have to be high cost, but it does have to be transparent.
eMarketer predicts that online advertising spending will increase by 5.5 percent to $23.6 billion in 2010, reversing a 4.6 percent decline last year.
Search engine spending should be around 15%-20%, an increase from around 6% in 2009. Search engines are THE gateway for discoverability, and will be so for some time to come. Companies will continue to need a solid SEM and SEO strategy, and more sophisicated anagement and maintenence. There is no slowing of the Google, Bing juggernauts – so you’d best assume a fair portion of your online budgets will be necessary. That doesn’t mean you can’t be smart however, and move the balance of PayPerClick and Organic activities to be highly cost effective.
“The difference between the Internet and traditional media like TV is that there are infinite possibilities” online, says Scott Schiller, svp of ad sales, Comcast Interactive Media. “Why would that change in 2010?”
If you want to be successful, hire a company to do comprehensive research into the infinite possibilities so that you can create a best fit roadmap and tactical plan. There is no one size fits all, and there are no magic bullets. Dominating your space takes diligence, homework and frequent adjustments – as well as direct participation by the corporate clients.
Just how does social networking fit into the digital media mix? Many contend that while nearly every major advertiser is interested in social media in some fashion, the true value for brands on sites like MySpace and Facebook lies in customer retention and analytics, rather than as vehicles for display ads. Know where your customers are and how to engage with them. Forget hype, there are plenty of tools available (Call us with questions) to assess when and where your targets are online for positioning and timing of your message. This sure beats the ol Nielsen “rating” system where a dog in front of a TV was counted as an impression. Digital really does have infinite possibilities – are you on board? Are you working with experts?
Of course, no digital forecast is complete without someone extolling mobile’s potential for the coming year, and someone else tempering that prediction. 2010 is no different. Per eMarketer, mobile ad spending should jump by 42 percent this year; yet the medium represents just 3 percent of digital spending.
But at the very least, “in certain categories, mobile will have a definite seat at the table,” says Schiller. “Media buyers like to buy what they know and understand. And everyone has a Blackberry and iPhone.”
Thanks to ubiquitous wireless broadband networks and a variety of portable Internet access platforms, the solution, increasingly, must be anywhere and anytime.
And what about TV? What about local opportunities?
Stations are cultivating online and mobile revenue in the effort to build new business models. According to BIA/Kelsey, TV stations can expect to ring up about $600 million in online ad revenue in 2010, versus $463 million in ‘09. As part of those initiatives, stations are partnering with other local stations to create video news pools and going hyperlocal both online and on-air, trying to find solutions to expensive syndicated programming. This plays hand in glove with an astute local online search effort, and ROI can be delivered in a matter of months. Companies with sponsorship agendas, such as those with athletics, sports, or celebrities should take note. Regional and local scaling is affordable and beneficial.
“We’re all going to be focused on those other revenue streams,” says Paul Karpowicz, president of Meredith Broadcasting. “You’ll see a lot more emphasis on local programming. In an environment where ratings are scarce, if you can create a format that has sponsorship, product integration elements, that becomes attractive.” In total, all of TV’s additional revenue, including Internet, mobile, digital subchannels and retransmission could account for as much as 13 percent of TV stations’ revenue, with online and retrans representing more than 5 percent each, according to TVB. This is a BUYERS MARKET. Companies with a strong marketing mix that is both traditional and digital, and with a solid understanding of new market dynamics – can literally call the shots.
Astonishingly, no-one is sure why the concept of digital re-mixing has taken so long for marketers and advertisers to understand. For the agencies and corporations alike, the current environment is a marketers dream – and prices and barriers to entry are low. Do your homework, and come out swinging!
Winds of Change? Adjust the sails, make course adjustments or be shipwrecked.
Winds of Change? Adjust the sails, make course adjustments or be shipwrecked. Analytics matter.
by Stu Wiley December 14, 2009
Does your online intelligence empower you in new directions, or do you feelstuck in the doldrums? Are you using crowdsourcing effectively and measuring online community feedback to derive your ROI metrics?
Engagement with online communities can replace ad hoc qual and quant, and a lot of clients are cutting their ad hoc qual and quant because they just haven’t got the budgets for it, or activities simply aren’t working.
Online communities are exactly the kind of things that clients love talking about, but when it comes to actually investing they might think the approach is not tried and tested. That’s a mistake. The issue is that they have not been in the online space long enough or are not working with a high end firm whose focus has been decades of online participation.
The potential for online to generate insight and demand gen/lead gen is enormous, if you are in a business that needs to justify the expenditure (who isn’t), you may be struggling to cut through the hype and find solid techniques. Costs are reduced online, and you can monitor activities from anywhere in the world.
The tangibility of participating in word of mouth discussions about your brand and product is a measureable opportunity, however companies destined for obsolescence will refuse to be involved – if only from lack of understanding about the new paradigm and insistence on doing things “the way they have in the past”.
We all know the “not applicable to me” trajectory. Ignoring the signs of nature has resulted in numerous casualties, and we are not just talking about ships or boats here. Corporations who either refuse to adapt, or are too slow to adapt are finished. Some of you may already be consigned to this fate.
For example – If you do not have a comprehensive cross functional appreciation for, a coordinated strategy to embrace, and a complete set of corporate policies rules and procedures with regard to Social Media – you are way behind. Web 3.0 is well under way and you missed it. No amount of applied accelerant can bring you to parity – so you’ll have to grind out one precious inch at a time to get back on a survival course. Winning may not be possible, unless your competition is facing the same situation.
Do you know where you are? Do you know where they are? EXACTLY?
Have you done your competitive intelligence benchmarking? Do your analytics bear up to scrutiny? Do you use multiple methods to validate data?
We are at the confluence of two distinct changes: the current economy and the social change in how people deal with each other. Faceless companies who expect markets to come to them are in jeopardy, the rules have changed and corporations are no longer in power over the consumer.
Customers have a voice in the new world, and will not relinquish the role.
A lot of the time creativity in digital strategies comes from seeing new opportunities, the evolution of previous opportunities and making the effort to recombine the factors into something different. This works much in the way that application mashups meld two concepts in order to produce a value. The key is to retain expertise that can deconstruct previous methods, find new accelerators and redesign a new offering our of the newly combined assets. This is a science and fact based art, and begins with qual and quant research. Once you have the numbers – you can design both the offering and the metrics calculations around the new model to produce ROI. It’s simple – the new world requires new math. If your agencies aren’t telling you this and can’t demonstrate it, walk away.
Parts of your portfolio aren’t as successful as they might have been, this creates opportunities to question strategic decisions that have been made in the past, and their relevance when the winds change. Your company can evolve, and adapt quickly to take advantage of the new world. If you do so faster than your competitors you may have clear sailing to the horizon – but if not, you may struggle just to stay afloat – getting mercilessly pounded by the elements. Your current vessel may not be designed for the new environment – so change it to one that is.
The new paradigm creates a requirement for a more rapid cycling of decision making and adjustment – perhaps even wholesale corporate re-design. Given the winds of change, what business decisions are you going to make as a result of online data gathering and market movement, and who is going to help you with understanding data implications relevance in order to make those decisions?
Companies are certainly more risk adverse in this current climate. What they used to guess at, they are not willing to guess at any more, yet they don’t yet know how to drive clarity into the process, challenge assumptions and quantify variables. Boards are asking more questions about what is working and what’s not, but because there are so many silos within organizations, nobody is fully tasked with understanding what’s going on. That’s just not good enough anymore.
The first fact to get hardwired into your brain is that Digital and Social Media impacts EVERY aspect of your business.
Every touch point should be known, and managed appropriately. There are undoubtedly cross channel behaviors that your firm isn’t tracking. Comprehensive policies need to be established and enforced, and measured risks rewarded instead of feared. Forget focusing on minute to minute stock market valuations, lest the myopia create an inability to evolve effectively.
You have to be credible. You can’t go to market without having tested what you are doing – you need to prove the concept, that it has high probability or working, and that tangible benefits can be gained and measured. Rather than splatter random and disconnected tactical “efforts”, hire an expert to design a digital strategy – then hold your online strategy management accountable.
Expect frequent change, and require monitoring on a more frequent basis than before. It is critical to understand where your budget is going with regard to online touch points, and your project portfolio management should tell you daily how much each effort is contributing to the bottom line – increased revenues/margins, decreased costs, increased brand awareness, decreased risk. Set your budgets to focus on opportunities and measurements of growth.
The mathematical techniques aren’t exactly new, it’s how they are being used that’s changed, and in what mix. The geometric nature of online networks requires geometric thinking, and you need to understand that the calculation complexity exponentially grows as a result. Don’t get me wrong however, this is not quantum physics or theoretic. It is tangible and real, but needs to have an adjusted cultural and business mindset in order to function. Knowing what to matrix is equally as important and knowing how. Knowing what data is useful, and which is misleading is also critical.
Think of it this way – you need to build a multi-dimensional representation that represents a multi-dimensional set of interactions and influences with weighted variables. For optimum results, you need to assess both static and dynamic views. Then you need to do the what if modeling. For those who think in CAD this will make immediate sense, if not – don’t despair.
Complex relationship modeling is both an art and a science, where trend and pattern spotting and even intuition have a role.
Decisions that are based on this data need to be faster and more accurate, and more frequent readings taken. There has been long standing pressure for speed but it’s more significant now because the environment your company is dealing with is highly fluid, moves at the speed of computer processors, and only can be responded to – rather than planned out.
If your agency tells you that they can produce a “viral” brand awareness explosion for example – fire them. They can certainly put elements in place that duplicate past viral spreads – and still fail. This is because the customers are in charge, not the company. We are past the time when incumbent control can be achieved. In fact, the more controlling a company is, the quicker they are ostracized in the new economy. PUSH of agendas does not work in the online world that values participation, relationships, trust, and contribution. Corporate cultures that do not understand this paradigm change and power shift are doomed to waste millions of dollars on unsuccessful campaigns, and face extinction.
You are facing numerous environmental pressures and forces in combinations you have never before encountered so start paying attention. If you fight the power of nature (this new phenomena), you will lose. Better to adapt to the variables and empower your company with forward momentum in a different direction than to be the proud recipient of a Darwin Award.
Adjust your sails to the direction of the wind, and don’t simply and stubbornly hold to the same bearing. Listen to the environment and the consumers, whether B2C or B2B. ASK questions and participate in discussions – don’t just broadcast your agenda. Your business credibility is at stake. In fact – trust and credibility are CORE to a successful online presence.
Case in point –
Currently Microsoft runs Windows 7 operating system ads that claim Windows 7 is the result of corporate listening, with messaging that implied that creative “grass roots” ideas <could these be in the form of bug reports?> from consumers resulted in the product. The Apple Mac team is running a presupposition counter campaign that begs the questions – did it really take 7 iterations for Microsoft to hear the customers, or is this merely the same corporate behavior as has come to be expected from a “monopoly”, so how can you trust them when they have let you down’ so many times in the past?
While the campaigns are clearly targeting product adoption and customer acceptance, Microsoft also faces a huge credibility hurdle online and offline with both Mac users and current users of past versions of Windows – who finally have them working the way they want after years of investment and effort. As a result of this – many online debates are being held, with openly skeptical and cynical parties on all fronts.
Which company is doing a better job of harnessing the online energy of debate, antagonism and community loyalty? How is Apple feeding the fire of discontent and mistrust? How is Microsoft neutralizing the efforts? Are they gathering evangelists and influencers? How do you know? Do you think these online public conversations can be measured?
With billions of dollars at stake and possibly the future of personal computing, you can bet that data is being gathered and monitored frequently. Is this really an equal fight or does Apple represent such a significantly smaller marketshare that it’s a red herring? Are their corporate egos involved? Could this be just another generation of Steve vs. Bill? What peripheral companies and messages stand to gain or win as a result? If you are in a technology business, can you leverage this surge of energy and massive marketing spends for your own benefit? Can these factors be measured so that business decisions can be made?
Is this what you and your team do?
*(“ideas and feedback came in both positive and negative forms – bug reports as well as functionality and use case ideas. If you or your company does not understand the uses of social media for product development please call us.)
Adjust your course, adjust your sails (means of propulsion) and manage your data flow more frequently. Time to respond to the consumer driven marketplace is your enemy, not the consumer. You may have to create several legs to get to the same goal, which requires responsive action on a moment to moment basis. Of course you always have the option to choose to run aground rather than harness the wind and go around obstacles, but you risk loss of your entire vessel and the hard earned treasure of corporate assets in the process.
How do you think your investors will feel about that?
Can “in flight” advertising be local?
A jet charter company has to generate more sales leads, at lowest cost of customer acquisition. Squeezing profit out of each flight is critical, and cost effective sales and marketing means the difference between surviving or closing the hanger.
Competing in today’s jet charter space through online channels is more than just showing up first on the search engines.
Many searches result in over a million options. Obviously the sites past the few pages rarely get visited. The perfect website offering the perfect product or service will go unvisited if it hasn’t been optimized for search engines. SEO (search engine optimization) is important and only the beginning to push a website to the first pages.
The buzz surrounding Social Networking sites may cause media buyers to shy away from allocating budget to the social networking platforms. Those who are just now getting on board may be “showing up late to the party”, while the current advertisers are experiencing disappointing click-through rates.
Despite the mixed reviews, there is still plenty of opportunity to become profitable through media buys involving social networks. The opportunity especially exists for local advertisers, and when it comes to advertising on social networks, local advertisers have the home field advantage.
When purchasing media, it is important to ask partners “what are your users’ demographics?” Every media buy should contain a clear and concise definition of the target audience.
Let’s face it, reaching your target audience is the most crucial factor in any internet marketing endeavor, and targeting the right users based on their specific interest or behavior is critical in media buying.
We advocate a surgical approach to mapping audience to advertising and marketing messages. By performing the correct due diligence, advertising and marketing spends can be allocated very efficiently and produce maximum returns using online media.
