A notable presentation from the 2nd annual Marketing Week was carried out by Steve Mast, vice-president of Delvinia, who discussed business digital diseases, how they ruin users’ online experiences and their possible cures. These “diseases” occur when brands attempt to use social media without a great deal of success wondering why the digital world is not in sync with their goals. Each of these social media diseases can be avoided, or “cured”, without falling in the trap of lower online sales, visitors and return on digital investment.

The “diseases” were determined using survey data from Asking Canadians (Delvinia’s own research division).

Participants were asked to grade familiar complaints about websites, producing this top six list of diseases which include:

Ad-Theria
The over use of ads on websites because marketers feel so strongly about advertising products and services at the expense of the customer’s experience.

Mono-typosis
Not listening or responding to your customers and prohibiting conversation and a connection with a brand.

Widgetitis
The overuse of trendy tech gadgets.

Navigation Deficiency Virus
Confusing site navigation because there’s too much content.

Obsessive Content Disorder
Information clutter and inundation due to irrational fear of removing old content from a website.

Datapox
Asking for customer information in confusing ways making the site’s core purpose difficult and frustrating.

Although these problems appear to be part of a new medium development cycle, similar to how advertisers struggled with television in the 1950s; there are ways to prevent these common mistakes, “curing the diseases” with an easy formula. The 5 step formula as suggested by Mast includes understanding your customer, focusing on the customer experience, providing people with a voice, communicating and learning from the experience. In other words, it’s presenting your brand as approachable and customer oriented as possible in the digital world that makes your brand the “healthiest” and “disease free”.

Source: Marketing Magazine

Check out my guest blog post on REEL SEO, discussing Style Agents and the first Canadian online web series for a shopping mall!

Original Web Video Series = Success for Retail Shopping

-Marina

Yesterday we came across a study that was recently released by Turnhere.com on what the top priorities are (in terms of communication channels) for marketers and advertisers in 2010. As we expected from our own first hand experience in 2009, online video is at the front of the pack for most marketers and shows no signs of stopping. Now, more than ever companies are recognizing the tremendous potential and ROI benefits of web video marketing. Online video’s acceptance into the mainstream marketing fold has been a strange process over the last few years fraught with starts and stops, hype and hoopla and inexplicable successes and failures. But 2010 looks to be the year this medium comes into its own as a powerful brand communication channel.
What this study reveals and what we have always been advocates of, is how democratizing online video marketing can be. The study polled 116 respondents from companies that ranged from Fortune 500 brands, regional brands, digital, and PR. The marketing budgets of the respondents ranged from the tens of thousands to the millions and yet all said that online video was a must have in their communications mix for the coming year and beyond.
So why is the fever catching on now almost four years after YouTube hit the big time and the concept of “viral” became a household term? Well in those four years we’ve had what I call a “maturation of the medium,” experiments were conducted, audiences were tested, the model was built up, torn down, re-built and refined. The end result? Well to put it simply, online video passed the test. It survived the hype and came out the other side as a incredibly powerful medium capable of crossing genres and cutting through the clutter and growing ineffectiveness of print and TV.
Perhaps the most revealing aspect of the study was that an overwhelming percentage (81%) of respondents ranked internal marketing teams as being the key players and decision makers in pursuing online video. Not the agencies, not the big PR honchos, but the people inside the companies and behind the brands who know their message the best. 2010 will be the year marketers take back the power and get their message to the consumers. Online video and the genre of branded entertainment will be the way they do it, and VMG will be there to help.

Full review of the study from Reel SEO:

http://www.reelseo.com/video-marketing-top-priority-2010/

I have to admit I haven’t heard of Greg Jarboe before, but I sure as hell liked what he had to say in this video. And yes you should check out the Monty Python YouTube case study he mentions because it is truly eye opening to the potential of YouTube as a direct marketing and sales conversion tool (Monty Python DVD sales went up 23,000%!).

Here’s the link to the full Monty Python case study

Check out my recent Q&A in Toronto Marketing Blog with Sandra Bekhor on the topic of marketing professional service firms with online video: http://torontomarketing.blogspot.com/2009/09/marketing-professional-service-firms.html

- Evan

Success Stories

Moonfruit

Before Twitter: Below the radar web-site building company.

After Twitter: After a Twitter contest went viral, the London-based company had acquired 47,000 followers on Twitter, traffic to its home page had increased by 1,300% and the word “moonfruit” was appearing all over the Internet. In addition to creating a much bigger brand awareness, the firm’s products have more than tripled and paying customers have increased by 20%.

Chickdowntown.com

Before Twitter: Average online retailer.

After Twitter: Since its May ’09 Twitter contest the company began tweeting on a regular basis, and their following has grown to 4,100 from 300 with on average 200 new people following each day. Twitter followers account for 5% of traffic to the site whereas the email blasts, which reach 100,000 people, account for 4% of traffic.

Clickbooth

Before Twitter: Mediocre digital media publisher

After Twitter: Clickbooth teamed up with blogger John Chow for a successful Twitter contest, where contestants had to follow both Clickbooth and John Chow and then retweet a post. As Clickbooth reached different milestones of followers, they gave out more prizes. Eric Schechter, Clickbooth’s social media manager, says since the contest launched there has been an enormous increase in Twitter traffic and they have brought in new publishers.

Why is Twitter effective?

“While companies have used traditional contests for years to generate buzz, a Twitter contest is superior because ‘retweeting’ spreads brand awareness even quicker”, says Dan Zarrella, a social-media consultant based in Boston.

People always want free things. Social media and marketing experts say the combination of freebies and Twitter’s inherently viral nature is particularly powerful in creating a strong brand identity.

And although being on Twitter alone isn’t going to provide the highly effective recognition one hopes for, it is an integral part of a beginning for a smaller business. It’s important that communication and interaction keeps on going and the audience is engaged.

Tips for Twitter contest?

If you’re looking to replicate successful Twitter contests like Moonfruit’s, aim for high tech. Moonfruit integrated Apple Macs and iPods as its prizes. Not only did this resonate with potential clients but it also reinforced the firm’s innovative high-tech image, strengthening their reputation.

Source: Wall Street Journal

Check out what media and industry experts have to say about VMG Cinematic and Style Agents…

Globe & Mail notes a marketing trend of retailers like Vaughan Mills turning to online video and social media.

Marketing Magazine looks at how VMG and Vaughan Mills partnered up to create branded entertainment.

Media In Canada discusses the success of the Vaughan Mills digital campaign developed by VMG.

Beauty Parler is sending you on a shopping assignment, as per Style Agents’ request.

TorontoStyle.net spreads Style Agents’ tips on wearing brights.

…Mission continues!

We’ve all heard how great and efficient online video is for your business and how today it’s a must in your marketing mix optimization. Yet some business owners are still skeptical about online video benefits and ROI, while others are rushing into it simply to keep up. But do marketers really know the value of online video? As the consumer becomes smarter with a shorter attention span, steeper pockets and vastly increased options, the brand should aim for a solution to an expansion and customer interaction, followed by the ultimate acquisition. And today, it looks like online video marketing is the paramount way of doing so…

One of the main reasons businesses are hesitant about investing marketing dollars into digital is because they simply do not know the best way to break into the online world with success or do not have enough knowledge about the industry. Here are a few steps to help those souls out….

1. Identify (and know) your consumer.

Consumer research, insight and marketing are at the core of marketing communications. Yes, online video is the future and relevant to about 90% of markets but if you’re advertising primarily to men in their 70s, perhaps online video isn’t the best way to go…. Then again, it also completely depends on the product. Either way, understand your market.

2. Define the role of online video in your marketing mix.

Clearly know what it contributes to brand objectives. Online video exposure resulted in 44% aided brand favorability (compared to 35% for TV) so the high impact and preference is apparent. However, this doesn’t mean you must completely abandon traditional media marketing. Integrate and optimize!

3. Create advertisements relevant to the medium.

Say you do decide to integrate your television and online video campaigns. Make sure you do not simply distribute the same video on TV and online. TV advertisements fail, for the most part, to establish a deeper relationship with the consumer where as online strives on building that same consumer relationship. By producing separate more interactive content, you will only win in the long run.

4. Create a measurement plan.

Now that you fully understand your target market and have a clearly defined role for online video, measure your success. Quantify your goals and exactly what you want to achieve through online video. Is it to increase brand awareness? Improve perception? Drive sales? Prioritize your goals and make sure the video is distributed through the correct platforms maximizing the reach.

5. Contact VMG to create the most effective online video for your brand.

Kidding… somewhat.
The agency plays an integral part in your marketing campaign. Your creative, production, distribution, and strategy all rely on the team you hire so it’s everyone’s best interest to hire experts in the field.

Sources: Millward Brown

Awhile back I attended a copywriting workshop where the instructor proposed a question regarding the constant evolving marketing industry and technological advances. As he went around the room seeking an answer, he wanted our input on what we thought was the best business to consumer strategy. While I looked around, I could see people staggering to his question unable to provide a solid response realizing that perhaps it was no longer so easily defined… As we all further discussed this, the only concrete observation we were able to conclude with indicated that companies are now more than ever investing in 360 marketing and incorporating new nontraditional media channels. Social media and digital distribution are becoming a necessity as they are now greatly integrated with TV and print in attempts to continuously engage the public and acquire every possible wandering eye (and finger) …

So which one is most effective? Well that’s yet another question to which the answer is not straight forward but speculations often lead in the same direction. The speed in which trends evolve on the internet can often be baffling; however, with more and more Canadians increasing their time spent online specifically on social media websites, social media marketing is definitely experiencing a steady and fast paced accumulation.

Marketing Magazine hosted a study which found that social networks get a lot of press and are becoming the dominant communications tool therefore making the increasing concentrations of people at these types of websites very attractive to online marketers and businesses. For example, 56% of all online Canadians now have a social network profile up from 39% just 18 months ago and of those with a social network profile, 85% are with Facebook.

“As the consumer continues to spend increasing amounts of time in the digital world, businesses and marketers are paying increasing attention to the Internet,” says study author Mark Laver. “However, online social networks tend to be extremely personal and this creates a dilemma for marketers and businesses—how to communicate in a personalized setting without upsetting the target audience.”

This leads us to the next question:

How (and why) should marketers use social media to their advantage?

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Surrounding are constant reminders that digital promotion is becoming an integral part of the marketing mix and spreading through the business horizon. The latest innovator to jump on the digital marketing bandwagon is Hollywood and well, as the old saying goes “if Hollywood’s doing it, it must be a good idea”…

For the film industry, box office attendance and DVD sales remain flat at a steady pace and it’s known that the industry also faces some serious upcoming challenges and changes. Presently however, studios seem to be already productively adjusting to the future as they apply their industry knowledge and observations and embrace new technology to their advantage.

As a matter of fact, at the rate the online spending appears to be increasing in film, the term “embracing”  does no justice in effectively articulating the passionate relationship between online advertising and Hollywood. It seems as though the two are going steady, becoming an item, moving in together….. You get the point.  Quantitatively speaking, film digital ad budgets reached $1.2 billion in 2009 and are expected to grow in 2013 swiftly reaching an impressive $2.7 billion.

Today, almost every film marketing campaign leverages both traditional and new media channels with online film marketing increasing simultaneously in popularity and sophistication. Since there is an overwhelming pressure on studios to generate buzz about the upcoming releases, it only makes sense to go to online marketing for providing effective results. After all, the costs are comparatively minimum and the market reach is comparatively maximum. And it looks as though this is just the beginning – the future holds even more sophisticated online marketing tactics that will continuously assist marketers in turning “Hollywood glitter into box office gold”.

The ways in which online marketing and the film industry intertwine varies from interactive websites, early trailer releases, “fake” releases and online video promos – just to name a few. Here’s a few of the prosperous examples:

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