MINI introduces new technology

Clear concise data visualization can truly be a game-changer. The difficulty comes in finding the best way to present your KPIs in a way that is quickly and easily digested.

To celebrate 50 years of motoring mayhem, MINI has introduced Mission Control as part of its limited-edition Camden package. In their words: “By bringing the engine, HVAC and central systems to life via three distinct personalities, Mission Control sets the stage for the future of motoring.” Yes, they have moved the dashboard from eye-level to ear-level, letting you keep your eyes on the road and your hands on the wheel.

Mission Control is MINI’s first stab at a useful (while still somewhat cute and quirky) voice-based presentation of car functions by either providing new information or duplicating operating information from the physical dashboard via three unique voices within the car; one personality for the engine, one for the HVAC and one for the central systems. And just like in real life, the three do interact with each other.

This is approach is almost like a mash-up of the Corvette HUD and a standard voice-based GPS system:  audio-only, but represents operating data in a way that lets you keep your eyes on the road in front of you.

The future of Mission Control? MINI has stated that this is only round one of the technology, with voices and personalities easily updated. So can we expect Mike Rowe telling you that you’re nuts for attempting that grade in your F-150 Raptor? Only time will tell.

Boosting sales via social media

Delaware-based Dogfish Head has a recipe for success both in the kettle and in the marketplace. According to Nielsen Co., the brewery spent a mere $2,000 on traditional media in 2008, and nothing in 2009. So what are they doing?

Founder Sam Calagione has found a nice mix of limited-release beers, such as the Miles Davis–inspired Bitches Brew; pairing advice (something usually associated with wine); and encouragement of fandom and brand advocacy by being very active within the craft brew community, constantly spreading the gospel.

The Dogfish Head team explained their choice to us like this: “Social media is a great way for us to connect with our customers & talk beer.” And connect they do, with close to 20,000 followers on Twitter alone.

And how is the craft brewer faring? The approach is definitely working: in 2009, Dogfish Head sold 97,000 barrels, giving them a 29% year-over-year increase with zero dollars spent in traditional media.

How much time are you spending online?

There was a very interesting study released by Harris Interactive showing that web users are online an average of 13 hours per week. This is a slight dip from the same observed period in 2008 where they saw average users online for 14 hours per week. The major change? In 2008, 43% of users were online at work. In 2009, that dipped to 40%.

Harris tracks use at home, at work and at what they list as “other location.” Online at Home and Online at Work have both seen Year-Over-Year growth since the study began in 1995, with this being the first year they have seen a dip for the Online at Work category. A simple explanation may be that there are fewer people at work this year then there were last year.

Beyond that, the study is a very interesting look at the growth within the last two years in the amount of time users spend online. In 2006, that number was 9 hours. 2007 saw 11 hours. 2008 and 2009 saw an average of 13.5 hours spent online per week. Even more interesting is the fact that this time does not include time spent on email.

Another interesting takeaway from the study is subject audience itself. Harris Poll culled this data from 2,029 men and women aged 18 and over through phone surveys. It would be very interesting to know if these were randomly selected phone numbers, since landline use across the globe has been dramatically decreasing. Nielsen reported in September 2008 that nearly 20% of all households in the US do not even have a landline, effectively removing them from Harris Poll’s eligible subject group. This group also scores high for broadband web use, pointing to a population of web users that have been potentially ignored by the Harris Polls study.

Why online advertising is important for hospitals.

By: Kelly Hocutt and David Michaluk

Are you still reluctant to advertise your hospital on the web? Maybe you’re bound by tradition. Or maybe you think healthcare is too private for the web — and people seek information only from people they can trust. But research by OTX and Google shows that adding search and web advertising to your marketing mix is more than just helpful — it’s essential.

That’s right. Consumers are increasingly going online for hospital information. 41% go to the Internet before seeking advice from healthcare professionals or friends and relatives. When these information-seekers get to the Internet, 76% go to hospital websites, 62% to search engines and 56% to health websites. They’re using more than one destination — which means if you’re not using search engine ads and ad networks, you’re missing a sizable audience. If they don’t see you, you don’t exist.

And they’re not just window-shopping, either. After finding information, 59% of these consumers take action. This includes 46% who look for more information, 16% who clicked on an ad, 14% who forwarded a link or video and 10% who booked an appointment. These additional actions translate into greater awareness of your organization, good feelings, referrals and appointments. Do these goals sound familiar?

Just as important: Recall is higher for online search than for any other medium. Yep, more bang for your buck. 43% remember online ads while only 32% recall TV ads, 28% informational brochures, 18% newspaper ads and 18% billboard ads. Isn’t your aim in advertising to get your audience to remember you? You’re spending a lot of money advertising, so get more value for your money and welcome online advertising into your marketing mix. Plus, when people recall an online ad, 43% look online for more information, 38% ask a medical professional about a hospital, and 38% ask a friend or family member about a hospital.

So, should your hospital advertise online? The numbers say it all.

Dashboards can help drive marketing strategy.

Looking for an easy way to gauge your client’s driving forces? Ask what’s on his or her dashboard.

Dashboards are a businessperson’s CliffsNotes®, condensing tomes of information into readily digestible nuggets. Where do overall profits stand? Any new leads from the northeast territory? Is maternity patient volume up? Dashboards provide a snapshot of the key metrics your client needs to succeed.

Which brings us, as usual, to marketing strategy. Knowing what’s on a client’s dashboard enables you to customize a plan that speaks to his or her exact needs and goals. And that’s a plan you can get some serious mileage from.

New technology from Google to help ad agencies.

Google has long focused on empowering the consumer, evident in its easy-to-use self-serve tools. This focus is especially apparent to agencies trying to manage client AdWords/Analytics accounts (credit card–centric billing, max of 25 Analytics accounts per Google Account, flimsy integration of Webmaster Tools).

Google is taking steps to remedy this, however, with the launch of AgencyLand, a single repository for all agency info, including training, resources and news. It also gives the freedom to share certain relevant portal aspects with team members, enabling managers to share a piece of knowledge without bogging down employees with the whole pie.

Access requires an MCC customer ID (obviously) and an invite, since it’s a pilot offering.

A new look for Twitter.

In a need to monetize, Twitter has redesigned its homepage to make search front and center. The simple search box lets you search (duh), and below it is a ticker featuring three rows of popular topics, broken down by minute, day and week. “Popular topics by the minute” take precedence, and appear in a larger point size, indicating the general of-the-moment nature of tweets. Real pulse-of-the-marketplace info, especially if your market has a presence in the Twitterverse.

Paid search is next, folks. Give Twitter a few days (or weeks) to serve up this feature.

Give yourself a Mad Men makeover!

Didn’t work at a Madison Ave agency in the early ’60s? Tired of dirty looks for drinking in the office at 11 a.m.? Now at least your Facebook icon can live the life, thanks to AMC’s MadMenYourself.

Suit or skirt? Martini or whiskey on the rocks? Cigar or cigarette?

Too much fun. Unlike ElfYourself, SimpsonizeMe and FaceYourManga, you don’t actually upload an image — one less hurdle, which is good. Oh, and (somewhat) easily Facebooked, Tweeted, Dugged and StumbleUponed.

PS - We couldn't help but get in on the action. Try it for yourself.

The Google Chrome Operating System

Google announces an OS. For anyone even remotely familiar with cloud computing (is that term still used?), thin/dumb clients, Android, Chrome and how Google operates, this is not a real big surprise.

Google’s answer to OS bloat is lean and mean (and uses an open-source Linux kernel). Empowering the programming community could (should) bring some true innovation to the OS. Speaking of these developers, Google wants us to remember that “for application developers, the web is the platform.”Any readers do any mainframe work at all? If so, this should sound familiar — hence the props to Larry Ellison of Sun. And it is fascinating to see his vision unfold, even if it isn’t being controlled by him and has taken on some unique permutations. The story is similar to that of Eric Buell and the underframe exhaust. Great concept and sound reasoning, moving a heavy exhaust can from the high tail of a motorcycle to underneath the frame to lower the center of gravity and improve mass centralization. But sometimes it takes more than a niche producer to take a concept into the mainstream.

If you really are still wondering why this approach may be good, please read from Google:

“We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.”
c/o http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html

Look for the OS on hardware in 3Q 2010.

Search Engine Optimization

You have finally launched a beautiful customer-centric website. Now what?

As traffic flows move from brick-and-mortar storefronts to online locations, it is vital that you stake your claim online. And, as in real estate, there are still three keys: location, location, location.

If you build it, they will come no longer works. With well over 110 million individual websites competing for people's attention, you need a plan, and some help, to be consistently found by the audience you most care about. One path to success is Search Engine Optimization, a collection of techniques that agencies can implement to give your website, and your marketing, the tools to succeed.

The Web and Google
The web touches almost every demographic. Even 35% of the population aged 65+ is active on the web, with 70% of 50- to 64-year-olds active on the web (AARP, June 2008).

And the web isn't important only for companies with a national footprint. For finding local products and services, the web is now the leading information source. Search engines just this year edged out print directories as the preferred source for finding local businesses (TMP Directional Marketing, October 2008).

And the number-one place anyone finds anything on the web? Managing close to 70% of all web search requests, Google is the closest thing to a monopoly you will find in any major ad channel. Consequently, shoring up your site's relationship with Google will put you on the path to search success.

Gone are the days of secret programming tricks to boost search performance. Google, the great equalizer, has thankfully put most of these tricks out to pasture. Sure, link farms do occasionally crop up, and Google is still working out contextual-based search results for video and image content, but the remainder of the search results can be boiled down to a few basic site development techniques and, most important, the use of targeted, relevant content.

Spiderability
Google indexes your site by having automated content indexing programs, or spiders, search and sort web content.

If spiders can't see your site content for whatever reason, then your site isn't spiderable. Not good. Since Google controls 70% of search traffic, your products and services will, by default, simply not be available in 70% of those web searches.

Clean Design
You should be thinking about clean site design, judicious use of Flash, HTML-based text, and proper tags. All of this will enable Google's spiders to effectively index your site. Consider this the bare minimum required for your site to play on the web.

When you're ready to move beyond bare minimums, though, an agency would enable you to start on things like keyword-rich text, fresh, audience-focused content and inbound links.

Location
Even with proper indexing, only 17% of searchers visit the second page of search results (Jupiter Research, April 2008). First page? The great majority only look at what is referred to as Google's Golden Triangle (Eyetools, 2006), an eye-opening study showing that 50% of searchers do not look beyond Google's sixth search result, basically right above the fold. Meaning, if you're not in approximately the top six, you're missing 50% of your potential audience.

Fresh Content
Fortunately, a good marketing agency can craft an effective program to boost your exposure in search results through proven marketing techniques.

Keyword-rich text not only benefits your readers, since you are speaking to their actual concerns in terms they use, but Google will more closely tie your content to those terms in search results.

Through in-bound links and fresh content, including blogs, news feeds, press rooms, videos and image galleries, Google will not only view your site as vital, but visitors will see a reason to return. A stagnant website is like a stagnant swamp. Would you really have any reason to return?

The Team Approach
As in business, maintaining preferable search engine market share requires planning, proper execution and perseverance. Through the expertise of a full-service agency, your piece of web property will be ready to grow and prosper. Like having a traditional Main Street storefront location, these techniques can help ensure you traffic along the digital highway that is Google.

Microsoft's Bing

Microsoft has launched its answer to Google in Bing, its replacement for Live Search. This latest go at a search platform has some interesting quirks, including instances of single results on the SERP (search engine results page) for keywords it’s certain have a single destination site.

On the homepage, Bing layers a pleasing image behind the search box, with your standard Images, News and other options down the left-hand column. The image has discoverable hotspots, which both fits the theme of searching and could be a very interesting way to integrate ads onto the most visited page at Bing.

Bing brings two unique features to the SERP: its Related Searches field and, above it, a useful info–type field that lists topics commonly associated with your search term. This pops up when your search item has easily identifiable subsections.

For example, search for “Subaru Legacy” and the field offers Reviews, Recalls, Dealers, Reference (a page scraped from Wikipedia), Videos and other options. It’s an interesting approach, and seems useful for generic searches. Not sure how many people perform short-string searches (when your search term has one or two words), though.

But, when you do a more natural long-string search, like “Subaru Legacy reviews,” the field doesn’t appear. Microsoft is Bing-ing big, though, investing around US$100MM in an ad campaign which includes, not surprisingly, a strong showing in Google AdWords.

Interested? Just Google “Bing” to try it yourself.

Advertising on the internet

Have you seen "Why Advertising Is Failing On The Internet" by Eric Clemons?

Reads partially like another “pay for content” scheme. But it is totally true that most premium (and non-premium) content creators cannot sustain their business models based on their current advertising model.

NYTimes.com could not support its robust site and content without the proceeds from its print counterpart, leading to a vicious cycle of reduced content value as print ad revenue decreases.
But the ROI can be there for advertisers without a tremendous intrusion on site visitors and without the publishers/content creators having to bleed too much. It all depends on business models and costs of ad space.

Does this result in a shift in media planning?

Sure. But it’s a shift that has been under way ever since ads have been able to track ad-X-results-in-sales-Y transactions.

And, as for changing ad tactics on the web, the fluid nature of the web has allowed for continual evolving and refining of web advertising.

Look at the popularity of search. It developed due to the way users now seek out information on the web, and is why the verticals market has somewhat dried up as an ad option. And, as users continue to find new ways to achieve their goals online, ads need to evolve with the users to best suit the medium that is the web.

As for consumers not needing advertising, and organically deciding they need Product X? Let’s just say that it’s odd that Eric Clemons cites dpreview.com as an example of an independent review site driving consumer purchases. The site exists in part off the backs of its advertisers, with visitors coming to the site due to their perception that they need a digital camera. The entire PR process of getting the proper information to the proper review sites is also advertising. To view these placements as not being funded by a manufacturer’s marketing budget seems a little shortsighted.

An example of viral marketing.

Ken Block’s spirited gymkhana video finally made AdGabber today. For those of you not familiar with Subaru beyond taking your Labrador and 2.5 kids for an off-road picnic, the company has an amazing history of hooliganism thanks to the spirited Impreza line and the tunability of its turbo four and chuckability of AWD.The amazing performance in this video, brought to you by DC Shoes, Subaru, 0-60 Magazine and the masterminds at Crawford Performance, has been viewed over 14 million times since first posted back on November 11, 2008. Even with half of those views coming from Brad, those stats are still staggering, especially for a project that doesn’t reek of ROI-focused marketing.

But what is the key metric? Impressions? Brand retention? Image-shifting? This timely video was launched right after the launch of the recently softened (and subsequently spiced-up) new-bodied Impreza line, which was seen by the market as a total departure from what traditional buyers enjoyed most about the model.

But, while this video is directly responsible for at least one direct sale, viral marketing still seems out of the realm of a client who is narrowly focused on immediate, trackable ROI figures. Which is something of a shame, really, since the art form can accomplish so much more.

Customer Relationships Management

A travel-related client of ours recently came to us looking for marketing vehicles which could energize its aging loyalty program member list and have trackable ROI. 0With the travel industry seeing hard times this change in direction is quite timely, with many companies transitioning from an awareness focus to a retention focus.

The client’s loyalty program consisted of discounts presented through the very occasional direct mail piece. There was also not a strong CRM system in place. To expand this program and drive more frequent member interaction, we scheduled a series of emails to what was essentially a very stale contact list. Stage one was the creation of a browser-friendly HTML piece to drive traffic to a tightly funnelized landing page. The primary goal was to keep the company’s name in front of the member and get them to re-confirm their desire to be in the program. The secondary goal was to get the customer buy-in on the idea, and to hopefully generate enough revenue from the email while energizing the list to draw sales from them in the following month.

We had great concern over the list’s lack of use, since it was quite stale. After confirming that the list met Can-Spam requirements, we tested multiple subject lines (but not creatives at this point) to test audiences and gauged bounce rates and opens. We then proceeded to drop the email to the remainder of the member list, resulting in a 42% open rate and 54% click through rate. We also enjoyed an 83% (!) conversion rate on the landing page.

For directly-attributable sales from the email, we easily covered the cost of the program, with the re-energized member population then proceeding to bring in revenue to cover many, many more marketing programs.

Stage two is the expansion of the program’s reach and frequency, tapping into lists of leads that have not yet converted to the loyalty program, and comprehensive customer research to better target offers and messaging. We also have proposed integrating an SMS program to incorporate simple offers and travel reservation reminders.