 September 28, 2008
 Open Up the BackchannelTagged as: O.P.E.N., digital millennials, engaging, networked, social webPosted by: Dan Shust
We have been seeing similar experiences sprout up for the debates and other select events, but why not just open the backchannel permanently? Let us chat while we watch, participate in fun competitions, etc. I'd love to see the major networks get behind an idea like this. What a great way to enhance the viewing of a live sporting event, episodic drama, etc. It could even make a really horrible show fun. (Remember MST3K?) Advertisers would love it because chatting encourages live viewing (the anti-DVR?). Additionally, they could collect some very interesting user opinion data surrounding their ad campaigns. What do you say NBC, ABC, CBS, HBO? Open up the backchannel and I might even watch Knightrider. September 25, 2008
 Future of Online Retail as a Total Growth DriverTagged as: new consumer journey, retailPosted by: Mila Goodman
Last week, I attended Shop.org’s annual summit in Vegas. The vibe—online is still growing and more important—it is playing a larger part in the retail world. Having attended shop.org for the past five years, I felt a subtle shift in how the e-commerce groups are now getting a larger voice within their corporations—and many have a voice in shaping overall strategy. The value of the online channel is being realized as an extender and catalyst for the entire customer experience. Retailers such as Borders, Gap and L.L. Bean are improving their cross channel customer experience by leveraging the online channel. For some retail organizations (aside from the pure-play brands, of course), e-commerce is front and center and yet for others, it is still a business off to the side. For those, the challenge remains of transitioning e-commerce to one of the cornerstones of the enterprise. One of my favorite suggestions from the conference is that the head of e-commerce must report to the CEO.
This year, I moved from a participant to both participant and contributor. Resource Interactive was invited to host the Executive Afternoon session. Our preparation included three proprietary research studies. We synthesized our findings along with industry statistics and trends to share our perspective on how the online channel is the brand's growth driver. So, how is the online channel contributing to the future of retail? Kelly Mooney, our President & CXO, hosted the Executive Afternoon session and shared 5 key takeaways, which should have heads of e-commerce as well as CEO’s and retail executives thinking and acting differently.
1. Expand the role of the web to be a strategic growth lever. The web is the fastest-growing channel and is responsible for disproportionate retail growth. The web accounts for approximately 7% of total sales and is expected to grow to 11% in 2012. However, it will represent approximately 43% of total sales growth. Additionally, the online channel as a contribution factor will influence up to 50% of total sales (both online & offline). Think of it this way: online will influence more offline sales than it will contribute direct sales. 2. Create relevant and integrated cross-channel experiences. The web uniquely catalyzes cross-channel shopping. The online channel is different than its counterparts as it can strengthen, extend or change the customer’s experience across other touch points. It can be the starting point (inspiration or research) within the customers’ purchase journey. It can also be the ending point (transactions, customer service). It can also include all the touch points that may be consulted in between—the inter-experience if you will. The online channel is a sales channel, a marketing channel—and a customer experience channel. 3. Map your customers’ purchase journeys to support their needs. The web has begun to rival stores for driving purchase decisions. In our August 2008 survey, we found that retail stores and online were nearly equally important in helping customers make a decision on what home electronics products to purchase. Despite the category’s online maturity, it revealed that there is importance equality across these two channels. 4. Reallocate marketing dollars to activities with proven effectiveness and ROI. Consumers’ diverse activities and time spent online is outpacing Internet advertising spend. It’s no surprise that customers are time and channel shifting. Digital Millenials will also throw a curveball into the mix because they have a higher rate of consuming multiple forms of media simultaneously. GM, the nation’s third largest advertiser, is shifting $3 billion from traditional advertising to online advertising over the next 3 years. As important as the shift or re-allocation of some budget to online is ensuring that it is spent properly. Please don’t invest it all in email and paid search because they have the strongest ROI. If your customers are social web-empowered customers, bookmark a reasonable amount for testing and learning with emerging media. 5. Prioritize and test branded micro-experiences that have high appeal for select customer segments. Appealing yet still emerging features can unlock new, differentiated growth potential. In a parallel path or even after you implement the basics of the online customer experience, focus on your customers—their behaviors, needs and motivations. Make their experience more efficient and enjoyable by creating appropriate micro-experiences that serve their need at a given point of time. If you think about your own online experiences, how often do you complete an “entire experience” in one sitting and within just one channel? If you’re on the go (as most of us are), you start and stop all the time—you have subconsciously mashed up shopping experiences with entertainment experiences, carrying expectations from one brand to the next. With your brand hat on, remember that and create the finite experience so that it can help move the customer appropriately through their defined journey. To view our presentation and white paper, please visit our site: http://www.resource.com/onlinedrivesgrowth Keep in mind as you’re negotiating your marketing budgets that customer experience is marketing. Customer experience is everything. It is the key for both acquisition and retention across channels. September 24, 2008
 Agency Life, 2012: Takeaways from the MIXX ConferenceTagged as: Open brand, creative, trendsPosted by: Molly Metzger
Tasty-Good Case Studies My first thought is that digital is truly, finally a serious business. How do I know? I know because the sponsored snacks were quite possibly the worst I’ve experienced at any conference. One could argue that the vertical ad networks, premium content providers and gaming sites are too small and niche to afford more than pre-packaged grocery store granola bars for the mass of attendees. I believe there’s something more to it: these start-ups were more focused on case studies than tchotchke, save for one poor soul dressed in a chicken suit. This departure from the early days of interactive is a testament to the seriousness of the industry. We’ve arrived. Digital remains vibrant despite tough economic times. We’ll stay the course, even if the food is terrible, because digital works. I’ll spend some time later discussing the details, but here are a few prognostications about the future of agency life in the digital age. My industry projections are as follows: International Agency Cooperation Week, 2012 “No agency can do it alone” was a key theme, and after seeing the case studies, I believe it. The caliber and complexity of the work is evidence of tight collaboration of all creative practices and media partners in the very early stages of concept development. We heard from BBDO’s Andrew Robertson that the best creative ideas are the result of 72 hour transcreative collaborations, where “all forms attack the brief” in their own way, using their own tools. For at least 1 week in 2012, we’ll celebrate our collective contributions to the work. No one owns the big idea, the account, the credit. There’s no time for nonsense. National Take Your Vendor to Work Day The collaboration theme didn’t end with agencies and creative teams. By way of example, Google and Publicis associates have gone as far as trading jobs for the day, in an effort to conquer issues collaboratively to bring value and speed to market only delivered by walking in one another’s shoes. I predict 30 minute WebEx briefings will be replaced by day-long collaboration sessions that will change what we offer, bringing new value and speed to our clients. Take your Account Exec to Lunch Day In this increasingly complex world, the venerable AEs are sharpening their pencils and establishing new cost structures. “Production as a percent of media” doesn’t cover costs when media is, in some cases, free and production costs are increasingly uncertain due to all the moving parts. On top of that, it’s imperative that AEs spend the majority of their time helping the clients “push the big bet” (quote from Michael Linton, CEO of eBay) when the idea is right. This requires a mix of confidence, hunger and humility demonstrated by the best and brightest in our industry. When the client is temporarily terrified, the AE's bedside manner matters. So as creatives collect those awards, I predict they’ll thank the AEs for making it possible. The Final Score: Vegas 0, Madison Avenue 1 My favorite quote on the future of the interactive advertising industry didn’t come from this conference, but from the Social Times conference last week. One panelist, I think it was Ian Swanson of Sometrics, made the following observation: “There are two sides of this industry. The side that hold conventions on the Vegas Strip and the side that meet on Madison Avenue. In 5 years, I don’t want to be on the Vegas strip.” Score one for Madison Avenue. The food might be better in Vegas but I’ll take NY any day. In closing, a few data points No conference coverage would be complete without a few new data points sure to make PowerPoint presentations everywhere. Here’s one from Microsoft: 94% of data is disregarded by the “last ad standard”, the assignment of conversion credit to whatever ad was finally clicked. And from Deloitte: 82% of content for the top 20 global brands is driven by other stakeholders. Score one for OPEN brands. September 22, 2008
“You are here.” How many of us have scrutinized this inadvertently philosophical assertion when wayfinding in the subway or at the zoo, mall or amusement park? The X designating one’s location vis-à-vis other highlights on the map is practically the universal symbol for being slightly lost. In my experience, it always seems to have little to do with where I feel I am, or where I wish I were, or where I thought I had finally arrived. All manner of perspectival negotiation of the 2-D maze of lines and dots before me ensues: moving in closer, tilting my head to align the landmarks with my sightline, squinting so as to project myself onto the smaller plane of impervious reality before me. A cartoon check on Google reassured me I’m in good company finding humor in the incongruity between my existential self and this confident cartographic depiction of it. But a really funny thing has happened recently while navigating our way to the forum—or big box or nightclub. Something dislodged this incongruity, this mismatch between our selves and our public maps. Location awareness has become the new “there there” of our digital devices, and not just of the mere 17% of phones that are GPS-enabled (as of late 2007, pre- 3G iPhone). Low- and mid-tier mobile phones and PNDs (personal navigation devices) have been serving up location awareness to millions.
Location awareness, in case its killer app-ness is initially lost on you, means the navigator is embedded in the map. That inscrutable X that once stood for you is now the real-time longitudinal and latitudinal (and sometimes altitudinal) equivalent of you. And if that isn’t enough of a kick for the navigation-challenged, or the socially mobile (as it were), the map in which you are embedded can be populated exclusively by the geo-information in which you’ve indicated interest. So the world arrays itself around you and your immediate needs and desires as if you were Zeus on a daytrip. The digitally prescient have been talking about this paradigm shifter for some time—how web surfing is giving way—or at least sharing the stage with—world surfing. We in the RI:Lab have been studying the macrotrend of Cartocracy for months. But brands might be wondering what the heck these apps and maps offer that their store locators don’t. We’ll need a few WeThink posts to answer that one but, for now, here’s a handy list of five reasons a new kind of X marks the spot, and how mega value creation is sure to follow.
More mapping mania to come! September 19, 2008
A co-worker shared this site with me and and I thought, "here we go, another linear car configurator. To my surprise, this was any thing but the typical configuration tool." This visual and engaging journey helps determine your personal style, interest and needs in a car is done is a clever, but simple manner. It left me wanting to go drive the Saab 9.5 SportCombi you see in the image above. September 8, 2008
You wouldn't know that if you'd only ever gone to Crocs.com. As clean and fun as the site is, it doesn't reflect the passion or the creativity of the people who wear these bright rubber shoes with (comfort and) pride. It misses out on great engagement opportunities. Plus, with Crocs fever having cooled off a bit, seems like the perfect reason to capitalize on the fervor of existing fans. Time to OPEN up!
September 8, 2008
September 2, 2008
Google is throwing its hat into an already crowded browser market with the announcement of the “Chrome” browser. It will be available for download sometime today. Information about the new browser, which was shared in comic book form, is fairly sparse at this point. According to Google, the browser will be more “secure”, “faster”, “clean, simple, and efficient”. A few more details are provided in the comic book regarding its technical approach to address existing browsers’ faults. Clearly, this is another shot directed at Microsoft and its Internet Explorer browser. Microsoft plans to role out version 8 of IE soon. What does this mean to the digital marketing? In the short-term, increased browser compatibility testing will be required to ensure current and future web experiences function correctly in these new browsers. Longer-term, the hope is that better browsers will help reduce and simplify the testing process while enabling greater experiences and functionality. But with 30% of web users still using IE 6.0, including many corporations, that promise might be far off. Until then, browser diversity will be the rule of the day and Chrome will simply be another one to add to the list. |
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