Understanding the Digital Uniform

A glimpse into the future with Pranav Mistry

TiVo and Google partner to measure TV ads - but are they missing the point?

 It was announced yesterday that TiVo, the creator of and a leader in television services and advertising solutions for digital video recorders (DVRs) and Google, the preeminent player in online search and analytics, are teaming up to track TV ads.

The way this will work is that Google will integrate TiVo television viewing data into its measurement of audiences for advertisements sold through Google TV Ads platform.  This once again expands Google's reach into traditional media tracking and distribution.  On the surface this move seems like a very big step, to be able to track the effectiveness of TV ads across viewers is a very exciting proposition for marketers.  However, I wonder if TiVo and Google might be missing the real opportunity here.

As with most partnerships, the devil is always in the details.  In this deal, Google TV Ads will be able to draw on anonymous, second-by-second DVR viewing data from TiVo's stand-alone subscribers to substantially enhance the measurement and accountability of ad impressions for inventory sold using the Google TV Ads auction-based system. 

Did you catch it?   There was one word in the previous paragraph that makes all the difference.  Re-read the paragraph above and see if you can spot the missing piece of the puzzle.

It's not the second-by-second DVR viewing, that is very powerful.  It's certainly not the fact that you can now measure ad impressions in a more definitive way, which marketers have been asking for for years.  So what is it?  One simple word that takes this from a monumental announcement, to another interesting partnership.  And that one word is ANONYMOUS.

Marketing is changing from a one-to-many mass advertising approach to a one-to-one and many-to-many relationship-focused social approach.  This new marketing paradigm relies on marketers building deep one-to-one relationships with consumers and allowing those consumers to interact with each other in an open and dynamic environment.  The concept of tapping into TV viewing habits of TiVo is extremely exciting, but the real opportunity is to track those viewers on an individual basis, not anonymously.

Let me give you an example:  How excited would you be as a marketer if I could integrate TV viewing habits into your existing database of consumers, allowing you to understand what TV show or ad a consumer saw before going online to purchase your product or sign-up for your contest?

On the flip side, as a consumer, if you could be rewarded for taking action on a particular ad and have your web experience personalized based on your viewing preferences would that be cool?

We are living in a very exciting time where technology advances are forever changing the way we interact with brands, friends, colleagues and family.  We have been given control by social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn to create a unique profile, to select our social connections and to determine our own privacy settings.  However, we are still limited in our control over more traditional media.  There will be a day in the near future where all of our different channels are connected, but we are not quite there yet.

So congrats to TiVo and Google for pushing us forward and recognizing the value of measurement.  Hopefully this will be the first of many advances to make traditional media more accountable.  However, I think they might be missing the big opportunity.

As always, I welcome your feedback.  What do you think of this partnership?

You can view a full news release here

How do you spot the marketing diamond in the rough?

I recently watched a great TED talk from Rory Sutherland about perceived value.  I would highly recommend that you check it out after reading this posting.  The point of his talk is that most value associated with products and services is intangible value as oppose to intrinsic value.  Meaning that perceived value is actually much more important to us as consumers, than actual value.

Rory sites a few great examples of early marketing being done by Kings and Rulers to create perceived value with their followers, but a more recent example is the ad campaign for Shreddies in Canada. 

A concept was created to change the perception of Shreddies by offering two varieties - the original square shaped Shreddies and a new diamond shaped Shreddies (see campaign web site below).

Now we all know that it is the exact same product, however it is a smart way to add some perceived value to an old product and turn a plain old square into a bright new diamond.  Well done.

As way of another quick example, Rory discusses a research report that suggests that aside from the top 5-10% of wine drinkers that have an exceptional pallet for wine, most wine drinkers are directly influenced by the cost of the wine.  This perceived value effect is so strong that a large number of wine drinkers thought the same cheap wine tasted better when they were told it was more expensive.

So the moral of the story for Rory, is don't overlook simple ways to increase the perceived value of your products/services.  However, I have a slightly different take on these examples.  I think they carry-over very well to the world of relationship marketing.

Consumers have long been interrupted and shouted at by brands through mass media channels such as TV, print and radio.  However, there is an opportunity with digital marketing to re-build those relationships without adding to your budget.  Using new 1:1 marketing platforms, you have the ability to increase the perceived value of the marketing experience and the relationship with the brand.  Ultimately, this will result in much higher return on investment and customer satisfaction and loyalty.  This might just be your diamond in the rough?

As always, I'd love to hear your feedback.  Have you seen any great marketing campaigns recently?

Context, not content, is King!

I'm sure this post might spark a debate amongst my followers, but I think it helps to describe the shift that we are starting to see in marketing where the reigning King (Content) is being dethroned by the heir apparent (Context).  

I recently attended a regional TEC event focused on the current paradigm shift we are experiencing globally.  The guest speaker was a gentleman by the name of David Houle, a noted futurist and author of the book The Shift Age.  David had some interesting insights for the group on the future of key industries like Technology, Health Care and Energy as we shift from the information age to a new paradigm.  However, it was one seemingly minor point that he mentioned when describing the current technology evolution where I had an "aha" moment.

For the last few years, I have been trying to explain the importance of time, place and situational mindset on the consumption of content and marketing messages.  This has become especially important in a world where people access information through new and exciting channels in many new and different places.  My challenge has been trying to explain it in a way that will help people have their own "aha" moment.  After listening to David, I think I figured it out - X marks the spot.  It is only one letter that needs to change, but that letter makes all the difference in terms of how to look at your marketing strategy.  ConteNt is no longer King.  ConteXt is now King.

One of the more popular expressions in media and marketing over the last few decades is "Content is King".  This quick and simple 3 world statement indicates that in this new world of ubiquitous content and super connectivity where the playing field for distribution and access to content has been leveled, the quality of your content is the most important factor in your success as a marketer.  People will point to the success of viral videos and popular web sites such as YouTube as case studies for original and powerful content driving incredible results for brands.  This concept makes sense to most marketers, so they go to produce their own "viral video" to get the good exclusive content and put it out there for anyone to see and discuss.  There is no doubt that the quality, originality and relevance of the content is important to its success, however to advance the relationship between the brand and the individual consumers viewing the video, context is more important.

We need to start to focus more attention on understanding where consumers are at in the lifecycle with our brands.  Depending on the context of the relationship, we can start to determine what content might be appealing and more importantly, what type of content would be effective at deepening the quality and value of the relationship (ie. what content do we deliver to what segment on consumer to drive the highest possible ROI and customer satisfaction).

How to do I take advantage of this change in marketing?

1. Put a methodology in place to understand context - have a system for identifying the context of relationships with consumers on a 1:1 basis that takes into account self-reported and behavioural data.

2. Automate that methodology and apply it to your existing consumer database - Make sure you have a platform in place to automate the processes of collecting consumer data and applying your methodology to determine real-time context of each consumer relationship.

3. Tailor your marketing based on the context of each individual consumer relationship - Have an automated marketing platform in place to apply various marketing, communications and promotional treatments against individual consumers based on the context of each relationship.

If you follow the 3 steps noted above, you will significantly increase the lifetime value of your consumers, your acquisition and retention rates and the loyalty and long-term comittment to your brand.

Good luck!

Influence is a loaded gun. Do you know where it is pointing?

There is a lot of talk in marketing these days about influence.  It is a topic that I'm quite interested in and to provide full disclosure, my company, 80/20 Solutions has a web-based marketing platform that is partially dedicated to providing marketers with the tools to understand and best leverage the influence of their community members to maximize campaign reach and ROI. 

We need only to look at the recent tragic passing of Michael Jackson to see the impact of social influence.  In less than 24 hours from when the news broke about his passing, his album shot up to #1 on itunes, twitter traffic doubled and facebook traffic tripled.

There is constant chatter at marketing conferences about finding word of mouth champions, top advocates, viral superstars, influential social networkers, etc.  The challenge is that influence can be positive or negative depending on the situation and although it is difficult to control, you can set up a strategy to "influence" how people use their influence.

Here is a quick example of how an influence strategy can dramatically improve your marketing results...

1. Your customer has an experience with your brand (uses your service, tries your product, etc.)

2. They provide you with feedback on their experience (survey, forum, form, preference center, etc.)

At this point you might be thinking, "Hey, I do this already.  I know the value of soliciting feedback from my customers."  That is a good start, but unfortunately asking the questions is only part of the solution.  It is what you do based on the answer that matters.  Let's continue.

3. You automatically analyze the feedback and dynamically filter people into segments.  For this example let's keep the segments really simple: Positive, Neutral and Negative Experience.

4. You have automated workflow setup to apply different marketing treatments against the various segments.
    a) You send the people that had a positive experience directly into the social networks to share their         experience with friends
   b) You focus on brand building with the neutral segment to get them more excited about your brand         (ie. contests, offers, etc.)
    c) You IMMEDIATELY start to rebuild the relationship with the negative segment through targeted             recovery e-mails, special offers and further surveying and monitoring

5. You track the behaviours of your various segments and keep in contact with them to see how many you have transitioned to a more positive brand experience.

6. Once you see that an individual has moved from a negative or neutral segment to a positive segment, you immediately send them to the social networks to tell friends about you.

7. Use social tie-ins like Facebook connect or apps to track the influence

8. Repeat (and automate the full process to maximize ROI)

Remember, the important part about influence is knowing how to use it to your advantage.  So make sure you understand the individual's state of mind and brand opinion before sending them to talk to their friends.  It is not necessarily a terrible thing to hear that someone had a bad experience with your brand, however it is terrible if you don't do anything to correct it.  Some of the best viral messages about brands are the ones that describe how an initially bad experience was dealt with quickly and effectively to get to a positive conclusion.

It is good to get excited about the potential of influence and viral marketing, but make sure you have a strategy and the proper process and tools to ensure that your strategy delivers the positive results you desire.

As always, I would love to get your feedback or hear your thoughts on other ways you have seen marketers use influence to either positively or negatively impact their campaign performance.

Canada's New Electronic Commerce Protection Act (ECPA)

For those followers of my blog that are operating in Canada, please take note that there is a new Electronic Commerce Protection Act (ECPA), Bill C-27, that has recently been introduced by the Canadian government.  For all intents and purposes, this is Canada's version of an "anti-spam" act.  I have included a summary from the new bill below for reference.

You can also check out this quick article on the bill from Canada.com

"This enactment establishes a regulatory framework to promote the efficiency
and adaptability of the Canadian economy by regulating certain activities that
discourage reliance on electronic means of carrying out commercial activities.

It enacts the Electronic Commerce Protection Act, which prohibits the
sending of commercial electronic messages without the prior consent of the
recipient an

d provides rules governing the sending of those types of messages,
including a mechanism for the withdrawal of consent. It also prohibits other
practices that discourage reliance on electronic means of carrying out
commercial activities, such as those relating to the alteration of data
transmissions and the unauthorized installation of computer programs. In
addition, that Act provides for the imposition of administrative monetary
penalties by the

Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commis-
sion, after taking into account specified factors. It also provides for a private
right of action that enables a person affected by an act or omission that
constitutes a contravention under that Act to obtain an amount equal to the
actual amount of the loss or damage suffered, or expenses incurred, and
statutory damages for the contravention.

 This enactment amends the Competition Act to prohibit false or misleading
commercial representations made electronically.
It also amends the Personal Information Protection and Electronic
Documents Act to prohibit the collection of personal information by means
of unauthorized access to computer systems, and the unauthorized compiling of
lists of electronic addresses.

Finally, it makes related amendments to the Competition Act, the Personal
Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, the Canadian Radio-
television and Telecommunications Commission Act and the Telecommunications Act."

Also see this summary from the guys at emailkarma.net about how it can impact you as a marketer in Canada.

The complete bill can be downloaded by clicking this link

 

Pfizer uses Bloggers as Viral Champions

We are in the middle of a very interesting time in marketing.  There is certainly a digital revolution upon us and brands are struggling to figure out where they fit in this new digital ecosystem.  This has opened up the opportunity for innovative thinkers to re-evaluate the information distribution channels available to them and find new avenues for viral distribution of content.  The only problem is that recently those innovative viral campaigns have not involved a brand, despite many failed attempts to recreate past successful viral campaigns.  However, Pfizer Europe has attracted a lot of recent attention, including two IAC awards, with their innovative "Quitters Arcade" viral marketing campaign.

Quitters Arcade is part of Pfizer's quit smoking initiative that provides consumers with resources to help them quit smoking.  The web experience is very simple and provides consumers with the ability to play 1 of 3 simulated arcade video games around quitting smoking.  However, there is one important element that might go unnoticed to a casual web visitor which makes this web site instantly viral.  It offers bloggers the ability to embed the simulated arcade games within their blogs (see the game at the top of this blog as an example).  The best part of this strategy is the flawless execution.  The web site makes embedding the game a quick and easy 3 step process.

Step One: Enter the name and URL of your blog

Step Two: Copy the custom code generated for your blog

Step 3: Paste it into the HTML editor in your blog interface

 

This campaign took off in the blogosphere and the resulting viral effect turned this simple concept into a huge viral success and an award winning campaign for Pfizer.  In a time where most marketers are spending money trying to create unique and viral content, with limited success, it is refreshing to see a brand try something new that is simple and original.

As a final note, also notice that Pfizer is not the dominant brand in this campaign.  It is branded as "Quitters Arcade" and "brought to you by Pfizer Inc.".  The tides of marketing are changing, marketers need to ride the wave or get swept up in the tide.

What do you think of this campaign?  Is it a cool new viral concept or another over-hyped viral campaign?

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Do you have a marketing "list" or "community"? 5 Ways to find out!

      

As Founder & CEO of 80/20 Solutions, I often get involved in discussions with clients on the topic of growing and optimizing their consumer databases.  Clients often tell me that they want to build a "community", however, the overall strategy and approach that they suggest is more consistent with the concept of building a "list".  Unfortunately, the two terms are often used interchangeably or incorrectly, which leads to poor objective setting and measurement and ultimately unreasonable or unmet expectations.  I thought I would take the time to discuss my thoughts on the differences to help you understand if you have a community or just a list.

Let me start by saying that, unlike a list, you cannot "build" a community.  Brands have the ability to foster and nurture the development of a community, but the community members are the ones that actually "build" that community.  This might appear to be a trivial point, however understanding this distinction goes a long way towards the ways in which you construct your approach regarding community development and engagement.

 Here are five quick questions you might want to ask yourself to see if you are building a list or nurturing a community:

1. Is your communication with your consumers one-way or two-way?

        If it is only a one-way communication, you are broadcasting to them.  Which is much more consistent with a traditional mailing or distribution list.  If you are engaging in two-way dialogue with your consumers, you are putting in place a key concept of community, which is the ability for individuals to contribute to the community and personalize their involvement.

2. How would you classify the relationships you are nurturing: one-to-many, one-to-one or many-to-many?

    If your answer is one-to-many, you almost certainly have a list.  Again, a blast approach is consistent with a mailing list or mass distribution list.

    If your answer is one-to-one, it depends on how you have structured the relationships.  Depending on the context, this could be a very specific and segmented list or the building blocks for a successful community.

    If your answer is many-to-many, you have a community.  However, depending on the framework you have put into place, that community might not be helpful for your brand.  Make sure you understand the potential challenges of an open social community.

3. How much control do you have over your consumers and how they interact with your brand and other consumers?

    This is a tricky question, with answers that might actually surprise you.

    If your answer is that you have full control over your consumers and their interactions with your brand and other consumers, it is likely you have a list.  That being said, it is still possible that you have a community, but it is a heavily regulated or moderated community.  This type of community could actually be the best option for certain types of brands including brands with "trusted advisor" relationships or brands that rely on discrete 1:1 relationships.

    If your answer is that you have no control over your consumers and their interactions with your brand, you have probably wasted your money.  Although successful social networking sites have thrived based on limited controls, it is very important to note that they have clearly defined the sandbox for consumers and the rules of engagement with other consumers in the community.  Although we all like the concept of complete freedom, our actions indicate that we prefer the security of some basic community ground rules to protect our privacy and define our involvement.  As a company, you always need to asses the impact of certain behaviours on your brand.  Make sure you set your community sandbox accordingly to avoid any potential PR nightmares.

If your answer is that you have some control over interactions and a defined framework and policies, but you have the flexibility built in your community space to allow community members to engage in different ways, you have a healthy and viable community.

4. Under what context did consumers opt-in?

When you asked your consumer to opt-in to participate with you further, what specifically did you ask them?  This is a very important question and it provides the context for the relationship to which they have agreed to enter.  If your question was "do you wish to receive offers and communications about upcoming products and promotions?", you have built a mailing list.

If a consumer built a profile and learned about the various ways they could interact (two-way) with your brand and other opted-in consumers, you have started a community.

It is also important to point out here, that if your consumers did not "opt-in" than you have neither a compliant list nor a proper community.  Please make sure you are explicit with your consumers on the ways in which you plan to use their data and the value that they get through participating with your brand.  Most importantly, ensure that you follow best practices in your opt-in and opt-out processes.

5. Do your current opt-in consumers recruit friend and/or colleagues?

The answer to this question might be misleading.  It is still possible to use viral marketing to build a "list", however it is more likely that friends will tell other friends and colleagues about communities.  Again, the follow up question relates to context.  What message did your consumer send to his/her friend or colleague?  Was it about signing up to receive great offers or was it about joining and engaging with them around a common topic or theme?

All in all, this post is not meant to sway you towards building a list or nurturing the development of a community.  It is merely intended to point out that there is a difference.  Some brands have been very successful at building mailing lists and driving out offers and promotions.  However, a well nurtured community promotes loyalty and provides much more insight into the needs and wants of your consumers.  Just make sure that you understand the social landscape and the available technologies before investing too heavily into your community initiative.  We have all seen the brand version of facebook and it can be scary.  I see the value in absorbent paper towels, but I don't want to build a paper towel profile and connect with other similar-minded consumers to share stories about how fast I can clean spilled pop off the counter.

As always, i welcome your comments and feedback!

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2008 Marketer of the Year goes to ... Barack Obama?

 

Without a doubt, the 2008 Marketer of the Year goes to Barack Obama.  Regardless of your political affiliation or views, Barack Obama clearly showed that his digital strategy was superior to all others in 2008.  He proved that digital marketing focused on building communities, social interaction and 1:1 communications can work and can be used to gain market share and drive people to act.  The numbers from the campaign are not only impressive, they are historic.  Can Barack Obama change the political landscape by using the power of digital marketing?  Yes, he can!

Let's look at some of the statistics (and you too will "believe"):   

 - 3 million donors made a total of 6.5 million donations online adding up to more than $500 million with an average donation size of $80.

- Over 13 million e-mail addresses were collected over the course of the campaign

- Over 1 million people signed up to received text messages from Obama

- Obama had over 5 million supporters in social networks across over 15 online communities including Facebook, MySpace, Blackplanet, Eons, etc.

- Over 660,000 followers on Twitter

- Millions of views of his video addresses on Youtube, AOL, Yahoo! and MSN

Where does Barack Obama go from here?

- Activate his community to champion his issues with their local government officials

- Hold informal referendums on any issue, any time he wants by putting surveys out to his opt-in community

- Continue to drive up donations for important initiatives

- Speak directly to the American people on any important issue without the need for traditional media

- Start fundraising for 2012

What can you learn from Barack Obama?

- Digital Marketing is powerful

- Brand building in a web 2.0 world is different than it was before

- Power lies in connecting with people on a 1:1 basis

- You can drive offline action from online relationships!

- A large group of people taking small actions, can create overwhelming results

- Identify your influencers and word of mouth champions and enable them to advocate your behalf

As always, make sure you are using technology as an enabler of your strategy, don't let it be a barrier.  Look for ways to consolidate your consumer touch points, data points and drive real-time engagement.

So the key questions you should ask yourself are...

How are you using social and 1:1 marketing to drive your business?

How are your competitors using social and 1:1 marketing to drive business away from you?

As always, I hope this post has been helpful and I welcome your comments!

People taking liberties with the word "Literally"

I was talking to my wife the other day and she pointed out to me that people have a tendency to misuse the word literally.  I thought about it for a second and realized that she was really on to something.  Since that point, I must have heard a dozen people use it out of context.  There seems to be a growing group of people that use "literally" in situations where they really mean "figuratively".  I'll give you a few examples below.  Let's go through the exercise for fun.

Definition of Literally - not figurative; accurate to the letter; matter of fact or concrete.

So when a colleague or friend says to you that someone was:
"Literally killing them"; or
"Literally burning with rage"; or
someone at the gym was "literally running 100 miles an hour" beside them. 

You might not even bat an eyelash.  However, let's deconstruct these statements:

1. If someone were "literally" killing your friend, they should at a minimum be showcasing a major wound and a police report would likely have been filed at some point. 

2. If someone was "literally" burning with rage, at a minimum I would assume that they would have a reality TV show on VH1 by now. 

3. If someone at the gym was "literally" running 100 mph, they would be 4 times faster than Usain Bolt and I believe one of the fastest mammals on earth (fact check).

Although these are all blatant misuses of the word, perhaps the most outrageous example came from the late Jerry Falwell who said (and I quote):

"Someone must not be afraid to say, ‘moral perversion is wrong.’ If we do not act now, homosexuals will own America! If you and I do not speak up now, this homosexual steamroller will literally crush all decent men, women, and children who get in its way … and our nation will pay a terrible price!”

I must thank the guys at http://literally.barelyfitz.com/ for the last example.  They feel strongly enough about this subject that they publish a blog dedicated to the misuse of the word.  It's a pretty funny read, if you have the time.

So I'm "literally" going to stop writing this blog now...