April 11, 2008

What I see in the world of marketing

From the 'why didn't we think of it' department: Ran across two companies this week that are automatically generating search ads based on a scan of a product catalog and a scan of affiliate or content rich site. The value proposition is to dynamically create better ads based on changing content.
Also in the solve a problem space FriendFeed (www.friendfeed.com) allows users to aggregate all their different on-line profiles into an integrated viewing platform - videos, posts, comments, and pix. It even supports "Imaginary Friends" for people who haven't signed up yet. An interesting kind of voyeurism and behavioral (as opposed to brand or direct) marketing.
The 'single click' theory of giving credit to the last action taken before a sale continues to be challenged. The trend is focusing on attribution to all the exposures in the 'sphere of influence' - seems like branding campaigns do give a lift. Similar work has been done in both Marketing Mix Modeling as well as multi-channel retail scenarios.
Tracking your online reputation is now getting the tools to make it easier: Trackur and Radian6 provide the means to collect what's being said about you.
Do clickers differ from non-clickers. According to research reported on Chief Marketer the answer is yes. First, leads generated from banner ad clickers are more likely to be 25-44 years old, with incomes under $40,000. They also spend more time and visit more sites than non-clickers - auction, gambling, and career services top the list. Thus, click-through-rate isn't appropriate metric for branding.
Direct marketing continues to fuel the automotive industry. Auto retailers spent $7.3 billion on direct marketing campaigns that produced $248 billion in sales or $34 return on every dollar spent. Add to this the $8 billion spent on advertising by the manufacturers.
Next on the horizon for lead generation - a third party source for scoring leads in real time. Marketers are going to pay for performance, getting a lead is irrelevant when what they want is sales. But this is very hard to do in house.
The online marketing/digital space has more white space than filled space. Most processes are difficult to integrate due to manual efforts, lack of standards, ineffective tools, and plain old confusion -- a good thing for startups. Particularly when big companies start playing defensive in rotten economic times.
Cross channel shopping is de rigueur among the most desirable target: $75k, college educated, 25-34 year olds. Research from Sterling Commerce suggests that retailers that get their online, store, and catalogs right can improve loyalty (share of wallet) among the channel hoppers. In some research from PowerReviews (no relation) online shoppers check out 4 reviews before buying.
Advertisements come to a search near you. Google is testing video ads in search results; 'but wait there's more.
In another mashup of media Samsung offers its "See'N'Search" set-top box. It leverages the closed caption of television as key words to trigger search so that links, articles, etc. appear on screen as you watch the news. David Berkowitz on SearchInsider called it Watch'N'Discover since it provides 'content you'd be happy to have but wouldn't have searched for.'
Social media campaigns are inappropriate; social media efforts are appropriate. You don't stop since it doesn't stop - this takes a different mind set.