May 2, 2008

Unique view into the world of marketing

Social media measurement continues to look like a kitchen sink. It's good that we're trying to figure it out, but just like the early days of websites and e-commerce we're trying to understand what's important, and we will get there. A post from Website Magazine lists several ranging from RSS subscribers to ratio of comments to content on your blog to monitoring search saturation.
It's all about the assumptions. From MarketingNPV's newsletter: "ROI as a single measure is a dumb idea. But show me an ad campaign that wasn't built upon a set of assumptions and I'll show you one destined to fail. Assumptions don't undermine quality measurement, lack of EXPLICITLY STATED assumptions do." You can always go back and relax or challenge the assumptions that led to a conclusion.
In discussing WPP's 2007 results CEO Martin Sorrell picked 'new technologies' as having a positive impact on the PR side of things. Appears social media may be better as a communication platform rather than an advertising one. The issue comes down to grammatical pronouns: social media is 1st person, advertising is 2nd person. People don't like to be told what to do or think.
Jeff Zabin of Aberdeen also wrote on social media monitoring and PR.
In contrast to the above, casual game players will watch video ads before and during breaks. Since this audience is predominantly female and 30+ it is a desirable audience to reach. Games from Azada to Zuma are capturing the attention and advertising dollars, estimated to be just short of $1b in 2011.
From the imitation is the sincerest form of flattery: Mindest Media uses 20 different elements of personality to identify online users of the right type. A different kind of behavioral targeting based on surveying lots of users then understanding their patterns.
Google is (did?) beta test a program called "Automatic Matching" that spends an advertiser's surplus budget on terms that might help conversion that aren't included in the AdWords campaigns. Either this takes all the strategy away, or it takes all the differentiation; it certainly takes the rest of the budget.
The "Blissful Ignorance Effect" suggests that the LESS you know about what you buy, the HAPPIER you'll be. Once a purchase is made, people want to like and justify their decision. They don't want to hear all the facts, warts, and gory details. They just want to believe you deliver on your brand promise.
MarkekingVOX summarizes some research sponsored by TMS/Cymfony what marketing executives think about social media. The short answer; it's important - not as advertising but as a way 'to understand unfiltered consumer perceptions'
Battle of the bands has moved to MySpace vs. Facebook -- both see music as marketing for other products and services.
SpotRunner, the purveyor of the original $500 TV spot, is moving out to cover search and display with the same business model: Fully automate the advertising and media process across any tactic. If you don't think it can be done - stay tuned and think about what Henry Ford did to automobiles.