Encouraging focus on conversion optimisation has to be the way forward
For many companies, driving traffic to their websites is still the ultimate goal.It's the way they measure the strength of their brand, and the the effectiveness of their campaigns.
There’s nothing wrong with this, as long as we understand that traffic is not the holy grail and certainly not the only purpose of interactive marketing. All kinds of marketing can be used for all business goals, depending on context, and sheer visitor numbers really don’t mean anything by themselves. For transactional sites in retail, travel and financial service the conversion points are obvious and there is much more focus on conversion optimisation. But many, many businesses don't fall into this category and they're not tracking the many forms of conversion. All types of sites have many micro-conversions that could be measured, but often aren't.
However, the excessive focus on traffic in…
Our in-depth interview with Mike O'Brien on creating engaging digital creative
It's simple, quality creative engages. But creating quality creative is far from simple. Given its importance to successful campaigns I've been wanting to interview fellow trainer and consultant Mike O'Brien for several years to learn from his experience and share it. Mike is a lecturer and course tutor at the IDM and partner in marketing and creative strategy consultants Jam Partnership. You can connect with him via his blog.
I asked Mike to include lots of campaign creative examples to inspire you which I've integrated. Don't miss the Mini Aveaword campaign for which I have dug out the original creative! Please share the digital creative that inspires you most. It's certainly an exciting aspect of digital as this quote by Mike shows:
I think we have reached the point where creative platforms are no longer hindering the free-flow of ideas.…
The pinnacle event for traditional, broadcast advertising is going social, according to two of the major advertisers Mercedes Benz and Audi (of America). It's worth taking note as the Superbowl is famed for some pretty big campaigns the eventually go global - we'd have to assume there'll be some great, creative thinking.
It's already appearing a competitive launch pad for new thinking, Mercedes Benz' VP of marketing, Stephen Cannon, is quoted in USA Today saying "We're using the 2011 Super Bowl as our head-long plunge into committing to social media "€¦it's our strategic leap of faith". That last comment is insightful?
Mercedes are also claiming that in the next few years they plan to create cars targeting a much younger demographic, though intends to be much more social-media savvy long before that, Cannon says.
Hmm - surely you create…
Your options for visualising and better understanding the combination of media that assist sale across multiple touchpoints on the "path to purchase"
Back in 2008 I did an interview with Gary Angel, an analytics consultant at Semphonic, where I asked him about attribution approaches. What he said two years on is still equally relevant:
Attribution remains a significant issue for clients. In our view, there is no one right answer to attribution. We all know that first or last doesn't cut it. But it turns out that channels interact quite differently for different organizations. It also turns out to be nightmarishly difficult to produce coherent reports on channel interactions that capture anything like reality.
Building an attribution model usually seems to involve a significant company-specific deep-dive analysis followed by the creation of a set of business attribution rules that are applied to ongoing reporting. This is an area…
Two months ago correction fluid/tape brand Tippex launched their hit YouTube campaign, "NSFW. A hunter shoots a bear!," featuring a reluctant hunter faced with shooting a bear wandering up to his tent.
[caption id="attachment_3589" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Don't shoot the bear!"][/caption]
The hunter decides he cannot shoot the bear - instead reaching outside the frame of the video - a cool rich-media tactic - and using the big Tippex dispenser in the ad alongside him to erase "shoots" from the video's YouTube title.
As with the Burger King's classic Subservient Chicken campaign it's up to…
Best practise advice on how to run online and virtual events
Value: [rating=3]
Our commentary: We've all attended them, and many of us have managed them, think about sales and marketing meetings, conferences, tradeshows, corporate meetings, training sessions, job fairs, and more.
Taking them online makes those same events available to a much larger audience that can conveniently gather and exchange information, browse, watch product demonstrations, feedback, and network through a live, interactive platform on their computer.
In this article marketing profs share their top 10 best practices including sponsorship sales, messaging and positioning and the big one - driving live day attendance. That last point is a big one in my experience and requires multiple, well-timed reminders and helping people remember through an 'Add to Calendar' function.
Marketing implications: Online or virtual events require extensive planning, though they are generally simpler to organize and execute than traditional events. In today's time-sensitive and cost-sensitive business…
Here's an interesting article about a real social media case study, I've summarised what I feel are the salient points. The case study is based around a luxury hotel in Greece, so pretty 'real life' stuff.
Firstly, the hotel clearly defined its objectives:
Increase brand awareness through internet users in order to grow the prospect email database
Increase online booking as well as grow twitter followers, Facebook fans and views on You Tube based videos
The resulting campaign was only a few days long yet was very successful, amongst other stats it generated 187% increase in web traffic, 227% more people were drawn in to the booking engine and 150% more Facebook fans were recruited. And, the effects lasted for weeks after the campaign ended - which is interesting since the campaign only lasted for a few days so extremely short in social media terms.
The key take-aways from how the campaign was successful:
Targeted:…
Consumer research on use and perception of TV and other media
Recommended research: On TV: perspectives on television in words and numbers - Deloitte/YouGov
Value: [rating=3]
Our commentary: This research has been widely reported in the UK newspapers and online with print journalists using it to knock the Internet - always a favourite. It's staggering that they don't mention that the research was commissioned for presentation at the recent Edinburgh TV Festival... I wonder why?
It's a classic example of developing a methodology to make the statistics fit the story you want to tell. In its press release Deloitte state that "Online advertising struggles to make an impression" and that "television advertising still packs the greatest punch" and elsewhere "Advertising on television, still the nation"€™s favourite format".
FWIW Here's some of the major flaws in the methodology and reporting in my view:
1 The effectiveness of…
Key campaign ingredient = momentum!
For me, momentum or inertia is a key ingredient of digital campaigns.
Digital enables you to create momentum by adding more appealing content or apps or rewards through time, rather than just a short burst campaign.
With the viral affect from the audience sharing the value you can offer, momentum grows further through time.
The McDonald's Flavourhood Facebook campaign example
I thought it would be good to share some of the thinking behind The Flavourhood campaign which was recently written up behind the paywall on New Media Age since it shows how momentum was built in through a strategic commitment to creating value linked to through the app and through partnering with social sites like Facebook and Spotify.
Writing in New Media Age, Nathan Cooper, Creative Director of Riot 180 Amsterdam described it as:
"A cunning combo of…
I've always believed that the most engaging, most effective blogs for marketing are not CEO blogs, rather they use guest bloggers; either different employees, or better still, customers.
The award winning Tourism Ireland Taxi Challenge is another good example social media campaign of a customer video blog I featured a couple of years ago.
The Blog Your Way to Antarctica campaign
The Blog Your Way to Antarctica campaign example I feature here is similar, but in this case social media is being used effectively to recruit the customer blogger.
You may think this is a me too campaign similar to the "Best Job in the World Campaign" , but I think the way of getting customers involved is different in that it focuses more on blogging and encouraging bloggers to link back to the site.
Campaign results
A Yahoo search linkdomain:www.blogyourwaytoantarctica.com -site:www.blogyourwaytoantarctica.com shows nearly…
