Bob Rinderle / Business & Beyond

More Attention Going To Mobile, Internet

In 2010, only mobile and the internet realized positive growth in terms of time spent with major media for U.S. adults, according to eMarketer.  Quite a remarkable drop for TV and video.

 

Internet And Mobile Ad Share

Internet and mobile soon to become second largest ad segment behind TV.

 

Does Social Media Sell?

"While digital channels and online interactions offer a plethora of data points, they don't come with a set playbook for assigning value. Marketers have grown comfortable with formulas like gross ratings points and frequency, time-tested formulas for building brands in traditional media. Yet with social media, what's a Facebook friend worth?" asks Brian Morrissey in Adweek.
 
Pepsi went big in social with Refresh Everything, a program that directs $20 million to charities.  As Morrissey reported, the program was appealing to Pepsi executives because it rested on four big trends: crowdsourcing, doing good, sharing and transparency.

"Our goal is to skate to the center of culture," says Bonin Bough, PepsiCo's director of social media. "Right now, digital is culture."

Many believe the future for brands is to do well by doing good - made famous, in part, by Google's "don't be evil" mantra.  I'm all for corporate responsibility, but when it comes to philanthropic marketing, there is a point at which brand elasticity snaps.  I'm curious to see how far Pepsi's messaging can move into social activism before the critical brand experience - the reason why the physical product exists - eventually gets lost.  Interestingly, another beverage, Coors Light, reversed years of sales declines by recommitting to a product-based message grounded in Rocky Mountain cold refreshment.

It is tricky to get the marketing mix and messaging mix in proper balance; I am interested to see how Pepsi's moves play out. 

Did Bill Bernbach Foresee Social Media?

Bill Bernbach's status as a visionary is legendary, but I'm still blown away by his prescience.  Consider the following dedication Bernbach wrote for a book he never finished - and keep in mind that he died in 1982 when the three major TV networks and the seven sisters of print still dominated, and the marketing world centered on the needs of clients rather than consumers:  

"We in the communications field - in radio, in television, in magazines, in newspapers, in posters - have developed unprecedented skills in mass persuasion.  You and I can no longer isolate our lives.  It just won't work.  What happens to society is going to affect us with increasing rapidity.  The world has progressed to the point where its most powerful force is public opinion.  And I believe that in this new, complex, dynamic world it is not the great book or the epic play, as once was the case, that will shape that opinion, but those who understand mass media and the techniques of mass persuasion.  The metabolism of the world has changed.  New vehicles must carry ideas to it.  We must ally ourselves with great ideas and carry them to the public.  We must practice our skills on behalf of society.  We must not just believe in what we sell.  We must sell what we believe in.  And we must pour a vast energy into these causes."

2010: Time To Turn Digital Into Dollars

According to the L.A. Times, "Next year will be spent experimenting with business models to get people to pay for what they are used to getting for free."

 

SmartPhones = Digital Swiss Army Knives

According to Jenna Wortham in the NY Times, "Smartphones have become the Swiss Army knives of the digital age."  This analogy works on so many levels.

 

Online Ads Beat TV In Britain

Online is now the largest ad medium in Britain, ending TV's 50 year domination.  Since 1998, digital ads have grown 100-fold, and now comprise 23.5% of all ad spending in the U.K. versus 21.9% for TV (according to PwC and the IAB).

Denmark was the first to experience this milestone, roughly six months ago.

Holy Mobile!

Holy Mobile! One out of every seven minutes of media consumption takes place via mobile devices, according to research findings from Universal McCann and AOL.  A few key facts:

• 80% of smart-phone users are satisfied with the quality of the Internet on their mobile devices   
• 81% of mobile users use their devices while shopping 
• 95% of users use mobile media to fill downtime 
• 77% use TV and mobile at the same time to enhance the overall media consumption experience 
• 55% participate in social networking via their devices 
• 38% say they have taken action based on mobile ads  

Stuart Rodnick, senior director of strategic insights at AOL, said that mobile is leading a "social transformation." 

Is Your Company Managing For Growth?

"The current economic downturn has... accelerated and intensified the digital migration among both providers and consumers of content," according to the PricewaterhouseCooper Global Entertainment & Media Outlook.  "Companies who grasp the opportunities... in this fast changing marketplace... will be able to take full advantage of the potential and new revenue models as they emerge."

That statement sounds so simple.  Yet companies across a wide range of industries are struggling to evolve to stay relevant.  The recession has forced companies to cut overhead and streamline FTEs, but that is just one side of the economic equation.  Who is managing innovation?  Businesses can't cut their way to growth, so where will future growth come from? 

In the books Disruption and Trading Up, the authors suggest real change can only occur when leaders enter from outside an industry, or are capable of leveraging a new perspective; too often entrenched thinking puts blinders on one's ability to see new possibilities. And certainly executives across many industries including publishing, music, automobiles, retail, advertising, etc., have failed to imagine the future. What steps is your management taking to optimize for innovation and to imagine new opportunities for growth? 

What Is Driving Increase In Viral?

According to the Forbes "Ad Effectiveness Survey," 54% of marketers who spend in excess of $1 million on digital expect to spend more on viral marketing, while 50% expect to spend more on SEO.  This same group will decrease spending on ad networks by 52%.

I'd love to know what their expectations are for "viral."  The jump in SEO spending with the corresponding decrease for ad networks suggests an increased emphasis on click efficiency.  So what is viral's role in the mix?  Do marketers expect it to drive additional clicks, or do they hope it will be a less expensive way to drive branding?  Viral is not a strategy, so I'm curious about the intent. What do you think?