You are currently browsing the monthly archive for May 2008.
This week I had the pleasure of contributing an article to the Chief Marketer web site. The article is about using web casts to drive leads and ROI. This is a topic quite familiar to King Fish as we manage over 250 web casts yearly for our clients.
To read the article please click here to go to the Chief Marketer site, and check out all of the great content they have on many other issues relevant to today’s marketer.
Kimberly Jackson and I both wrote about the same topic this week, independent of each other, so here is a short introduction and both postings. We were both taking a look at a private media channels created by personalities that are aimed at our respective demographics. Oprah is for Kimba, the influential working mom and community organizer, and Howard Stern for me and my adolescent sense of humor. While the content of each private media channel is very different, the net result is the same – a high affinity environment of trust. Time and time again it is proven that in today’s media jungle the best way to get your marketing messages across is to pair them with original content that connects with your target audience. Oprah and Howard may not have much in common, but they understand the power of intent based marketing as well as anyone today.
No one in media today understands the concept of private media channels better than Howard Stern. At first, his much trumpeted move to Sirius Satellite radio seemed like a way to get out from under the thumb of FCC and their constant monitoring. However, Howard had something more in mind than the freedom to drop an occasional f-bomb and in-depth stripper interviews. Back in the prehistoric early 90’s he dubbed himself the “King of all Media” because he was successful on syndicated radio, did a highlight show on E!, had best selling books, and an autobiographical movie. He was in all media, but they were not integrated and he was essentially renting channels from huge media companies who owned the shows and profits. He now has two dedicated stations on Sirius (soon to be merged with XM), his own web site and Howard TV which is an On Demand pay service. All three platforms are tightly integrated, and users pay for the radio show and TV shows, while the free web site is a promotion for both.
The radio channels are interesting because they create a unique environment for the show. There is a news operation to report on news about the show and characters; and each day there is a wrap up show to talk about the events of that day’s show. Each show is treated like breaking news on the radio, TV and web site. It is very addicting to tune into – you get immersed in a parallel world Howard is President and Fred, Artie, Robin, Gary and the huge cast of characters are the cabinet and members of Congress. The wrap up show is like MSNBC for the whack pack (Howard’s most loyal fans that have become part of the show).
The net effect is a very high affinity environment that produces two sources of revenue – subscriber fees and advertising/sponsorships. At a time when it is getting difficult to get people to pay for content, Stern fans are happily forking over money to be able to be a part of his private media channel. Additionally, the integration and cross-promotion is critical to creating the feel of a private media channel. Howard Stern may not be to your taste, but there is no denying he has been a media pioneer for the past 25 years. Keep an eye on him, and you will get a sense of what the future of media channels may look like.
Have you seen the Oprah Network lately? Number one ranked talk show; hit magazine; satellite radio; oprah.com… all complete with enough content to fill the digital divide. She shares her wisdom including what we should read and eat; how we should live our lives for the ultimate fulfillment; how we should decorate; who we should help, admire, adore or vilify. Can one person really be so well rounded, so educated, so omnipotent that she can maneuver the masses with such finesse?
It’s no secret that authors hope to be hand picked for her outrageously popular book club series. Sure, past endorsements include well-known’s such as Faulker, Tolstoy and Angelou, but many lesser-knows have been vaulted to stardom (or purgatory) with the same passion. Whether it is Jeffrey Eugenides discussion of children born with both male and female sexual organs in his novel Middlesex or the Gabriel Garcia Marquez with his politically charged love story in Love in the Time of Cholera, these authors become the preference of many mommy book clubs in the US. Equally, the backlash experienced by James Frey, author of A Million Little Pieces, originally billed as a memoir turned out to be a wild work of embellished fiction. Oprahs’ anger at being duped resonates for him today as he publishes his next work Bright Shiny Morning. Every interview for his newest effort seems to begin with his previous experience on Oprah. Her condemnation and distaste for his dishonesty will likely follow him for the rest of his publishing career.
Manufacturers and retailers pray for the Oprah nod of approval. Last week, Oprah did her Favorites of Summer in which each audience member won lots of her hot picks for hot summer items. Audience members received gas grills, clothes, CDs, make up, etc. – you could tell the few men in the audience had no idea what was going on when Oprah announced the theme of the show, while their female counterparts jumped up and down in anticipation of their forthcoming booty! Tummy Yummies were on her list and I would love to see the sales spike reported for this company who designs pretty tees that also minimize the not-so-rock-hard tummies!
Cover Girl Lash Blast Mascara also got the thumbs up.
“This was the first time anybody’s come to the offices with a scientist to explain how [the makeup] works,” Gayle says [Oprahs BFF Gayle is also on staff at Harpo ]. “This is the scientific explanation: A dual polymer system keeps the mascara from migrating underneath your eyes. That’s code for it doesn’t smudge.”
Did we really need a scientific explanation for how the mascara works? Oprah gave us one and maybe that is the key to her success. She takes nothing for granted in quest, not even the fact that we just buy mascara without understanding its unique merits. Marketing tip here? Never assume that your product it completely understood by your target market, no matter how main stream or simple. Oprah doesn’t.
Her endorsements reach further than store shelves. This year she has thrown her support in the presidential race to Barack Obama. I wonder if Barack was forced to pick one supporter out of his many backers, if Oprah would out rank John Edwards in importance. She might even make a great vice-presidential candidate! Her endorsement on Larry King may be one of the most pivotal moments in the dog fight between the potential first woman/the potential first African-American to seek the Presidency of the United States. Her weight, no pun intended, may just prove to be what tips the scales in the democratic decision making process.
The Oprah network reaches far and wide. Her influence is felt in so many categories. “Self help” or “help others” she can influence us by providing what we see: the whole story. She investigates, reports and summarizes those topics for which most Americans, especially American women, have neither the time nor the resources to research. We put our faith in Oprah. We believe what we see on her couch, in her pages or on another media platform. We rush to spend our time and dollars, and even our votes with a confidence that if she says it good enough, it must be. Maybe it is the humble beginnings, if a poor black girl who had many speed bumps throughout her life can become a media mogul, then amazing things might happen to us regular folk too. Maybe it’s that she just calls ‘em as she sees ‘em and for us that simplicity of message resonates. Whatever it is, there is not doubt, that in Oprah we trust!
The cable giant bought Newsday on their home turf of Long Island for $650 million after a bidding war with Rupert Murdoch and Mort Zuckerman. When billionaires place that much value on a local newspaper (albeit in a lucrative market), maybe the demise of newspapers is not as close as we think. It is fashionable among media pundits and bloggers to pile on the newspaper business and declare it done for. They always point to the fact young people don’t read newspapers and get their news on the web. Has anyone bothered to ask what the newspaper subscription rate has been historically been among young adults – I bet it has always been low. Not a huge priority at that stage in life. And, what happens when these hip kids who have no use for newspapers and land lines get older and have kids, houses, careers, etc.
I do agree that some of what newspapers currently do is obsolete. National and global news is a commodity – either online, on TV or from the wire services. Having it appear in a local newspaper serves very little purpose to the reader, who has probably already seen or heard the story in another more immediate platform. For newspapers to succeed in the future they need to think locally – people love local news – the more local the better. Reading about politics and tragedies in foreign lands is important but it really has little effect on the average person’s life. However, they sure do like reading about their own slice of life in their town and region. These stories have a real and emotional connection, and who doesn’t like keeping up on local gossip. I may not know all the facts of what’s going on in Darfur or the real difference between Sunni and Shiite; but I know the gory details of an upcoming property tax increase vote in my town and the story of the kid up the street who was arrested for drug possession.
To take it one step further, instead of expending resources by having international and national news bureaus, redeploy those resources into good old investigative journalism on the local level. Some of the best work from a newspaper is when they uncover crime, corruption or some other injustice in their backyard. The Boston Globe did a great job this year exposing Mitt Romney’s illegal alien gardeners and some questionable ethics from the current speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representative, Sal DiMasi. Newsday has a long history of doing that on Long Island, and I hope the new owners will be committed to that tradition. There is real value in providing this type of content and service to a community. And, it builds readership affinity for the advertisers, most of which are small local companies who do not run big web or TV campaigns, and rely on the local paper to get their message out.
The local angle is why I think the Cablevision/Newsday deal will work. They can create an integrated media channel (print, web, cable, events) for readers and the local advertisers who want to reach them. In addition, Newsday now has ownership by people who actually live in the community and have a vested interest. The days of the big remotely-owned newspaper chains and the homogenization of news that it brought may be over. Maybe it is time that the local paper goes back to the future and becomes a major player in their community.
Although still the number one show on network TV, American Idol has seen a steady rating decline this year to it’s lowest totals in five years. Many theories have been offered - lackluster contestants, people growing tired of the format, a general post-strike decline in viewership to name a few. I would suggest another reason why the show has generated almost no buzz this year and people are tuning out.
In the past AI has been a masterful example of combining content and sponsorship. In this age of permission based marketing, they came up with a formula that was compelling to fans while providing companies like Coke, AT&T and Ford a great marketing vehicle. Once this show became a huge hit – the producers and FOX amped up the tie ins and revenue opportunities. They produce records, concerts tours and TV shows. The voter results show was expanded from 30 minutes to an hour to sell more commercials. And, they added more promotional deals with iTunes and with “guest mentors” who had new albums to hawk. Slowly but surely, the marketing and advertising overwhelmed the content portion of the show and this year was the tipping point. For example, the addition of an AT&T sponsored segment where “random” fans call in to ask questions is nothing but filler and painful to watch. You almost expect Ryan Seacrest to come out one night wearing a sandwich board with an ad for Maaco Auto Body shops.
I am a fan of the show, but felt like I just spent two hours a week watching an infomercial. The desire for promotion really hurt the perception of this year’s contestants by forcing them to sing songs by artists who are not relevant to today’s audience. Two weeks of Beatles songs were a bore – for today’s kids, it does not mean that much, and for those of us over 35, we have heard them a million times. Then they moved on to Dolly Parton, Mariah Carey and Neil Diamond –who shockingly, all had new albums and tours to promote. Can anyone name me three Dolly songs? Mariah has more #1 hits than anyone – but are any of them remotely memorable. However, the highest rated show on the unintentional comedy scale was “show tunes” week with Andrew Lloyd Webber.
You get the feeling it all about driving sales and playing it safe for the sponsors. It is just a little coincidental that contestants who are different (i.e. possibly gay) or edgy (tattooed) find themselves gone early and the bland survive. The success of the incredibly boring and cloying David Archuleta (known as the “Gasper” on Idol fan site Vote for the Worst.com) is symbolic of that trend. He may be the single least entertaining person on television.
For the show to be successful past next year, the producers really need to examine the balance between content and marketing. While we often profess that content based permission marketing is the wave of the future, AI is a cautionary tale of what happens when the mix gets out of balance. I know we are all in business to make a buck, but guys, take it down a notch or you will kill the golden goose.
This year’s Digital Hollywood conference in Los Angeles has been shedding light on the significant challenges marketers face as they try to lasso prospects online. By and large, the panelists have been candid about the immaturity of this medium, but have been unified in their belief that traditional advertising is waning, and providing prospects with meaningful online experiences is the cost of entry.
The panelists, most of which carried senior executive titles, provided sound bites that had me in complete agreement. Here is a sample.
During a session entitled: The Web, Social Media and Advertising: Transforming and Disassembling the World of Traditional Media and Communications, Matt Rosenberg, Group Director, Organic said that to be successful, “Brands are immersing themselves in the content experience…you need to let your brand take a backseat.” I absolutely agree, and that is a core strategy at King Fish Media, where our job is to help clients engage with prospects and clients on a far more meaningful level than brand advertising offers.
Recommended contacts who spoke at this panel:
Raquel Krouse, VP Social Media, Interpublic Emerging Media Lab
Matt Rosenberg, Group Director, Organic
Mark Lewis, Strategic Planning Director, DDB San Francisco
The next session, Bridging TV and Broadband: Strategic Relationships – Advertising, Technology and Content, took the full customer immersion concept to a different level. A senior executive from the Home Shopping Network candidly evaluated her brand, and said that the universal knowledge of her brand allowed for movement into new media platforms (Interactive TV and .TV), saying, “People at the company worried about these platforms, but with the huge brand loyalty, they go wherever the brand goes and build communities there.” We, at King Fish, describe this phenomenon as owning, not renting your own media channel – Private Media.
Recommended contacts from this panel:
Jeff Miller, President and CEO, ICTV
Fred McIntyre, SVP, AOL Video
On a separate note, I hope to never again hear these words as much as I have during the last three days: “paradigm” (thought we were done with that), “frictionless”, “zero sum game”, “net loser” and “value proposition”.
During each of these sessions, I heard frequent confirmation that intent-based vs. interruption-based communications is the most effective means for clients to communicate with their prospects and customers; custom media provides the single strongest venue to effectively achieve success with this effort.
I recently came across some interesting brand loyalty research. This article from Chief Marketer refers to a study done by Brand Keys that looks at a “Customer Loyalty Engagement Index”. In a nutshell the findings suggest customer loyalty greatly increases when products and services are customized to the consumer. This makes perfect sense, as customization is becoming more critical to marketers as product differentiation is becoming hard to come by these days. It is a testament to world wide engineering and manufacturing skills that most products sold in the US today are made very well. Since most competitive products do the same thing reasonable well, the ability to customize for a specific buyer has become an attractive product attribute.
The two factors driving the age of customization are the same ones that are driving the move to private media channels and content marketing. An advance in technology and web adoption has made ordering customized products or consuming custom content real and easy to do. However, the biggest factor is that consumers have the power and are in control of their choices. The web has empowered consumers to shop and/or gather information across the globe. It also plays into the consumer’s mindset – they would much rather have something created just for them instead of the same product purchased by the guy down the street.
You can see how this can apply to your marketing choices – if you send your customers content that has been customized for them, you will increase your chances of building a relationship of affinity, trust and loyalty. Many companies are missing a golden opportunity to build a stronger relationship with their customers by not communicating with them in a customized private custom media venue. How many companies are still relying on mass market bulk mailings to talk to their customers if they talk to them at all? The technology exists where you can mine your database to know a customer’s interests and tastes; why not send them content and marketing messages that are customized for them instead of a generic catalog or email? Or even worse, do think you are hitting your current customers with a mass media ad that is focused at prospects? Marketers are required to evaluate their customer communications in light of changes in the way people desire and consume information.
We are in the age of customization, and savvy marketers don’t want to be sending yesterday’s news to tomorrow’s customers.
While watching the Today Show this week it was announced that Mothers Day is officially 100 years young. In honor of this blessed event, Matt Lauer along with Donny and Marie Osmond shared that the newest reality search involved the hunt for “Americas Favorite Mother”. They explained that there were many categories to be won including: Single Mom, Military Mom, Working Mom, etc.—you get the drift. They were narrowing it down by communities and common characteristics. I was impressed at the categories they came up with. I started thinking just how many types of moms there are out there. While the whole effort was a little saccharin sweet for me initially, I warmed up when I realized that NBC was recognizing different communities of Moms and praising their unique qualities.
My essential disappointment with most communications aimed at Mothers is that we are lumped together in spite of our cultural, personal, educational and financial differences. “Mother” just casts too broad of a net. The act of giving birth defines us all, but once the pod has separated from the Mother-ship our differences begin. We have various and sometimes opposing opinions on feeding, care and nurturing of our offspring; we have diverse interests in hobbies, books, sports and life in general. And like other communities we tend to flock together by our common interests, characteristics and beliefs.
Check out CafeMom if you really want to see the blended complexion of our community. In the 33 pages of sub communities on CaféMom, there was something for everyone! There are groups based on demographics, psychographics, social activism, body type, job-related concerns, media preferences and of course, sexual interests.
Some of my personal creative and slightly strange favorites are: Anarchy Moms, Mothers Against Pedophiles (is there a group that was defined as Mothers FOR Pedophiles?), Nestlé Free Zone Moms (they don’t like Quik?), Poetic activist Moms, and my personal favorite, Pistol Packin’ Mommas. And these moms are ready and able to share tips, insights, secrets, fears and accomplishments as they related to their own sorority. Whether it was pro-breast feeding, tackling teenage depression or fitness fiends over fifty, these women communicated with each other eagerly and often. There is camaraderie among the women whose husbands don’t pay their child support. There is empathy for parents with autistic children. The social networking is fun but also therapeutic and often liberating.
Of course CaféMom is only one of thousands of sites designed for moms to meet and mingle; and it just happens to be one of my favorites. It’s the micro-networks and communities within the bigger picture that makes it rich. It’s not just a place for Moms, which it is. It’s that there is a home for all types of Moms. It’s about the specific content delivered to the participant who is passionate about a topic. The compelling mix of targeted community and content is the reason that CaféMom has experienced 507% growth from January to June of 2007. The customized experience builds affinity with the site so the average session time is almost 22 minutes. The net result is an ideal environment for targeted marketing messages.
So Pistol Packin’ Mommas rejoice! It’s Mothers Day and there is something out there for all of you! I hope that all your Hallmark wishes are NRA compliant and that you get the ammo of your dreams. For me, I am going back to the “Steals and Deals” - for Mommas who love to shop. I may not be America’s Most Favorite Mom, but I am a retailer’s perfect dream!
According to a recent Junta42/BtoB Magazine study, almost 30% of businesses marketing budgets are allocated to their own content. That means, instead of creating an advertisement that runs along side traditional media, businesses are developing and executing their own content, essentially being their own media.
Can I hear an Amen?
Look, there will always be interruption-style marketing, or what a recent BusinessWeek calls “attention-deficit” advertising. According to the article, “Marketers, only too aware that consumers are ignoring traditional ads, have adopted the ‘more is more’ approach and have begun advertising everywhere – in taxis, fitness clubs, and hospital waiting rooms.”
This will never stop. Some people will self-choose to become walking billboards and, outside of corporate design standards, some locales will look like Times Square on steroids. As long as there is product to sell, this will never stop.
But there is another way, a “higher road” per say, which business marketers are starting to get. 30% of a marketing budget is a huge number. Businesses are beginning to understand that the creation of valuable, relevant and compelling content may, ultimately, be the best way to drive long-term revenues and profits.
Let’s get this straight: Businesses don’t create their own educational content to be nice, they do it to make money. The creation of content marketing within an organization may be one of those few areas where doing the “right” thing for your customers actually makes you more money (Toyota Prius and Waterfree urinals come to mind).
Why Now?
Even though the art of content marketing and custom publishing has been going on since the dawn of time (but formally recognized when John Deere launched their customer newsletter to farmers, The Furrow, in 1896), some media-types overlook why content marketing is beginning to skyrocket.
It all has to do with consumer control. Because of technological advances, today’s consumer (your customer) can control everything they engage in. In the past, consumers were “forced” to watch television commercials. TiVo proved this wasn’t a necessity. In the past, access to content was relegated to the elite few who had subscriptions to media sources. Google has democratized content to such a degree that literally anyone can find everything from anywhere in the world.
Today’s buyers engage with advertising when they choose to. The marketer has lost any and all control they might have had in the past. Without control, what’s a marketer to do?
From this perspective, the solution is easy: As a business, if my customers are going to ignore my ads, I must deliver them valuable content so they pay attention to me. This is the reason why 30% is just a starting point. In less than five years, it may be 50%…possibly more.
Exciting Times
If half or more of marketing budgets are dedicated to custom content, one thing is inevitable: the quality of content will continue to increase. Corporate content, in order to get the attention of customers, must be as good as or better than any content you’d find in mainstream or trade media.
Hard to fathom? Not really. We are still fighting for our customer’s attention, but instead of annoying them with a million unwanted messages a day, we’ll be strategically targeting an important piece of content, at the appropriate time, that makes the customer more intelligent, or makes their lives easier in some way.
In order to accomplish this task, businesses will reach out to the best journalists and publishers from around the world, from local to global, to help them deliver a valuable message to their customers. There may never be a better time to be a writer than right now. Forget being the chief editor of the Wall Street Journal, go to Microsoft, Cisco or P&G.
Exciting time indeed. Prepare the way.
Joe Pulizzi is founder and chief content officer for Junta42. Junta42’s Match product is a free resource for marketing professionals to help them find pre-qualified content marketing assistance. Read more of Joe at http://blog.junta42.com/.