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I read an article on Adweek today about how some brands are “socializing” their holiday sweeps through Twitter. They profiled Sephora (@sephora), Microsoft ’s Windows Server “R2″  (@R2Haiku) and Comcast Sports (@comcastsports). All have launched sweepstakes on Twitter; signaling what could be the beginning of some very smart social marketing holiday promotions.

Comcast Sports:

From Adweek, Sephora’s promotion:

“…this year’s “Sephora Claus” campaign takes submissions in the form of Tweets completing the sentence, “Dear @sephora, all I want for the holidays this year is _______.”  A drop-down menu gives Sephora items to select. The brand will reward one Twitterer with a gift each day until Dec. 18.”

I also noticed that Target (@Target) may have taken their first dive into Twitter. And they’re already announcing a sweepstakes. Now, it doesn’t appear to be a Twitter-specific deal, but it is a sweepstakes … and with only five posts at the time this is being written, its already been mentioned twice.

This got me thinking. For all the brands I’m following (and there’s more than a couple), in general, I’m seeing very few do much in the way of Twitter-specific promotion. Certainly not sweepstakes.

GAP (@GapOfficial), for example, does virtually nothing special. Since April, there was only one Twitter-specific deal (a 15% discount offer at checkout).  With the holidays upon us and 16,314 followers, you’d think they might be trying a bit harder.  Of the three tweets they’ve had this month (meager), one of them was a tweet about their latest TV ad (annoying). Where’s the holiday love?!

Listen, I’m not trying to pick on GAP, the list of brands could go on. I guess my point is, you’ve made the decision to get into Twitter. So use it. Too many brands jump in because they think they should,  instead of making a commitment to the following and to being relevant in the space.

Snickers and Walmart on the other hand, do a great job. Snickers Ice Cream does coupon giveaways, and have made it clear their intentions on Twitter (side note: have you tried Snickers Ice Cream yet? Yum!) And, Walmart does a great job with customized Twitter channels. @WalmartSpecials does “Value of the Day. They may not be Twitter-specific, but they’re a super duper consolidation of the best deals the retailer has going.  Which is good for me, because I’m not about to go leafing through weekly fliers, particularly at the holiday season when I’ve turned 90% of my shopping online.

So, I guess the lesson is this: pay attention to your audience.  And for goodness sake, if you’ve made a decision, commit to it.

We’re back from DMA-09 – with two sessions, a book launch and a wildly successful keynote from our chairman, Stan Rapp.

I’d like to share what you might have missed. Let’s recap!

An important message for the DMA this year was the new face of direct marketing – one that is both direct and digital. This was supported by the opening message from DMA president John Grecco all the way to the closing keynote from our chairman Stan Rapp. iDirect has an important and immediate impact for DMA and its members, and will be an essential piece of support in moving the industry forward.

The Keynote

Stan Rapp (above, standing) kicked off a keynote about iDirect, showcasing iDirect examples from panelists – including Michael McCathren of Chick-fil-A, Mike Metz of Cisco, Oliver Dixon with Ford Motor Company, and Rob Weisberg from Dominos Pizza.

History was made by Dominos Pizza – at the keynote they made their largest delivery in history – 1200 sandwiches of their new oven-baked sandwiches! And, Ford Motor Company selected their next “Junior Agent” from right in the audience. And Chick-fil-A announced their newest digital asset – eatmorchicken.com. The keynote wrapped up with audience questions to the panel; which included “What’s the next big thing?” The response given? “Mobile.”

A few of the Tweets coming from the keynote …

The Book

DMA-09 was also the “official” launching place for the book “Reinventing Interactive and Direct Marketing,” edited by our chairman Stan Rapp for the DMA, and featuring an anthology of writers. Among the authors in the book are two from Engauge – Janet Rubio, the agency’s chief insights officer, and Melissa Read, Ph.D., our vp of research and innovation.

Want the book? Pre-order on Amazon.com at a 34% discount!

Read the Articles

Before and during the show, Engauge contributed several to several articles on the industry media.

“It’s undeniable that the web’s role is more critical than ever in stimulating action as well as creating the interaction that develops brand believers.”– Rick Milenthal, CEO Engauge — Chief Marketer magazine.

Read the articles:

>> BtoB Magazine – Rapp on the “disintegration of integration’
>> Chief Marketer – The Happy Marriage of Direct & Digital
>> BtoB Magazine – The future is both Digital and Direct
>> 1to1 Magazine – Move Marketing Forward by Agreeing to Adapt

The Sessions

Engauge also delivered two regular conference sessions. Both are topics that speak to the agency’s commitment to iDirect as well as the importance of leveraging consumer insights to generation brand engagement.

“Engaging Millennials” / Understanding and Activating New Influencers:
Led by Raghu Kakarala, vp strategy at Engauge

“Data Anthropology” / The Key to Meaningful Consumer Connections:
Led by Engauge’s executive director of brand planning, David Grzelak

MarketingVox posted a blog that reports on a Twitter for Brands event hosted by New Media Age in London on Friday of last week. It was here that Dell claimed something we first heard a few months ago – they’re making money, and lots of it, on Twitter:

“Dell representatives said they have seen tangible uplifts in sales which can be directly attributed to marketing on Twitter. The brand’s Twitter account has driven $3 million in sales since it began operation in 2007. Moonfruit, a website builder, also said Twitter campaigns have helped the brand. Moonfruit said it spent around 10,000 pounds ($16,400) on prizes for the campaign, and that it brought in more than twice that amount in a single month in new subscriptions, reports ClickZ (via MarketingCharts).”

Surprising? Of course. It’s easy to dismiss the notion that a company could profit from a “what are you doing,” 140-character microblog; where Ashton Kutcher regularly posts such drivel as “lmao great vid.” That is, until you dig a little deeper and see just what Dell has been doing.

Rather than jump in loosey-goosey, Dell has woven the platform in to support their existing direct, digital and CRM strategies. They leverage dozens of Twitter accounts in order to narrow their message to followers with JUST the information relevant to them. Just look at their home page to see what I mean.

Like any marketing platform, Twitter is only as good as how you use it.

It never ceases to surprise me how many brands get intimidated by emerging marketing. They either end up ignoring platforms completely, or disappearing into the mix with an unsupported showing. Dell is a great example of how to do it right – look at what your corporate / marketing goals are, and see how the platform can be leveraged against them. Simple enough. For a company like Dell, that meant using what they knew about their customers to tailor messages, develop community, and offer discounts.

The story isn’t that Dell made money on Twitter. The story is that Dell knows how to leverage emerging channels against their marketing objectives to creative profit. Many brands could take a lesson from them.

I read an interesting post on Slashdot today. Apparently, if you play Tomb Raider: Underworld … loads of data is collected and stored at Eidos’ servers. And now, the Center for Computer Games Research have mined this data to classify specific types of playing behavior.

credit TombRaider.com

Playing behaviors include: Veterans, Solvers, Pacifists or Runners.  The Slashdot post says “It turns out people play the game for very different reasons and focus on different parts of the game, but almost everyone falls into one of these categories.”

What they plan to do with this knowledge is to adapt the game while you play, based on your gaming behavior, so you get what you want out of the game. For example, removing puzzles or enemies.

I find this very exciting news.  If this can be done for gaming, certainly it can be done for the Web? In many ways research has already improved our online experience. It has shown us how people read websites, and what and where their expectations are for certain information. We also design websites based on what we know about the people who use them (personas show us common behaviors, personality types, demographics, etc … and help us design websites that best fit needs and expectations). But, for web experiences that aren’t designed for a single type of person – and there are many, how about a utility company, for example – what opportunities might lie ahead?

Today, the New York Times ran a story about Twitter and the NFL: “The N.F.L. Has Identified the Enemy and It Is Twitter.”  Seems that some teams in the NFL have gone so far as to fine their players if they tweet from camp or coaching sessions.

Why all of this worry? More than any other organization, the NFL is well-known for its team-based secrecy; from injuries to game strategies, information is withheld to give every advantage to teams and their players. It’s also no mystery that professional athlethes aren’t always the most media-savvy bunch. And we all know the media actively monitors Twitter; so the risk involved in the casual tweet turning into a leak is far too much. Bottom line, they can’t trust that players can handle it with responsibility.

What bothers me is the idea that if they stop players from using Twitter, that will solve the problem. The truth is that our life is going to be Twitterized by way more than Twitter. This is likely only the beginning. Perhaps an investment in media training would be wiser?

The funniest quote from the NYT article … “Twitter has become a source of fascination for the sports world…” I love that they call it a “fascination.”  Seriously? Why can’t they just “like” it, or “enjoy” that they can share with their fans, or “bring awarness” to the causes they support? Fascinated? Silly.

I think it’s great that people like Lance Armonstrong and Shaq are on Twitter, or film and music celebrties for that matter. For those that I follow (which are admittedly few), it allows me to peer into their personalities and see them as more than a bike rider, or a basketball player, or a singer. In Lance’s case, I see his passion shine through in his mission to fight cancer;  his gritiness about the strife between he and Contador in the Tour this year; and his soft side when he speaks of his family and his friends. Following Pink has allowed me to see just how funny – and at times, serious – she can be. That they are willing to share this with their fans makes them real, which in turn makes the connections with their fans stronger.

For arguments sake, let’s say that everyone who enjoys Twitter shares my sentiments, what does this do for their careers?  Seems possible to me that it might sell more tickets, or more CDs, and that it just might make atheletic sponsors really really happy.  Maybe if the NFL could see it this way, it would change their minds?

For the record, not all teams issued policies regarding Twitter, including the Giants and the Jets. That’s good news for followers of Jay Feely. The NYT points out that he “often sticks to a safer topic than football: politics.”

(Oh, and thanks to @lancearmstrong for pointing out this article )