Archive for the ‘Direct’ Category

November’s AiMA event, “Mobile Marketing: How mobile is more than texting, tweeting, and talking,” was the first I’ve been able to attend. The event certainly was more than texting, tweeting, and talking (although there was a lot of texting and tweeting happening in the crowd); panelists encouraged incorporating mobile into marketing plans for 2010 and shared interesting facts regarding the growth of iPhone applications, the mobile web, and more.

The event was moderated by Michael Becker of iLoop Mobile, and there is no better way to describe him than with this tweet from the event:

@JermoH #aima – iLoop’s Michael Becker is like the Britannica of Mobile Marketing.

Becker opened the event by showing a commercial for a Motorola cell phone. From 1983. The advertisement stated that cell phones would completely change the way we communicate. Understatement of the century.

Given that the event was on mobile, it seems appropriate to sum up the key topics via what was tweeted live as each panelist spoke:

Mack McKelvey, VP of Marketing for Millenial Media.

• @briangupton: RT @ATLmobile: Mobile has lowest Cost Per Engaged User per @mellenialmedia #aima
• @JermoH: In Sept, there were 64million mobile users (1/3 size of Internet) #aima

Brian Seti, Division Manager and National Marketing Manager for Yamaha WaterCraft Group:

• @kristengreen: Yamaha no longer spends $ on traditional advertising. They focus on mobile & social and are able to deploy campaigns more efficiently. #AiMA

Derek Von Nostran, Director of Consumer Marketing & Analytics for The Weather Channel Interactive:

• @laurenmullins: Only 20% of iPhone apps downloaded are used the next day. – Derek Von Nostran, TWC #aima
• @JermoH Top phone for Hispanic market = iPhone, top phone for African American market = Razor. #aima

Von Nostran also discussed the popularity of TWC’s iPhone application. It’s the most popular weather application, and one of the top 10 applications (ranked just below Facebook). TWC launched a game as a follow-up, but the application met subpar success because of the target’s inclination to only utilize TWC for weather information.

To read more tweets from this AiMA event, search for #aima on Twitter. The November event was AiMA’s last big event for the year, but there is a web analytics lunch and a holiday party both scheduled for the first week in December.

Remember those struggling musicians, artists, and filmmakers we’re so used to hearing about? While you will probably still have an opportunity to toss a few bucks into the guitar case of a musician along a city street somewhere, social media is completely changing the way these struggling musicians gain exposure and produce content.

Enter KickStarter – an online community where people can “pledge” money to the projects of artists, musicians, filmmakers, designers, journalists, inventors, explorers and just about everything in between. KickStarter has two fundamental beliefs:

1. A good idea, communicated well, can spread fast and wide.
2.  large group of people can be a tremendous source of money and encouragement.

Doesn’t this idea sound indicative of social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube? KickStarter has taken fundraising — and turned it viral.

I know what you must be thinking: does this even work? The answer is, simply, yes. Assuming the project is well-promoted and worthy of donations. It’s time for an example: Allison Weiss, a musician based in Athens, Georgia, set out to fund a short EP via KickStarter. She set a goal of $2,000 and a deadline of 75 days to raise the money. Weiss reached and exceeded her $2,000 goal in 10 hours.

Prior to KickStarter, a local musician like Weiss could probably never imagine funding an entire EP within a matter of hours. Weiss used her long list of social media profiles to promote her KickStarter project for the remainder of its 75-day timeline, and the money kept coming in.  Weiss promised that more album tracks would be added as more money was raised. By the end of her KickStarter deadline, Weiss had raised a whopping $7,711 (that’s 386% of the initial goal) and her goal of an 8-song EP is now a full-length album entitled Allison Weiss Was Right All Along, and is due out November 24^th.

What does this mean for the music industry? Record labels will never fold due to social-savvy do-it-yourselfers like Weiss, but these independent artists seem to in much more control of their own destiny. Having an understanding of niche sites like KickStarter and being well-connected in the social space is vital for any aspiring musician.

This seems to be simply another change inflicted upon the music industry because of the internet. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that purchasing and downloading a digital copy of an album was completely unheard of, but today iTunes is the number one music retailer in the United States.

It’s pretty crazy how the music industry has been turned upside down by the internet. They ways we create, share, purchase, and listen to music are completely different than ten years ago. The question is…is this for the better?

I had the pleasure of attending (and tweeting) AiMA’s October event, Interactive Creative Engagement. The panel discussion (moderated by Coca-Cola’s Capabilities & Communities Manager, Amanda Thompson) revolved around how engaging and interactive media drive consumer interaction, dialogue, and ultimately brand affinity and sales volume. The panelists at this event included representatives from three big brands: CNN, Chick-fil-A, and Cox Media Group. Below is a recap of what each panelist discussed with the group:

Leon Levitt, VP Digital Media at Cox Media Group reviewed the creative displayed on ajc.com & walked us through the McDonald’s Barista Challenge. Key points that Leon stressed were:

• Good, spectacular creative can make a difference
• Old rules still apply: contact drives eyes, eyes drive revenue, good creative will have an impact, don’t apologize for being intrusive

Michael McCathren, Interactive/Digital Marketing Lead at Chick-fil-A discussed the evolution of the Chick-fil-A cows and the emergence of their (the cows) new website: eatmorechicken.com. Michael spoke about taking risks with creative and the importance of helping your clients feel good about taking such risks.

Adam Naide, Sr. Director of Audience Experience at CNN Worldwide gave the audience a run through of the CNN Challenge which was created to combine the excitement of competitive trivia games with the fun of social online gaming.

Goals of the CNN Challenge:

• Build consumer affinity w/ the brand & talent
• Increase engagement
• Promote sampling of CNN content
• Drive revenue through sponsorship

Below are a few notable tweets from the event:

ewendkos: #aima listening to presentation from Leon Levitt – we can not be too intrusive so long as we have great creative +biz model

JermoH: Summary of Cox’s Leon Levitt: People will respond to great creative. Creative developers, step your game up! #AIMA

DianaBaldwin: Eatmorechicken.com launched last week. Interactive branding. Active branding. #AIMA

GumboShowJoe: #AiMA Michael M from Chick-fil-A empasized that you should push creative and risk with interactive media.

JermoH: cnnchallenge.com looks fun and is going to be a total productivity killer in offices nationwide! #aima

bsteve76: Naide sez CNN tries to be different and provocative w/content. #CNN #aima

To read more of the tweets from this event, checkout the hashtag #aima in Twitter. The next AiMA event will be on Wednesday, Nov. 18 and the topic will be: Mobile Marketing – How mobile is more than texting, tweeting and talking.

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

I was honored recently to guest blog for one of my favorite groups, 1to1 Media. You can read the post on their site but it starts like this…

Marketing has seen tremendous change over the past five to 10 years. Take a closer look at direct and digital marketing specifically and you’ll see a clear shift. Marketers are beginning to combine the opportunities made possible by the principles and disciplines of direct marketing with the accountability and engagement that are possible with digital marketing. We call this shift iDirect – where the blurring of the lines between these disciplines is being used to garner greater customer engagement that leads to measurable and dramatic gains in ROI.

Read more.