TV Is King. Long Live the King?

Contrary to the way many of you wrote in your short reports, the Internet is not the king of media at least as far as advertisers are concerned. "The internet is consuming ever more of our waking moments, not to mention ever more ad spending, but that doesn't mean that traditional media is the loser. At least not when "traditional media" means TV," according to a post on AdAge.

Companies with Internet Marketing Campaigns

Companies that run extensive Internet/digital/interactive marketing campaigns:

McDonalds (digital, interactive, internet)
Proctor and Gamble (digital, interactive, internet)
American Express (digital, interactive, internet)
Mountain Dew (digital, interactive, internet)

Domino’s Turns to Facebook for March Madnes

"Domino's Pizza launched a Facebook contest on March 14 encouraging consumers to vote for their favorite style of pizza," reports DMNews.com. "The delivery chain is promoting the contest to opted-in members of the company's e-mail database, as well as its Facebook fans."

Jameson and Guinness Zig and Zab

"Iconic Irish brands Jameson Irish Whiskey and Guinness are taking nontraditional approaches to their St. Patrick's Day promotional efforts this year," according to ClickZ.com.

An Interactive Marketing Campaign

Here's a ClickZ.com story about a marketer and its advertising agency parting company, but it also gives a hint at the marketing program: 'Burger King and Crispin Porter + Bogusky are parting ways, ending an agency-client relationship that produced some of the more celebrated interactive campaigns. Over seven years, CP+B's digital output for the burger giant included 'Subservient Chicken,' 'Whopper Sacrifice,' 'Sith Sense' and BK-branded Xbox titles that were sold cheaply in the chain's restaurants."

Social Networks Still Growing

"In 2011, 63.7% of US internet users will use social networks on a regular basis, amounting to nearly 148 million people. Although the pace of growth will be less dramatic in the next few years than it was in 2009 and 2010, usage will remain strong and shows no sign of declining. Marketers and media companies alike now know that in order to reach their audience, they must have a presence on social networks," goes the post on eMarketer.com.

Display Advertising Up

"Total advertising expenditures increased 6.5% in 2010 and finished the year at $131.1 billion, according to Kantar Media." That's what a MarketingVox post noted. "Internet display advertising increased 9.9% compared to the prior year, the second largest growth rate among media sectors. Outdoor advertising was close behind with a gain of 9.6%."

Viral Marketing for “Limitless”

MarketingVox posted this item recently:

What: a video [watch it here] that went viral on YouTube recently purporting to show a man using his iPhone to hack a New York's Times Square' billboard.

What it Really Was: A promotion for the soon-to-be-released film "Limitless" developed by viral marketing company Thinkmodo (via the New York Times).

Marketers Spending More

"Marketers modestly increased spending on various media in the fourth quarter of 2010, according to the Direct Marketing Association's quarterly business review. A majority of marketers also told the industry group they are optimistic about the near term," says DMNews.com. "A majority (54.7%) of marketers said they increased revenue generated from direct and digital marketing activity in Q4 2010 compared with the same period of 2009. Most marketers and suppliers (53.5%) said they are optimistic about their near-term profitability, yet fewer than half (46.1%) forecasted improved performance in the first quarter of 2011."

Can You Believe This? Small Businesses Don’t Use Websites

"Less than half (45%) of small businesses have websites, according to data analyzed by data management firm Formstack. However, this figure, recorded by Discover Credit Cards in 2009, still represents roughly 36% growth from 33% in 2007," according to a report on MarketingVox.com. "The most common reason given by small business owners lacking a website is that their business currently does not need one (41%). This is more than double the percent who gave the next-most-popular answer, cost (19%). The other leading reason is lack of time (16%)."

Chain Restaurants Turn to Social Media

"As the US restaurant industry recovers, operators are increasingly employing mobile and social media marketing to meet consumer expectations. Businesses that engage, provide value and reach potential diners where they spend their time will be at a distinct advantage." That's the word from eMarketer.com.

Car Manufacturers Spend More $ for Online Marketing

"To convert more browsers into buyers, auto marketers are revving up their online ad spending," reports eMarketer.com. " eMarketer estimates that online automotive advertising, including spending by manufacturers, dealer associations and dealers, will hit $3.24 billion this year, or 11.4% of total US online ad spending. Through 2015, it will grow faster than the overall online advertising market, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.7%."

Advergames the “New” Social Media Advertising Forum

"Driven by the wildfire success of Zynga, the creator of popular social network games like 'Farmville' and 'Mafia Wars,' game developers are increasingly relying on advertising as a viable revenue stream -- and making the cost of advertiser entry quite low," according to AdAge. You might want to check the two games for companies that use Internet marketing, such as Coke, Ford, Toyota, and Pepsi.

Viral Video for Old Navy, Volkswagen, and Old Spice

"It's been a week of viral video turnover, with some new inductees (and a sole Super Bowl survivor) rounding out the most-viewed ads on the web." That's how AdAge
introduces its post about the viral videos (read Internet marketing videos) for Old Navy, Volkswagen, Old Spice, and Apple.

Ideas for Long Report

Coke's Internet marketing campaign: http://www.google.com/search?q=Coke%27s+internet+marketing+&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

Toyota's Internet marketing campaign: http://www.google.com/search?q=toyota%27s+internet+marketing+&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

If you want to write about a company's Internet marketing campaign, go to Google.com. Type in the following: Companyname's Internet marketing campaign. You should get a long list of stories. Now you have to figure out which one's a relevant.

Nissan Allows Customers to Design Their Jukes

Creativity-Online
reports "Nissan is allowing customers to get creative and design their own versions of the Juke on its new Juke Studio website. It asked up-and-coming artists Jim Mahfood, Jeremyville and Tristan Eaton to create artwork representing each of the Nissan Juke's three driving modes (Eco, Sport and Normal). Their art became vehicle wraps that any Juke owner can purchase to customize their ride."

Kleenex Cleans Up with Facebook

"Samples usually are one-way, unrequested offers from marketers, and online sampling mostly involves signing up to get freebies yourself. But an offer this cold-and-flu season for Kleenex that lets people send free packs of tissues to [Facebook] friends and family has scored big," according to AdAge. "The Kimberly-Clark Corp. brand last week sent its millionth requested mini-box of tissues in North America. And the 'Softness Worth Sharing' campaign, aimed at introducing a new softer version of the tissue, has lifted market share 1.7 points since October, said Kleenex Brand Director Craig Smith. Nielsen data from Sanford C. Bernstein show Kleenex share up 3.9 points to 49.9% for the four weeks ended Feb. 19 vs. the period before the campaign began."

Toyota Working with Pandora

"Toyota and Internet radio provider Pandora launched a campaign March 4 that pairs one Toyota model with a Pandora genre radio station each month," according to DMNews. "At launch, the 'Legends & Icons' campaign partnered the Toyota Highlander SUV with Pandora's Top 40 genre station. The company is targeting 18-to-49-year-olds with this initial pairing, said John Trimble, chief revenue officer at Pandora, via e-mail. Consumers can view the campaign through the Web, mobile and tablet devices."

Companies Advertising on Skype

"Skype is launching its first ad platform, with Groupon, Universal Pictures and Visa Inaugural among the first companies to try out the format. The advertising will appear in the Home tab in Skype, starting this week, the company says. Ads will appear in the US, UK and Germany initially and then roll out on a wider basis," according to MarketingVox.

Web Publishers Taking on TV

"In an effort to lure more lucrative brand advertising dollars to the web, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) anointed six new online ad formats Monday at its Leadership Conference in Laquinta, Calif. The ads were designed and chosen to play to marketers' calls for the bigger and more noticeable messages that in many ways is similar to TV advertising," reports AdAge.

Bing Beats Yahoo!

"Online marketing services providers may be interested in the news that Bing has become the second most popular search engine globally after overtaking Yahoo! for the first time," ClickThrough-Marketing. "According to research carried out by StatCounter, the Microsoft-backed search provider increased its worldwide market share to 4.37 per cent, ahead of Yahoo!'s 3.93 per cent."

Net Video Use Up in U.S.

"U.S. users spent almost 45 percent more time viewing online video in January 2011 than they did during the same period in 2010, according to data from The Nielsen Company," according to a ClickZ post. "According to estimates by the measurement firm, the total number of videos streamed and average streams per viewer also increased considerably in that time, growing by 31.5 percent and 27.5 percent, respectively. The number of unique viewers watching online video increased at a much slower rate, however, growing by 3.1 percent, year-over-year."

UPS Store and Corona Launch March Madness Campaigns

"The UPS Store and Corona are among the earliest brands tipping off 'March Madness' campaigns. While the beer company launched a cause marketing initiative today, the shipping services retail firm debuted a Facebook-driven effort on Feb. 21," according to ClickZ. 

"UPS Store, a division of UPS, has been running 'Print Madness' ads on Facebook.com. They require viewers to 'like' the brand's page before they can enter a contest for a trip to the NCAA Final Four Men's Basketball Championship."

American Airlines “More Liked”

ClickZ reports that "American Airlines has rolled out a new promotion, Mystery Miles, to honor the launch of specific social media channels for its frequent flyer program, AAdvantage. As a result, AAdvantage has racked up 100,000 more "likes" on Facebook than the airline itself can boast: nearly 240,000, compared to 130,000 for American Air."

Internet Marketing Power Shift, According to WSJ

"A realignment of power on the Web will continue this year, researchers at eMarketer predict, as Facebook grabs the top spot in the online market for banner, interactive and video ads," reports a WSJ article by Amir Efrati. "Meanwhile, Google will extend its dominance in the U.S. market for advertisements related to Web searches, the firm says. Despite an alliance between Microsoft's Bing search engine and Yahoo–which is now letting Bing power Web searches on its sites–Google is expected to increase its lead over those combined forces in terms of ad revenue in the U.S., eMarketer says, in a report scheduled for release Tuesday."

Yahoo! Slips behind Facebook in Display Ad Revenues—a First

"For the first time, the largest share of US display ad revenues will go to Facebook, eMarketer estimates. The social network's 80.9% growth in display ad revenues, to $2.19 billion this year, will mean Facebook sees 21.6% of all US display ad dollars," according to an eMarketer post. "That will put it ahead of Yahoo!, where eMarketer estimates display revenues will be up 16%. Yahoo!'s market share will inch up to 16.4%, while display gains at Google push the site's share of display spending to 12.6%. Meanwhile, AOL will drop from 5.3% of display ad revenues in 2010 to 4.4% this year."

Short Report Instructions

Internet Marketing: The Title You Give the Report

You are writing one 1800-word (minimum)  report that incorporates your reading for the semester. From the information you have read, you will come up with an idea regarding Internet marketing that you will show as being valid to the reader.

You will simulate what business executives call an executive summary. Executive reports save time for top executives. Think of an individual who manages any large corporate, institution, government agency, or even country. For the president (executive officer) to keep abreast of the happenings in his organization, she/he needs information from a variety of departments. She, however, does not have the time. The executives in charge of the departments, therefore, send her summaries. As with any writing, each summary has an objective, which relates to the primary idea someone is attempting to show. So will your short report.

Format: The format of an executive summary resembles that of an email or letter: single-spaced and block paragraphs (no indenting). Unlike an email or letter, the writer gives the report a title but the writer does not put his/her name on the report. The writer centers the title, boldfaces it, and leaves it at the same point size of the report (Times New Roman, 12 pt). Look at these instructions. They follow the format.

Number of sources and citations: You will use a minimum of five sources, which must include the following: (1) either one of "Search Engines" or "Internet Marketing," (1) one of either "HD Marketing" or "Interactive Marketing," and (3) three original sources, whose links you picked up from the class blog. Within the report itself, you will use a minimum of two in-text citations per 300 words or 12 for this entire report. Do not include artwork (graphs, pictures, charts). They will appear in MLA style.

You will submit it to jconlin@bridgeport.edu on March 7 (not March 4) as a Word document attachment. Deadline: 11:59 pm.

Should you be thinking, "How can I write differently about Internet marketing," then I would suggest that you read more, or read more carefully, or re-read. Each time you add two ideas (which you would find in at least two of the articles) you get a new idea. For example, the mix of Celtic folk music and African folk music led to Blues and Bluegrass. Classical music and New Orleans Blues evolved into Jazz. From Blues/Jazz and Jute Joint Music came Rhythm and Blues in the 40s, which split into Rock n Roll and R&B and so on. Therefore, a student who has read the material and who has thought about how the material relates will have some ideas. So if your ideas have come up short, re-read the material carefully (do not read new material), take notes, and think about why some ideas seem important to you.

During the semester, I have given you several reasons why individuals find writing difficult. One remains, the one that drives even professional writers crazy.

Applied science and mathematics, engineering, and business administration ask four basic questions: who, when, what, and how. They rarely ask the question behind writing: Why? The question starts with children. Daddy (Mommy) why is the sky blue? Why does grandpa fart? Why do farts smell? As people age, the question becomes more complex. Why do I exist? Why do bad things happen to good people? Why does she (he) not love me? Most of us hate the question because it rarely evokes a definitive answer as you can get with business administration of engineering.

When writing, you ultimately are answering one question: Why should the reader believe you? Why should she/he trust you? Why should the reader give you her valuable time to read your ideas? The reader finds the answer to those questions in how you explain how one idea relates to another. You cannot trick the reader into belief. You first must discover why you believe by unearthing why one idea relates to another—for you. Then you explain that to the reader. The more you understand a subject, the more complex the relationship among ideas.

Finally, when I grade your work, I am concentrating primarily on how you present your material not on what you present.