Red Bull's YouTube Series

"After flying to an altitude of 39,045 meters (128,100 feet) in a helium-filled balloon, Felix Baumgartner completed a record breaking jump for the ages from the edge of space, exactly 65 years after Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier flying in an experimental rocket-powered airplane," goes the YouTube post.  "Felix reached a maximum of speed of 1,342.8 km/h (833mph) through the near vacuum of the stratosphere before being slowed by the atmosphere later during his 4:20 minute long freefall....Experience the world of Red Bull like you have never seen it before. With the best action sports clips on the web and YouTube exclusive series, prepare for your "stoke factor" to be at an all time high. Red Bull on Facebook: http://win.gs/redbullfb Red Bull on Twitter: http://win.gs/redbulltwitter Subscribe to Red Bull on Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=redbull"

Just four days after Red Bull posted this video, it had more than 20 million views.

By the way, this is the last post for the semester.

Coke and P&G Angry about No-Track Default of IE 10

"Association of National Advertisers CEO Bob Liodice hasn't been shy about expressing his opposition to Microsoft's coming Internet Explorer 10 web browser, which will ship with a 'do-not-' feature as a default setting. The browser 'will likely cause irreparable damage to the advertising industry,' he said at the ANA annual meeting in Orlando, Fla., last week," according to Advertising Age. "But while the ANA has been forceful in its opposition to Microsoft's approach, the individual members of the organization had varied views on the issue, and while most said they support the ANA's position, the bigger issue they see is confusion it creates for consumers.
Wendy Clark, senior VP-integrated marketing communications and capabilities at Coca-Cola, said brands, including Microsoft, shouldn't be assuming choices for consumers. 'All we want is an opportunity for consumers to make their own choice rather than have the choice made for them.' Read more.

Ford's Social Media Strategy

"This is the keynote presentation from Scott Monty (Head of Social Media @Ford) at the 2009 OMMA Global conference in New York on September 21. It tells the story of Ford’s social media experience and highlights the key elements that make them one of the top companies using social media," notes Digital Buzz. "Ford’s Social Media Strategy is simple 'to humanize the company by connecting consumers with Ford employees and with each other when possible, providing value in the process' and when executed with creativity and passion like most of their campaigns so far, can deliver incredible results." Read more.

Yahoo Bing Outperforms Google

"Microsoft on its Bing Ads blog is still buzzing over last week's Global Search Advertising Trends Report from Kenshoo, which recommended the Yahoo! Bing Network (YBN) as a 'must buy,' suggesting the YBN should be considered the 'first place resources are allocated and maximized.'" So goes a post on Marketing Vox. "The research found that the YBN consistently outperformed Google in paid search campaign return on ad spend (ROAS). ROAS was almost 30% higher than that of Google in Q3 2012, and the YBN click-through rate (CTR) was 29% higher." Read more.

Impact of Rich Media Ads

"One thing that's become apparent throughout this growing stage is that interactive display ads outperform static display ads. Rich media ads provide six times higher engagement rates and are much better at capturing your audience's attention. On top of this, rich ads offer more than 150 measurable elements so that you can track what's working and what's not," according to a ClickZ post. "Brands that use interactive, rich media ads see a 300 percent to 1,000 percent increase in ad interactions. That's one of the reasons that probably explains why the use of video in online advertising is predicted to grow by 55 percent in the U.S. by 2016." Read more.

How 10 Companies Use the New Twitter Profiles

"On September 18, Twitter announced an addition to its profiles for both consumers and brands. The header photo complements background images and avatars to let people show their personalities with Twitter profiles. Many brands using the platform for social media marketing moved quickly to integrate header photos into their campaigns," according to Brafton News. "The capability has been live for about one month, and Brafton has seen some interesting images included to increase visibility and improve brand perception on Twitter." The report notes 10 examples of companies working header photos into their social strategies. Read more.

Search Advertising Still on Top

"The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has released its first half of 2012 Internet Advertising Revenue Report conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers and it is good reading," according to Marketing Pilgrim. "Considering our audience it will please you to know that despite cries of the death of SEO and the move to social leaving all other ad forms behind, search still accounts for 47% of the ad revenue from the Internet space as measured in this report. The report states ‘Search revenues totaled $4.1 billion in Q2 2012, up 17% from Q2 2011, when Search totaled $3.5 billion’. Sounds healthy to me." Read more and see the charts.

Mobile advertising, while having a great deal of potential, accounts for only 4% of the money spent on interactive (Internet) advertising. Remember this when writing your reports.

Tweet if You Like Mercedes

"Did everyone catch the Mercedes-Benz Tweet Race back in February this year?" That's the question from a Digital Buzz post. "Well, they were a few days late due to some bad weather, but they made it through and here is the campaign case study to prove it was a big success. The campaign had almost 30,000 active participants with over 72,000 Facebook Fans and 77,000 Twitter Followers who generated over 150,000+ tweets to power the cars. The campaign videos generated about 2 million views, while the twitter reach pushed over the 25 million mark." Read more.

Shaming People to Vote

"The campaigns have planted software known as cookies on voters’ computers to see if they frequent evangelical or erotic Web sites for clues to their moral perspectives," reports the New York Times. "Voters who visit religious Web sites might be greeted with religion-friendly messages when they return to mittromney.com or barackobama.com. The campaigns’ consultants have run experiments to determine if embarrassing someone for not voting by sending letters to their neighbors or posting their voting histories online is effective." Read more.

The Tip of Nike's Marketing Iceberg

1. "Nike is doing something a little different with projection mapping for the new Jordan Melo M8 shoe, this time throwing in water, in fact the whole thing is projected onto water fountains, which perfectly complement the movement and desired effects to create something pretty special for your eyes," reports Digital Buzz. "Sure, there isn’t any interactivity as we’ve seen of late, but the water really changes the game!" Read more. What amounts to a promo or advertisement has generated slightly fewer than 150,000 views.

2. ClickZ notes that "Nike and Adidas definitely get digital marketing...Those are the conclusions of a new report from New York-based digital consultancy L2...[It], in conjunction with the NYU Stern School of Business, recently released its first digital ranking of the sportswear industry...Nike and Adidas, the top-two ranked companies, were ranked in the "genius" level by L2." Read more.

3. "Sportswear maker Nike has extended its Nike Training Club program to mobile to target active women on the go," reports Mobile Marketer. "Nike agency R/GA, New York, created a Nike Training Club iPhone application that complements the wired Web site at http://www.nikewomen.com. The app was already among the top 10 on Apple's "What's Hot" section for iPhone apps a few weeks ago. 'It's actually a trend that we'll see more of,' said Richard Ting, executive creative director and vice president of mobile and emerging platforms at R/GA, an Interpublic Group interactive marketing agency in New York." Read more.

4. "Ten years ago, Nike spent 55 percent of its advertising budget on traditional media. This year that figure is down to 33 percent according to a story in the New York Times," goes the post on Sundog Interactive. "In the last 20 years, Nike has gone from its renowned 'Revolution' TV campaign in 1987 introducing its AirMax shoes (I’ve bought AirMax running shoes ever since), to another revolutionary approach today that substantially alters the way it approaches advertising and marketing. Nike has re-channelled large amounts of budget from traditional media, to instead connecting with the customer via the Internet and in-person events." Read more.

Keywords: Nike+"Digital Marketing", Nike+"Interactive Marketing".

Unilever's Digital Marketing Program

• "Dove's "evolution" video in 2006 generated hundreds of millions of viral views and received many creative awards. The parent company's evolution has been a bit rockier," reports Advertising Age. "Unilever had some digital successes on other products, too, but results were far from universal. So in early 2008, the company sent U.S. media executive Babs Rangaiah to London to help build a digital capability that was truly global. The appointments of Paul Polman as CEO a year later and of Keith Weed as chief marketing officer in 2010 meant more senior leaders committed to ramping up digital." Read more.
• "As internet users increasingly ignore static banner ads, marketers are producing more interactive creative units that encourage users to get involved with the product," notes Smarter Investing Covestor. "Here's a brilliant one incorporating game mechanics that's the talk of the marketing crowd today. It's from premium ice cream maker Magnum, a Unilever (NYSE: UN) brand." Read more.
• Chief Marketer notes that "Unilever has extended its series of Webisodes for its I Can't Believe It's Not Butter Spray. This one, including six animated Webisodes and one TV spot, plays off the presidential campaign. The latest storyline features 'Spraychel' in her quest to be president of the fridge. But Spraychel’s opponent, 'Maxwell Butterman' tries to block her effort with his stance on old-fashioned ways of eating." Read more.
• "In early 2010, Unilever launched a campaign 
• on Facebook to distribute samples of its new 
• Marmite Cereal Bar and to drive awareness of 
• the new product," goes a report from Facebook Ads. "As part of raising awareness, 
• the company also sought to increase the number 
• of users who connected to the Marmite Cereal 
• Bars Facebook Page, the free public profile that 
• enables companies to share their business and 
• products with Facebook users on an ongoing 
• basis. The activity on Facebook was part of an 
• integrated campaign that included print media to 
• raise awareness as well as additional sampling 
• initiatives through digital Transvision screens and 
• escalator panels." Read more.
• Keywords used in the search: Unilever "Digital Marketing", Unilever "Interactive Marketing". Another one: Unilever "Internet Marketing". 

The Tips of Coke's Internet Marketing Iceberg

• "Coca-Cola has struck a global partnership with Spotify that is set to help both brands expand around the world, and will produce a Coke app based on the music service in time for the Olympics," according to Brand Republic. Read more.
• Mobile Marketer reports that "Coca-Cola Co. continues to roll out applications for both smartphones and tablets in various markets as a key element of its global consumer engagement strategy, a company executive revealed." Read more.
• "Coca-Cola has marked its 50 millionth Facebook 'Like' with a new campaign, drawing upon its social media fan base to identifying simple ways to ‘make the world a happier place’. Coca-Cola will identify individuals developing ideas that enable people to become more active, give to others, be social or engage in other activities associated with increased happiness. These creators will then collaborate with Coca-Cola and its Facebook community to develop ideas that help spread happiness around the world." That's the word from Digital Strategy Consulting. Read more.
• See a Coke Zero slide show about a portion of its digital marketing campaign.
• Three years ago, Coke decided to make the digital realm its realm. Pop Sop reports that "Coca-Cola is planning to change a digital marketing strategy evolving into content management 'a far more aggressive digital presence,' – Coke’s top marketer Joseph Tripodi said." Read more.

Maturing Facebook Strategies

"As Facebook marketing matures, so should strategies and best practices for plotting investment," reports Advertising Age. "Winning strategies will look very different in 2013 from previous years. Now that many brands have acquired sizable 'fan' bases, the focus is on leveraging Facebook's new ad products to grow loyalty and retention." Read more.

2012 Presidential Election Gets Social

"In 2012, it is not enough for candidates to shake some hands, kiss a baby or two and run some TV ads. They also need to be posting funny little animations on the blogging site Tumblr," starts a New York Times post. "If the presidential campaigns of 2008 were dipping a toe into social media like Facebook and Twitter, their 2012 versions are well into the deep end. They are taking to fields of online battle that might seem obscure to the non-Internet-obsessed — sharing song playlists on Spotify, adding frosted pumpkin bread recipes to Pinterest and posting the candidates’ moments at home with the children on Instagram." Read more.

Comments to help you think: Do not the presidential campaigns of Obama and Romney resemble marketing campaigns for products/services? Of course they do. Each man is attempting to build confidence and trust so that one of them can "run" the country for the next four years. 

People build trust by sharing information, and that information starts off benign--such as a vetted playlist, bread recipes, or staged family pictures. The sites create the illusion that each man--reality  an annointed volunteer or paid staff member--has posted this material, thereby conveying the notion that the viewer becomes "closer" with each man. How does this play a role in today's election? 

For 90 percent of Americans who say that they will vote in the election, it does not matter, according to poll samples. They will hold firm in their opinions. Obama and Romney are chasing after the 10 percent who remain undecided--especially in swing states such as Ohio and Florida, which have a few dozen Electoral College votes. 

Remember your civics classes. Members of the Electoral College in each state vote for the president. They have 538 voting members. The results of the Electoral College vote determines the next president--not the results of the popular vote. As a result, a person running for President of the U.S. could lose the popular vote but win the election. It has happened three times (Adams, Hayes, and Bush Jr.). 

Each candidate, therefore, wants to win in the swing states to ensure that they have those Electoral College votes. Do you not think that marketers also must find certain consumers to efficiently improve market share (the percentage of sales for a particular product category) in a given region or country?

Tweet a Conversation

"While Facebook is busy not counting clicks, Twitter wants us to sit down and have a chat – one-on-one – just you, me, and the millions of other people who check out the site every day. It’s more wisdom from the IAB MIXX Conference, this time from Joel Lunenfeld, Twitter’s vice president of global brand strategy, coming to you via TechCrunch," so goes the Marketing Pilgrim post. "Lunenfeld says that '88% of Twitter users follow at least one brand, and that more than half of users follow six or more brands.' Six or more brands! That’s a lot of people asking for daily advertisements in their stream. Some of them are hoping for discounts and freebies but others are genuinely interested in the brand and they want to be up on what’s happening." If you read more, you will discover ideas about the programs from Taco Bell and Old Sprice.

KitchenAid Blunder during the Presidential Debates

"Like many of you, I watched the Presidential debate last night. And, like many of you, heard about the incident that led to a rather disgusting tweet being sent out from the KitchenAid Twitter account," notes the Marketing Pilgrim. "In case you have no clue as to what I am talking about, check out this recap and then come back. Hopefully, we are at the point where we all see the obvious online reputation issue here. In fact, most pundits are focusing on the simple fact that KitchenAid should be more careful about who they let use there Twitter account. Clearly, an employee (or contractor) forgot to sign out of the KitchenAid account–and into their personal Twitter account–before sending that tweet. But, here’s the bigger reputation issue at hand." Read more.

Tweeting, Pining, Liking Oreos

"In August Oreo reached the halfway mark of its 100-day Oreo Daily Twist campaign, which portrays historic and current events from the perspective of America's favorite cookie," notes Direct Marketing News. "Whether an Oreo cookie is rolling past the Eiffel Tower for the Tour de France or filled with red icing for the Mars rover landing, the Oreo brand displays milestones in a fun and engaging way. Viewers can “like,” tweet, and pin the cookies from Nabsico's Daily Twist website and suggest future events to include in the campaign. Some images are interactive; for example, consumers can help the chocolaty morsel pole vault into a glass of milk or perform different yo-yo tricks." Read more.

Facebook Tops One Billion

"Facebook announced on Thursday that it has surpassed the 1 billion-user mark, and the company unveiled a new television commercial to commemorate the milestone," says Brafton News "Since its launch in 2004, Facebook has undergone a series of transformations, but the goal of helping people connect continues to drive innovation from the company." Read more. Facebook nation has a population more than three times larger than the U.S.

Tweets Fly with Presidential Debate

"Twitter announced on Wednesday night that the presidential debate between President Barack Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney was the most popular political event in the microblogging site's history," notes Brafton News. "For marketers, sharing interesting content related to any event driving major activity on the web can help boost brand areness and attract prospects." Read more.

Car Companies Take a Spin on Social Networks

"One auto manufacturer accelerating its use of new marketing approaches is Kia Motors America. Its Kia Soul shuffle slam marketing campaign, created by David&Goliath, was designed to pitch potential buyers in a way that enabled Kia to 'engage consumers in a promotion that allowed them to be creative and communicate,' says George Haynes, social and digital media manager at Kia Motors America," reports Digital Marketing News. "The campaign invited consumers to submit videos of themselves dancing to electropop like Kia's music-loving mascots, the soul Hamsters, on the Kia Soul YouTube and Facebook channels for a chance to win prizes. The campaign was 'a really good way for people to get to know the personality of our brand,' Haynes says, noting that the Kia Soul YouTube channel has received more than 18 million views to date."  Read about other car companies.

Tweeting's Fun, but Give Content

"A report from AYTM Market Research found that consumers enjoy interacting with brands on Twitter, but many also want to see website content from these companies," reports Brafton News. "According to the study, 69 percent of Twitter users follow brands on the platform. Twenty-six percent of respondents said they monitor the activity of at least 10 companies on the network." Read more.

Customers Like "Liking" but Also Want Content

"A report from AYTM Market Research found that more than 73 percent of consumers have Liked at least one brand on Facebook. In fact, 31 percent of respondents said they have Liked 10 brands or more," reports Brafton News. "Perhaps more importantly, users who opt to Like brands typically interact with social content on a regular basis. Even with 25.5 percent saying they "never" pay attention, the overwhelming sentiment suggests that content that appeals to users is most likely to result in clicks, site traffic and eventual conversions. ...Compelling content is the key for social media marketing...Despite this interest in Facebook marketing content, 44 percent said they typically find the website of the brands they Like more useful." Read more.

Again, marketers need to discover with Internet marketing how and when to have a "conversation" with their customers, as reported in the HD Marketing Report. With most products or services, customers reach a point when the cutesy information on a social network site fails to pique their interest. They want "hard" content--meaning facts about the product, pricing, or shipping that aid making a buying decision. They typically find that information on a company's website. In other words, it appears that social network media works effectively with customers who are beginning their "journeys," as Demystifying Social Media notes. So could one argue the longer the customer's journey, the more content the need. Conversely, the shorter the journey, the more flash? In other words, compare the "content" needed to make a decision about a soft drink versus "buying" a college education. Do not let the idea drop at that point. What does this mean for marketers?

Do not copy the information that appears in brown. I intend it only as a means of sparking your thoughts for your short reports.

Small Businesses Getting Social

"In June 2012, LinkedIn analyzed the countries where worldwide small-business professionals with accounts on the site lived and found that, not surprisingly due to the site’s headquarters, the US was the top country, with more than 6.8 million small-business professionals. The UK and India were the next most popular countries, with 1.06 million and 1.01 million professionals, respectively," reports eMarketer. "It is not only small-business professionals who are jumping into social media. Small businesses themselves are getting more involved on these sites. August 2012 data from Newtek Business Services found that Facebook is seeing more activity from small businesses. The survey of independent business owners in the US found that 47% of small businesses had a Facebook account." Read more; see charts. 

Throughout the semester, I rarely have mentioned small businesses, emphasizing the marketing campaigns of companies such as Toyota, Coke, and P&G. Small businesses, meaning companies who employ fewer than 10 people, represent nearly 80 percent of all employer firms in the U.S. They tend to be local companies with less resources for broadcast marketing, meaning tv and radio. As a result they become ideal candidates for the use of Internet marketing. They also lack the resources to maintain extensive contacts in the business community and its necessary services, such as accounting and legal. A social network, such as LinkedIn, enables them to establish or to improve their connections in the business community while Facebook can help them market to local customers, therefore accounting for the increased usage of both types of social networks by small businesses. 

Do not copy the information that appears in brown. I intend it only as a means of sparking your thoughts for your short report.

Virtual and Real Worlds Collide--Yet Again

"Exponential Interactive...and MasterCard Advisors...have announced a partnership that will enable Exponential's brands [marketers/advertisers] to target their digital ads to audiences based on their offline spending behavior," says ClickZ. "Data on spending behavior, which the companies say is anonymous and not linked to any individual, will be extracted from the more than 25 billion transactions that U.S. MasterCard holders carry out at retail locations annually. Some 310 million people hold a MasterCard in the U.S." Read more.

By integrating the virtual and real worlds of consumers, marketers discover a distinction about their potential customers: how people behave online differs from how the behave in the real world. In other words, an individual, while surfing the Web, may scout out luxury car brands but walk into dealerships and buy an economy brand. By discovering these types of distinctions, marketers can more effectively target ads or change their marketing messages. Now remember the concepts of conversation in the HD Marketing Report and the journey concept found in the Demystifying Social Media report. Then ask: How does this partnership work with those concepts? 

Do not copy the information that appears in brown. I intend it only as a means of sparking your thoughts for your short reports.

Getting Customers to Return

"Google has recently announced a beta program called Remarketing in Search, which aims to take the benefits of remarketing and leverage them within the SERP (Search Engine Results Page) environment. The idea is simple: create remarketing lists as you do with display, but leverage this customer knowledge to impact you’re messaging and bidding strategy within your SEM campaigns to improve performance," according to ClickZ. "Remarketing - or retargeting - is now an established tactic leveraged by many (if not all) digital marketers trying to maximize conversion activity. Retargeting, in its simplest form, is the practice of delivering display advertisements to users who have visited owned content in the past, in order to get them to come back and take action. Retargeting on its own has many layers of complexity, including, determining which pages to track and which to exclude, developing relevant “cookie pools” against the tracked pages, and what creative messaging to deliver to each cookie pool." Read more.

To understand how remarketing/retargeting affects marketers, you should read the remainder of the article. In summary and without detail, it dovetails into the Demystifying Social Media (DSM) report. Remarketing continues the "conversation" with the viewer as she/he continues her "journey" for purchasing a product or service.  Google's "Remarketing in Search" and DSM differ in one respect. Google's deals with search results, and the report covers social media.

Do not copy the information that appears in brown. I intend it only as a means of sparking your thoughts for your short reports.

While Trying to Lure More Advertisers, Facebook Faces Concerns about Privacy

"Following a recent uptick in data-driven ad offerings and a rapidly expanding ad exchange, Facebook is responding to fresh privacy concerns with new details about how it collects user data and how users can opt out of certain features. A series of mechanisms have been put in place to protect user privacy under the framework of Facebook Exchange (FBX), custom audience targeting and Facebook's now year-long partnership with data matching firm DataLogix," reports ClickZ.
"Almost four months have passed since Facebook launched its real-time ad exchange and it continues to grow the exchange with new partners, most recently Criteo and Rocket Fuel. However, with FBX enabling Facebook to connect its platform to third-party data for targeting ads, it was only a matter of time before privacy issues bubbled to the surface." Read more.

The exchange and privacy protection works this way. A viewer goes to a Facebook page. If the person has previously visited the site, then his/her computer will have a ID number. Facebook notifies the ad exchnage, which then tells Facebook which marketers want to show what advertisement. Facebook does not send personal information to the advertiser.

The question for marketers: How might privacy concerns kill the goose that lays the golden eggs? Two ways come to mind. First, surfers might opt for private browsing, which the major browsers now provide, thereby denying information to websites. Second, surfers might avoid sites such as Facebook. Should a vast majority of web surfers do either or a combination, then marketers will lose access to the information used for effective Internet marketing.

Do not copy the information that appears in brown. I intend it only as a means of sparking your thoughts for your short reports.

Jaguar Land Rover Chase Customers after They Close a Deal

"Leverage new marketing channels for after-sales retention," notes Digital Marketing  News. "Many automobile brands commonly use a blend of traditional and digital strategies to attract new customers. But a growing number of brands, such as Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), are also leveraging cutting-edge technologies to retain customers in an after-sales environment." Read more.

Green Mountain Coffee Gets Its Buzz On

"Drive sales by educating consumers about fair trade and enhance their understanding of its benefits," goes the Digital Marketing News post. "Coffee drinking is often a social activity, which is why it made sense for Green Mountain to tap BzzAgent, the social arm of dunnhumby, when the brand embarked on a broad push to promote its fair trade-certified coffee line." Read more.