Making the Web More Social for Marketers

"The NFL, Pepsi, Hearst, and Carnival Cruise Lines have signed on to use ReachBuddy, an app extension tool unveiled this morning by social software company Buddy Media. The offering builds on Buddy Media’s ProfileBuddy, which helps marketers create Facebook apps. ReachBuddy will allow the NFL, for example, to deploy its apps on NFL.com or other properties," according to ClickZ....Pepsi, a beta partner, has already put ReachBuddy into action. It recently created an app to distribute video on Pepsi.com around the Fox reality TV show The X Factor, which the beverages and snacks company has been sponsoring." Read more.

Toyota Launches New SN Contest

"If you love playing games on Facebook and if your interested in winning a trip to Japan, Toyota has just the just the thing for you. The carmaker yesterday debuted "Social Network Racer," a contest centered on a video game where players worldwide will compete while "test-driving" a new concept sports car that will premiere at the Tokyo Motor Show in December," reports a post on ClickZ. "First reported by AllFacebook.com, the campaign goes through Dec. 31 and is running solely on Toyota's Facebook page for the initiative. The game, which requires Flash Player 11 for 3D, lets players create and host races, and also uses each player's Facebook profile information." Read more.

Snapple on Facebook Upsets Women

"Dr Pepper Snapple Group has upset some female consumers on Facebook with a new ad campaign," according to ClickZ. "Utilizing the tagline "It's Not For Women," the Plano, TX-based company was a national Facebook advertiser on Tuesday while pushing the new Dr. Pepper Ten product, a 10-calorie diet soda aimed at men." Read more.

Timberland Goes Mobile with Marketing

"Timberland is striding into mobile in a big way, with a mobile-optimized website that went live in late August and a series of live events featuring enhanced product information via QR codes kicking off on October 19.
'e’ve been hearing about the emergence of mobile for some time. Smartphones obviously changed everything quite dramatically and we felt that getting a mobile-optimized site was the next logical step,' says Heather Frost, North American commerce manager for Timberland. She adds that the company already has seen positive results in sales since the mobile site went live," reports ClickZ.

New Motion Picture Uses Facebook

DMNews reports that "Universal Pictures launched a Facebook scavenger hunt on Oct. 12 in support of its film Tower Heist. The movie studio is working with interactive agency The Branding Farm and technology company Ifeelgoods on the campaign." Read more.

Google Earns $2.5 Billion in Mobile Ad Sales

"Google is on track to earn $2.5 billion this year in mobile ad sales, Larry Page told investors during Google's third quarter earnings call today," says ClickZ. "That growth is led by mobile search activity, with mobile display ads a lesser factor." Read more.

Google Losing in Terms of Display Advertising

"Google sits on a huge pile of search intent data, but does not use it directly to improve display ad targeting - a business the company admits is integral to its future. What gives?" That's the post on ClickZ. "The question has been raised by some people in Google's display ad operation, according to sources. These staffers have expressed frustration that they can't leverage Google users' search queries to create customized ads outside the search environment. Use of such data would result in more personalized offers, better ad performance, and ultimately more revenue for Google." Read more.

Ranking of Websites Share of Market in September

Ranking of websites in Sept. 2011 (comScore, 2011)

Smartphones and Tablets Gaining Steam

comScore, Inc. , released the report Digital Omnivores: How Tablets, Smartphones and Connected Devices are Changing U.S. Digital Media Consumption Habits. "Key findings highlighted in the report include:

• "Mobile phones drive digital traffic around the world, while tablets are gaining steam. The share of non-computer traffic for the U.S. stood at 6.8 percent in August 2011, with approximately two-thirds of that traffic coming from mobile phones, and tablets accounting for much of the remainder.
• "Increased WiFi availability and mobile broadband adoption in the U.S. are helping drive connectivity. In August 2011, more than one third (37.2 percent) of U.S. digital traffic coming from mobile phones occurred via a WiFi connection. This percentage grew nearly 3 points in just the past three months. On the other hand, tablets, which traditionally required a WiFi connection to access the Internet, are increasingly driving traffic using mobile broadband access. In August, nearly 10 percent of traffic from tablets occurred via a mobile network connection." Read more.

L'Oreal Turns to Content Marketing

BraftonNews reports that "Global cosmetics company L’Oreal is implementing a multi-faceted content marketing campaign to target consumers in the U.S., Advertising Age said in a report on Thursday. As part of a plan to increase its consumer base by 1 billion in the next 10 years, L’Oreal believes a content marketing strategy that focuses heavily on original articles and SEO will help boost its web visibility and conversions. According to Advertising Age, L’Oreal is allocating a separate budget for its content and web marketing strategies – leaving its traditional marketing dollars largely unaffected." Read more.


Advertising Age notes that "L'Oreal is dramatically increasing its digital spending in the U.S., boosting its outlay for original content development as it shifts some of its focus from brand and product awareness toward consumer evaluation and advocacy online, said Marc Speichert, the company's U.S. CMO, in a media briefing in New York on Thursday." Read more.

15 Steps to Judging a Social Network Marketing Campaign

People cannot measure the success of a social network marketing program merely by touting the number of "likes," notes ClickZ. "A big step toward a practical approach to social media marketing involves an understanding of customer social preferences and needs along with how the business will meet those needs through social media engagement." Read the 15 steps to judging the success.

More Americans Accessing WWW from Mobile Devices

ClickZ reports that "Americans are spending more time than ever surfing the Internet away from their desks. Mobile devices and tablets were responsible for nearly 7 percent of all digital traffic in the U.S. in August, according to a new study from ComScore." Read more.

APA Again

Apparently some of us have been mixing up MLA and APA. (Some have even created their own versions of citation.) Here's the correct version as reported on the Purdue University website called Owl:

For a works cited page listing:
Author, A. A., & Author, B. B. (Date of publication). Title of article. Title of Online Periodical, volume number(issue number if available). Retrieved from http://www.someaddress.com/full/url/

If there is no date of publication, put (n.d.). If there is a month and day, (Year, Month day).

For in-text citations:
(Author's Surname, year).

If the website does not list an author:
(Two words from title, year).

In-text citations should appear as follows:
....the end of the quotation" (Author's Surname, year).

If you have any additional questions, go to http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/.

Oscar Mayer Spells App 'Sandwichemos'

"Meat products brand Oscar Mayer added an app to parent company Kraft Foods' Spanish-language Facebook page on Oct. 7 that is geared toward Hispanic consumers. The brand worked with digital agency 360i on the initiative," according to a DMNews post. "Those who interact with the 'Sandwichemos' app are asked to assign a sandwich ingredient to a family member. They can then share the completed sandwich on Facebook." Read more.

Audi Tunes into Drivers' Frustrations

Do you want to get an idea of how complex a social network/Internet marketing campaign can become? Read the following from ClickZ:

Audi knows that buyers of high-end autos are quick to rant about potholes and lousy drivers, so TV ads for the newly launched 2012 Audi A6 commiserate with those feelings. But how to channel that misery on the digital front? The answer is the Road Frustration Index, which quantifies the real-time status of traffic, accidents, weather and unhappy tweets on the roadways in major U.S. cities.
The branded index (visit site), still in beta, is presented in the form of a map that’s designed to make it easy to compare current driving conditions in various cities. To turn the idea of a misery index for drivers into a reality, Audi of America and its digital agency AKQA connected with MIT’s SENSEable City Lab. The lab has worked with Audi for years on researching intelligent city transportation through the use of data. AKQA collaborated with the lab to craft the algorithm that drives the index and to refine the index infographics.  Including social media sentiment makes the RFI more subjective - and potentially a more riveting marketing tool - than a straightforward collection of facts. Drivers’ feelings are captured from keywords on Twitter, such as "traffic jam." And Twitter sentiment doesn’t always follow conditions. For instance, on the evening of Oct. 5, outspoken drivers in Philadelphia ranked very frustrated even though their road conditions did not rank as particularly bad.

Read more.

Facebook and Twitter Gaining in Advertising

ClickZ reports that Facebook's "partner, Nielsen, reported on Monday that broad targeting (e.g., adults aged 18 to 54) for ads across the web - excluding Facebook - is far more effective than narrow targeting (e.g., women 18 to 34). The former tactic hits the mark 72 percent of the time, according to a Nielsen blog post, while narrow targeting only produced the same result at 35 percent. David Fischer, Facebook VP of advertising and global operation, ...[then added that] Facebook ads that use broad targeting hit the mark by more than 95 percent, while narrow targeting on the social site achieves at least 90 percent. Meanwhile, Adam Bain, Twitter's chief revenue officer, said at the IAB MIXX conference on Tuesday that his company now has 1,600 brand advertisers. This includes the micro-blogging site's Promoted Tweets, Promoted Products, and Promoted Trends products. Around the same time last year, Twitter only had a handful of paid advertisers." Read more.

Consumer Packaged Goods Like "Like"

"CPG [Consumer Packaged Goods] brands dig the like button. According to comScore, Mars, Kraft, Procter & Gamble, Sara Lee and other CPG giants are incorporating links to Facebook, like buttons, and other social sharing elements in their display ads. Mars, Kraft, and Energizer top the August 2011 chart, which shows the share of advertisers' total display impressions that incorporate social capabilities or are intended to push users to their social pages," according to ClickZ. Read more.

Brand Awareness Improves with Good Social Media Marketing

Brafton reports that "businesses that claim success with social media marketing have found that brand awareness, prospect and client engagement and recruiting are the areas most positively impacted by the channel, SelectMinds found in a recent study." Read more.

Global Advertising Spending Probably Down for 2011

"ZenithOptimedia has revised down its 2011 global advertising spending forecast by half a percentage point due to slower economic recovery in developing markets and continued fears of a double-dip recession," reports DMNews. "Still, total ad investment this year is expected to improve 3.6% to $466 billion, up from $450 billion last year, with digital media continuing to drive growth. In the U.S., total ad spending on major media is projected to grow 2.2% this year over last year." Read more.

Companies Getting Series about Social Media

"A new study by Booz & Company and Buddy Media, shows that social media is coming into its own as a customer service tool, a way of conducting market research and even a way to handle internal communications," according to a MarketingPilgrim post. "It all points to the fact that companies of every size are getting serious about social media and that means more money and resources going to support the cause." Read more.

Coke Looks to Fans for Its Marketing Strategy

"Coca-Cola will be looking to its fans to be a key part of its marketing strategy," reports ClickZ. "Your browser does not support this object. The beverage brand, building off the popularity of its 'Longest Celebration' campaign for the World Cup games in South Africa in 2009, also hopes to score another marketing win with its plans for the London 2012 Summer Olympics." Read more.

New Way of Judging Brand Awareness Besides "Likes"

"Facebook will launch an analytics tool designed to enable companies to measure the impact of brand pages on Oct. 5, said Grady Burnett, VP of global marketing solutions at Facebook," reports DMNews. "Burnett said the tool is 'not just about showing how many people "liked" your page.' Instead, he said, the product will measure how many people have commented on products and messages and how consumers have responded to marketing messages." Read more.

Tips for Analyzing a Social Media Campaign

"To build your brand encompassing the shorthand marketing messages that create emotional bonds with consumers built into your social media marketing, break it into its component parts and consider how to apply each to your social media execution and content." That's the beginning of a seven-step ClickZ program for building brand awareness on social media. Read more.

ABC Teams Up with Yahoo

"Yahoo and ABC News will share content and ad sales resources as part of a new partnership announced this morning. The relationship will include a prominent integration of ABC News across Yahoo's properties, including the launch of Good Morning America on a Yahoo domain at GMA.yahoo.com," according to a ClickZ post. Read more.

Chevy Gets People to Play Games

"Chevrolet is one company putting a fresh spin on the stalwart direct marketing tactic of online sweepstakes by asking consumers to play a game before entering," reports DMNews. "The carmaker rewarded consumers who completed a specific play in a free demo of Electronic Arts' ultra-popular Madden NFL 12 game not only with a satisfying touchdown dance, but also a code for the game's Facebook page for a chance to win a 2012 Chevy Cruze. Chevy's in-game initiative is one example of a spree of brands targeting gamers with programs more engrossing than the Grand Theft Auto billboard of old.
" Read more.

Sports Leagues Going for Streaming

"Shifts in technology adoption and consumer behavior have reshaped the digital sports content ecosystem. Leagues that had avoided streaming their content are beginning to launch online and mobile subscription offerings and ad-supported streams," according to eMarketer. "Many are finding that fears of cannibalization of traditional viewing are unfounded. In fact, there are prominent examples where online, mobile and traditional viewing levels are increasing together, leading to increased visibility for forward-thinking marketers that are taking a multiplatform approach to advertising on sports content." Read more.

Dunkin' Donuts Runs a Facebook Campaign

"Dunkin' Donuts and digital agency Studiocom launched a Facebook contest in celebration of National Coffee Day, Dan Saia, VP of consumer engagement at Dunkin' Brands, said in an email. The campaign will be promoted through targeted emails to DD Perks Rewards loyalty program members and on Twitter," reports DMNews. Read more.

The Cola Wars Continue

"At first glance, the marketing strategies of Coke and Pepsi — the two ubiquitous, global players that have dominated the soft drink market for decades — might appear more similar than different. Each brand deploys decidedly feel-good creative in its advertising, branding, email marketing and loyalty programs, around consistently happy-go-lucky themes like summertime, nightlife and Santa Claus. And yet, upon closer inspection, each has a distinctly unique marketing strategy," according to DMNews . "Each company spends a bucketload promoting its soda brands, but much less than in the past. The Coca-Cola Co. last year laid out $253 million on soda advertising while PepsiCo invested $153 million compared with $377 million and $348, respectively, back in 2005, as The Wall Street Journal reports.
" Read more.

USA Today and Facebook Team Up for Super Bowl

"Facebook members will be able to help decide which Super Bowl ads are the best this season thanks to a partnership between USA Today and the social network. Together the two are launching an application called the USA Today-Facebook Super Bowl Ad Meter, which for the first time will open up the newspaper's influential rankings to the general public," according to ClickZ. "USA Today has published its Super Bowl Ad Meter every year since 1989, ranking the Super Bowl commercials from best to worst. Traditionally, focus groups judge the commercials on a scale of one to 10 as they watch the game." Read more.

Financial Firm Increases Client Engagement

Global interactive marketing provider ExactTarget announced today that its client Kestler Financial Group posted a nearly 50 percent increase in client engagement since April despite the turbulent global financial markets thanks to a revamped marketing effort on Twitter and email.

Powered by ExactTarget’s Interactive Marketing Hub^TM, the national financial services firm launched the effort in April and boosted engagement by identifying the most frequent conversations on social media to select the most relevant financial content to feature across email, social media and its website.

“The key to our marketing is evaluating and monitoring all marketing channels in real-time, whether that’s Twitter, our blog or email,” said Kevin Kestler, director of communications of Virginia-based Kestler Financial Group. “We then shape our marketing campaigns to deliver highly relevant and timely financial content on email, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn.”

Read more.

Facebook Users Click on Brands--Monthly

new study released today by global interactive marketing provider ExactTarget finds 93 percent of Facebook users click the “Like” button at least monthly, but the meaning behind “Like” varies considerably by age and context.

Featured in The Meaning of Like, the latest in ExactTarget’s Subscribers, Fans and Followers research series, the study found the most common uses of “Like” related to posts made by friends, followed by clicking the “Like” button on sites outside of Facebook as a form of ‘social bookmarking.’

“With Facebook such a vital part of the online social fabric, marketers need to be smart and strategic when developing campaigns on Facebook,” said Jeff Rohrs, vice president, ExactTarget’s Marketing Research and Education Group. “A click of the ‘Like’ button means different things to different people. It creates an opportunity for further engagement, but it is merely one step toward the types of meaningful, cross-channel relationships marketers need to succeed.”

According to the research, a universal meaning of “Like” has yet to emerge largely because a click depends on the individual consumer and the context in which the “Like” button is used, Rohrs said.

Read more.