As marketers, we need to be aware of how the Millennial (also know as Gen Y) generation’s brand choices affect the bottom line, even for brands that are not marketing directly to this group. Many Millennials are still living with their Baby Boomer or older Gen-X parents and exerting great influence over the family’s purchases. It’s estimated that this generation influences as much as half of all spending in the U.S. economy. This chart shows the categories they impact the most.

While mass marketing has long turned off Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers, our under-30 consumers are embracing it. Mr. Howe – co-author with the late William Strauss of "Generations" (1991) and "Millennials Rising" (2001), which christened the generation – sees this generation as averse to chaos and unpredictability. They prefer a very smooth brand that has minimal turmoil. This may perplex Gen-Xers who require niche marketing. For them, once something becomes popular with too many people, it’s no longer cool.

But mass brands (think iPod and Harry Potter) are very appealing to Millennials. They are a much more communal, pro-social generation than the Gen-Xers or Baby Boomers. While Millennials want to be in control of their own relationship with a brand (by customizing and personalizing) they also find strength in numbers – the more people on board the better. Gen-Xers and Baby Boomers, who were very anti-marketing in their youth, find this mass adoption of brands quite puzzling.

When we market brands in categories with high Millennial influence, we need to understand and communicate to three generations of consumers, each of which responds to a different kind of message. Marketing needs to appeal to each, but cannot consist of entirely different messages either. If we try to be “edgy” for the kids and “safe” for the parents, they’ll both see right through it. The challenge of crafting advertising that speaks to all the decision-makers who buy/use your brand is what one-to-one marketing is all about.

A recent eyetracking study from MarketingSherpa vividly demonstrates how quickly viewers become blind to banner ads that have a consistent placement on a page. The image below shows where the eyes focused on three consecutive email newsletters with a banner ad on the left of the page.

In the first mailing, almost 80% of the viewers scanned the ad, but that was cut in half by the second email and ended up at only 20% in the third. This shows how quickly “banner blindness” can happen. We are able to very quickly process what’s new and what’s familiar on a page, and we pass over the familiar. While this processing is bad for cases like the example above, it also points to opportunities for grabbing attention.

This is MarketingSherpa’s advice for combating banner blindness:
1. Change the landscape
The most powerful way to combat banner blindness is probably to vary the page template itself. By moving landmarks, you encourage the eye to conduct a more complete scan of the page. This is easiest in the e-mail world, where creating and scheduling similar, but not identical, templates won’t send the Web team into paroxysms.

2. Change the look and feel of ads
If you can’t change the position of ads, think about changing ad sizes or the way they look. In our study, for instance, we swapped in a text list where a graphical ad had been positioned and saw a jump in attention. The eye tracks changes to a familiar landscape.

3. Increase ad rotation
The easiest way to combat blindness is to change ads frequently. For publishers, that’s easy. That’s not the case with sponsored placements or in-house advertising; these can sit static for long periods.

It isn’t clear yet if video ads suffer the same fate, but my personal experience online tells me that we should take steps to change these up as often as possible too.

Models in advertising and catalog photography are the face of your brand so it’s extremely important to find the right faces. Current and potential customers need to be able to identify with your choices so they can picture themselves as users of your products or services. Therefore, the look of your target market is the look you need to match.

There are some basic steps you can take to help you find those faces out of the thousands of models available. Ask your modeling agencies to send you comps of only those models that meet your basic requirements for age, gender and ethnicity. If you desire more experienced talent, be sure to state that requirement and ask for the years of experience and a listing of each model’s clients. Keep in mind that more experience usually means higher rates.

You never know how long ago the shots on a comp card were taken so it’s very risky to base your decision on those images only. Once you have narrowed your choices down to a manageable number, ask the agency reps for current images and require that they give you the date these were shot. Not so long ago this could be a difficulty as models would have to come into the agency office and have someone take Polaroid shots of them, but nowadays almost everyone has access to a digital camera and can easily supply current shots. Be sure to give them any special requirements you have for these shots. For instance if you’re going to be shooting swimwear, you need to see them in a swimsuit. If you’re going to want them to be happy and smiling in shots for your project, you need to see them that way in these shots. You’d be surprised how many models neglect to include a big smile on their comps!

If you’re going for a lifestyle look rather than straight posing, you might want to request models that are SAG members (Screen Actors Guild) because these people have some acting experience and are used to moving around and interacting with others in front of a camera. However, if you’re not willing to pay the much higher rates that SAG models command, you can request that they supply you with a video clip of themselves interacting with another person or telling a story about themselves. This will help you see if they’re comfortable in front of a camera and can give a good indication of their personality. When we first started asking for video clips several years ago, we were told that wasn’t possible, but we kept asking and have found within the past year that almost every agency now provides that if you ask.

Once you have your selections made, your work isn’t quite done. You need to be sure your models know what’s expected of them. Every job is different and models will give you what they THINK you want if they don’t know what you REALLY want. We bring tear sheets and stock images as well as past and current printed pieces to our shoots to show the models exactly what kind of look and feeling we want from them. They’re always very grateful for any direction that will help them give you the right look for your brand.

If all the hype about the social sites (MySpace, Facebook, Tagged, etc.) has you confused about their value to you as a user or as a marketer, you’re not alone! Dawn Anfuso explores this issue in today’s iMedia newsletter.

She feels she must not be the targeted demographic for these social networks because she finds connecting with those she wants to be in contact with easier through “traditional” means such as phone, email and yes, even in person! But does that mean the social media have no use for people like her?

Find out what she discovered through her search for meaning in the media in her article Confessions of a Facebook Rookie. (Hint: Smart marketers who think it through are finding surprising applications.)

A week after a game that was highly contested on the field and one of the biggest mass-marketing events in history, many pundits have weighed in on the advertising that sponsored it, and the consensus is that there were no big winners among the advertisers.

While advertisers paid a new high of $2.7 million for a :30 spot most seemed to forget lessons that were learned years ago, mainly the lesson of integration. In contrast to the late '90s when every ad ended with a dotcom, the web was almost non-existent in this year’s ads. If it was there at all, it seemed to be an afterthought.

For those millions of viewers who sat in their living rooms with their attention divided between the TV and their computers, how cool would it have been to view a commercial and be able to immediately go online to the brand’s site and interact with something relevant to what they’d just seen? Anyone who tried that last Sunday was most likely disappointed.

Michael Estrin of iMedia Conneection explored these phenomena, noting that many brands apparently chose an integration strategy that simply left users on their own in the digital space. The idea that integration wasn't critical seems to have been the big theme for this year's ads as most brands returned to traditional spots. With the continued growth in the digital space, it's hard to see why the year's No. 1 advertising event would opt for a traditional approach. http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/18241.asp

It's apparent that no one has yet discovered how to best integrate between platforms, but we can only hope that Super Bowl XLIII will take us forward on that path.

Marketing Sherpa’s “Search Marketing Study Results 2008” reveals some interesting statistics as well as some good direction for improving your program.

SEM IS STILL GROWING RAPIDLY – 31% IN U.S., 39% GLOBALLY FOR 2007

• 43% of big spenders (more that $25,000/month) plan to increase budget by 11%
• 35% of average spenders expect to increase by 11%
• Many of these increases are for rising prices, not a desire to extend SEM reach. Smaller companies are feeling the pinch in paid search/keyword inflation.

SEO (ALONG WITH PR AND PRINT ADVERTISING), RECEIVED THE HIGHEST RATING FOR "HARD-TO-GAUGE EFFECTIVENESS"

• Many marketers are not using the inexpensive analytics tools that are readily available

CLICK FRAUD IS STILL A CONCERN, BUT NOT AS MUCH TALK ABOUT IT AS LAST YEAR

• The report presents a new way to evaluate Clicks and Click Fraud. Scoring is based on billions of clicks and a complex set of variables. Instead of black-and-white, good vs. bad methodology, the scoring system takes the next step by adding a layer of probability (i.e. A 3 am, click from South Korea is probably fraudulent, but there’s no way of knowing it definitely except in rare circumstances.)
• For Search Engines, this new model could mean a way of charging more for good clicks, while offering discounts for low-quality traffic
• For Search Marketers, it would offer protection against high prices for clicks that aren’t likely to generate sales

THE LENGTH OF THE URL IN A SEARCH LISTING AFFECTS THE LIKELIHOOD OF CLICKING

• Viewers spend time trying to figure out what’s in a long URL and end up clicking on the ad immediately below it 2.5 times more often when viewing a listing with long URL
• A short URL keeps the focus on the TITLE of the listing where you’re more likely to have success with those searching for your product/service.

A fairly newly identified demographic group, Generation Jones is described in Wikipedia as follows:

Generation Jones is a term that describes people born between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s. U.S. social commentator Jonathan Pontell identified the existence of this generation and coined the term “Generation Jones” for it.

Generation Jones has been referred to as a heretofore-lost generation between the Baby Booomers and Generation X, since prior to the popularization of Pontell’s theory, its members were included with either the Boomers or Xers. The birth years typically used in the U.S. are 1954-1965, but tend to vary slightly in other countries, usually starting no earlier than 1953, and ending no later than 1968.

The connotations of the name “Generation Jones” include:

• A large, anonymous generation
• The slang term “jonesin’”, which refers here to the unrequited craving felt by this generation of unfulfilled expectations

Online marketers are beginning to understand the important distinctions between the two groups.

• Generation Jones includes 42% of all adults making $100,000 per year
• It’s members represent 26% of all U.S. adults over age 18 vs. 16% for true Baby Boomers
• They’re very comfortable online, making up 41% of all consumers who spend $2,500 online annually
• Jonesers are considered persuadable and receptive to marketing messaging
• They are currently taking stock of their lives, leaving them much more open to experimentation, and to trying out new products and services
• Generation Jonesers tend to be more realistic, whereas Boomers are idealistic
• They tend to vote conservatively while Boomers tend to vote a little more liberal

As the Boomers move on into retirement, it’s becoming more important to target the Jonesers who are at the peak of their careers and earning power.

Color is a very powerful element and can play a huge part in the success (or failure) of a product or marketing campaign. Color symbolism is especially critical when product is sold globally to different cultures. Advertising design often takes it’s lead from the fashion environment, so staying current on color trends in the fashion world can help us design with appropriate colors.

The Color Association of The United States (CAUS) has defined the 2007-2008 Color Trends in four different fashion palettes that help remove some of the guesswork when determining what colors will enhance consumer reactions.

Interiors and Environmental:

Women's:

Mens:

Youth:

It’s fun to keep an eye on the forecasts to help make color selections in your personal life too. The Interiors/Environmental palette can inspire you in painting in your home, and the Fashion palettes will keep you from sporting colors that are “oh, so yesterday”!

The recent DMA report on Multichannel Marketing in the Catalog Industry during 2006 shows that successful multichannel marketers have consistent and integrated efforts across three channels: catalog, retail and e-commerce.

• 70% of respondents reported increased sales over 2005
• 59% increased catalog circulation in 2006
• 44% of sales came from Web (vs. mail or telephone) for those who have catalogs, which is up from 39% in 2005
• 33% say they wouldn’t have received certain sales without a website
• 20% overall growth rate for online sales
• 45% said Web is their primary channel followed by catalog (33%) and retail stores (22%)

These findings all support using the multichannel strategy to maximize sales. Customers want to choose how and where they shop and buy. It’s more important than ever to maintain a consistently positive customer experience across all channels of communication.

Cool microsites, online games and video clips were the highest rated viral tactics according to Marketing Sherpa's "2007 Viral Marketing Survey".

Experienced marketers seem to have learned that spending more yields better results. 43% of those with video experience say they spend $5,000 - $10,000 on clips for their viral campaigns. 49% of the less experienced say they can do a video for $2,500 - $5,000.

Almost two-thirds of those surveyed said they plan to use video in their upcoming campaigns, but what are the chances that those videos will actually go viral? A survey conducted by Online Publishers Association indicates that the chances are low. The marketers' hope is that people will tell others (pass it on) when they see something amusing, strange or compelling. Of those surveyed, only 9% do this frequently, while another 29% do so occasionally.

You might conclude from these results that online video isn't as viral as we've come to believe. However, in the Influencer theory of marketing, only one in ten people in any field are actually viral, so getting 9% to pass the video on is right on the money.

The big message here is that online video can't stand alone in most cases. As always, the smart marketer will make this just one part of the overall campaign.

We're hearing this from all sides these days. While this isn't measurable in any fact-based way, there are signs of big problems for the big holding companies and their agencies. With the changing media scene, the huge agencies that have historically centered their work on TV campaigns, are finding it difficult to adapt. They are being called out for an inability to plan and execute online.

A Forrester research report titled "Help Wanted: 21^st Century Agency" surveyed both client-side marketers and ad agencies to measure attitudes toward agency effectiveness. The marketers gave their agencies a Net Promoter rating of 21%. This means 79% of marketers would not recommend their agency to a colleague! Another study, from Evalueserve for Sapient, found that only 10% of more than 100 companies surveyed in the United Kingdom and the U.S. "seek to partner with large ad agencies for their online marketing".

One problem is that for the biggest agencies of today, the revenue goals come from a holding company that is not likely to fund risky new projects. Trying to coordinate TV production (big revenue demanded by revenue goals) with interactive and new media creative (small revenue) is very difficult for these agencies. Small agencies are built for smaller revenue projects and are more efficient and nimble in handling them. A sign that huge agencies and their holding companies are beginning to understand that big isn't always best is their growing investment in small, one-stop shops.

The second problem is the age of accountability we live in today. Traditional agencies still speak the old metrics language of overall sales lift and gross rating points (GRPs). The things that matter today: brand loyalty, and engagement metrics (Net Promoter Scores, reputation scores, blog metrics) are a new language that the traditional agencies need to learn.

The agencies that survive will be those who change their direction from "create a 30-second spot for a new product launch" to"create a solution to drive more frequent purchases". When they understand that they need to do a 180 and let the ideas drive the media and let the customer drive the ideas, they will have found the key to survival.

A healthy brand innovates and reinvents itself constantly to remain relevant to shifting consumer desires. This is a key component of brand building, but how do you know when it's time to change and what to change?

A recent marketing-accountability study conducted by the Association of National Advertisers identified some very concrete indicators:

• When customer conversion or repeat rate vs. competition slips
• When the percent of consumers rating the brand as "excellent" slips
• When factors rated highly by customers differ from the company's goal
• When the company sells more on promotion or price reduction than it does at premium
• When a brand's net promoter score slips (net promoter score is a widely used marketing metric that's derived by subtracting the number of brand detractor from the number of consumers who say they would recommend the brand to another)

Brand reinvention in these cases should include

• Product innovation
• Refocusing marketing efforts on growth
• Exploring new targets
• Analyzing the root cause of the deterioration
• Completing a deep qualitative study on brand issues

Notice that hiring a new ad agency is not the solution. As Don Sexton, professor of business at Columbia University states, "Sizzle alone won't do it. You have to have the steak as well. Great advertising makes a lousy product fail faster."

Strong brands start out with a point of differentiation and an understanding of why that difference is relevant to their customers. When a brand begins to slip, it's crucial to go back to the beginning and be sure all efforts are grounded in the core values that made that brand strong.

A recent article from Marc Brownstein in Ad Age struck me as “right on”. He asserts that “the new media that we live with today has forced us to go back to our roots and remind us of what business we are in: ideas. Any kind of idea.”

When the restrictions of where the creative will be seen are lifted, the ideas can center on solving the marketing issue. Because agencies are no longer focused on finding an idea to fill a prescribed “where”, creatives are feeling liberated and are coming up with ideas that can go anywhere.

Having worked in the DM world for most of my career where TV was never King, this change isn’t as dramatic as it might be for some others, but the expansion of media possibilities has opened the doors wider for DM creatives too. It’s exciting to brainstorm ideas that solve a marketing problem and can be applied to anything we can dream up. The best idea is one that’s well developed and that’s what we’re getting in today’s environment.

As Brownstein says “Creatives are having more fun. Clients are getting better work. And, ultimately, advertising will continue to be relevant and effective for years to come.”

The One-to-One marketing philosophy we've been practicing with our clients for years has, at it's heart, the belief that consumers are people and deserve our ultimate respect in return for their loyalty. We know that improving the purchasing experience at every interaction is going to make people happy and bring them back again and again.

The current popular term for that practice is "Customer Experience Management". Until now, most relationship marketing has been concerned with how to market to customers to get value FROM them. The recent shift understands that customers perceive value based on the experiences they RECEIVE. The ultimate goal of both lines of thinking is to acquire more buyers, keep them longer and make more money. The big difference is that the first is a strategy that sees "consumers" and $$ figures, the second sees "people" with emotional needs to be met.

One-to-one means acknowledging every person's individuality and making sure that their every interaction with your company is relevant to their needs.

A recent study asked customers which factors were most important in earning their loyalty.
Product or Service: 84%
Sales interactions: 66%
Purchasing process: 62%
Service and Support: 58%
Marketing communications: 22%

Not surprisingly, marketing communications was at the bottom of the list because marketing messages are how companies make promises that must be kept by all of the other areas. This illustrates how important it is to examine every customer touch point in your organization to be sure you deliver on your marketing promises. Become a people-pleaser and watch your business grow.

US ecommerce sales grew by an estimated 24.6% during 2005. That translates to $143 billion in estimated sales. Sounds impressive, right? But at just 2.4% of overall US retail sales, it's just the tip of the iceberg of possibilities. There's a lot of growing that can still be done.

Ecommerce has grown at the same steady rate for the past eight quarters, so now is the time to find methods to spur traffic and sales. According to the Ecommerce Benchmark Guide 2006, published by Marketing Sherpa, there are some distinct differences between average and high-growth marketers in how they approach their online businesses. Emulating the high-growth methods should help you increase your sales too.

For growing site traffic, high-growth businesses use more:
- Email acquisition lists
- Online advertising, portal deals and paid keyword placement
- Search engine optimization
- Paid search

They rely less on:
- Affiliates
- Email house lists
- Direct to site

High-growth marketers measure traffic sources so carefully that they have only 9% white mail (not knowing where traffic came from). Average-growth merchants are clearly not measuring enough with a 21% white mail rate.

High-growth merchants also tend to invest aggressively in most forms of outbound new traffic marketing. Average-growth marketers rely too heavily on customers typing in their URL directly...assuming that their brand's reputation is enough to bring traffic.

You've been hearing about all of these methods for the past few years, and for good reason. They can really increase your online business and put you in the high-growth mode.

The number of catalogs available online increased from 7,440 to 8,903 in the past year, according to the 2006 edition of The National Directory of Catalogs, which was released last week. 78% of the 11,438 catalogs in the directory are available online, up from 60% last year. Other data revealed by the directory:

- 1,320 catalogs are only available online, up from 772 last year.

In the past 10 years, the strongest growing categories were Automotive, Education, and Apparel and Accessories. In that time:

- The Automotive category has grown 101%

- The Education category has grown 54%

- The Apparel and Accessories category has grown 11%

This verifies what we’ve been hearing for the past two years, that print and web really work hand-in-hand to let the customer choose how they look for and make their purchases. Today’s customers have become much more sophisticated than in the recent past, and they expect choices.

The next step is to make those online catalogs a richer experience. Rather than simply uploading the static pages and giving customers exactly what they have in the printed catalog, we need to give them something extra. More information, more views of the product...a reason to shop the online catalog.

If you could find an advertising medium with a recall rate that blows away anything else available today, you'd give it a good look, wouldn't you? It's not a brand new online tool, but rather one of the oldest forms of interactive advertising - Promotional Products! These items, from trinkets to high value gifts, just keep on messaging, sometimes for years.

A recent study cited some very compelling statistics:

RECALL RATES
- Banner ads 27%
- Print & TV ads 53.5% (after 1 week)
- Promo products 76.1% (after 1 YEAR)

GREATER REACH
- 71% of business travelers randomly surveyed at DFW Airport reported receiving a promo product in the last 12 months
- 33.7% of this group had the item on their person - a coveted location for ad messages
- 55% of participants generally kept their promotional products for more than a year.
- 22% of participants kept the promotional product that they had received for at least six months.

LONG-LASTING/REPEAT EXPOSURE
- 73% of those who used the promotional product that they had received stated that they used it at least once a week
- 45.2% used it at least once a day

IMPROVEMENT OF COMPANY IMAGE
- 52.1% of participants reported having a more favorable impression of the advertiser since receiving the item.

GENERATION OF BUSINESS
- 52% of participants in the study did business with the advertiser after receiving the promotional product.
- Of those who had not done business with the advertiser that gave them the product, almost half stated that they were more likely to do business with the company that gave them the item.

So, although the average promo product -- basically anything you give away with your logo on it -- often costs more per unit than any other ad unit CPM, the extra impressions and branding warm-fuzzies make promo products more cost effective than you may think.

That's why at $16.9 billion spent per year, US marketers are investing almost three times as much in promotional products than they are in much-hyped search marketing. This advertising "bunny" just keeps on going and going and going....

The demise of catalogs that was predicted with the rise of e-commerce hasn't happened...and we believe the catalog is not only still alive, but is thriving.

My associate, Dave Larson, wrote in his blog last week that he received an eBay catalog in his mailbox and was impressed with the quality image it conveyed. This mailing is an example of the growing use of catalogs among online retailers (Amazon.com, Eziba, RedEnvelope), who see their Web sites as strong for taking orders, but weak in reaching new customers...especially those who are not frequent online shoppers.

Increasing numbers of online companies have been entering the"old-fashioned" offline environment that they once derided as being irrelevant. Many online sellers are acknowledging that, as good as their sites might be at processing orders, they are still too slow, too flat and too static to convey the companies' brand messages as effectively as a catalog can.

For a lot of people, the thought of browsing a site is boring. The beauty of the photos in a catalog is much stronger than what the Web can be right now. Catalogs can present merchandise in an inspiring and attractive way, giving shoppers new ideas. Looking through a catalog provides an opportunity to find just the right thing when the shopper isn't sure what she's looking for.

Once a decision has been made about an item, however, customers are increasingly likely to make the actual purchase online or at the brick-and-mortar store. Online purchasing is seen to offer advantages in saving time and managing budget.

The catalog is a major driver of online traffic and purchasing and is becoming an increasingly more important part of the mix for many succesful marketers. Long live catalogs!

The size of your email list may determine the best day to send your campaigns according to a recent study.
The study broke lists out into four sizes:
Micro: under 5,000 names
Small: 5,000 - 24,999 names
Midsize: 25,000 - 99,999 names
Large: over 100,000 names

For large lists, the best mail dates are still Monday through Wednesday. The bigger the list, the less efficient it is with lower read and click-through rates. However, one exception that some mailers can use to their advantage is that B2C lists over 200,000 were most read when emailed on Saturdays. This is most likely due to this being a day when consumers are making shopping decisions.

Large lists can perform better when broken into smaller segments based on what is known about the customers. Use dynamic data to treat each segment differently as the more relevant the message, the more reads and clicks.

Other findings were that Micro mailings do best on weekends, although they perform significantly higher than other size lists on any day of the week. Again, relevance is the key factor.

Small lists perform best on Fridays, and midsize mailings are most productive on Mondays and Fridays.

The size of your list does matter! Once you determine the size, you can schedule your mailing dates to get the most out of your campaigns. And remember, relevance will always improve the bottom line.

While discounting your product to gain new customers has very definite pros and cons, a recent survey found that 96% of respondents clip or print out coupons, and nearly two-thirds clip at least once a week. That's a lot of prospective buyers!

Most "clipped" coupons are from newspapers, magazine circulars or inserts, but a growing number of buyers (over 21%) are interested in getting their coupons online, especially through email offers and newsletters.  This is not all that far behind the number who prefer clipping from newspapers and magazines (27%). Online coupons can be a very effective method for making the connection that attracts customers and keeps them coming back

Up to 83% of online retailers' promotional emails contain sales and specials...why not try including a coupon as part of your strategy to test the ability of that interactive element to increase response?

Our mission with this blog is to explore and inform on the new ways people buy so that we can all benefit from satisfying our customers needs. However, after the last several days of watching and hearing of the unimaginable aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it feels frivolous to focus on anything other than helping meet the needs of our southern brothers and sisters.

My only visit to New Orleans was for a convention four years ago, and I was very excited to finally experience the city first-hand. Knowing that so much of the unique history of that area is gone forever is heartbreaking, and the human loss on top of that  is more than one city should have to bear.

While many of the reports that we're getting up north are about New Orleans, we know that many other towns and cities in all of the gulf states are in similar condition. We're being asked to help with monetary donations and I hope everyone gives what they can. The truly great generosity that comes out when a need is presented is an important step in the victims' recovery.

In a bid for the beverage bucks of those elusive influentials in the under-30 age group, Coke is launching an "experiential concept" to try to get back in with this market.

The new marketing plan, code-named M5, taps five different design shops in five countries to "interpret the brand's optimism through a series of short films and breakthrough bottle designs". One of the design firms says that the new generation doesn't relate to Coke anymore and that M5 will take the "new brand" into new places. While even Coke insiders find the project very amorphous, one thing is clear: there will be very little branding.

At a time when the alcohol beverage industry is seeing some major shifts in consumer preferences, the club scene has become a major battlefield between wine, beer and spirits marketers. The under-30 crowd is drinking far less beer and a bit less wine, while they are drinking more spirits in the form of sweet mixed drinks, so Coke could have the "right thing" to make a big splash.

It will be very interesting to follow this campaign as it unfolds to see if this kind of new Coke will be anymore popular than the new Coke of several years ago!

Only if you REALLY want customers to find you!

According to a study by Nielson/Net Ratings, online searches for the 2nd quarter are up 5% over the first quarter for a total of approximately 12.8 million searches. The study also reports that over half of these searches were done on Google...more than all other search engines combined!

The logical take-away from this information is that you would do well to make sure customers can find you quickly on Google, and a recent eye-tracking study reported on Search Insider gives some helpful advice to that end.

- Google's Golden Triangle: The area of the most intense scanning and clicking activity starts in the upper left corner (the top sponsored ads) and extends down to the top 4 or 5 organic results. This is where SEO programs strive to gain placement, and for very good reason. The area is seen by 80 to 100% of visitors to the page. Anything below the fold AND side sponsored ads are seen by only 10-50% of visitors.

- The Importance of Key Words and Phrases: When searching, we spend an average of 6.5 seconds on a results page. We scan just under four listings before clicking on one, and in most cases, we scan listings rather than read them. If we do read anything, it's usually only the title. With such a short time to make an impression, even if you're in the top four listings, you have to have the most relevant words and phrases to get the click.

So get those SEO programs working to come out on top.

you'd better change it. If your Mom, or any other family member for that matter, misunderstands the marketing message you're sending, if she can't navigate your site or if she can't find what she wants in your catalog, there's a very good chance that your target customer is having the same problem.

Being in the business makes us much more savvy than the average customer, and we run the risk of assuming that everyone has the same understanding we do. While we NEVER want to talk down to our customer, part of treating them respectfully is acknowledging that if we want them to take action, we need to be absolutely clear in our direction.

I've often used my husband or sons as my "focus group of one" and while I don't always appreciate their comments about my creative, I've learned to listen for clues that they don't understand it. When I catch myself thinking "you don't understand what I'm trying to do" as they voice their opinions, I know that I've missed something critical.

Of course, there are some circumstances when your family member isn't part of the target market and will never understand the technical or cultural jargon, but he/she should grasp the call to action. I was recently researching and producing creative work for the Hip Hop market, and I knew showing my work to my middleclass, white, 50+ husband was probably going to make him question my sanity, but he did help me see that the work was a little too "angry" for the product I was selling.

Mom won't have all the answers, but she can open your eyes to how the average consumer reads your message.

It's not uncommon today for someone to have more than one email account. In fact, the average is three accounts with some people claiming as many as nine! The number of accounts seems to be related to a person's "techno-savviness" and is also seen as a way for one person to live in several different personas...each persona behaving differently. So who are you reaching with your email marketing?

I have to admit that I'm extremely average in this area with three separate email accounts. I have one for communicating with my close friends and family, one for work, and one for online shopping (yes, I'm an online shopaholic!). After thinking about it a little, I realize that marketing emails sent to my family account are often deleted unopened. However, the same kinds of emails to my shopping account are almost always read. I guess I've been a little schizophrenic without realizing it.

An Email Insider article warns us that "Understanding customers is becoming increasingly complex. One size does NOT fit all. So the challenge isn't deliverability, authentication services, technology, or mass customization. Understanding customers requires a multi-dimensional perspective, an aggressive use of profiling and most importantly, a true understanding of behaviors and preferences."

The article outlines steps that can be taken to reach an understanding of your customers' online behaviors to better reach them in a relevant way that will build strong relationships.

Another new term for the advertising world.
It refers to the consumer-generated "fake ads" created by a brand/products critics and/or proponents. They are widely spread online by people forwarding them to others (viral). The brands claim to have no connection with them. In some cases they're understandably very eager to distance themselves (Volkswagen Polo), but in others, the rogue ads are very beneficial to their cause (iPod).

Some editorial comments on the iPod ad are of special interest to those of us who do advertising for real:
"Still, it leaves me perplexed that we seem more enthralled the creation resembles "a real iPod ad" than anything else. Which naturally begs the question: "What if it was? Would you be as impressed?" Assuming not, George Masters wouldn't be an ad-blog celebrity; he would (just) be an Art Director."

"How wonderful and odd it must be for Apple to have their loyal followers evangelize and create marketing materials for their products. I can't readily think of many other corporations out there in the same situation. You have your loyal subscribers to various brands but how many of those loyalists have the passion and the capability to create a piece as professional and impactfull as "Tiny Machines".

A good article on Rogue Advertising from iMedia Connection: http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/5523.asp

I suspect many men aren't surprised to hear that women like to play games, but they might be surprised to learn that the games are Internet games! As an "over 40 woman," I was very surprised by recent market research reported by Ad Age that women over 40 beat out both men and teens in the frequency and the number of hours spent playing online games: 9 hours online per week vs. 6 hours for men. The research says women use game-playing to take short breathers in their day.

In a move that could open a new vista of possibilities for advertisers to these women, New York-based Massive Inc. announced the launch of the first ad-serving network for video games. This new technology allows marketers to place and change gamescape marketing messages in real time.

Why Word Of Mouth?

Word of mouth is as old as the spoken word and as simple as giving your opinion about anything to anyone you know or meet. So why has it become such a hot topic in marketing, to the point that we now have an association, WOMMA dedicated to helping marketers understand and measure it’s use?

The simple answer is that we’ve reached the age of consumer control. The glut of marketing messages we are all subjected to on a daily basis has created an environment where the consumer has to choose what to pay attention to because there just isn’t enough time in anyone’s day to assimilate it all. And they (we) are making it clear that we will pay more attention to our peers than to advertising and marketing messages.

I attended the first ever annual conference of WOMMA (Word Of Mouth Marketing Association) in Chicago last week, and I’m still reeling from all the information, opinions and case studies I heard along with 350 attendees from around the world.

In the coming weeks I’ll share some of the insights with you because they truly shed light on some of the new ways people buy. Others notes on the conference can be found at http://womma.org/pages/2005/04/womma_summit_co.htm

To begin with, I’d like to share the association’s Fundamental Principles as a way to establish exactly what Word Of Mouth is.

1. Happy, interested people will say good things about you.
   Understand this, devote yourself to it, and you’ll be a successful word of mouth marketer.
2. Honest, genuine opinion is our medium.
   Don’t tell people what to say or how to say it. While supporting the natural conversation, take great care not to distort it.
3. We start, support and simplify the sharing.
   Use creative techniques to encourage communications. Make it easier for people to talk to each other, create interesting things to talk about, create communities to share ideas and find the right people to tell about what you do. Traditional advertising pushes ideas on people, WOM helps naturally occurring ideas to move around.
4. Word of mouth cannot be faked.
   Deception, infiltration, dishonesty, shilling and other attempts to manipulate are bad. Sleazy behavior will be exposed by the public and backfire horribly on anyone who attempts it.
5. Word of mouth marketing empowers the consumer.
   Consumers have control and they dictate the terms of a new, healthier relationship between marketers and the people who use their products. Consumers demand satisfaction, respect and great products and services. When companies deliver, people will tell their friends.

The number of consumers who make an immediate purchase as a result of permission-based email is growing daily.

But consider this:

• The average consumer receives 308 emails per week.
• Only one in 12 (8%) is considered permission-based email.
• 64% use bulk folders and spam filters to help them get rid of any non-permission-based email.
• 77% of users never check their bulk folders for legitimate email, they simply click-delete.

This dramatic increase of 43% over those who used folders and filters one year ago is raising red flags all over. It’s critical to any successful email marketing strategy to use methods that get permission-based emails (PBE) past the filters and clear of those dead folders.

Knowing what kind of email is considered spam, what the customers' frequency preferences are, and what are the most compelling reasons for opening PBE is key.

A new technology expected to launch in April promises to turn cellular phones into mobile blogging tools.

The application, called ``Rabble,'' streamlines the now-cumbersome process for publishing text or images from a cell phone to a Weblog. It also creates a way to search mobile blogs for items of interest -- from homes for sale in a particular neighborhood to updated tour information for a favorite band.

``Wherever you are, you can stop and take a picture, you can blog. It's the convergence of all the devices,'' said Walker. ``Blogging presents another platform where they're all meeting. You have the PC, and you've got your phone. Different tools you can use online that you can use anywhere you are.''

Walker said Intercasting's true coup may be finding a way to make money on blogging. Wireless phone carriers are expected to charge $3 monthly subscription fees to access mobile blog posts.

If you watch Indy racing this weekend, you'll see something new: silent ads running on a split screen with the race.
I wonder if the advertisers had to create versions of their ads that would make sense without audio PLUS play the cost of a spot on the race. Seems like a scam on ESPN's part.

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ESPN AND ABC will now force TV viewers to buy really big TV sets to accommodate the split screen advertising of its Indy Car races.

A new advertising scheme by ESPN, called Side-by-Side, means advertising will run in a split screen with the racing action - all to make sure viewers miss not one passing car or pit spot. ESPN will begin this with Sunday's Toyota Indy 300.

TV Watch for Thursday, March 3, 2005:

Catalogs continue to outpull e-mail messages (88% vs. 85%) as the impetus to visit an Internet site, according to a survey the list firm, Millard Group. While email is closing the gap, catalogs aren’t ready to die yet.

It’s apparent that BOTH catalogs and email marketing are driving site traffic, but it’s important to track more than just traffic. What are the costs of reaching X number of consumers with each channel; which group made purchases; which group purchased more…

Google's mission is to expand the amount of information available to searchers. With only 5 percent of the world's content accessible on the World Wide Web, countless more articles, images, and other types of data are still locked away from Internet users.

Looks like the web is kind of like our brains: we use only 10% of our brains and the web contains only 5% of world content. Kind of staggering to think about.

Want to be more successful online? Observe customers using your product or service. You will learn what falls within customer tunnel vision and what customers don't care about. You will learn counter-intuitive needs — for instance, that the owner's manual that no one reads after a purchase can be useful before a purchase, or that photos of both an open and closed gift box are important.

Customers must be the focus of any successful strategy. This might seem obvious, but many companies miss the fact: Forrester Research reported that only 25% of U.S. companies conduct any kind of customer research. Moreover, Bain & Co. reports that 80% of successful strategies come from insights into customer behavior.

I kind of question the assertion in the 2nd paragraph that Google's users are predominantly male and Yahoo! And MSN are female when they're all about 50%. I would read that as a pretty even split. But it shows how everyone is trying to pin down specifics about their customers.

In research unveiled at the conference, Cassar reported that Google still leads the market in search engines, with a 45 percent U.S. share, trailed by Yahoo! With a 29 percent share and MSN with around 15 percent. But Cassar also said that customers show little loyalty to particular search engines: 58 percent of Google searchers also used one of the other top search engines, while 71 percent of Yahoo! Searchers and 70 percent of MSN searchers did likewise.

Hitwise's Bill Tancer reported that Google, MSN, and Yahoo! Attract slightly different demographic groups. More than half--54.2 percent--of Google's users were male, while Yahoo!'s and MSN's were predominantly female (50.1 percent female for Yahoo! And 52.9 percent for MSN). Google's users also skewed toward having higher incomes than Yahoo!'s users, reported Tancer.

http://publications.mediapost.com/…Nid=12375&p=294518

Looks like the internet is kind of like our brains: we use only 10% of our brains and the web contains only 5% of world content. Kind of staggering to think about.
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Dipchand "Deep" Nishar, head of products for internal applications at Google, said his company's mission is to expand the amount of information available to searchers. With only 5 percent of the world's content accessible on the World Wide Web, countless more articles, images, and other types of data are still locked away from Internet users.

http://hbswk.hbs.edu/…/special_reports_convergence2005