This past year we saw consumer brands embrace social-media programs for branding and product promotions in sophisticated ways that most tech companies haven't quite gotten to yet.
Much of the reason behind the tech lag is due to the breadth of the audience, but also because tech buyers have tended toward expressing their opinions to companies without being asked.
Mountain Dew recently unveiled the details of its year-long DEWmocracy 2 program, "an open communications platform that relies on the collective intelligence of loyal consumers to shape the direction of the brand and Mountain Dew innovation pipeline." In layman's terms this means it is looking to go beyond crowdsourcing and incorporate a huge variety of community marketing and branding efforts into a bigger strategy.
DEWmocracy 2 launched in July and is a 12-month, seven-stage campaign that will result in the production of a completely user-generated Mountain Dew beverage. This is not dissimilar to a program Vitaminwater ran on Facebook earlier this year to crowdsource ideas for new flavors. The main difference is that DEWmocracy is a sophisticated, fairly massive endeavor, encompassing online communities like Facebook, video submissions, Twitter, and a variety of ways to vote, allowing users to share their thoughts.
I put forth a number of questions about the program to Brett O'Brien, director of marketing, Mountain Dew, detailed below.
What stage of the program are you currently in?
We completed the advertising challenge, which is the sixth stage of DEWmocracy, on December 13. DEW fans voted for their favorite advertising submissions, choosing six finalists. The finalists will now create short pitch videos for the Flavor Nations, which will each select which ad creator they would like to work within 2010 to create ads that will run on national TV.
Has any one particular tool been most effective in your marketing efforts?
Several tools have been effective, but we're particularly impressed with the consumer response to our call for video submissions on 12seconds.tv. In total, more than 1,000 videos [were] created by consumers and posted on 12seconds.tv and other social-media outlets. That type of response, coupled with the quality of the video submissions, screams a high level of consumer engagement. Consumer video submissions also enabled DEW loyalists to share content with other DEW drinkers and introduce them to the program not through the voice of the brand, but through the enthusiasm of fellow DEW fans.
U.S. regulators may consider a single ratings system that would warn parents of programming on television, video games, and wireless telephones that could be inappropriate for children, according to a Bloomberg News report in late August.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) launched an inquiry into the universal rating system with a goal "to shield children from inappropriate content in this rapidly changing media environment." That sounds great, but it's something that should be handled by parents and not the federal government.
Accordingly, it's fortunate that in a report this week (PDF) regarding the implementation of the Child Safe Viewing Act, the FCC found that the video game ratings scheme is a success and that "the video game industry already provides one of the most robust voluntary rating systems available." The report also concludes that the variety and variables within each media segment make it extremely difficult to manage.
... Read more
There are many differences between the console games we all know and see commercials for, and online Flash games we all play for a bit when we're bored.
According to Mochi Media co-founder Jameson Hsu, the big difference between Flash and console games is quality--of graphics, service, and general game-play.
But as Flash games become more sophisticated and interactive, and business models emerge that take advantage of the low development costs of the platform, the line of delineation between the two mediums is beginning to close.
ComScore released a study a few weeks back that showed the U.S. audience for online games grew 22 percent since last year to 87 million visitors this past May. By comparison, console game sales plummeted 31 percent in June from the previous year.
This shows that there is a huge market there that has big numbers in terms of users and time spent that can now inject serious cash via micro-transactions.
Mochi Media is launching Mochi Coins on Tuesday, a micro-transaction platform that allows developers and game portals to make real money off quality Flash games. Mochi Coins lets gamers sign in through their Facebook accounts and buy game upgrades (weapons, level unlocks, etc.) directly through the game by PayPal, credit card, or marketing offer.
... Read moreNielsen is out with a new report on media consumption by teens and the results are counter-intuitive to what we commonly believe to be the norm. According to the How Teens Use Media report (PDF), "teens exhibit media habits that are more similar to the total population than not."
Key takeaways from the report:
- Teens are not abandoning TV for new media: In fact, they watch more TV than ever, up 6 percent over the past five years in the U.S.
- Teens love the Internet, but spend far less time browsing than adults: Teens spend 11 hours and 32 minutes per month online. Far below the average of 29 hours and 15 minutes.
- Teens watch less online video than most adults, but the ads are highly engaging to them: Teens spend 35 percent less time watching online video than adults 25-34, but recall ads better when watching TV shows online than they do on television.
- Teens read newspapers, listen to the radio, and even like advertising more than most: Teens who recall TV ads are 44 percent more likely to say they liked the ad.
- Teens play video games, but their tastes aren't all for the blood-and-guts style games. Just two of their top five most-anticipated games since 2005 have been rated "Mature."
- Teens' favorite TV shows, top Web sites and genre preferences across media are mostly the same as their parents: For U.S. teens, American Idol was the top show in 2008, Google the top website and general dramas are a preferred TV genre for teens around the world.
One of the more interesting findings from the report is the realization that today's teens are not uniquely wired, but are an "artifact of larger, demographically broader shifts in media behavior. Teens are wildly different--not from other consumers today, but from teens of generations past."
Follow me on Twitter @daveofdoom.
A new survey of chief marketing officers (CMOs) conducted by Heidrick & Struggles and Digital Scientists reveals that CMOs across nearly all sectors believe their companies are under-delivering in the area of digital marketing.
Digital marketing is obviously a broad term, encompassing everything from online advertising and social media to generalized customer-acquisition and awareness programs. And really digital marketing is just another avenue of marketing's overarching goal: having what people want.
Regardless of the method or delivery mechanism there are two universal rules related to sales and marketing:
- Marketing is having what people want
- Sales is getting rid of what you have
The two items above are arguably the most important things I learned in business school, and frame (for better or worse) the way that I think about product development, marketing, and so on.
The survey also showed that marketers rely on digital marketing proficiency as a way to acquire new customers, while brand-building and geographic expansion of markets were seen as much less important.
Other key survey findings:
- Proficiency in digital marketing is highly valued, but under-delivered
- There is an over-reliance on outside agencies to meet talent gap
- Key growth tactics: high points for analytics and search engine optimization, low points for new media advertising
- Few are satisfied with their company's marketing effectiveness.
- Marketers need more help from IT
- Few want to focus on global growth
As always, surveys need to be taken with a grain of salt, but it's good to see that marketers realize that they aren't yet taking full advantage of available tools and that there are options to learn more and build new programs.
Follow me on Twitter @daveofdoom
Social media programs have become legitimate marketing tools, providing immediacy and insight into communications. But, they require a great deal of attention to maintain and a fairly sophisticated level of metric analysis to ensure that the programs are valuable.
Creating corporate blogs and Twitter accounts or developing Facebook inclusion programs are just a few possibilities, and there are many more options for marketing teams looking for new bang from their PR dollars.
Over at the PageOne PR Page Wonders blog, Jenna Boller details Five Things You Need to Know About Social Media Marketing and PR
- Social media requires a willingness and readiness to engage.
- Your audience might not naturally pay attention.
- Social media never stops.
- Social media requires A LOT of planning.
- Social media is everyone's responsibility.
Social media is becoming part of every company's marketing strategy. There is a great deal of measurable value from these tools provided you have established a baseline of what you hope to achieve.
Disclosure: I occasionally borrow office space from Page One PR.
Follow me on Twitter @daveofdoom
Metrics tend to play a middling role after a social-media company is established. With a few notable exceptions, most sites hit a peak then flatten out. The same can be said for open-source projects. There are peaks, but really what you want is consistency in the numbers. Hyper-growth is not sustainable and you will eventually saturate the addressable market.
One of the things open-source projects tout is their number of downloads. Download metrics are often very flawed but can help tell the story of how big the market potential is. Social-media companies talk about their number of registered users. Neither talks much about retained users unless the metrics are very impressive.
As I was reading Jeremy Liew's blog today, I realized the models of adoption of open source and social media are very similar: ... Read more
- prev
- 1
- next
