HHblog: Rethinking Marketing

Mainstream consumer solutions for browsing the web on your television have existed since the 1996 launch of WebTV. And the hardware necessary for watching (and recording) TV programming on a personal computer existed for more than a decade before Hulu brought Simpsons episodes and SNL Digital Shorts to our desktops legally. But despite the recent growth in sales of devices like Apple TV, mainstream adoption of convergent solutions has been slow to take off.

This may be about to change, with a surprising player in the media convergence environment: gaming consoles.

In the UK and Ireland, Xbox Live members will soon be able to watch premium content and live television from Sky TV straight from a Xbox 360 via a broadband connection. (Watching live television on your TV doesn’t exactly sound revolutionary, but stop and think about how much that premium-cable-plus-DVR package is costing you versus your $20/mo broadband connection.) Integration with Hulu may be soon to follow.

Why is the Xbox 360 the right platform for this convergence? For starters, they combine the hardware of multiple devices in one: the standard 120GB hard drive could replace the need for a separate TiVo/DVR, and deals with Netflix and other media partners make standalone devices such as Apple TV unnecessary.

But most significantly, the Xbox 360 already has a huge user base. More than 28 million units have been sold since the console’s launch. And even more significantly, more than 17 million of those users are Xbox Live subscribers, meaning that well over half of these consoles are already hooked up to a broadband connection. The potential of this platform as a consumer media solution was proven when over 1 million copies of the Netflix application for Xbox were downloaded and installed in the first three months of its release.

While newcomer Boxee represents a huge leap in web and TV convergence, boasting social networking and media services like Last.fm and Pandora in addition to streaming television programming, its adoption may be hampered by the fact that it is just one more device to sit under your TV. Recall that Betamax was a better quality video solution, but VHS took an early lead in market share and never looked back. With a three-year lead in retail availability, the it is doubtful that the 360 will see serious competition from Boxee. And the 360 is keeping up on social features as well, adding Facebook Connect and Twitter integration in the near future.

Of course, no one is buying an Xbox 360 purely for its media capabilities — yet. Keep in mind that for a time, the Playstation 3 was also the cheapest Blu-ray player on the market, making it a completely respectable home-theater purchase even for someone with no interest in ever playing a video game. It would not be a surprise to see Microsoft continue to evolve the Xbox 360 platform with additional partnerships and further software improvements geared towards transitioning the console into the role of an “all-you-need-is-one-box” consumer media hub.

(Image via Gizmodo)

This post originally published at scheuguy.com.

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We’re very excited about the launch today of a web and mobile app that makes it easier to use Dunkin’ more often. Chris Brogan likes it: “I just love apps that are useful instead of pure marketing.”

I hinted at the debut of DunkinRun in a column I wrote for the Interactive issue of Communications Arts last month:

Our team at Hill|Holliday has been working on a very cool application for our Dunkin’ Donuts client—something we show to people and they get incredibly excited about. But that excitement stems less from the fact that it fits into an existing ecosystem of social technology, and more from the recognition that the app uniquely fits the character of the pink and orange inclusivity of the Dunkin’ brand. As our planner once said, Dunkin’ Donuts doesn’t just serve coffee, it also fuels the “hope and ambition and energy and drive” of America. People see this app, and they get it, and it makes them happy. It works that way because all the experience designers and strategists and creatives who worked on the app have great empathy for the person who’ll use it.

Thanks to our great client team from Dunkin’ and our development partners at StudioCom. Nice to see this out in the world!

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Often it seems the world is a small place since Facebook feels like the beginning and end all of everything. But the web is a much bigger place with dozens of other social networks that still have millions upon millions of users that reminds us that there can be more than just Facebook. Clearly, Facebook is dominating in the US but Vincenzo Cosenza has mapped out a wonderful map of the world’s biggest social networks using ManyEyes to document the dominant social networks of each country.

The result is a color coded pangaea of Facebook with a splattering of social networks often unheard of in North America. China is dominated by QQ, a network of 300 million users making it the world’s largest and it uses wildly popular virtual currency that has taken hold in non-virtual transactions. Korea has Cyworld which has upwards of 90% of all South Koreans in their 20s. India and Brazil favor Orkut, a US social network that caught on like wildfire except in the US.

Regardless of dominance, the map helps remind us to consider the ethnographic and demographic data to further a marketer’s reach.

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Earlier this week, Inside Facebook released usage stats covering activity over the past 60 days for the popular social network. Last November I blogged about my own experience with the Facebook tipping point noting the seeming surge in boomer joiners. And then just 3 months later, this past February, Facebook announced Women 55+ was their largest growing segment. 

But does the latest data show that they’re not sticking around?

Out of all of Facebook’s demographic segments, there was a decrease of over ½ a million repeat users 55+ over the past 2 months. After reading the comments both on the Inside Facebook blog as well as Josh Catone’s related Mashable post, the speculations as to the reason run the gamut. Some cite the complexity of Facebook for non-digital savvy natives while others point to a more seasonal usage of the social network especially around the holidays when families tend to connect more often.  I personally lean towards the latter especially given the surge in usage around and after this past holiday season.

Should this be a cause for alarm that our boomers are falling out of love for Facebook? No. It’s too early to make any definitive conclusions.  And to what degree does it matter? As my colleague @Stevebags pointed out, the most active (and thus repeat) users of Facebook are going to continue to age and eventually be the 55+ demographic for which Facebook (or social networking) is as much of a way of communicating as the telephone has been for our Boomer generation.

The only question is whether or not marketers, today, can effectively reach the current 55+ demographic on Facebook (or related social networking sites) given the inconsistency of their current usage trends.
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Mike originally posted this on his blog: Harmonic Aftershock.

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A standing room only crowd packed conference rooms Red and Ted last night as Hill Holliday hosted the Boston Social Media Club for an expert panel discussing the role of social media in integrated marketing campaigns.

Entitled “Integrated Social Media Across the Big Brand: The Harmony of Cross-Channel Marketing,” the panel was moderated by Mike Proulx, Hill Holliday’s VP of Interactive Marketing, and featured panelists Terry Lozoff from Street Attack, Sean Corcoran from Forrester Research, Ken Peters from Text 100 PR, Mike Spataro from Visible Technologies, and Vicki Rellas from Mom Central Consulting.

Mike kicked things off with a quick case study of the use of social media for Chili’s P.J. Bland’s campaign. The seamless integration of the campaign across numerous social media platforms as well as offline channels set the tone for the evening’s event. “P.J.” himself was in attendance, as evidenced by a few timely Tweets on the live display.

After introducing the panel, Mike led an engaging discussion on the role of social media in an integrated marketing campaign. Panelists agreed that a social media program has to find a way to live on beyond the cycle of a typical advertising campaign, but acknowledged that there is tremendous value in being able to monitor and react to consumer feedback from social media in real time during the course of an active campaign.

Sean Corcoran of Forrester observed that the measures for success of a social media program must come from the business and marketing objectives, and cautioned against the perils of “shiny object syndrome.” He cited Forrester’s POST methodology — establishing People, Objectives, Strategy, and Technology in sequence before launching a campaign — as a vital process for establishing how and where a brand should enter the social media space.

The event wrapped up with audience Q&A, during which Mike Spataro of Visible Technologies stressed the importance of executing an actionable listening program before diving into social media. He cited several insights that his team was able gather for GM from conversations in social media back in 2006 that foreshadowed the current struggles of the US automotive industry.

Thanks again to everyone who came out last night. By all accounts, the event was a tremendous success.

See what people were saying in real time by checking out the live Twitter feed, or browse more photos from the event at the Hill Holliday Flickr stream.

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It is often said that Google search results strongly influence brand perceptions. Recent eMarketer data further underscores the fact that consumers turn to online search BEFORE any other means when considering a product purchase. Next in line (no surprise) are the opinions of other people. This is certainly where social media comes into play.

What’s even more interesting is that while blogs and product/retailer/manufacturer websites are not typically the first sources turned to, they absolutely play a big role in what turns up in search results if properly optimized both organically (SEO) or through paid keywords (SEM).

The moral of the story: Constantly (and aggressively) optimize for search and nurture/grow your online footprint. Take an active role in helping to shape what search engines project about your brand and offering to the many people who turn to Google, Yahoo, etc. as their #1 source for purchase decisions.

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Pssst, word on the street is that the Snoop Group of Hill Holliday is looking for people to take part in exciting and thought provoking surveys.

We are excited to release another Word on the Street survey: Is the economy getting better?. Completing the survey automatically enters you into our sweepstakes with the opportunity to win 1 of 5 $50 American Express Gift Cards.

Please feel free to forward along this survey link to anyone you know who may be interested in participating. Also, if you’re not already a panelist member of Word on the Street, you can sign up at the end of this survey.

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It’s an epic time for mobile phones in the US, 2009 will see the launch of the iPhone 3G sequel, the savior to Palm known as the Pre, the recently debuted Blackberry App World and a salvo of Google Android devices. Without question, 2009 is the year of the smartphone and the rise of competing mobile app stores. However, the number of mobile app stores has dramatically increased the number of opportunities for developers and advertisers alike to deliver interesting, relevant and useful things for consumers.

Banner ads and branded apps pretty much dominate the current efforts in mobile marketing and while entertaining; many apps have missed the opportunity to become greater than just mechanisms for advertising. It seems to be forgotten that smartphones exist to solve problems: scheduling, emailing, calendaring, Facebooking and more without the limitations of desktop computing. Offering an application that “provides a mobile marketing message” or “a branded entertainment toy” does little to enable smartphone users to do anything but passively absorb marketing content. Brand values are merely passed along and forgotten.

Certainly, this isn’t easy nor is it for every brand but it’s forcing marketers into a sophisticated competency to create applications and build tools that solve problems. Applications don’t just have to be vehicles to serve the message; they can literally become the message that the brand wants to convey. By solving problems with the creation of mobile applications, marketers can simultaneously communicate brand values and extend the reach of brand experiences like never before.

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I just got back a few days ago from the re:Think conference organized by the Advertising Research Foundation. Here are some notes:

• A practical aside: snapping pictures of slides is faster than trying to write everything down. Mine are embedded in the slideshow above, and are also posted on Flickr.
• Another way to take notes is to tweet them in real time, like all these people did.
• Eyetracking, previously a tool used mostly by designers of complex interfaces, is attracting a lot of interest in advertising research circles. Everything is trackable: from how long people gaze at a display ad (1.3 seconds on average) to in-store experiences.
• Remember Second Life? Companies are using similar technologies to create virtual stores and model in-store consumer behavior.
• Message from a Microsoft researcher who used to work at Overture, the company that pioneered paid search: Google was successful because they managed to address needs of consumers, publishers, and advertisers at the same time.
• Microsoft also showed how their Sea Dragon / Deep Zoom technology would help fit potentially limitless amount of information (and interaction) into the finite amount of ad space. It has already been described before; at the conference, they showed a working demo with a print ad.
• “Data is the new creative” - David Verklin, CEO of Canoe Ventures. Also, “TV needs to get into the ROI game.”
• From NBC’s research of their work during the Olympics: two thirds of all Olympic site visitors used TV and the site simultaneous at least once. Consumers expect multi-platform content, and the same is probably true for ads.
• Also from NBC: “Never underestimate the importance of great user experience.”
• From a panel on shoppers research: “In recession, two key words: budgets and lists.”
• Research shows that you can’t predict brand metrics by looking at how people interact with display advertising. On the other hand, ad clutter doesn’t predict click-through behavior, but probably predicts branding effects.
• If you are a fan of Paco Underhill’s work, there’s a new book by Herb Sorensen full of shopper insights coming out in May.

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However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. — Winston Churchill

An annual marketing survey released by Alterian in February found that a startling majority of marketers fail to implement analytics to measure the success of their efforts. Only 47% of the 1500 marketers, agencies, marketing services providers and systems integrators polled asserted the use of analytics in their campaigns.

Most alarming, however, is the attribution of this statistic to the fact that marketers found analytics “difficult.”

Churchill had it right, but it seems some marketers have taken him too literally. “Occasionally” is not the operative word; it is of course intended for ironic effect. Measurement — regardless of how we may define success for a given initiative — is the only way we as marketers know if our strategy was sound. And it is one of the key inputs in defining and optimizing the strategy the next time around.

(Image credit: Alterian.com)

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