Digital Marketing Mediums and Brand Marketers - Not quite on the same page

Saw this informative video clip from iMedia. It's not mentioned in the video, but I heard a rumor that Pepsi is using it's $20 million Super Bowl budget on Social Media campaigns instead of the conventional mediums. Interesting stuff...

Why are brand marketers still afraid of digital? - iMediaConnection.com

"Insight from some industry experts as to why digital still hasn't dominated brand marketers. "

iMedia's marketer on the street questions why brands continue to ignore digital and opt to put the bulk of their spend into traditional media instead.

View >>

Social Media Strategy - A Practical Guide for Marketers

Found this great presentation regarding Social Media Strategy courtesy of Spur Interactive. Excellent food for thought!

Integrating Online and Conventional Marketing - Zappos.com Gets It!

Zappos.com Introduces a Printed Catalog

In a sign that the online marketing medium is maturing, Zappos.com, the online shoe retailer, has decided to add a printed catalog as part of their overall marketing mix, specifically to retain existing clients and to acquire new clientele. Aaron Magness, Director for Brand Marketing and Business Development at Zappos.com saw the reality of the buying public that different people respond to different media.

Being in this industry for over 23 years, I'm not surprised at all that Zappos.com has decided to make this move. I'm a big believer of merging conventional and online marketing mediums. In the right environment, both can bring value to the table.

Of course, Zappos.com is also publishing a digital edition of the catalog. Take a look at it by clicking here: Zappos Interactive Magazine!
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Focused - On-Demand Help for Distracted Minds

This application shuts out all desktop distractions making it easier to focus on writing. Pretty cool!

Focused - Demo from funkyboy on Vimeo.

The End of an Era - JC Penney Goes On-Demand

The end of an era. As kids, we always looked forward to receiving the JC Penny and Sear's "Big Book" catalogs in the mail around holiday time. Change is good. Like the rest of the retail industry, it seems JC Penney is moving to focus its marketing efforts online, on mobile applications, and smaller, more personalized catalogs. These personalized catalogs will no doubt be smaller in size. I wonder if they will still make that "flippity" sound of pages turning fast to get to the toy section!

So I have a question: How is moving a cultural icon like the JC Penney "Big Book" catalog to a smaller size and online format change the perception of that organization? Are some "old school" marketing mediums better off left alone? See the press release by clicking here.

Social Network Contacts and Followers - Like a Bag of Marbles?

A friend said something to me over the weekend that struck a cord. He said, "I've got all these LinkedIn contacts but I've never gotten anything from them." I thought it was interesting that he felt if he collected a bunch of contacts, a miraculous event would occur. I replied to his comment with, "contacts are not like marbles; you don't collect them for collecting's sake. You need to collect contacts so that you can leverage them to glean information from them." Social networking applications are ripe with sub-applications such as Quick-Polls, Surveys and Online Presentations; all with the ability to have your contacts participate and comment. Use these applications to help you gather information to assist you with on-the-job research and other business knowledge. In other words, make sure you play with your marbles.

A Printer Manufacturer talks about a Campaign Manager Solution?

Just saw a brief clip on WhatTheyThink.com regarding campaign management tools. The speaker was Kodak's Aaron Tavakoli. He's the Kodak Product Manager for their Insite product family of solutions. I'm seeing more and more of the major print manufacturers opening up to non-print equipment solutions. I believe you'll begin to see a few of the major print manufacturers migrating a large portion of their revenue streams into more software solution sales. After a while, the technology of the presses becomes so subtle that these companies need to differentiate themselves in ways other than a "my press is bigger than your press" type of mind-set. Manufacturer's software and customer service solutions are going to be the money makers in the near future. Imagine buying a digital press like you would a cellphone and only paying for the services it integrates itself with. Who knows, maybe one day you'll find yourself buying a press for $19.99 with a two year contract. What do you think?

Walk the Walk: Using Your Digital Print Technology to Market Yourself

I saw this great article by Shelley Sweeney, VP of the Service Bureau and Direct Mail Segments at Xerox, that addresses one of the most challenging issues that print producers are dealing with in today's changing economy. It overflows with marketing on-demand symbolism and feedback. Although it mentions using "Digital Print Technology", it's fair to say that all print producers have the capability in some way, shape or form to produce these type of campaigns. The bottomline is that the print producers need to start marketing themselves by using these technologies and solutions to increase revenue and stop "waiting until I get a customer who needs it". Hats off, Kudos and big SHOUT OUT to Shelley for taking the time to get this message out!

CLICK HERE to read the article!

Fantasy Football and Vegas Style Gambling... On Demand!

A friend of mine recently launched a new online sports portal that combines fantasy football and Vegas style gambling. It's called FanGamb, short for Fantasy Gambling. The beauty of the site is that you get all the thrill (and frustration) of gambling without all the RISK! Checkout the video of the site:

FanGamb 2009 from FanGamb on Vimeo.

They even created a viral marketing aspect of the site by allowing you to set up your own league and invite 15 of your friends. Once that happens, they'll mail you a $20 Visa Gift Card. That's enough to buy a case of beer and big bag of pretzels!

On-demand fantasy sports, gambling and viral networking with a dash of incentive thrown in. I tip my hat off to the guys at FanGamb!

Nice URL Shortening Service with Reporting!

I know there's alot out there with regards to shortening long URLs. However, I recently found one (through a posting on LinkedIn) that adds quite a bit more than the usual. It's a service offered by interlinkONE out of Massachusetts. The web site is http://ilnk.me/. It plays perfectly into interlinkONE's focus on marketing automation and accountability metrics.

The service reports Yearly Visitors, Weekly Visitors, specific URL visitors, etc. It's an ideal tool to track those often used shortened URLs. It even allows you to Tweet It! right from the report page.

Once again, interlinkONE comes through with an integrated marketing module to help marketers figure out how their campaigns are progressing. Job well done!

Mobile Short Codes - Billboard Example

I was recently driving down one of the many major freeways in Southern California and saw this digital billboard advertising discounts via mobile short codes for a local shopping complex. You don't see these on the East Coast very often. They're huge in Japan. I wonder what percentage of drivers actually try the mobile short code while they're driving. Is it illegal to text and drive in California? For the record, I didn't try it.

Is Social Media just a fad? I think not...

Take a look at this quick but extremely informative video. Everything is changing so fast. I'm sure there will be some gyrations in Social Media over the next few months, but I feel it's here to stay.

Wide Format Print - Only in LA!

I spent my family vacation in LA and San Diego a couple of weeks ago. I was amazed at the number of wide format print on the sides of buildings. Below are a few examples. How does print on demand play into this medium? Is it possible to "create" such a large print piece by uploading text and images into an online template? Upon closer observation, these large print pieces are actually individual sections of print attached together. As they say, "Only in LA!"

Kinetic Bands - Move Around and Win a Prize!

I happen to be a distributor for a company called MediaTree. They provide both conventional and online promotions through scalable solutions that are designed to motivate and reward consumer behavior. One of their newer products is the Kinetic Band.

By simply wearing the Kinetic Band and performing 60 minutes of physical activity (in 3 minute intervals), a Reward Code is revealed on the band’s face, directing you to go online to redeem your FREE gift. A variety of online landing pages are available to further enhance your brand's message. The gifts can be a variety of digital premiums, like Music Downloads, Ringtones and more. The compelling part is that the image of your brand will be displayed prominently on the band itself and will be synonymous with helping to promote active lifestyles. This product is the perfect example of merging "old school" and "new school" marketing mediums.

If you're interested in learning more about Kinetic Bands and other cross-medium promotions, contact me by clicking HERE.

Desktop Widgets - An On-Demand Medium Unto Itself?

A friend of mine and graphic designer, Marshall Gisser, is the owner of NYDesign, a successful graphic design firm located in Cedarhurst, NY. I recently caught up with him via LinkedIn as he is looking for Partners to help market and sell his Desktop Widgets product.

In a nutshell, Desktop Widgets are small, fully branded desktop applications that are downloaded from a website or received via email, and install themselves in a few seconds. DesktopWidgets function independent of any browser. When inactive, they reside on the desktop as small icons. But when clicked, or when you launch them remotely with the Admin Console, the widget expands with custom animations to any size and shape, displaying multimedia content that can be updated 24/7, at your convenience.

I was trying to figure out if these Desktop Widgets are an on-demand marketing medium unto themselves or should we consider them an "upgrade" to a corporate web site as part of the overall marketing mix. My conclusion is the former; they are definitely stand alone marketing mediums due to their flexibility to integrate other marketing technologies such as FLASH, online promotions and video clips right into the "heart" of the widget. No browser is needed and the "mix" updates can be pushed to every Desktop Widget that a particular brand manager might have created with one push from the Admin Widget. Check out the Desktop Widget demo by clicking here.

Another Example of Mobile Tagging

First Japan and now Auckland, New Zealand! The U.S. definitely needs to get on this bandwagon. Great way to integrate the physical marketing world and the online marketing universe.

Why Do Print Producers Identify Themselves This Way?

I was recently at a seminar for the Printing and Graphics Association, MidAtlantic (better known as PGAMA). The featured speaker was Dr. Joe Webb. The topic was what a printer needs to do to prepare for the post-recessionary period. The answer to that question is for another day. This blog post is about what happened at one point at the beginning of the seminar.

Before Dr. Joe started, he asked everyone in the audience to go around, introduce themselves and tell the audience a little bit about themselves and their company. It's fair to say that 90% of the respondents told everyone what type of print equipment they had. I was a bit amused at this response. Solely for the reason, and I don't mean to be rude, but "who cares" what type of print equipment they have! Either, #1 they identify themselves with the "size" of their print presses or, #2 they figured that since they were surrounded by other printers (which all of us weren't), everyone would care (which I'm sure they didn't).

Then, a couple days ago I see a brief article online at WhatTheyThink.com. Here it is in all it's glory:

Bassett Direct adds Xerox iGen4
Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Bassett Direct, a leading provider of variable colour imaging, has added a Xerox iGen4 and another Xerox iGen3 to its existing colour platform to bring their iGen fleet total to three. This increased capability positions Bassett Direct as one of Canada's largest providers of variable imaging.

Ooooo...there it was again! A printer letting us know what print press they just added to their arsenal. It's smacks of "keeping up with the Joneses". Why should we care? Is it a conspiracy by the print manufacturers to toot their own horn? Here's an example of what I'd advise the printers to start writing in every press release they let out their door...

"Acme Print and Marketing, a leading provider of revenue generating solutions for the (your vertical goes here. Oh...you don't have one? Then please contact me.) industry, has invested a tidy sum in their company to provide affordable, money generating solutions to their clients. This company upgrade can help their clients develop exciting, colorful, eye-catching marketing campaigns that will potentially generate response rates in excess of 8%-10%. By providing easy-to-use, online marketing tools, Acme's clients will be able to market their goods and services 24 hours a day, seven days a week."

O.K., so it's not perfect, but you get the message. I didn't mention one manufacturer or type of print or finishing press in the whole, short article. Here's the bottom line; stop focusing on the equipment and start focusing on what the equipment can do for your clients!

The Need for Lots of Storage for On-Demand Applications

I read a great snapshot article in Baseline magazine. It spoke about the General Electric technologists making a breakthrough in digital storage. They're calling it "micro-holographic storage material". They claim it can store 500 GB of storage on a single DVD-size disk. The original story was found at TechSpot.com. The science behind it is fairly simple; optical media material allows increased amounts of light to be reflected by the holograms, thus allowing the decrease in size of the holograms. The micro-holographic players that GE hopes to introduce to the market will be backward compatible with current DVDs and CDs (that's a smart move). GE is also talking about $0.10 per gigabyte for storage with the new technology.

According to "How Stuff Works", there are two basic categories of holograms, transmission and reflection. Transmission holograms create a 3-D image when monochromatic light, or light that is all one wavelength, travels through them. Reflection holograms create a 3-D image when laser light or white light reflects off of their surface.

An interesting fact about holograms; if you tear a hologram in half, the original hologram is created on the two smaller pieces.

Considering the world of marketing is constantly shifting towards "1's and 0's', requirements for greater digital storage engines are going to be required. If GE can pull this off, we should see a variety of new applications being launched around BIG storage requirements.

Marketing on Demand Gets Some Exercise!

In the words of Monty Python's Flying Circus, "And now for something completely different..."

I recently had the pleasure of meeting one of the trainers from Mobile Gym USA. The bottom line is simple; they bring the gym to you. That's right, they literally drive up to your place of business or home and the professional trainers take 60 minutes of your time to work you out! The mobile gym has everything you need to get a well-rounded workout. The actual gym on wheels can hold 3-4 people comfortably; anymore than that and you've got to workout on the roof (that's a joke).

From a marketing perspective, this mobile gym is an advertising billboard on wheels. The "on-demand" nature of the business is pretty obvious; you demand a workout session and they bring it to you. It's all about you.

I wonder if the trainer (who's also the driver of the mobile gym) does push ups at red lights? Check them out at info@mobilegymusa.com or by phone at 877-MOBIGYM (662-4496).

Microsoft is on to Something... BIG!

I opened my latest edition of eWeek Magazine (yes I still like to read it "offline") and saw an ad and case study for Mediterranean Shipping Company for Microsoft SQL Server 2008. Down in the lower left hand corner of the page, a rectangular box with a multi-colored symbol in it caught my eye. It read;

"To get the full MSC story on your phone, snap a picture of this tag (Requires a free mobile app from http://gettag.mobi)"

I had to do a double-take. I downloaded the mobile app and took a picture of the tag. Next thing I know, a browser opens on my Blackberry and shows a mobile web page of the MSC case study complete with video and graphics. WOW! I then proceeded to do a little research...

What is Mobile Tagging?

Microsoft Tag creates unlimited, on-demand possibilities for interactive marketing. The tags transform physical, "old school" media (print advertising, billboards, product packages, information signs, in-store merchandising, or even video images) into live links for accessing information and entertainment online.

All you need to do is aim your camera phone at a tag and it instantly accesses mobile content, videos, music, contact information, maps, social networks, promotions, and more. Nothing to type, no PURLs to worry about, no browsers to launch!

I did have some challenges, of course. When I took the first picture I was in a room where the lighting wasn't so great. Needless to say, the flash went off and totally hid the tag in a blossom of white mush. Well, the tag's mobile app couldn't read it and it crapped out on me. The other challenge is quite obvious; what if you don't have a camera on your phone? Or, what if your parents or spouse turned off the Internet browser access or you didn't have that particular plan turned on your phone? Yes, we live in an imperfect world. However, the Microsoft Tag concept is definitely on to something very cool and very useful.

Give it a look...

This Takes Pretzels and Beer to a New Level - Integrating Twitter and Sensor Technologies

OK, you need to imagine you're at a bar. You've been following this bar on Twitter for happy hour specials, etc. Then, one afternoon around 4 p.m., you start receiving tweets from this bar like crazy. One after the other, tweet, twaat, twoot. What's going on, you ask? The bar has hooked up their beer tap with the Twitter API, that's what. Everytime a beer is poured from the bar tap, it initiates a tweet to all the bar followers. Ya, right... who would think of such a concept? Guess what? It's happening...

360i, a digital agency in New York, has setup their office beer tap (nice company to work for, yes?) to tweet every time a beer is poured.

They call the tweeting tap, "Tweeting Bar". It gave birth after the folks at 360i joined together to research "sensor technologies" to tweet after a beer was poured. They worked with the folks at Keg-Meter to create a custom interface that is able to send flow data via a serial port.

Go figure. Imagine if this technology was around during prohibition! Now the creative challenge is to figure out how to make money from this "cool" concept.

Checkout the video below:

Never Forget Your Past – Integrating Old School and New School Marketing Solutions

Back in 1994, I had the pleasure of working at Sprint TeleMedia. We spent our time selling the Sprint FON network to Marketing Executives at large Fortune 1000 companies. Notice that I said Marketing Executives, not Telecom Managers. It was a very cool and creative job. I recently dusted off my old two inch V.R.U. University binder to take-in some nostalgia. Sprint TeleMedia’s service brand was called FONMagic, a play on their Fiber Optic Network (FON) brand name. FONMagic utilized the Sprint FON network to develop custom, interactive tele-promotions. Examples of some of these campaigns were Keebler’s “Brings You the Shadow” promotion, Coca-Cola’s “Monsters of the Gridiron” promotion and the Pepsi “Cool-YA” promotion. All these promotions used an interactive toll-free number found on product packaging that “called on” (no pun intended) the consumer to dial a number for a chance to win. I’m simplifying it a bit, but that pretty much sums up the campaigns. These campaigns captured a combined 30 million calls over the length of their promotions. Not too shabby. What was great about these promotions was that they provided quantifiable ROI metrics; a challenge even in today’s hi-tech marketing environment.

Fast forward to 2009. Coca-Cola has been promoting their “My Coke Rewards” promotion for a couple of years now. Where the old school, “Monsters of the Gridiron” was a promotion for new customer acquisition, the new school, “My Coke Rewards” promotion has been used mainly for customer retention purposes. The development of both these campaigns required a similar process to launch. The difference was in the new school automation using digital ones and zeros. The old school method required a bit more analog and often manual processes. Today with the growth of Voice over IP, these processes might be able to move into the “modern age”...and then some.

The point that we often forget in today’s hi-tech marketing age of Internet-based, cross-channel, integrated and unified marketing campaigns is that many of the old school solutions and concepts can still work and should be utilized in our marketing campaigns. We get so wrapped up in the latest and greatest technology that we forget what worked in the past. We need to utilize technology and automation to merge the old school with the new. Radio is not dead! Television is not dead! Print is not dead! Social networking and web to print solutions are not an ends; they are a means to gain positive ROI. We simply need to leverage our new school processes with the old school mediums. Until then, remember the past successes in marketing promotions and campaigns and elevate them with all the new school technology and processes.

Adam Edelman is the President of Refined Technology Solutions and can be reached at 443-310-8777 or via email at adam@refinedtechnology.com.

Making Email Relevant

There's an up and coming "digital" company out of Baltimore called Blue Sky Factory. They have a fantastic email marketing engine called "Publicaster". It's been around for a few years. They recently launched a new feature-set of Publicaster that is very interesting. Not from a technical mind-set, but more from a social networking point of view. The feature, called Share With Your Network (SWYN), allows email subscribers to share email content with their social networks. Using a code snippet, email marketers can choose to give their social community the option to share their email message with friends on a variety of popular social media engines, including: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Digg and MySpace.

Up until now, stand alone email engines have not really played in the same sandbox as social networking. SWYN changes all of that. I'm curious as to what the next "angle" Blue Sky Factory is going to launch into the websphere. I'm sure it will be productive and very cool.

Marketers Need Metrics to Integrate "Old School" and "New School" Media

I saw a great article on the eMarketer web site. A joint study was done by the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the Association of National Advertisers. They found that only 7% of US marketers were very satisfied with their progress integrating "Old School" (traditional) and "New School" (digital) media.

There seem to be several obstacles preventing further adoption of "New School" media. According to the study, the first and largest hurdle to overcome, is the need for solid metrics. The second-biggest obstacle is lack of understanding of "New School" media, followed by hesitation by company executives to "expand their horizons" and the infamous silos that prevent the different organizational entities from, "getting on the same page".

The study found that both customer and agency marketers agree on how to increase the acceptance of the integration process;

* Become as educated as possible on "New School" media.
* As always, set clear goals and business objectives.
* Understand what the customer needs.
* Test and retest (and retest, again).
* Commit to detailed metrics and analytics.

Of course, none of the above matters without a way to measure campaign ROI. The real challenge many marketers face is that the necessary data to measure ROI is often decentralized across the multiple marketing "engines". Data sets and terminology are not standardized.

A strong solution to this challenge would be to utilize greater Marketing Automation. This integration of marketing and technology would allow companies to centralize and standardize their "Old" and "New" school media channels on one platform, thus allowing for a smooth integration of their marketing efforts.

Are Ad Agencies to Blame for the Current Mess We're In?

I recently saw an article on eMarketer regarding a Harris Interactive poll that found 66% of US Internet users said that advertising agencies were at least partly to blame for the current economic crisis. Why? Because they influence people to buy things they cannot afford. Which means an increase in credit card debt and defaults on those debts. Give me a break! Are you kidding me? Has the media gone so far as to totally control our decision making process? Is the media outfitting itself with mind-control games and subliminal messages. "Just say no" guys, it's pretty simple.

Saw a Poll on LinkedIn About Marketing Hiring

I recently saw this poll question asked on LinkedIn by Scott Hample, an Onsite Consultant at the US Postal Service; "When will hiring in the Marketing sector return to pre-recession levels?" My thoughts are as follows:

Marketing automation and on-demand solutions will begin to take hold during this downturn and "people" resources might not be needed as much as in the past. Existing marketing mediums as we know them today are slowly being automated. As new marketing mediums evolve, the number of marketing executives might not increase, but the number of marketing enablers such as software developers and digital graphic designers will increase to meet the demand of this growth in marketing automation.

What do you think?

Top 50 GPO Suppliers List for 1st Quarter 2009 - Why the Decrease?

According to Government Print Management the number of print suppliers obtaining GPO (Government Printing Office)work during the first quarter of 2009,(January through March) was 1112 compared to 1263 during the fourth quarter of 2008, a 12% drop.

The value of the work awarded to the top 50 suppliers during the first quarter of 2009 was $49,223,165 compared to $105,293,322 for the fourth quarter of 2008, a 53% drop. During all of 2008, approximately 1817 suppliers won GPO print work valued at $421,886,169 million.

I'd be curious as to how much of the drop in both suppliers and revenue was a result of on-demand marketing solutions versus an actual decrease in requirements that would have otherwise used print as their vehicle of choice. Your thoughts?

Click Here for the list of the 50 GPO Suppliers.

Advertising and Consumer Confidence - More is Better

According to a recent Neilsen IAG study (March 2009) of banks, insurance companies and investment firms, the more advertising a consumer saw from their firm, the greater the level of confidence they had in that firm. Alternatively, the less advertising initiated from their firm resulted in a direct decrease in consumer confidence in that financial institution. The proofs in the puddin', at least in the financial vertical; cutting back on advertising and marketing during a down time has negative psychological effects on consumer confidence.
(Please tilt your head before looking at the graph)









When respondents were asked what factors or marketing channels would increase their confidence in the safety and soundness of their financial institutions, they said the following:

1. Positive press
2. Regular, consistent advertising
3. Regular email or direct mail offers
4. Regular online advertising

The bottom-line is that marketers need to "reach out and touch" their customers on a consistent basis. Marketing on Demand and Automation makes that possible.

Experience is the New Reality - Future of the Internet

Found this video (its bi-lingual in English with Spanish subtitles) through one of my Twitter posts. It takes a horizontal look at the history AND FUTURE of the Internet. Pretty cool stuff and ideas. What makes it so weird is that is that it's not so far-fetched in it's thinking. Take a look...

Video Production to Enhance MOD

I recently met with a dynamic marketing media firm called Think Again Media LLC. They are a Baltimore-based production company launched in 2002 with roots in commercials, feature films, and documentaries. They recently launched a division called, HYPE-online.com.

HYPE-online provides affordable video production services to create webmercials and video content for your web site. What makes them unique is the process. Their producers will guide you through scripting, schedule your shoot and ensure delivery within two weeks. What they deliver is a professional video of your company, organization or event that will drive your targeted email campaign, give life to testimonials, enhance your brand and be the buzz of your social networks. All this for as little as $1500 per finished minute.

It's fast and efficient. Smells of On-Demand to me...

Check out some of their sample work by clicking here.

Arm's Length Integration versus Real Integration

I received an email newsletter from LyrisHQ. They had a posting on their blog site by Sean Ryan, the Senior Vice President of Engineering at Lyris. His blog post was entitled, "Does Arm's Length Integration Frustrate You?".

Sean defines "arm's length integration" as, "completely separate applications that use application programming interface (API) calls to exchange finite data. It's as if the applications are standing at arm's length... The difference between arm's length integration and real integration is that real integration isn't about self-preservation; it's about knocking down walls."

Sean adds, "Real integration is about providing a single ecosystem of marketing tools that still do a great job of performing individual marketing functions, but that also work hand-in-hand with the rest of your key tools. It's about letting you login to one site, not five or 10. It's about summarizing all of your key marketing metrics in one place, so you can easily tell which marketing programs are gold mines and which are land mines."

So far, this has been the best summation of Marketing On-Demand Integration that I have seen. Nice job, Sean Ryan of LyrisHQ.

Publishing On Demand? Another Business Model

Here's a nice twist on self-publishing by a California-based company called Printcasting. Printcasting is a new local media ecosystem that lets everyone share in the work, and the rewards. They're supported by the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation via the Knight News Challenge. Checkout the simple diagram on the right. I think they've stumbled on the art of "Social Publishing."

A Victim of the Meltdown?

Speaking of Merkle, Inc. (see my last post), a local Maryland database marketing agency, I saw that they just laid off 36 employees yesterday, Monday the 16th. The employee lay-offs were primarily account managers and other employees that serve the firm’s 10 to 15 financial services clients who decided to scale back on marketing (what are they thinking?). Why hadn't Merkle expanded their Service and Solution offering to provide additional marketing on-demand services to provide more stickiness with their financial clients? When I look at their "Direct Marketing Program Management" solutions (see graphic) it seems to imply that they can do a lot to help an organization, as it relates to marketing management. If so, where's the stickiness to provide the additional revenue for client and Merkle alike?

Just wondering...

Challenges with MOD - Email Campaigns

In today's marketing environment, email is one of many mediums to bring cost-effective value to corporate and agency marketing departments and firms. However, according to Merkle, Inc., a Maryland-based database marketing agency, few marketing executives have fully integrated email into their marketing mix due to a number of common reasons, including:

1. Limited resources monopolized by tactical production issues
2. Too little focus on analytics, program design and measurement
3. Lack of an email address acquisition and channel development strategy
4. Email deliverability issues and difficulties in managing ISP relations
5. Complexities associated with managing data and content

Automating the email campaign process and integrating it with other on-demand marketing mediums, would reduce, if not eliminate, many of the above reasons.

How would you address each of those reasons? I'm curious...

MOD and Social Media - Like Red Wine and Steak!

The other evening I asked my 15 year old daughter to check her Gmail account as I was going to send her something to read. She replied, "I use FaceBook for email now." My 17 year old son tells me, "No one uses email anymore. Everyone just sends a text message."

Email among teens now lags behind Social Media sites such as FaceBook, Twitter and MySpace. With regards to FaceBook, check out the global growth graph on the left. The age group with the greatest growth is 35-49 year old males! Social Media and networking is booming in the business world with companies launching their own FaceBook sites and Twitter "follow-me" feeds.

This move to Social Media adds another exciting medium to the whole Marketing On-Demand engine. Companies better start understanding this medium and put their Social Media campaigns together real quick! Time flies, doesn't it?

Where MOD is Headed in the Print World

Imagine a magazine or newspaper that updates its marketing ads whenever new content is available from the advertiser. How about a supermarket shelf tag that automatically reflects price changes and promotions... instantly! This video by BNET correspondent Sumi Das shows us how electronic ink is enabling a new age for marketing on demand within the print industry. The potential for this is going to be huge!

Using Mashups to Bring It All Together

Here's a fantastic "low-tech" video explanation of Business Mashups by Michael Parker, Sr. Director with Serena Software. Marketing on Demand requires a process to link the various independant application modules together. Here is one way to do it!

T-Mobile Ad - Life's for Sharing - Dance on Demand!

This ad was made for T-Mobile and is set in the Liverpool Train Station. I'm not too sure how many of the people are hired actors and how many are "viral" joiners. But the concept is quite unique. Take a look...

Great Insight from Industry CEO - InterlinkONE's John Foley on using integrated campaign management for self-marketing

You don't have to be riding on the turnip truck for very long to figure this one out. However, many print providers get "stuck in the mud" with regards to launching marketing on demand services for the sole reason that, "We're waiting on a customer who needs it". Guess what? YOU are the first customer! The print industry needs more mavericks to step up and use the technology for their own marketing campaigns. Listen to what John Foley has to say...

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO

On Demand Price List for USPS Changes!

I couldn't resist this one. Being an "on-demand" centric blog, I have posted the link for the USPS Price Changes Effective May 11, 2009. Here it is in all of its 44 pages of glory!

CLICK HERE FOR THE REPORT

Have an exciting day! The MOD Director

Take a Quick Poll on Marketing Automation

Please take a minute to click on the below link to access a quick poll about marketing automation. I'm trying to get a pulse on the marketing community.

Thanks for your support in advance!

http://polls.linkedin.com/p/24940/rfcky

Evolution of a Successful Postcard Marketing Company

I have been receiving targeted emails from Joy Gendusa, President of Postcard Mania out of Florida. Take a few minutes to watch her interview on MSNBC. The point I want to make is at the end of the piece. She realizes that Postcard Mania needs to "evolve" and has added additional marketing services to her mix.

You can check out the video clip by clicking here.

Keep looking for ways to evolve!

According to an Association of National Advertisers survey...

Here's an interesting take on "the recession" and the marketing industry:

February 10, 2009 - According to a new survey from the ANA (Association of National Advertisers), the recession had a more profound effect on the marketing industry than predicted just six months ago.

Following up on a survey conducted in August 2008, the second survey reveals that more companies are identifying cost savings and reductions (93% as opposed to 87% six months ago) and that 37% of respondents today plan to reduce budgets by more than 20%, up substantially from the 21% of respondents in the first survey.

The top five areas where marketers plan to reduce costs or expenditures in marketing and advertising efforts:

Top Five Areas of Reduced Spending	July/Aug 2008	Jan/Feb 2009
Departmental travel and expense restrictions	63%	87%
Reducing advertising campaign media budgets	69%	77%
Reducing advertising campaign production budgets	63%	72%
Challenging agencies to reduce internal expenses and/or identify cost reductions	63%	68%
Eliminating or delaying new projects	58%	61%

Other tactics gaining greater consideration by marketers today, as compared to six months ago include:

• Nearly half (48%) are looking at reducing agency compensation today, versus 32% six months ago.
• Alter mix of marketing channels to lower cost channels (44% today v. 40% in first survey).
  
  
  MOD NOTE: This mix will only be implemented smoothly if the companies deploy some sort of marketing automation!

In the first survey, the ANA asked if marketers thought their budgets would increase, decrease or remain the same in the next six months.  In the recent survey, the ANA asked what actually happened.

• In July/August, 53% of marketers thought their advertising budgets would be reduced in the next six months, when in fact, 71% experienced a budget decrease.
• Close to four out of ten (38%) thought their budgets would remain the same, but only 23% had their budgets untouched.
• In the first survey, 9% thought they would see a budget increase, when only 6% did.

When asked about their predictions for what will happen in another six months from now, 49% of respondents felt that their advertising budgets would be reduced, while 43% think that they will stay the same and only 8% have hope that their budgets will increase.

MOD NOTE: I would really like to know the names of those 8% and see the results of their increased spending during these unpredictable times. Frankly, I believe they're doing the right thing! 

Something Different - Coworking at the Beehive

There's this new concept in idea generation called coworking. It's been around for some time across the globe. Baltimore, MD recently opened a coworking location at the Emerging Technology Center in Canton. Check out this brief video by Dave Troy and friends. It's quite the "buzz"...

A Thought About Cutting Back on Marketing - Don't do it! Just change the way you do it!

A friend of mine emailed me this quote. By applying marketing on demand solutions to this mind-set, you should be able to better manage advertising costs.

“To put it simply, the literature and experience [we] reviewed tell us that reducing expenditures for advertising during a recession can be an expensive mistake. One study after another, of recession after recession, shows that those who reduce spending usually lose market share and sales. Furthermore, they then take longer to recuperate than those who maintained their levels of spending. The bottom line? The advertiser who does not cut back can move ahead during the recession and afterward, capture share from those who, hesitant and unsure, do cut back.”

O. Burtch Drake – President/CEO American Associate of Advertising Agencies

Personalized URLs - The Ice Cream in a Chocolate Sundae

Heidi Tolliver-Nigro conducted a PURL survey and announced the results on The Digital Nirvana. Click here to view the blog post for the survey results. A large number of the respondents seem to have a lot of misconceptions about PURLs. Many of the "reasons" why marketers/printers don't use them are due to a lack of understanding of their technical and creative benefits or they lack the proper resources inside their companies to launch the campaigns.

The other issue is that PURLs by themselves don't necessarily provide the "umph" a marketing campaign needs. Some comments that I've heard regarding PURLs are:

• "Wow, that's cool... now what?"
• "Gee, that's nice."
• "Yea...PURLs...interesting technology."

Many of the existing MOD applications on the market today, such as integrated online promotions and automated call campaigns compliment PURLs and increase the response rate of those campaigns. It's sort of like a chocolate sundae; the ice cream by itself is good, but all the other ingredients make it superb!

Matching Marketing Firms with Clients...On Demand!

I came across this online company called Marketing Matchup (www.marketingmatchup.com). They claim to be the only service of its kind that lets both marketing firms and clients answer a list of questions that defines their expertise and corporate culture (i.e. Labels or keywords). Marketing Matchup then matches marketing firms, who are a strong match, to clients with open marketing project bids.

Truly Marketing on Demand!

Web 3.0 is upon us!

I've been hearing about Web 3.0 more and more lately. What is it you ask? Mindgrub Founder and President, Todd Marks offers his definition to the next paradigm shift of digital information delivery;

"The Web 3.0 is the perceived next generation release of the internet. It takes into effect the hottest trends of the web 2.0, including rich internet applications and social media, and brings them to the new hardware of the outerweb, namely mobile devices, netbooks and digital signage. Information is searched for, filtered, personalized and delivered to end users based on preferences, biofeedback and location."

You can also find an evolving definition on Wikipedia at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_3.0

The question that needs to be asked is how will MOD integrate into Web 3.0? Looking forward to your thoughts and ideas.

HVAC Filter Reminder!

It's been three months to the day since I received my last HVAC filter reminder. As a reminder, I filled out an online marketing form around a year ago when I first bought my MERV 7 Basic air filter. It was on the packaging. Anyhow, below is the actual email reminder I received...

From: True Blue Filter Reminder
Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:00:31 -0500
Subject: Change is good.

Hello Adam,

It's that time of year again. Yep, you guessed it, time to change your air filter. (Remember, changing your filter regularly saves energy because your heating/cooling system is running more efficiently.)

Last time you purchased our MERV 7 Basic air filter, size 20x25x1 at Home Depot. If you would like better protection for your family of airborne allergens and pollutants check out our Allergen Protection™ MERV 11 or Ultra Air™ MERV 12 -Our Finest Filter.

We really appreciate your business, Adam. Which reminds us; if you'd like more information about our products or have any questions, you can always give us a call toll free at 1-888-808-9100 or email salesinfo@trueblue.com.

Thanks much,

Your friends at True Blue

This automated marketing "touch" works great for existing customers and there are multiple engines out there that can make this happen. I hope you enjoyed this real-life Marketing On Demand moment and always remember to change your air filters!

MOD Director