Archive for March, 2009

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16
Mar
09

will consumers “Dew” what Coke wants them to “Dew”?

By Joshua Woolery Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, Marketing, promotions and Uncategorized

According to Natalie Zmuda from Adage, Coca-Cola has launched a new promotional campaign for their citrus flavored Vault brand in an attempt to boost market share against rival Pepsi’s Mountain Dew brand. The promotion, which will continue for the next five months, rewards consumers purchasing Mountain Dew with a free Vault.

Coca-Cola believes they can improve their standing in the market after consumers try their product. Zmuda suggests that this may in fact be a good strategy for the Vault brand, because it has been “a tactic that has garnered goodwill and delivered significant return on investment for marketers including Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts and Taco Bell.”

Vault has been available on the market for three years and only has 4 percent market share. Where as, Mountain Dew has 80 percent of the market share.

I don’t think this promotion will be an effective way to boost Vault’s market share. It seems like a last ditch effort to keep a struggling brand alive. At best, Mountain Dew consumers are going to get twice the bang for their buck and discontinue purchasing Vault after the promotion ends in late July.

In addition, Coca-Cola hasn’t made clear how they will be distributing the coupons. I went to Vault’s Web site today to see if they had any additional information but didn’t find anything. However, in perusing the site I did discover that it has a lot of potential and would be a great venue for Coca-Cola to release the coupons.  The site is very interactive and the videos are good enough to get consumers coming back.

Here’s a funny video they have on the “Vault Channel.”

13
Mar
09

best British television commercial

By Joshua Woolery 1 Comment
Categories: Ad Agency, Advertising, Best of, commercials, Marketing and TV

hovis The British television advertising awards (btaa) were recently held in London.  Hovis, a bread manufacturer that has been in business for 122 years, won the award for best television commercial.  The 122 second  ad, called “Go on Lad,” takes you through 122 years of Britain’s history. I really liked this commercial because it did such a great job of telling a story.  My favorite part was when the young lad was running past a window with a radio in it during WWII.  As he was doing so, Winston Churchill could be heard reciting part of his famous speech saying, “we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills, we shall never surrender.”  It was components like that that made me feel apart of the boy’s journey.

I have posted the video below for your enjoyment.  Click here for a full list of winners. (Courtesy of Brand Republic News.)

12
Mar
09

twitter isn’t only for the big guys

By Joshua Woolery Leave a Comment
Categories: Marketing, New Media, Social Media, Twitter and Uncategorized

I think the social media revolution the industry is currently experiencing is fascinating. Companies like Ford, Starbucks, and Ebay are using Twitter as a way to communicate with consumers on a more personal level. I also think that many small to midsized companies are missing the boat by not creating an online presence via Twitter.  As the title of this post states, you don’t have to be one of the big guys to reap the rewards of social media applications.

Dave Kerpen, from Buzz Marketing Daily, recently compiled a list of 25 unique ways companies are using Twitter to improve their customer’s experience.

Below I have posted five of my favorites taken directly from Dave’s post:

1) @MarketStreetDFW is a Texas-based gourmet meals-to-go store that tweets daily menu updates.

6) @StartmySong tweets links and lyrics to new songs to promote their songwriters community.

14) @NWWeddingPlace includes a “Daily Love Tweet” to promote its wedding planning business.

16) @PawLuxury uses what they call “The Woof Factor” to provide excellent customer service to pet owners.

20) @SpudBros is a quick-serve restaurant in Colorado which tweets unique deals and discounts.

Click here for the full list of companies.

12
Mar
09

Growing business with Twitter

By Beth Hardy Leave a Comment
Categories: New Media, Social Media and Twitter

I’ve written several times about Twitter and its many uses in our industry, but I can’t seem to get enough of the benefits companies are garnering from it. Michael Stelzner of Copyblogger did a nice job recently of outlining a few good examples.

He explains that, according to the State of the Twittersphere report, five to 10 thousand new people join Twitter on a daily basis, and total users are currently around 5 million. That’s a lot of potentially untapped resources!

The article goes on to highlight several high profile and every day business people who use Twitter and have had success with it. Following are a few snippets of what some of those folks had to say:

1)    John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing founder – “I get great insight when I ask questions.” And, “People on Twitter spread my thoughts to new places.”
2)    Tony Hsieh, Zappos.com CEO – “In the long term, Twitter helps drive repeat customers and word of mouth, but we’re not looking to it as a way of driving immediate sales.”
3)    David Meerman Scott, bestselling author – “I have personally connected with hundreds of people I otherwise wouldn’t have, and I booked an interview on NPR and a big daily newspaper using Twitter.”
4)    Brian Clark, Copyblogger – “Twitter Search is an amazing way to see what people are saying about your products or services.”
5)    Terri Rylander, B2B copywriter – “I’ve been in my particular niche for over 10 years and know who the players are (though they don’t know me). When I checked who [a colleague] was following on Twitter, there they all were! It read like a ‘Who’s Who’ list.”
6)    Pam O’Neil, BreakingPoint VP of Marketing – “A writer for ZDNet wrote about us and linked to us based on something we tweeted and that resulted in a huge spike in web traffic and at least one deal with a major service provider.”

If you’re like me and you want to see how companies are using Twitter successfully, or if you’re still trying to figure out what Twitter is all about and how it can benefit your company, I encourage you to visit some of the abovementioned folks on Twitter. Read their tweets for a few weeks and note what they’re talking about. It may inspire you start Twittering or step up your Twitter game!

11
Mar
09

skittles tasting success with latest social media experiment?

By Joshua Woolery Leave a Comment
Categories: Facebook, Marketing, New Media, Skittles, Social Media, Twitter, Viral, Wikipedia and YouTube

skittlestwitterAs many of you already know, Skittles caused quite a stir in the social media world last week by posting real time “tweets” on their Web site. Originally, we didn’t want to write about this because it happened last week. However, I couldn’t resist commenting on this after reading what has been said since.

Marketing Pilgrim wrote a post recently stating that the Skittles Web site traffic experienced “a 1332% increase in web visitors on March 3rd.”  Pretty impressive considering only one day had passed since Skittles launched this social media experience.

Was this a complete success for Skittles? I don’t think it was because I think most of their traffic came from Twitter users. I also think it may have been a mistake for a brand of their size to expose their reputation to uncensored tweets. BusinessWeek published a recent article that highlighted some of the challenges marketers and companies will face as social media focused strategies continue to evolve.

For those who aren’t familiar with the Skittles campaign, the home page of the Web site originally showcased Twitter comments about Skittles in real time. BusinessWeek points out that, “Skittles was forced to rethink its social media strategy after users deluged the site with inane and often profane tweets.” Skittles has since had their Web address direct users to a variety of social media applications including their Facebook fan page, Wikipedia page and YouTube. I think this was a smart move because cycling the landing pages is keeping users guessing and potentially could get them coming back to the site in the weeks ahead.

This is clearly a lesson on how companies have no way to control what their customers say, and I think this is the ultimate challenge of using social media to create relationships with consumers.

Now for a lesson in why you shouldn’t get a transplant from a guy named Jose.

10
Mar
09

Small-to midsized ad agencies will survive with social media

By Beth Hardy Leave a Comment
Categories: Uncategorized

picture-2The newest contributor to The Side Note, Joshua Woolery, turned me on to Michael Gass and his blog FUEL LINES, which is all about “tips, tactics, trends, talent and tools for ad agency new business.”

One of Michael’s latest posts, “Prediction: Ad Agencies that make social media central to their business model will be hiring,” discusses how a midsized ad agency in Louisiana is having explosive new business growth by making social media an essential part of their business model.

According to Michael, the agency is “having a breakout year with 8 new accounts since the beginning of the year, profits up 104% over this time last year, 94% of the new clients located well outside their market. Their new clients are located in California, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, Washington D.C. They even have a new account in London.”

Michael goes on to outline seven tactics the agency used to generate this success – everything from using social media to promote their own agency to leading with social media in initial prospective client discussions.

Making social media central to your business model may seem obvious to most, but I haven’t run across an agency yet that is having the abovementioned success. I think this Louisiana agency is a great example of how embracing social media wholeheartedly and not looking back can propel your business through the economic slump. It seems the agencies that pay heed may be the only ones standing once the dust settles.

On a side note (pun intended!), I’d like to welcome Joshua to the blog. We’re looking forward to his many contributions and hope you are, too. For more on Joshua and to read his first posts, check back throughout the week.

09
Mar
09

Drowning in Guerrilla Marketing

By Beth Hardy 1 Comment
Categories: Amsterdam, Guerrilla Marketing, MTV Switch and Public Awareness Campaign

globalwarming

I thought this guerrilla marketing/public awareness campaign by Ogilvy Action and MTV Switch was pretty ingenious.

In order to inexpensively raise awareness of rising sea levels, they used Amsterdam’s canals as the location to post signs – held up by very realistic-looking inflatable hands – that contain two simple sentences and MTV Switch’s Web address.

The campaign signs clearly get across the message of global warming, but they also suggest the idea that we are all going to drown in the rising seas if the problem is not solved.

It’s certainly an in-your-face campaign that surely received the attention desired. How clever!

06
Mar
09

Trust Me

By Beth Hardy Leave a Comment
Categories: Ad Agency, Advertising and TNT

So you’ve probably figured out by now that RGM is the ad agency featured on the TNT show TRUST ME.

The show is set against the backdrop of an advertising agency and follows the characters “as they try to navigate the waters of inter-office politics, personality conflicts, easily bruised egos, professional jealousies and unreasonable client demands.”


The agency may not be real, but their faux Web site is great. They’ve designed it to look and read just like a typical ad agency’s site, with industry jargon and everything. And the show is pretty good, too. While most situations are enhanced for TV, they’re not too far from the truth.

05
Mar
09

Top Five Reasons Journalists Visit Your Web Site

By Beth Hardy Leave a Comment
Categories: Journalist, PR, Public Relations and Web sites

When creating new and improved Web sites for clients, we’re always thinking about the viewer when it comes to usability. One viewer that must always be taken into consideration is the journalist.

Journalists visit Web sites in order to gather information for stories. They are often on deadline and need that information fast. Is your Web site journalist-friendly?

Jakob Nielsen

Jakob Nielsen

Jakob Nielsen, “the guru of Web page usability” according to The New York Times, reviewed PR sections of corporate sites and found that most “fail to support journalists in their quest for the facts, information, and contacts they can use to write stories about companies and their products.”

We took the time to check out the PR sections of some high profile corporations, and unfortunately we got the same results. According to Nielsen, “Journalists repeatedly said that poor website usability could reduce or completely eliminate their press coverage of a company.”

So what are journalists looking for when they visit your site? Nielsen’s findings revealed five things:

1) A PR contact (name and telephone number)

2) Basic facts about the company (spelling of an executive’s name, his/her age, headquarters location, and so on)

3) The company’s spin on events

4) Financial information

5) Images to use as illustrations in stories

This may seem obvious to you, but Nielsen’s studies clearly show that not enough organizations include these five items in an easy to access and read PR section. Luckily, updating your news area shouldn’t take much time or effort and can make a big impact on your PR campaign results.

Do you have any experiences – good or bad – with journalists and Web site usability? Share your story here.

Tomorrow on The Side Note: RGM, a Chicago-based top tiered ad agency specializing in campaigns that push boundaries – and buttons.

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