ANA Marketing Maestros

To Tweet or Not To Tweet…

By Cara Brooke Schultz

It seems as if everyone is tweeting these days. In fact, your boss might even encourage you to write tweets. However, after reading an article on imediaconnection.com, I felt compelled to throw a few tricks of the trade out there. iMediaConnection rounded up a few sceneries when you should refrain from tweeting:

1. Do not tweet when you are in the middle of a crisis. If something terrible happens and you are dealing with a ton of negative feedback from customers, stay calm and try to rectify the situation prior to tweeting. One tweet announcing the change is enough.
2. Try to steer clear of all negativity on your twitter page. There is no reason to make fun of another company, a geographical location, or another person. Although you might think you are being funny, chances are you will offend someone.
3. Do not post everything online for the world to see. Always get the go ahead to broadcast breaking news, new deals or any developments that might come up in the office. Most likely, your boss will want to wait before making the news public.

I also wanted to add a few suggestions to the list:

1. Don’t write negative tweets about your competition. Your customers like you for several reasons, highlight those reasons and leave out the negativity!
2. Think before you tweet. Have well-thought out and spelling-error free tweets before making them live online. Remember, tweets cannot be edited once they go live, so do a thorough edit before posting.

Before writing your next tweet—take these ideas into account—it will help create a positive twitter experience.

The “Stigma” Associated with Social Media Sites for Companies—Does it Exist?

By Cara Schultz

Some companies are diving right into social media Websites, while other companies are slightly more hesitant when it comes to setting up a Facebook page or Twitter account. Although the idea of a disgruntled customer leaving negative feedback can be a bit intimidating to any company, a recent study from Pennsylvania State University confirmed that is usually not the case. After studying nearly 150,000 tweets, they came to a few positive conclusions. An article posted by eMarketer states, “Just 22.3% of tweets about brands expressed an opinion one way or another. The good news: Twitter users were much more likely to express positive sentiments than negative.”

   

What are your reservations with jumping on the social media bandwagon? Have you had a positive experience with social media sites and your customers? Chime in with your thoughts and opinions; we love to hear what you have to say!

Are Things Looking Up for TV in 2010?

By Susan Burke

According to recently released reports, the Television Bureau of Advertising is predicting an increase in advertising revenue for 2010, as a result of the upcoming Winter Olympics in Vancouver and the U.S. mid-term elections, both of which are expected to lead to an influx of dollars into the TV ad market.  

Additionally, Disney’s CFO, Tom Staggs, announced that they have started to see improvements in ad sales for local markets, as well as among automotive manufacturers on the national stage. Recently, General Motors ventured back into the advertising market with an ad featuring their new chairman, Edward E. Whitacre, Jr. The ad offers customers a full refund (within 60 days of purchase) if they are not happy with their new GM vehicle:

New TV shows, such as The CW’s The Vampire Diaries (yes, I watched it), the network’s biggest series debut to date, are still drawing in viewers during their regularly scheduled time slots, potentially indicating that some ads are surviving the much discussed DVR blitz.

Does all of this point to a recovery? It’s too soon to tell, but it’s certainly better news than what we’ve been hearing for the past few months.

Getting the Most Out of Your Social Media Campaigns

By Irina Skaya

A recent ANA/BtoB Magazine/Mktg survey reported that 66 percent of marketers utilized social media in 2009 compared to 20 percent in 2007.  In order to fund their new media efforts, 55 percent of marketers have already shifted funds from their traditional media budgets. In 2009 Web site ownership, search engine marketing and display advertising are among the new media platforms that received the most funding. And in 2010, blogs, mobile and video are supposed to be at the top of the list.

According to the survey, The top concerns for marketers when considering newer media platforms are the inability to prove ROI (45 percent) and having metrics to properly allocate the mix of traditional and digital media (43 percent).  Social media analytics is young and most marketers do not know where to start.  First thing is first: know what your objective is, what you are trying to measure. Do you want to know what people are saying about your brands? Do you want to see how people are interacting with your brands on specific social networks? Or do you just simply want to know upcoming social media trends or maybe what your competitors are doing in the social media space?

As the social media guru of the ANA, I always look for new measuring and monitoring social media tools. I came up with a social media metrics superlist-my favorite online tools that will help marketers get started with social media analytics.

PS. They are all free!

• Twitalyzer: measures brands' and individuals' impact and success on Twitter by reporting on relative influence, signal-to-noise ratio, generosity, velocity, clout.
• Keotag: monitors mentions of your brands across dozens of Web sites, including Technorati, Blog Pulse, Google Blog, del.icio.us, Blinklist, Twitter, Bluedot, Newsvine, Digg, Blog Lines, YouTube, and more.
• Trackur: a 14-day free trial allows you to monitor your brands' online reputation and your competitors', and track your campaign's effectiveness.
• Social Networking Media ROI Calculator
• Blog Metrics

The ANA Marketing Insights Center has a great number of resources for marketers who would like to utilize social media to learn more about their customers and engage them directly and involve them in their brands.  In the ANA Today newsletter, "How Social Media Transforms Marketing," and "Skittles: Follow the Rainbow on Twitter" are the top-read articles. The above articles are available for ANA members only. If you are not an ANA member, browse through our 101 library where we have an abundant amount of social media resources, including "Marketing with Twitter."

If you use other social media tracking tools, please feel free to share them with us. We'd love to hear from you! Leave a comment or email me at Irina@ana.net.

Social Networks

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Is Online Video Advertising More Effective Than TV Advertising?

By Susan Burke

At a recent ANA Brand Management committee meeting, a presenter from Nielsen IAG shared the following information:

• A piece of creative running on a site such as Hulu.com (or ABC.com, NBC.com, CBS.com, etc.) delivers more effective advertising in terms of brand and message recall, than the same piece of creative running on TV. (Click here to see the snapshot and presentation.)

This nugget of information spurred a great deal of discussion in the meeting. Some attendees agreed with this finding, while others argued against it. To me, it makes sense that an ad running on an online video site has more of an impact than one on TV for a few reasons:

1. Conditioning: If I happen to be watching live TV, I will generally take the garbage out, channel surf, or leave the room during a commercial break. Most of us know how long the average commercial break is, so we are usually able to time our return to the couch perfectly.
2. DVRs: As I said in my first point, “If I happen to be watching live TV”—this activity happens rarely. Commercials are generally skipped, thanks to my DVR. However, you can’t fast forward through an online video ad.
3. Appreciation: When an ad is shown during an online video, I often find myself feeling grateful to the advertiser. Their sponsorship of the program means that I can watch it at my leisure, so I don’t mind viewing a 30 second spot in return.
4. Captive Audience: When commercial breaks occur during an online video, they are much shorter than a television commercial break. Therefore, I’m more likely to watch the ad, as opposed to doing something else during it. I can pause or mute the ad, of course, but I’ll still have to play it at some point if I want to finish the show.
5. Recall: My recall of an ad played during an online episode of a TV show is generally stronger than my recall of an ad played during the televised episode. This is because there are generally fewer total commercials during an online video.

While I think there is still a purpose to television advertising, I also believe that online video advertising is an avenue that many advertisers should explore more thoroughly. Online video isn’t going anywhere, so it’s time to embrace it.

Golden Opportunities on Twitter

By Irina Skaya

Not a day goes by without someone asking me, “Why do you use Twitter? It’s so useless. Why do I care what you are up to every second of the day?” Wake up people! You are missing out on engaging with and learning more about your customers.  As Cynthia Ashworth, Vice President of Customer Engagement @Dunkin’ Donuts said, “We don’t have to justify Twitter. It’s free customer-service.” Indeed it is, Cynthia. It’s a free focus group and a cheap option for collaboration.

As I try to keep up with the cutting edge marketing trends, I enrolled in a two-hour course on Twitter Love where I learned how marketers can utilize the microblogging Web site to promote their products and services, research consumer insights, improve customer service, converse with and engage their customers, and group collaboration.  For instance, @JetBlue is using Twitter to help improve customer services and teamwork across business units.  As a customer service tool, Twitter’s benefit is that everything people say about your product/service is public on Twitter and is easy to find via using their built-in search tool. This makes Twitter an instant focus group with over 10 million participants, many of whom are your customers.  Collecting customer feedback via Twitter is easy and effortless, especially when you compare it to the number of responses you get back through email surveys.  Zappos is using Twitter to make personal connections among employees, and between the company and its customers.  For those marketers who want to improve their corporate culture and customer service, Twitter is a great tool.

So just like there was Facebook and then came LinkedIn, a professional social networking Web site, Yammer is like Twitter for business. Yammer offers groups for discussions on a subject between people in the same workgroup. It can connect employees from different departments, so if you work in a 500+ company, you won’t feel like just a number anymore.  Although some may argue that Twitter and Yammer may be distracting and may affect employees’ productivity, it can, if used moderately improve corporate culture by connecting employees to one another and letting them know what the organization is up to, its achievements and pretty much anything.

So for the Twitter rebels, get on it, add ANAmarketers to your list of the following, and most importantly, start talking and listening to your customers.  And here are some Twitter tools to get you started:

TweetLater.com – helps you in following everyone who follows you; includes auto DMs and a tweet scheduler.

Twitter Karma - keeps a follow-to-follower ratio in order for you unfollow those who are not following me, with a few exceptions.

TwitterCounter - see my followers in graph form. It also predicts how many followers you will have in 30, 90 or 365 days.

TweetDeck – as an Adobe Air app, TweetDeck allows you to see your @replies, direct messages, timeline, and a lis of folks you follow whose Tweets you want to make sure you read. You can also use it to update your Twitter and Facebook accounts simultaneously. I use and love this tool!

PS.  Download our most-read 101 on Marketing with Twitter. 

Advertising as Art or Creative, Creative

By Barry Garbarino

As I rode home on the train last night – for some strange reason and old jingle from a telecommunication company popped into my head from thin air.  I think it went something like, “second class phones, their making, second class phones, phones you can’t hear though, phones with no tones...” I have an idea who the company is, but I don’t want to point any fingers.  I guess what really jumps out to me is that the creative jingle stuck with me after all these years (normally, I would post the ad creative in this blog, but sadly, it isn’t available online as of yet.)

Classic ad campaigns like, “Where’s the beef” and the ever popular “Meow Mix” jingle (which I believe some ad genius ran during morning news programs, so the annoying catchy song would get stuck in all of our heads.)  have left a void in the current mix of creative execution in the broadcast medium.




The perception that some advertisers have today is that every commercial they produce must have broad-appeal content that reaches multiple demographics.  While other cutting edge marketers are blazing new trails with edgy, dare I say, controversial commercials.  Take the recent “Whopper Freak-Out” campaign that Burger King ran.  The scrappy burger joint, removed their famous menu item, the Whopper, from one location for one day.  The results were not only dramatic, but also shocking and quite amusing for the viewing public.  

Take a look at this daring social / marketing experiment below.

The Initial ad creative spurred many a social media parody (most I can’t post on this blog as they are even too edgy for me…) My suggestion would be to look some of these up on YouTube.

The bottom line I guess is that with new innovative shows coming this fall, marketers need to raise the bar when it comes to their advertising.  Shows like “gLee” on FOX, give creative marketers the opportunity to step up their executions and borrow from the excitement (and musical numbers) of the

show.

 
Times are always changing and the viewing public expects to be more entertained or they will just fast forward with their DVR’s and leave the expensive advertising in the dust.  

Recession: Glimmer of Hope?

As a follow-up to my blog, "Is an economic recovery near?" I would like to share with you are new video snippets from the 2009 ANA Building in Tough Times Brand Conference where heavy-weight executives from Dunkin' Donuts, MillerCoors and Wal-Mart shared their insights and best practices in regards to overcoming tough economic times.

Thank you to AdAge for these valuable video highlights. If you have any best practices on coping with the recession, please share in our comments section on this blog, YouTube page, or email me at irina@ana.net. I'd love to hear from you!

The Psychological Boost of Coffee Marketing

Turning Beer Temperature Into Marketing Gold

Partnerships, Not Brand Renovation, Best Growth Strategy

Customer Service Makes a Difference

By Susan Burke

At a recent ANA Central Region Workshop, Michael Dunn, CEO and Chairman of Prophet, argued that a customer-centric strategy remains a way for great companies to win, despite the current economic conditions. At many ANA workshops, committee meetings, and conferences, I have heard industry experts agree with Dunn, stressing that customer service is often what differentiates one brand from another. I could not agree more.

Given the economic conditions and the changing mindset that many Americans, myself included, are experiencing, deciding where to spend our money has become not only a decision about value, but also about our experiences as customers. People today are more willing to switch retailers or brands if they find that they are not being treated well, especially if they can get the same value someplace else.

Recently at a branch of my bank, I had some difficulties with an ATM machine while depositing a check. The manager of the branch was not only unable to help me, but he was also dismissive and unsympathetic in his manner. A few days later, after learning that the issue was still unresolved, I called the bank and was assisted immediately. The person I spoke with was courteous, knowledgeable, and friendly. My first experience with the bank made me question whether or not I wanted to keep my business with them, but the second experience reassured me and my problem was solved. The difference?  An encounter with an employee who was efficient and pleasant.

In the past, customers may have been more loyal to a particular brand or company, but in today’s market all bets are off. Every encounter a customer has with a representative of your company (regardless of if they are part of the customer service division or not) contributes to the overall impression they have of your organization and making sure that customers view your organization positively is more important than ever right now.  Stellar customer service in all aspects of your business can make a real difference in determining if a customer stays or goes.

Holding Up in a Tough Economy

By Irina Skaya

When the economy tightens, many companies resort to the mislabeled sales strategy of offering discounts. Discounting on price is not a sales strategy.  It's an impulsive move made by desperate salespeople.  In a tough economy, customers think and expect everything is going to be discounted.  Because of this, salespeople feel it’s necessary to oblige the customer to close the deal.  Unfortunately, the discount ends up altering the attitude of the customer who now believes the real value of the product or service they bought is the reduced price and not the full one.  Maintaining your pricing integrity in a down economy is truly a winning strategy because, in the end, profit margins are higher, the ability to service a customer is better, and the confidence of the salesperson is greater.

Although Starbucks (SBUX) has recently reported a 77% profit drop, the company is launching a multi-million marketing and advertising campaign "focused on the quality and values Starbucks offers ”  in order to combat perceptions that its products are over-priced.  The goal of the campaign is to remind customers why they’ve loved Starbucks coffee from the beginning.  In today’s marketplace where most are cutting ad spending and are offering discount with increase retail market share, Starbucks is taking a different approach.  I have to applaud Starbucks for sticking to its brand message and showing confidence despite closing doors to more than 300 Starbucks restaurants. Customers will shop where they feel confident in that business, one that is communicating and is sending the message out that it is here to stay, aka Starbucks.

At a recent ANA workshop, Don Sexton, Professor at Columbia University said companies who maintain or increase their marketing budgets during a recession experience higher sales growth than those who reduce or cut their budgets.  “Top Ten Ways to Bounce Back From Tough Economic Times,” written by Bob Liodice, CEO/President of the ANA also urges marketers to invest  in a brand more rather than less.