ANA Marketing Maestros

Listen. Engage. Respond.

By Guest Blogger Lisa Neary

According to Arianna Huffington, a part of the Huffington Post's success has been based on that simple strategy: Listen. Engage. Respond. It's no secret that the general sentiment towards Corporate America is at an all-time low. Couple consumer doubt with the economic hardships that the majority of Americans are facing and marketers are now faced with using their conversations in social media to help public relations initiatives to foster trust and loyalty to the brand, product or company.

For The Huffington Post part of building this trust has been through creating content around topics that the readership cares about. How do they know what their readers want? They listen and ask then they act. Arianna reminded us that, self-expression has become the new form of entertainment and they foster this dialogue to further nurture reader relations. Leveraging these insights has enabled The Huffington Post to cultivate a participatory and loyal readership. Here are four other ways they continue to differentiate:

a.     Watch the trends. With a small internal staff, THP leverages a vast pool of talent who contribute to the internet newspaper through blog posts.

b.     Get a cause. Create a pulse, a personality, a value system for your brand. Customers want a connection to your brand that resonates with them.

c.     Accept failure. Or run the risk of becoming stale. The biggest risks come with the biggest rewards. Experiment.

d.     Be nimble. Operate as flat as possible and encourage input from all levels of the organization.

While these ideas may not be new, they are the tenets to developing a successful presence in the social media presence where your audience is savvy, is easily distracted and demands a more personal relationship. As Arianna explains, "Time is long. Life is short." Slow down, start having some meaningful conversations with your audience, and be sure to take notes. 

3GTV—The New Advertising Medium?

By Cara Brooke Schultz

How many commercials leave a lasting impression, so much so, that they play out in your head while you are shopping at your local grocery store? Soon those commercials maybe viewable while you are doing your shopping. According to a recent article by The New York Times a company called, “Automated Media Services has been working on a system that would deliver television in retail environments in a way that would allow media agencies to plan and buy commercial time in stores just as they do on the networks.” The product is deemed 3GTV and will give advertisers an environment similar to what they had in the days of only three television networks—an effective way to reach audiences without distractions.

© The New York Times

Stephen Grubbs, a media guru who held positions at agencies owned by the Omnicom Group said, “The presence of the 3GTV screens near or in front of the products advertised in the commercials represents an advantage, compared with existing systems in stores that use TV screen at or above check-out counters, after purchase decisions have already been made.” As an advertiser, what type of commercials would your company broadcast on 3GTV? Would they be 10-second catchy commercials or a 30 second spot? 

Advice from the “Celebrity CMO”

By Adrienne Tallacksen

I recently had the opportunity to see Jeffrey Hayzlett, now former CMO of Eastman Kodak, speak at an industry event for a second time. His presentation was one of the most popular at ANA’s 2009 Masters of Marketing Conference last year, and he spoke again at a recent forum of the Mobile Marketing Association. Hayzlett is an engaging and dynamic speaker who is known as the “Celebrity CMO” and who challenges marketers to be leaders and grow the bottom line. If they’re not doing those things, why are they even around, he asks. Hayzlett introduced a couple of new themes in his most recent speech.
 
The 118 Speech: This is the new elevator pitch. Marketers have to have a value proposition, and they have to be able to sell it. The average adult attention span is just eight seconds; the average elevator ride in New York City is 110 seconds. With the 118 speech, you’ve got eight seconds to hook your listeners and 110 seconds to sell your value proposition. 

Be a Change Agent: When asked how people who haven’t yet reached the rank of CMO can be change agents in their organizations, Hayzlett told the story of the weekend he spent cleaning carpets at his company and then tearing up the carpets after finding beautiful marble floors underneath all because he was told that it was too expensive to get the carpets cleaned. Don’t just stand around saying “woe is me, I’m not powerful enough to change anything.” If clean carpets are what’s needed to grow the bottom line, get a six-pack and some friends and spend the weekend cleaning the carpets. Hayzlett advises marketers to be the change they want to see, and if they get fired for doing the right thing, all the better.

The iPad Gets Wired

By Susan Burke

Wired magazine is now available on the iPad via a rich app, which enables users to read all content available in the print edition of the magazine and enjoy additional multi-media enhancements for $4.99 per issue. According to an article in the May 26, 2010 edition of The New York Times, examples of these multi-media enhancements include:

A Lamborghini Gallardos made of Legos…, which has six images in the print magazine, is shown being constructed in the app through a slide show of 180 images that a user can scroll through like a flip-book. The two images of Mars that ran in the print version become a rotating 3-D version on the app.

 However, content published on Wired.com will remain different and separate from the content in the printed magazine or on the iPad. In terms of the advertisers featured in the magazine, all advertisers who participated in the print version were part of the iPad version as well, which launched with the June issue of Wired (pictured above).
Condé Nast, which publishes Wired, worked with the makers of Adobe’s InDesign program for a year to develop this app. The resulting new Adobe feature will be made available to other publishers for purchase.   According to The New York Times, this addition to InDesign “allows the magazine’s editorial team to easily move the print design into the iPad design and vice versa. “

Wired’s work with the iPad is an important step for the print industry and an example as to how other magazines can start to blend more digital content into their existing offerings. Click here to read a piece from the ANA’s Marketing Insights Center on the future of magazines.

From Thanksgiving Turkey to Springtime Favorite

By Duke Fanelli

I maybe a bit late to the party, but I was thinking about Tiger Woods and the hype surrounding his decision to play at the Masters Tournament. I have to admit, for all intents and purpose he played masterly…yeah some bad shots and he was highly critical of his own play, but he finished Sunday tied for fourth (-11 under par). Not bad after being out of commission for more than five months, dealing with personal and family issues.

Most striking throughout the four-day Tigerfest, was the media and gallery’s acceptance of Tiger. If you had spent the past five months living in a cave, you’d never have known how nasty things got. The #1 player in the world was back and he and his fans were basking in the glow. (Not to take anything away from Phil Mickelson’s win, which was spectacular, well deserved and a milestone in his career.) The Sports, marketing and armchair pundits, who earlier this year wanted to see Tiger’s head impaled on a fairway wood, were nowhere to be seen. Except for an errant Tiger-detractor, who paid to have a small plane fly over Augusta National—with a not so obvious reference to Tiger’s apology speech—the crowd loved watching his come back.

So where does this all leave us? American’s have notoriously short memories when it comes to celebrity misdeeds and we are certainly as forgiving when it comes to the idiotic behavior of our star athletes. So the question is: will Tiger get some of his old endorsements back? I’m guessing the answer is no. But a more intriguing question may be are new endorsements right around the corner? And, who is first in line?  Anyone want to weigh in with a guess?

By the way, Tiger’s comeback at the Masters gave ESPN the highest U.S. audience ever for a golf event on cable TV, as nearly 5 million people tuned in to watch Thursday’s first round. As the millions viewing the Master’s can attest, Tiger’s back, his fan base is strong and shooting 11 under par last week, is a clear indication that he is capable (which some doubted) of topping the list of golf’s superstars for some time to come. Is this a Rod Tidwell and Jerry McGuire moment?

Is Facebook Making You Frown? Social Media Marketing Is a Ton of Work!

By Cara Brooke Schultz

Social media burst onto the scene, but like any new medium, it has brought with it a slew of questions. Marketers are asking, “How do I deal with…

• Privacy issues in social networking?”
• Data safety—visitors can get hit by identify theft and frauds?”
• Negative or undesirable posts?” 

At last week’s Advertising Law & Public Policy Conference presented by Microsoft several of the speakers weighed in with their opinions. During the presentation by Douglas J. Wood, senior partner, Reed Smith LLP; Christopher Sloan, assistant vice president and senior corporate counsel, Liberty Mutual Group; Divya Narendra, chief executive officer and co-founder, Sumzero.com we learned that in order for a company to actively participate in social media the company must enable conversations, monitor conversations, influence conversations, react to conversations, and monetize conversations—which translates into saying, “no you cannot just set up a Facebook fan page and walk away.” 

Seems like a lot of work huh? Well it is, and it doesn’t just stop there—with your new social media sites your company needs to adopt a social media policy for internal and external communications. A key point to keep in mind as you dive into social media, “don’t ban what you can’t stop.” Social media is not ending anytime soon, in fact recent statistics state the sites are still growing at a rapid rate, “Two yeas ago, 20 percent of survey respondents were using social networks and social media, now that figure is 66 percent,” (Research Report: Harnessing the Power of Never Media Platforms for More Effective Marketing, 2nd Edition. ANA 2009). 

For more information about the conference, visit our Web site. 

And The Winner Is....Social Media!

By Cara Brooke Schultz

Who will be watching the Oscars on Sunday night? Okay…you can put your hand down now, and continue reading.

I’ll be watching the Oscars for two main reasons:

1. To see what all the actresses will be wearing—so I can then pour over the images on the Internet Monday morning and discuss the magnificent fashion hits as well as the misfortunate tragedies. 
2. To find out what movie will win best picture, which actor will win best actor, and which actress will win best actress.

So technically you could consider that four reasons, but for the purpose of this Blog post we’ll continue to count that as two. After the Oscars, when I discuss the fashion statements with my friends, am I going to be calling them to chat? No way! Who has time for that?! 
 
Instead, I’ll be online via Blogs, Web sites, forums, and of course social media—and advertisers are very much aware of this. For example, a USA Today, article talked about how several Oscar advertisers are making a push in their social media efforts this year, “’It's no longer smart just to buy on the Academy Awards,’ says consultant Charlene Li. ‘You have to tie into social media so that people talk about you.”’

According to the article, we can expect to see a social media push from the following companies: J.C. Penney, Samsung, Hyundai, and Cottonelle, just to name a few. If you plan on watching the Oscars, where will your water-cooler conversations be taking place?

The Path to Brand-Specific Commercial Ratings

By Bill Duggan

Nielsen recently announced that this past Super Bowl (XLIV) was the most watched television show of all time with 106.5 million average viewers.  Also, Nielsen provided a special report on the viewership of individual Super Bowl commercials.

Of course, ratings for individual national commercials are not yet available.  The current C3 metric that Nielsen provides for national ratings refers to the ratings for average commercial minutes in live programming plus three days of digital video recorder playback.

ANA and Nielsen have been collaborating on an initiative to increase the granularity of ratings that could indeed lead to individual commercial ratings.  Advertisers deserve such granularity to answer the question, "How many people actually had the opportunity to see my spot?"  

The just-released white paper, “The Path to Brand-Specific Commercial Ratings,” has details of the work Nielsen and ANA have done.

By the way, a Doritos commercial featuring two men in a gym being attacked for stealing someone else’s Doritos was the most watched commercial of Super Bowl XLIV (and also the most watched commercial of all time!) with an estimated 116.2 million viewers. 

Nielsen’s full rundown of the most watched commercials of Super Bowl XLIV is here.

Whales, Babies, and Hotels from Hell Can Only Mean One Thing…Super Bowl Commercials!

By Cara Brooke Schultz

The day after the Super Bowl, the second most popular water-cooler topic would have to be the multi-million dollar commercials. Here are just a few of my top favorites:  

Bridgestone’s ‘Whale of a Tale’ commercial reminded me of the movie ‘Hangover,’ with the outlandish aftermath of a bachelor party gone-wrong.

HomeAway.com’s ‘Hotel Hell Vacation’ advertisement brought me back to a similar experience I had at a hotel in Israel. Needless to say, I found the commercial to be more than entertaining.

Although we all expected the E*Trade baby to make another appearance, the ‘Milkaholic Girlfriend’ commercial got a ton of laughs from my Super Bowl party.

Budweiser’s 'Clydesdale Befriends Cow' commercial received a cohesive exclamation of “Awww” from the females at my Super Bowl party.

Cars.com’s advertisement led us through the entertaining life of Timothy Richmond.  We watched as little Timothy put out a stove fire, neutralized a jelly fish sting, delivered a baby Bengal Tiger, and saved a cheerleading squad from a killer tornado. Although Timothy Richmond seems closer to Superman than your average Joe, he still needs help making his next automobile purchase—don’t we all?

Chime in—what were some of your favorite Super Bowl commercials?

“My Bologna Has a First Name”

By Susan Burke

This week, two of the most famous jingles in advertising retired—Oscar Mayer’s “My Bologna Has a First Name” and “I Wish I Were an Oscar Meyer Weiner.” The shift, engineered by the brand’s new advertising agency, McGarryBowen, is part of Oscar Mayer’s efforts to promote all of their meat products, not just bologna and hot dogs. In a January 14, 2010 New York Times article, Sean Marks, director of marketing at Oscar Mayer, said “there was an opportunity for the brand to get back to that sort of joy and exuberance that I think the brand has used throughout the years.”

The new campaign centers on a tag line that Oscar Mayer (a division of Kraft) believes better captures the modern spirit of their brand: “It doesn’t get better than this.” The new commercials, which premiered during Sunday night’s Golden Globe Awards, focus on images of families and suburban life. And while there is still a song associated with the ads, it is no longer a jingle.

Although I was never a bologna eater, even as a child, I certainly knew those songs, just like most of you. In fact, “My Bologna Has a First Name” was probably a huge contributor as to why I am able to spell “b-o-l-o-g-n-a” today. In honor of childhood memories, take a quick break and enjoy a little advertising history: