ANA Marketing Maestros

Don't Drink and Email: Google Prevents EWI

By: Irina Skaya

It’s Friday night, and what began as happy-hour sangrias at a local tapas bar turned to a few pitchers.  After a long night out with friends, you stumble home and plop down in front of the computer to find a not-so-nice email from your ex or boss.

While firing off at your ex or boss may sound like a good idea in the wee hours of the morning, “drunken dialing” may be mortifying the next day. Like a good friend who’d stop you from making a fool out of yourself, Google’s new Gmail service called Mail Goggles, active only on weekends and between midnight and 5 a.m., (when you’ll most likely need it) will now prevent EWI (emailing while intoxicated) offenders from sending remorseful and flamming late-night emails.  How? Mail Goggles will ask you a series of five elementary math questions that you must answer within 60 seconds—the questions may be easy to someone sober, but after the fifth drink, can become a bit of a challenge.

The program is simple and unique. Google establishes itself as a reliable friend to the consumer, and will become quite popular among bar regulars and party goers. I am looking forward to see how this new feature will play out among consumers.

If you're ever in need of EWI intervention, call Mail Goggles to the rescue! Simply go to the settings tab under Gmail, select lab, and then the Mail Goggle feature.

Building Brands with Widgets

By: Irina Skaya

Everyone is talking about these, many are creating them, and very few understand their purpose— widgets. If 2007 was the year for companies to join social networks like Facebook, 2008 is the year for advertisers to adopt widgets. What are widgets and how can you use one?

A widget is a bite-sized piece of portable web content, allowing anyone to personalize their web experience exactly how they want it to be. Widgets can live in a privacy capacity such as personal portals, wikis, private blogs, or publicly in areas such as social network pages, Web sites and public blogs.  Widgets can be used as a marketing tool, but they different from ads. You can’t force someone to take your widget and put it on his or her web page the way you can guarantee views of an ad. In order to entice people to subscribe to your widget, it has to be compelling. When you have a compelling, dynamic widget that speaks to the right demographic, your widget will do most of the work for you.

What kind of widget can you make? Well, there are two kinds of widgets: lifestyle and functional.

Lifestyle widgets are used primarily for marketing purposes in viral marketing campaigns. Facebook applications are examples of lifestyle widgets. For instance, an Obama badge is a lifestyle widget that can be placed on its supporter’s personal page. A StyleSlam widget on Bebo.com allows one to make an avatar that resembles the creator and dress it up. There are thousands of applications ready to appeal to a wide variety of interests.

Functional widgets help users interact with the brand in a relevant and useful way. Examples include Google maps, clocks, converters, ANA insights widget, Travelocity's widget to search best rates for flights, hotels and car rentals and RSS readers.

As the popularity of widgets grows, so does their potential as a source of revenue. Ads on social networks are expected to rack in $1.9 billion this year. If you haven’t explored the options of a widget, you should. Check out www.widgetbox.com and start making your own widget! 

'From Made in China to Invented in China'

By: Irina Skaya

Tuesday I attended the ANA Global Learning Series on China, and the reoccurring theme across all four presentations—Chinese-made counterfeited goods—ties in well with my last blog post. Apparently Chinese-made knockoffs go beyond Gucci and Fendi. U.S. television shows like Sex and the City and Web sites like Google and YouTube also have Chinese versions. But what advertisers should be aware of when considering global marketing are copy-cat agencies. Believe it or not, but there are three copycat Ogilvy agencies in China.

Wait…wait…don’t be so skeptical of the way the Chinese conduct business. According to Alex Gordon, founder of Sign Salad, ‘Precision of copy does not compensate for the original but signifies creativity.’ That’s right—the Chinese business owners do not see counterfeited goods as an organized crime, but a master piece. I am not mentioning the above to scare off anyone who wants to do business in China, but rather note the caution of doing business there without the right resources, local vendors, and the Chinese government on your side. You need all three. Janet Carmosky, CEO of The China Business Network, even said unlike the U.S. that has a transactional business mindset, the Chinese are all about relationships or ‘Ghanxi.’ She stressed, “The Chinese created the, ‘We know where you live’ capitalism.”

Whatever the business model in China is, it works for them—the country's tech boom has created a paradigm shift from made in China to invented in China (Sandberg, executive editor, The Hardvard Business Press). The reason behind the high-tech growth is China is graduating three times the number of engineers than any other country in the world. Many of the growing digital media start-ups bring us back to the rising tide of copycats; the majority of whom were educated in the U.S. and returned to China around 1999 to take advantage of the economic explosion. Around Y2K, they began creating copycats of U.S. Internet companies like eBay, Yahoo!, Facebook, MySpace and Craigslist.

Don't forget, the Chinese don't have bad intentions when "copying and pasting;" after all, it's all about creativity. Speaking of creativity, which is a number one characteristic of an ideal agency in China, I’d like to share with you this creative commercial for Coco-Cola, one of the biggest multinational marketing veterans and power brands in China. 

Coca-Cola Red Go China TV Commercial

Besides Coca-Cola, other high-profile multinational marketers that have had success in China are Nike, GE, Nokia, Procter & Gamble and Volkswagen. In conclusion, doing business in China is tough—‘although nothing in China is available, everything is possible’ (Janet Carmosky, CEO of The China Business Network).

Technorati tags: chinese marketing counterfeited Chinese-made goods Sign Salad The China Business Network R3 Tech boom in China

Generation Y Marketers

By: Irina Skaya

If you grew up during the MTV era, love everything digital, and began exercising your financial power early, you’re probably an echo-boomer.  We’re also known as Generation Y, millennium generation or baby-boom offspring. As an extremely diverse group with a lot of buying power, advertisers are naturally attracted to us. As a tech savvy group, we refuse to purchase anything if we’re confused or have unanswered questions, which makes it challenging for advertisers to engage with us.  We usually have short attention span and get easily bored or frustrated with ads- many of us are now marketers ourselves.

ANA is conducting a survey on brand management. We are looking for Echo Boomer client-side marketers (born after 1982) to participate in this survey. Preliminary survey results can be viewed here. 

The survey addresses three major themes:

• Technology usage and media habits
• Attitudes towards brands and marketing
• Attitudes towards careers in marketing

To participate in the survey, click here.

Technorati tags: Generation Y echo boomers

"Green Living" - Hype or Here to Stay?

By: Irina Skaya

I haven’t written a blog in a little over a month now-hopefully, the American idiom, “Absence makes the heart grow fonder” will apply here.

Let’s talk “green”--from battery-electric vehicles to solar wing for ferries or yachts, consumers want to use their buying power to help heal the earth.  In the last couple of years, “green” messaging has inundated the marketplace—from subway ads promoting environmental change to “Green is gorgeous” totes—green marketing is everywhere!  The question now becomes, “How much “green” is too “green”?” Green living is starting to look more like a fashion statement than a genuine, beneficial effort to support environmental issues. Despite the current good intentions of the business community and consumers to promote “green”, serious eco-results will depend on making products and processes more sustainable without consumers even noticing it, and, if necessary, not leaving much room for consumers and companies to opt for less sustainable alternatives.

How can marketers ensure their companies stay authentic in the public realm?  Below are several ways to avoid "greenwashing" and establish credibility: 

• Don't go "Green" for "Green's" sake-ensure the product addresses the customers' need first.
• Partner with regulators, elected officials, environmental agencies, and nonprofits. Support from these organizations will enhance your company's “green” efforts.
• Work together with these partners on marketing/communications efforts, learning from their wealth of experience and established networks.
• Place a heavier emphasis on earned media and cause-related approaches, which carry more validity than advertising and other paid media approaches.

So, while it’s great to create products that scream “eco-friendly” because customers want  to express their concern publicly, it’s important to remember to focus on customers’ needs first. Thus, it’s not enough to position a hybrid car as simply cool, it also must convince its owner that the vehicle will save him/her gas money. The green market is a great opportunity to engage with your target consumers because consumers today are not only interested in the eco-friendly products but are in it for the social cause. Join the hype.

Technorati tags: green marketing greenwashing eco-friendly green living environment

Meatball "Mon"dae - Embracing New Media

By: Irina Skaya

Last Thursday, I attended Seth Godin’s presentation at NYU based on his latest book called, “Meatball Sundae Is Your Marketing Out of Sync?”  I always knew that the owner of the world’s most popular marketing blog site and the best-seller author of nine marketing books is smart, but hearing from him in person was invaluable, inspirational and enlightening.

What’s a meatball sundae?

“[The combination of] meatballs and sundae are meant to be disgusting. If you use new marketing, the topping [the fudge, the cherry] just as a spin, you will fail,” Seth said as he slammed out one sound bite after another.

The Meatballs represent the 100 year-old marketing model which means interrupting the market and selling average products made for average people. The fudge and the cherries of the sundae are the toppings, which represent new marketing: blogs, YouTube, Google, Facebook, Wikis, widgets, etc. Meatballs and sundae are two things that don't mix, like just like new marketing and old marketing.

Seth raised some thought-provoking questions:

In the 1980’s, TV Guide sold for more money than ABC, CBS and NBC were worth all together. Today, how come when I go online to look for video - I go to YouTube and not TV Guide?

In the 1990’s America Online became popular because of e-mails and chatrooms, how come when I go online to find friends I don’t go on aolbook?

He then cited Josiah Wedgwood, an English potter who built an efficient factory organization during the Industrial Revolution, to emphasize if you change the media, and the organizations will change too.

Lessons learned:
• To drive sales revenue, marketers must restructure the marketing organization from top to bottom. 
• Embrace the medium, [referring to SEOs] NOT fight the medium.
• If you can own a variety of choices - you win. For example, iTunes get their reveunue from titles that cannot be purchased at any record store.
• Marketers need to establish a direct communication between themselves and the consumers-the more the consumer interacts, the better the company does.
• Authentic stories matter! Stories that work spread, stories that spread are true; stories that are true are authentic.
• If a marketer is trying to solve a problem people do not have, they are INVISIBLE. You cannot spam yourself to success!
• In the Internet Age, it doesn’t matter how many viewers will see your ads, but who the viewers are.

Got Meatballs?

Technorati tags: Seth Godin new media meatball Sundae

Break Through Creative

by Mark Fogelberg

[Okay, the pun police should surely be looking for me after this one. Break through...]

While reviewing recent killer creative, the Leopard vs Vista / Mac vs PC ad makes for an interesting use of creative and ad unit placement. During the ad, John Hodgman breaks the 4th dimension kinda sorta. He climbs a ladder to reach from one huge ad unit to another in order to append a quote not to his liking.

No matter which side of the mac/pc fence you sit on, the use of creatively augmenting ad space to tell a story makes one realize that we are one step closer to web advertising living up to a promise circa 1999 - display advertising is the future of all advertising. Sure, search has been delivering real ROI and it's democratized the playing field but...come on. Boring text? I could have gotten that on ARPANET.

Being quite visual, I relish in the great work coming out of smart shops like AKQA and Huge and the usual suspects. Viva la creativity - across design, technology and media.

Now that our members have spoken, letting the cat out of the bag regarding TV effectiveness, it's nice to know the creatives are keeping great brands' heads above water on the series of tubes. Thanks creatives.

Are Network-Integration Fees Legitimate?

By Bill Duggan

Last week ANA and AAAA (American Association of Advertising Agencies) issued a press release and a 1-page “perspective” on the topic of network-integration fees.

For many years, ABC, CBS and NBC have charged advertisers an incremental fee to “integrate” a commercial into its advertising breaks. The fees vary by daypart but are pretty consistent from network to network—approximately $470 per unit in prime and evening news and roughly $230 per unit in daytime and late night. This all adds up to an annual bill to advertisers that totaled $125 million in 2007 (as estimated by TargetCast tcm).

Currently, only ABC, CBS and NBC charge network-integration fees; no other broadcast network, cable network or channel, local station or syndicator charges advertisers to physically place their schedules. The press release and perspective were sent via email to the respective heads of ad sales at ABC, CBS, and NBC.

In ANA studies that were previously conducted, 87 percent of those surveyed answered “no” when asked, “Is it fair to be charged network integration fees by ABC, CBS and NBC?” Verbatim comments included:

• “The notion of integration fees is antiquated … This is a throwback fee from the old days when commercials had to be physically integrated into programming.”
• “It's obsolete and doesn't recognize technology changes.”
• “The fees are a legacy charge and no longer have a justifiable purpose.”

In addition to the $125 million, network-integration fees have other hidden costs to both agencies and advertisers. They are a burden for agencies to administer and the extra manpower required to do so invariably costs advertisers more in labor fees.

In today’s environment, marketers are demanding accountability from their media investments and transparency in their relationships with media partners. CEOs, CFOs, and procurement specialists are asking more questions than ever before about marketing expenditures and the impact on business results. Every dollar invested has to prove its worth. Given all this, it’s only natural that marketers are again questioning the network-integration fees charged by ABC, CBS, and NBC.

All advertisers and agencies should “do the math” for their companies or clients on the annual cost of network-integration fees. If those payments seem excessive or unjustified, advertisers and agencies are encouraged to bring this issue up at every opportunity with ABC, CBS, and NBC to encourage a dialogue on the purpose and value of network integration fees.

We welcome a response from the respective networks. Why do network-integration fees still exist in today’s media environment? Can network integration fees be rationalized? In fact, we have formally invited the networks to join a task force to be convened no later than May 1 to address the practice of charging network-integration fees. Responses from each of the networks are still pending. Stay tuned!

Of course, we welcome thoughts from the marketing community on the issue of network integration fees.

 Technorati tags: network integration fees TV spot

U.S. Latinos are bilingual, your ads should be too!

By Irina Skaya

Today mun2 and Yahoo! Telemundo relaunch a live bilingual show similar to MTV’s TRL on pepsimúsica.com, a two-day old interactive multiplatform Website used to target bicultural Latino youth within the U.S.

In the vast swaths of America where only Español is required to function, there is often a misconception that only Spanish is spoken amongst our Latino amigos. Certainly, Latino youth is proud of their heritage and are in-tune with their cultura – second and third generation Latinos may speak Spanish en sus casas, but they are just as immersed in the American culture. Anyone who has immigrated to the U.S. as a child, like myself, knows that after a few years of being on the mainland, you don’t speak perfect English nor your native tongue. Latino youth speaks Spanglish, the most important contemporary linguistic phenomenon in the U.S.

However, Spanglish is more than language, it is a lifestyle, dictating what kind of música, películas, and events Latinos are interested in. Take a look inside the music industry – top rated Latino artists such as Daddy Yankee and Fat Joe have been rapping in both, Spanish and English for years. Then, why do multicultural advertisers still advertise only in Spanish to target Latinos? That is the biggest mistake Hispanic advertisers can make, particularly because all Latin American countries have diverse dialects. Besides, Latinos navigate back and forth from Spanish to English. Remember, they hablan inglés, too.

Now, with the Hispanic trends indicating that Latinos spend more time online than the general market, multicultural advertising has increased in the Internet space. Even though most advertisers have moved away from directly translating ad copy from English to Spanish, a lot of ads remain written entirely in Spanish. Pepsi is among the first (including Sí TV) to target bicultural Latino Youth and to speak to them in their language - Spanglish. Recognizing that technology is crucial to this group because it helps connect them with family and friends, and flaunt their pride in Latino identity, the initiator of sponsorship for music has created an interactive and user-generated site that will allow users to vote for their artistas favoritos, post comments, upload their photos and videos, influence the top 20 countdown and more.

This is going to be viral and cutting edge– it puts consumers in the driver’s seat, giving them the content they want, when they want it and most importantly, present in it in the way they understand it. Tune in today at 5 p.m. to watch the premiere of the Pepsi Música. I will - soy admiradora de Pepsi Música!

Technorati tags: user-generated multicultural marketing Latinos Hispanic marketing Spanglish

Profitable Marketing Communications

by Mark Fogelberg

I read too much. Luckily for me, after stumbling through some recent D-grade business books, I came upon an A+.

Antony Young, the President of Optimedia in the US, and Lucy Aitken, marketing and media writer, created a perfect tome for today's ever present marketing ROI environment.

I found myself dog-earing dozens of pages of this book. Many were based upon 8 investor tips. When I write "investor tips" it's because the authors describe  marketing as a form of loan from a company. How marketers invest (rather than spend) should be weighed against other investment options a company (or brand) might evaluate. You know, it's the I in ROI.

The eight investor tips to profitable marketing communications:

1. Concentrate on outcomes, not outputs
2. Forget consumers, target customers
3. Manage your communication investment portfolio
4. Differentiate any way you can
5. Engagement and experience are the new 30-second ads
6. Apply a focus investing approach
7. Establish a measurement culture
8. Leverage your employee capital

Yes, you might have seen some of these before. But the tips have chapters dedicated to each and within each chapter are more insights and nuggets.

With international cases and examples combined with actionable strategies, this book deserves a place on every marketer's bookshelf. And any agency exec that doesn't digest this book and put ideas to work should dread a premature retirement as they allow their agency to drift into irrelevancy.