Archive for the 'interactive marketing' Category

Help Us, Help You - Getting Yourself Connected

Published by brian on August 12, 2008 in advertising, education, interactive marketing, multi-channel retail and retail. 0 Comments

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How often do you or the people surrounding you talk about improving internal communication?

This is all about opening up the lines of communication with the people responsible for managing & executing what makes your business go.  Consider them the gatekeepers of your success.  Marketing initiatives often take a back seat in the ecommerce world; projects aimed at improving site conversion, order attachment, cart abandonment, & navigation are more important than implementing tracking codes or producing banners for your campaigns. 

These things take time & resources & competitive pressures make timing & speed to market a crucial variable.  This is likely to cause a backlog of projects as most technology companies are constantly looking for good IT people.  A backlog plus limited manpower equals slim pickings for you, Marty Marketer.

So, how do you justify that request for a larger marketing budget?  You connect yourself with the right people, across the company, regardless of regional location.  We all can be more sophisticated with our marketing & relationship development/management, but too often get consumed within our own workload & don’t bother to actually meet & talk to people. 

Get familiar with the people I have listed below, especially if they’re in the same building or campus.  If they’re elsewhere schedule time when you travel to meet them.  Don’t travel?  Think of something that will get you out there.  Or beg; it doesn’t cost much for your company to provide airfare, hotel, & food/gas expenses compared the negative cost of failing or stale campaigns.

Merchandisers: Quite possibly the most important people as it relates to you driving incremental sales. 

  • They know what sells & why & so do their vendors. 
  • Seasonality, product launches, in-stock vs. out-of-stock are but a few things you need to be plugged into.

IT: These guys & gals cover a wide variety of things you need. 

  • The product & web development folks will keep you up-to-date with upcoming site changes, enhancements, & functionality.  It’s important for you to be aware of new landing pages & URL changes to eliminate or minimize campaign downtime. 
  • You know how your project got denied for implementation anytime within the next 4 months?  Besides escalating through your department, if you’re actually nice to these people, they might help push your projects through in half the time required or less. 
  • And don’t forget your help desk people.  That one to two day turnaround to get your laptop, Treo, printer, or phone fixed can turn into mere hours.  Don’t forget to repay them for favors; food & alcohol go a long way.

Creative: Anything you are going to publish graphically online should look good. 

  • If you want your media campaign to drive as much revenue as possible; you need to make sure what’s produced for you is legit. 
  • It’s so easy, but too many online retailers fail miserably in this department.  It’s not because the personnel are bad; they just don’t have the right direction.  Help them & be clear about what you need.

Public Relations: Being on top of company announcements will allow you to create new campaigns or be prepared to react to news, whether it’s positive or negative. 

  • Crisis & issues management is vastly underutilized in the online space. 
  • Too many brands are not aware of what’s being said; by the time they figure it out, it’s too late.  You are key in eliminating or minimizing crap like this.

Customer Service: If you’re smart, you are monitoring the online chatter specific to your brand. 

  • Whether positive or negative, feed it to customer service; they can facilitate things for customers & improve their experience or at least somewhat appease an irate customer.  We all know the damage one bad opinion with motivation to tell all can do.

Front Desk: From routing calls to them being one of the few people you see this often, they can make your life easier & more pleasant.

If you or someone you know is not listed here, but you feel they’re just as important, I would welcome the feedback.  As you can see, I am not opposed to communicating.


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Help Us, Help You

Published by brian on August 5, 2008 in advertising, education, interactive marketing, multi-channel retail and retail. 1 Comment

Like any relationship, the client/agency relationship has its ups & downs.  Each side’s view of the partnership is mainly attributable to how they collaboratively face & overcome the challenges presented.  Professionally, there isn’t much more satisfying than helping a client not only reach their goals, but exceed them.  A big part of which is scoping properly & setting the proper expectations, but I’m not delving into that right now (I smell another, future series of posts).  Conversely, there is nothing more frustrating than a breakdown in communication or execution that leaves the client short of their goals. 

The client is pissed & the agency is left to pick up the pieces internally while externally determining what is necessary to reassure the client that everything will be just dandy.  Usually, an amicable resolution can be reached.  Objectives & goals may need to be reset, strategy & tactics are adjusted &, consequently, the client gets what they need.

Waste of money…on both sides.  The agency eats the time they spend finding a resolution & will most likely credit the client for time spent on what did not work.  The client misses opportunities to build/promote their brand, drive more sales, respond to negative press in a timely manner, etc.

Over the next few weeks, I will delve into the bulleted topics below.  I feel there is a lot a client can do to set themselves & their agency up for success.  Yeah, I know this works both ways; read on.  This series will be mainly geared towards ecommerce (one of my specialties), but the astute reader will be able to draw parallels across the entire digital space. 

  • Getting Yourself Connected - At least one person on your marketing team should have a reliable contact on the following teams: Merchandise, IT (web development, help desk, product development), Creative, PR, Customer Service, front desk (if for only the fact that you see this person more than most people you love)
  • Aggregating & Analyzing Data - Become one with it; everyone above you has a background in concrete numbers & has planned & made decisions according to what the numbers tell them.  Think they’re wrong?  Prove it…with numbers.
  • Internally Selling Upward - Both yourself & new ideas
  • Effectively Leveraging Available Resources - We are all strapped for time; understanding how to get what you need when there is seemingly no help will set you apart from everyone else.
  • Evaluating & Changing Process - There is nothing wrong with occasionally kicking the tires. 

The underlying theme is communication that enables client & agency to make informed decisions in the most efficient & effective manner possible.  It’s a lot of work, but this industry is not for the faint of heart.


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Counterintuitive Decision Making

Published by brian on April 19, 2008 in interactive marketing. 0 Comments

Diagnosis: ROIrage

I did not coin this, but I wish I did because it is clever (thanks Matt). I think he was inspired by Logic + Emotion’s Top Ten Made Up Words of Web 3.0. If you’re not getting it; ROIrage is return-on-investment (ROI) combined with rage…get it? Kinda like ‘roid rage. Ok, maybe not so clever. BUT, it wonderfully illustrates a reaction, maybe more accurately a behavior, which is detrimental to the growth of interactive advertising. I’m not saying this medium’s growth will cease & begin to decline, but it is going to be more painful than it needs to be.

John Wanamaker once said, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Well Mr. Wanamaker, God rest your soul, you would be a pig in shit in today’s digital advertising world. While it is still a challenge for any online business to reach all potential customers, the manner in which the cost to find & acquire them is measured has become more sophisticated. The importance of an immediate return-on-investment has reached dizzying new heights; I looked down once & almost threw up…& I am in no way scared of heights.

Seriously, I get it. Risk tolerance is low in these difficult economic times. With increased scrutiny & limited resources making everyone’s life a bit more stressful, I can empathize. It may feel like the weight of the digital world is resting on your shoulders. The good news is that it does not have to be so. The bad news is that, while you’re doing your best Atlas imitation, opportunities are flying by completely unnoticed.

You think you’re seeing the future, but you’re simply repeating the same routine. The insanity needs to end.

Have some faith. I love numbers; I could sit & play with data all day because it makes a lot of sense to me. This has given me some perspective in viewing victories in numbers alone. Don’t mistake a series of short-term gains as the pathway to long-term success. I swear we know what we’re doing & it will ultimately lead to fantastic gains for your business that will make you look like a freaking genius. You can thank us later; immediate gratification is not necessary. The chance to advance your brand through creative thinking, smart planning & beautiful execution is all we require.

Now if you will excuse me, I must return to spreadsheets & numbers. Pivot tables & projections, subtotals & sum functions; sowing the seeds of greatness.


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The Worldwide Leader in Pissing Off Ad Networks

Published by brian on March 24, 2008 in interactive marketing. 0 Comments

ESPN Turns Off Ad Nets to Protect Brand, Content

I’d bet there are some nervous ad sales managers & reps within ESPN’s interactive division.  Assuming ESPN is going to beef up their sales staff & efforts, as well as commit the resources necessary to determine the true value of their content, this could be successful.  Or, it could be something temporary like eBay’s hiatus from Google Adwords.  Anyway you look at it, there is considerable investment required to pull off something like this. 

  • Premium brands with popular online destinations with plenty of unsold advertising inventory. 
  • The desire to possess absolute control over the brand & price of inventory vs. the potential to make money off otherwise unsold space. 

Personally, I can’t imagine this working within the current interactive space’s economic climate.  The need to generate revenue now is vital. 

Not everyone interacts with all online content for extended periods of time.  Checking scores, power rankings, & injury updates do not take a whole lot of time.  And, similar to how they add analysts to pre-game & post-game shows, I notice more & more content going up on ESPN.  As their site grows, so does their available inventory.  In dealing with many different clients, I have come to learn that online media can be a hard sell.  Existing advertisers are not going to buy that much more space.  Even if they can sell all available inventory, can they target as well as the networks?  It doesn’t add up.

On the flip side, if ESPN & other top publishers succeed, it would certainly add a few more jobs across the board.  Agencies, publishers, & clients alike would all have to staff up to maintain such a focus on the digital world.  That would be good for the economy, wouldn’t it?


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Google: Our Beloved Frenemy

Published by brian on March 12, 2008 in interactive marketing. 0 Comments

Google Goes on Charm Offensive at AAAA

If the goal is to quell suspicions regarding the desire to cut agencies out of the picture, put the theory to practice. Call me a skeptic, but wouldn’t it make sense for Google to publicly announce it does not wish to disintermediate agencies? In terms of online innovation, Google is a leader & needs only to add a strategic component to its account management to become a direct competitor to interactive agencies.

While I agree that their acquisition of DoubleClick will lead to much-needed innovation in the interactive advertising industry, & should be good for everyone, I can’t help but wonder what else is behind Mr. Armstrong’s presentation. It seems part damage control, part pre-emptive.

Without agencies involved, Google has an opportunity to exert more influence. There is a lot more to gain, monetarily, without an agency as the intermediary.

I have seen, first-hand, instances of Google attempting to deal directly with clients. Generally, I do not have a problem with this; as long as the agency is brought into the contact loop at the beginning, clients & vendors can talk as often as they like…as long as goals are clear. What piques my curiosity is why they do not initially contact the agency. I would assume they have client & agency databases with specific info linking an agency’s billing, contact info, & client list. Account managers & reps who are in contact with a client or agency at least somewhat regularly…I know these guys & gals exist. Yes, clients play a roll in this, too, but I understand their position which most of the time is them, in water, with their head just above it.

At the end of the day, this is nothing new; vendors have always been trying to deal directly with clients. Yet it seems a bit more sensitive when a big, successful company like Google is the aggressor. Are we over-sensitive or appropriately acknowledging a rising competitor?


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