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The promise of “local”

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The promise of local (istock)Local is the new hottie and everyone wants to date her! The promise of local (in terms of content and targeted advertising) has long been the promise land for all of us emerging media types.  With the growth of broadband and IP related content solutions, the dream of targeting relevant content/ad messaging can become a reality. Semantic solutions are allowing us to learn about users and IP-based data allows us to push down that marketing funnel and deliver the dream of relevant messages.  Cable has been playing with DMA and SubDMA targeting for the last few years but has yet to really land the plane.  For the larger cable and satellite solutions it’s a numbers game.  They need access and affectability in more regions and households to make this a true play and they aren’t there yet.

Mediabrands, the Lab‘s holding company,  has just launched a new Hyper-local Media and Marketing Unit to offer new local marketing solutions.   “Geomentum,” is a new business entity, whose  hyper-local vision is based on a bottom-up investment strategy, which begins with sales data, and data reflecting the changing media mix.  Continue reading “The promise of “local””

Facebook marketing boot camp

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Facebook marketing camp This month the Lab attended a kind of Facebook marketing boot camp, where members of the Facebook team guided us on best practices for integrating Facebook within brand marketing plans. The opportunity is much larger then capturing a portion of the 250 million Facebook users as customers; it’s also a prospect for new ways to be innovative in our marketing.

Most of the conversation of the day centered around two ways you can use Facebook to market your brand: engagement ads and Facebook pages. But the team did talk a bit about what’s new on the popular site. For instance, they are starting to put demographic and geographic targeting into action: Targeting keywords from status updates and users birthdays are new features.

Continue reading “Facebook marketing boot camp”

What makes a great marketer?

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IPG Emerging Media Lab President John RossMy answer to the question of what makes a great marketer is simple: Being a great listener. Yeah, that’s right, listening.

The answer is simple because marketing is simple. If you know what your customers really want and give it to them, magic happens. Easy, right?

Most businesses start off as great listeners. Bernie and Arthur, two leaders I was fortunate to work for when I first joined Home Depot knew how to listen to customers. Their entire business was built around listening. Continue reading “What makes a great marketer?”

Why Apple, AT&T, and consumers are at odds

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Why Apple, AT&T and consumers are at oddsIn tech circles, Apple’s been making some decisions that have concerned many consumers (not to mention Google’s CEO, who resigned from Apple’s board Monday). They have potentially caused serious damage to their relationship with Google, and undermined much of the promise of leading the charge in bringing unparalleled functionality to the mobile phone.

So what happened? The first recent rumblings of discontent came around the time of the 3.0 software launch and the release of the iPhone 3GS. While the iPhone now had sanctioned video capabilities, some of the very neat live broadcasting solutions like Qik or Flixwagon weren’t being allowed into the AppStore, despite already having software functioning flawlessly for months on jailbroken versions of the iPhone.

Then the trouble with Google started. Continue reading “Why Apple, AT&T, and consumers are at odds”

Packaging ROI insight for DOOH

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(iStock)It can be scary for marketers to put the first foot down in the vast landscape of Digital Out-of-Home Ad Networks. Helping brands make large strides in the space is Adcentricity, an aggregator of DOOH Networks, that adds a level of human know-how to strategic campaigns. Now, the company has developed a new offering called “Research Lite” that will allow brands to measure their success more effectively.

Adcentricity’s timing couldn’t be better. Brands are increasingly turning traditional advertising models on their heads requiring agencies to provide proof of performance.“Research Lite” can help meet these expectations by offering a prepackaged research component that can be added to DOOH Network campaigns. The research provides a detailed, quick snapshot of how effective a brand’s plan is across multiple networks. Select networks provide proof of play and efficacy on their network, but as CEO, Rob Gorrie told me, “(Adcentricity implements) research for the campaign’s needs, not of the networks needs.” Research Lite provides an opportunity for a third party perspective to analyze the bigger picture. Continue reading “Packaging ROI insight for DOOH”

Yet another Silver “man” lining

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Yet another Silver "man" lining (iStock)The departure of Ben Silverman from NBC has stirred up a lot of news chatter that this hammers yet another nail in the coffin of the traditional production company. As co-chair of NBC Universal Entertainment, Silverman was responsible for bringing the same programming flair he originally brought to his company Reveille, with such big hits as The Office and The Biggest Loser, translating many foreign hits into popular US shows. Silverman was also known for exploring new ad models. Now he’s leaving the company to start up a new venture in partnership with Barry Diller’s media and Internet company, IAC.

Anytime you mention “360” these days as a description for a new content model (which has been part of most of the press today), you have to raise an eyebrow and think, oh lordy, Silverman wants to be a cross platform cool kid. As my dear colleague, brand strategy expert Brian Seth Hurst twittered, “repurposed distribution does not a cross media value proposition make.” Continue reading “Yet another Silver “man” lining”

In the crowd we trust

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The Crowd (via Sreejith K's photostream/Flickr)Column originally featured on MediaPost

I like Valve. The development company is one of the major reasons the PC market has remained a thriving platform for core gaming even in the face of dedicated gaming consoles. Valve offers indie developers and modders a platform for distribution through the Steam service. They also revitalize classic titles with similar distribution deals. So when managing director Gabe Newell talks about crowd-funding games, it might not just be a cursory side comment.

It’s an interesting concept. Games are expensive to make, and crowd-funding or pre-purchases could certainly help bankroll titles, especially for smaller developers. But if the crowds are financing the games, it begs the question: What about crowd-sourced games?

Crowd-sourcing has worked out great for a number of brands, and has proven to be a very powerful evolution from user-generated content. Looking at RYZ Shoes, or the success Starbucks has had from MyStarbucksIdea, it’s clear some very nifty things have been created by listening to user contribution. However, gaming and entertainment properties haven’t really begun that listening process. Read more.

From moon landings to media labs

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Moon landings, new media, and black plastic frame glasses (iStock)This week marks the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing. I remember that event vividly: in my classroom huddled around a small portable television our teacher rolled in on a wobbly TV cart; those fuzzy pictures, the network anchors explaining what was going on in space with small plastic models, scenes of NASA engineers all wearing geeky black plastic-framed glasses ( which now have somehow come back into style). At the time as I sat there watching this incredible event happening, I thought that I was the luckiest kid in the world.

It was also the first major multimedia moment of my life. I remember my parents later talking about the TV in the classroom, and marveling about the opportunity that this new technology offered for my future. If only they had known how prophetic that conversation was. Continue reading “From moon landings to media labs”

John Ross on why retail needs new tools

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John Ross, President of the IPG Emerging Media Lab John Ross recently joined IPG’s Mediabrands to become President of the Emerging Media Lab. John brings 20 years of retail experience to the job, most recently as VP of Advertising and Marketing for Home Depot. I sat down with him during a recent visit to Los Angeles (John will be managing a trifecta commute between his home base in Atlanta, Mediabrands offices in NY, and the Lab in Los Angeles) to talk about why retail and emerging media are well suited, and what challenges lay ahead for both sectors.

DR: What is the biggest challenge for the retail sector in terms of effectively harnessing the power of emerging media and technology?

JR: [Retail] needs to embrace and employ new tools that allow them to access the dialogue that’s taking place about their business. They need to have new listening tools and these tools need to be snapped into the way they make business decisions. Social media combined with retail has so far been a terrifying combination, it takes courage to really listen and a fear of that that dialogue might get out of control in ways that could be dangerous to your brand. Continue reading “John Ross on why retail needs new tools”