Minority Report is here (Almost)

Did you ever see Minority Report, with Tom Cruise? I have always found the advertising in that movie fascinating because the concept is that all of the ads in any media - be they newspaper or out-of-home digital boards - change for you. That's right. The ad that you walk past in the mall is targeted at you personally. The concept is based on the idea that each media scans your retinas and can identify you, and is smart enough to advertise to you.

Online advertising has gotten close to that with Behavioral Targeting through Advertising Networks (like Advertising.com and Casale). The premise on which these networks operate is that they are able to watch the sites that a computer is browsing. Based on that, they can determine the types of things the person who is surfing is interested in. For instance, let's say that you are surfing automobile sites, and let's say that you tend to look at mini-van information. Suddenly through simple tracking mechanisms the advertising networks can determine that you are probably interested in a mini-van. So, if one of their Advertisers is trying to advertise their particular mini-van, you suddenly find that a lot of the advertising space on the internet (i.e. lots of inventory that the particular Network has purchased) seems to be educating you about that particular mini-van. It is magic.

Well - hang onto your eyeballs - now it looks like Out-of-Home Digital Video Boards may have that similar capabilities being built into them. The Globe and Mail reported today that small cameras can now be embedded in the screen of a small digital video board and can track who looks at the screen and for how long. The makers of the tracking systems say the software can determine the viewer's gender, approximate age range and, in some cases, ethnicity – and can change the ads accordingly. In practice however, it looks like for the near term if the system can simply determine the gender the system will be doing very well.

That could mean razor ads for men, cosmetics ads for women and video-game ads for teens.

And even if the ads don't shift based on which people are watching, the technology's ability to determine the viewers' demographics is golden for advertisers who want to know how effectively they're reaching their target audience.

While the technology remains in limited use for now, advertising industry analysts say it is finally beginning to live up to its promise. The manufacturers say their systems can accurately determine gender 85 to 90 per cent of the time, while accuracy for the other measures continues to be refined.

Leaders in the field appear to be:

• TruMedia Technologies Inc., Florida
  
• Quividi, France
• Studio IMC Inc., New York

Trends for 2009: #15. TV will do "okay" this year.

Doing "okay" is like someone saying you are "nice". It doesn't really stand out.

As reported in the Guardian, a Deloitte study suggests that the Recession could be "good news" for TV. Why? Well, in a recession people tend to stay home more and consequently watch TV.

UK television viewing hours were already rising in the second half of 2008 and are expected to rise another 30 minutes per week per viewer in 2009, according to the report from the technology, media and telecommunications practice at Deloitte.

Mind you, to counter that point, with the forecast massive reduction in advertising budgets TV advertising revenues will get hammered. eMarketer says that most researchers predicting a 5% or greater decline in spending.

On top of that, with the fragmentation of TV audiences away from the big networks, the supply of options has gone way up, and the demand for advertising time on the big networks has come way down. The result? Their advertising revenues will probably suffer more than most. Consequently they are looking at options to cut their costs - such as shutting stations.

What's a Marketer to do in 2009? This set of answers will sound remarkably similar to yesterday's!

• Look carefully at the price and performance of all media - this includes the dying print world, the new interactive world, and everything in between. You never know ... you might find that for your particular product or service a newspaper ad still outperforms an interactive campaign. But, more than likely, that just means that you aren't yet doing the right things with your interactive campaign.
  
• Ensure your TV advertising is effective. While this may sound obvious ... actually go out and do some research to ensure that your ads have recall, and that the message in them is being understood.
  
• Produce TV-like commercials specifically for the web (you will also find this one in my Trend about Interactive Advertising): In the "old days" you might have produced a TV commercial and then posted it to the web. That won't do any longer. Now it is important to shoot TV commercials specifically for the web. How are they different? First off they are typically lower video quality. They also might be shorter. In TV-land, the viewer must sit in front of your ad for 30 seconds. On the web, they will leave you more quickly. On the other hand ... your ad may be several minutes long. On the web you can produce an "advertising epic" - so long as it is truly captivating. People will gladly watch your entertainment, and maybe even forward it off to friends, and you won't have to shell out for a bunch of TV air time. A big way to make your online ads different is to allow a viewer to interact with the commercial. Perhaps the viewer should be able to select characters in the ad, then choose various changes to your plot line.

Will I be right? The year will tell!

• Follow this blog and watch for the next marketing trends I'm forecasting for 2009.
• Feel free to contact Market GoGo to discuss this further.

Trends for 2009: #14. Traditional Print Media will continue to crater

I'm certainly not the first to forecast that newspaper and magazines are in rapid decline. According to eMarketer. The newspaper business model is broken and advertisers are bailing,

eMarketer forecasts that newspaper ad revenue will decline 16.4% in 2008, and dramtically further by 2012. On top of that circulation for newspapers continues to deteriorate as people hit the internet in greater numbers than ever before to get news, opinions, classifieds, and entertainment that are both timelier and free. Even worse for Traditional Print media - the high costs of production and distribution is not coming down.

I used to love the newspaper. Was there nothing better on a Saturday morning then to sip a hot coffee and thumb through the pages of the paper? Now there is. I brew my morning latte, and hop online for 20 minutes. I haven't had a subscription for years. In fact, this week I actually picked up a paper that someone else had left on a table in a Starbucks. That's the first one I've touched in months. The ironic thing is that I was attracted by a headline the trumpeted "TV Networks Closing Stations" (that will be a trend for another day).

Another piece of evidence came out this week when Google canceled it's print ad program. Google started the program in 2006, and by 2009 had 800 US newspapers participating in it. Reading between the lines, even Google couldn't make a buck in the dying print world.

So, what's a Marketer to do in 2009?

• Look carefully at the price and performance of all media - this includes the dying print world, the new interactive world, and everything in between. You never know ... you might find that for your particular product or service a newspaper ad still outperforms an interactive campaign. But, more than likely, that just means that you aren't yet doing the right things with your interactive campaign.
  
• Be sure that you have an exit plan for Traditional Print media. There are lots of newspapers going bankrupt and magazines that are shutting down. If you aren't doing interactive advertising, start now before it is too late for you to get the skills you will need to have to market well with new media.
  

Will I be right? The year will tell!

• Follow this blog and watch for the next marketing trends I'm forecasting for 2009.
• Feel free to contact Market GoGo to discuss this further.

Trends for 2009: #13. Online Interactive Marketing will grow

Okay - I know this may seem somewhat repetitive, given some of my other Trend titles included:

• Integrated Interactive Campaigns
• Paid Search Advertising
• Online commerce will continue to grow
• Online advertising will continue to grow

But, there is a subtle difference here that is important. So, on we go ...

Online Interactive Marketing will continue to grow ... but ... most Marketers will continue to be more familiar with traditional media than the boundless opportunities provided to them by the online world. Even as marketing budgets are slashed and traditional media crater in their reach and effectiveness, many Marketers will not take advantage of the new opportunities that are available cheaply, easily, efficiently, and effectively online.

Some things for Marketers to focus on in 2009:

• Determine and Pursue your Social Media strategy: First off you have to recognize the value in engaging significantly and frequently with your prospects and customers, and then look at the opportunities you have to "monetize" your involvement. You need to develop a long-term social media strategy, plan, and related tactics. You also need to invest in getting good people and training them to do the job right. Tactics you may employ include:
  
  • Publish your own blog - content you might publish includes your Executives views on your culture, your ad campaigns, your product, your people, stories from your customers, and your company's history.
  • Participate in other blogs and reviews - use Techorati, Google, IceRocket, and others to track blogs and reviews where your company's name shows up, or where topics that are important to you show up. Create a "company blog spokespersa" (which could actually be several people, so long as they stick to the persona). Participate in blogs. For instance, if someone gives your product a good review then thank them for that. If someone gives your product a bad review then see what you can do to resolve the problem.
  • Add Reviews to your Site - There are two companies out there who can help you get product reviews up on your site fast. They are Buzzillions and BazaarVoice. Either of these two companies can get you up and running fast.
    

• Produce some Online video: Video continues to grow in importance on the web. A good analogy is that Video is to Text on the web as TV is to the Newspaper in traditional media (i.e. Video rules in terms lasting impressions). Reasonable quality video cameras are selling for about $100 (albeit it makes sense to invest in higher quality for commercial purposes). Publishing video couldn't be easier with the likes of YouTube and similar hosting sites available for FREE. The message ... produce some video.
• Produce TV-like commercials specifically for the web: In the "old days" you might have produced a TV commercial and then posted it to the web. That won't do any longer. Now it is important to shoot TV commercials specifically for the web. How are they different? First off they are typically lower video quality. They also might be shorter. In TV-land, the viewer must sit in front of your ad for 30 seconds. On the web, they will leave you more quickly. On the other hand ... your ad may be several minutes long. On the web you can produce an "advertising epic" - so long as it is truly captivating. People will gladly watch your entertainment, and maybe even forward it off to friends, and you won't have to shell out for a bunch of TV air time. A big way to make your online ads different is to allow a viewer to interact with the commercial. Perhaps the viewer should be able to select characters in the ad, then choose various changes to your plot line.
• Create Software as an Advertising Media: Build out Google Gadgets, desktop applications, or other similar software that will help your customers connect with you. There has to be real value in the software. But, if you build it, they will come. Plus, they will buy from you!
• Build your Opt-in Email List: Email marketing is likely the cheapest and most effective way to reach out to people who have already volunteered to be your customer. If you don't have an inhouse opt-in email list, start one. If you do have it, make sure that your emails are personalized and effective.
  

Will I be right? The year will tell!

• Follow this blog and watch for the next marketing trends I'm forecasting for 2009.
• Feel free to contact Market GoGo to discuss this further.

Trends for 2009: #12. The demand to build bulletproof cases to gain project funding

As economic times tighten the Accountants tend to rule the roost. It is a catch-22 in a sense, as I have already talked about previously in some of my other "trends for 2009" and random blog posts. The essence of a low-cost business strategy will help lead to long-term overall success. However, this also makes doing business challenging at times.

To succeed with starting a project in 2009, you are going to have to get it past your bean counters. This means that:

1. You will need to be VERY confident in the business benefits, and will need a good model to show how you will achieve those. To that end, you will may also need to point to 3rd party experts who can back you up on the likelihood of achieving the benefits.
   
2. You will need to have solid cost models, including IT, marketing, etc., etc., etc.. The departments that will have to spend to support your project will need to agree to the estimates you put forward, and indeed may have to sign-off on them for the CEO.
3. You will need to ensure that you build in future flexibility. With uncertainty comes the need to be flexible through the downturn, the eventual upturn, and every crazy thing in between.
   
4. You will need to have plans for substantial risk mitigation. In easier times, risks like project budget overruns or late delivery were all right given the speed that the economy was moving. That won't be acceptable in the foreseeable future.
   

What's a marketer to do in 2009?

• Spend a lot of time planning. In fact, set up cross-functional teams to help you do your planning,
• Get your teams trained in good planning methods, and
  
• Rely on standard and proven project management and financial models.

At the same time (and seemingly counter-intuitively), don't be afraid of being a Disruptor. Make your case and go for it. History has shown that being conservative in a recession isn't necessarily a good strategy. Grab an innovation and pursue it.

Will I be right? The year will tell!

• Follow this blog and watch for the next marketing trends I'm forecasting for 2009.
• Feel free to contact Market GoGo to discuss this further.

How big is the web?

Want to expand your worldwide marketing reach? You better be marketing on the web!

comScore has just announced that the Global Internet Audience has just surpassed 1 billion Visitors. ONE BILLION. That's a big number.

That number includes people 15 and over who accessed the internet from home or work in December 2008.

1 billion definitely is a big number. But a bigger number is the world's population at 6.756 billion people. Many of the 5.756 billion people who don't currently have access to the internet are in developing countries, and don't have access to fancy computers or high-speed connections. However, watch for many more people to come online in 2009 as the internet continues its trek into hand-held devices with wireless access (including cell-phones, PDAs, and the new cheap netbooks.

If I were to bet an advertising dollar on where to place ads, I'd look at the most popular web properties, which include:

• Google Sites, visited by 77% of the total internet audience
  
• Microsoft Sites, 64%
• Yahoo! Sites, 56%

Additionally, I'd look to some of the top entities that support online advertising. Among those, I've worked with that I've had very good results from:

• Google (duh ... almost everyone should have this as their #1)
  
• ValueClick Networks
• Tribal Fusion
• 24/7 Real Media (which I believe recently changed some of its services over to the Outrider brand)
  
• Casale Media (my experience is that these are great people to work with!)
  
• Burst Media

Want some help planning or tuning your own Online Marketing for those 1 billion surfers who you are hoping find you? Contact Market GoGo now to get started.

Trends for 2009: #11. "Do It Yourself" and Free will be music to consumers' ears

I know that I said this was my "Top 10 Marketing Trends for 2009" ... but there is just so much to think about, I've got a few more trends that need to be covered. So this is now the "Top 10 + a few Marketing Trends for 2009."

Along with "Value" as a word that consumers will gravitate to in 2009, two other important phrases that consumers will glom onto are:

• Do It Yourself (or DIY), and
  
• Free
  

Through an economic trough people tend to stay close to home (witness the "staycation" concept that started in 2008). People will still spend, but they will look for ways to save. If they can do things themselves and save some money, they will do it. If they can get something of value for free, they will want it. What sorts of things:

• Cooking at home vs. Eating out,
• Movie and popcorn at home vs. Going to the movie,
• Fixing up the bathroom yourself vs. Renovating your bathroom,
• Free online guides vs. Buying a "How To" book,
• Etc.
  

But, a word of caution ... Whatever you do, don't make "Free" a main strength of your service or product. If the only selling price you can demand for your product is "free", then the demand must be pretty low. Make sure that your product has great value, and people will pay for it. The things you give out for free should be "value adds", not your core product or service.

So, what's a Marketer to do in 2009?

• Look for opportunities to give away for free value-added complementary products and services that will entice consumers to buy from you,
• Look for places where you can have your customer lower the cost of your product or service by doing some of the work themselves. Ensure that you make your product or service a "must have" item to do the work. (E.g. your product must be the essential item to make the outcome work),
  
• Advertise that the value-add is free, but ensure that the value of your product or service stands out on its own.
  

Will I be right? The year will tell!

• Follow this blog and watch for the next marketing trends I'm forecasting for 2009.
• Feel free to contact Market GoGo to discuss this further.

The changing face of an Advertising Professional

Not that long ago, an Advertising Professional might have come directly from an Art School or a Communication Program, and worked their way up through the ranks. Those ranks were either in:

• the Publishing industry as a content creator (e.g. a broadcaster, photographer, cameraman, cinematographer, writer, editor, etc.),
  
• a Marketing Department as an Advertiser (e.g. a coordinator, manager, etc.), or
  
• at an Advertising Agency in the production and buying of advertising (e.g. copy writer, creative, creative director, account director, buyer, etc.).

But as the Advertising world shifts from a traditional media world to an online interactive world, new skills are necessary. Those skills are coming from the Systems Integration world. New skills that are necessary include:

• Technology-Savvy Creatives - People who really understand what can be done with a given technology and how to make it "sing"
  
• Business Analysts - To help define what is being built, how it should behave, and the desired outcomes
• Architects - Technical Analysts - Including Design Engineers and Architects who will lay the physical framework for the new system including security, volume-performance, database table structure, and other design elements
• Developers - To actually put the application together - be it an interactive ad or a web-site
  
• Test Analysts - To create and execute a test plan that will ensure the application works
• Project Managers - To keep the team and the work on track and mitigate risks to budget, scope, or delivery time.

Marketing is changing. Jump aboard for the ride.

Guerilla Advertising

Trendhunter recently published a slide-show of 37 Guerilla Marketing Stunts. This is a fun little slide-show to watch. Plan to spend 15-20 minutes reviewing the stunts, and then an extra 30-40 minutes after you watch it. I found myself following their links to all sorts of crazy trends.

Featured stunts include:

• Subway parties
• Gratevertising
• 3-D Tongues
• Musical at a Mall
• Drowning Billboards
• Lesbian Lipstick Smudges
• Redecorating Subway cars
• Flash Mob Routines
• Vending Machine Votes

Penile Fracture - A top searched Google phrase

Oh, the things you learn from watching TV ... So, for anyone who watches Grey's Anatomy, last night one of the characters suffered a "Penile Fracture". Jokingly, I said to my wife, "I guess you'll have to Google that one to find out if it is possible."

To my surprise this morning, I noticed that "Penile Fracture" was one of the top searched Google terms. Ouch. More to my surprise, it is actually possible. Double ouch.

The National Post has a pretty good article about it.

I wonder why no one scooped up the sponsored search terms on "Penile Fracture" right away. I bet the Marketing teams at Viagra and other similar companies wish they had!

Trends for 2009: #10. Uncertainty

That's a shocker! The only thing we can be certain of in 2009 is uncertainty itself.

There are lots of predictions about when the economy will make a comeback. I even heard an economist on a radio interview this morning say that "Tax cuts will only allow people to put money into savings in preparation for the coming recession." So, was this guy not sure if we are in a recession yet? Predictions seem to range from Q3 2009 to 3-5 years from now to get the economy back into a growth mode.

Regardless, my guess is that energy prices will rebound hard and fast as soon as the economy demonstrates any desire at all to making a comeback. That could beat the economy back down all on its own. The energy companies have all pulled back hard on their projects (i.e. drilling). But, there is a limited supply of oil and gas. So, when the economy rallies, and manufacturers run out out to rev up their factories, and plastic machines, and consumers start to buy cars again, the demand for oil will go rocketing up world-wide. Yet, we won't have the supply. Ergo, we'll zip back to $1.50 / liter gas and the economy will fall over again.

What's a marketer to do? Admittedly, this kind of rings like many of the other recommendations I've made already:

• Adopt a long-term low-cost strategy.
• Get back to the basics on your Marketing strategy.
  
• Narrow your focus.

... and finally (as a bonus almost) - Compartmentalize and control what you can. Compartmentalize is a concept I picked up at a Dale Carnegie course. Quite simply, it means worry about and take actions on those things that you can. For instance, you can't control if the economy sucks, and your boss nukes your advertising budget. You can control how you respond and the actions you can take like:

1. Ensure you have a great marketing vision and strategy that is compelling,
2. Build a solid advertising strategy and effective budget by reallocating spend,
   
3. Attempt to sell your boss on why your budget should be restored,
4. Make other plans to advertise more efficiently and effectively through new media,
5. Etc. (i.e. the "Get back to the basics" type of stuff).
   

What is Market GoGo?

Market GoGo is a specialized Marketing Consultancy, based in Calgary. Market GoGo focuses on a few things that will help you to make your company more successful. Those things are strategic in nature, and focus on things that many companies just don't have the experience or the depth to do. Those things are:

• Brand Audit: A review of the "personality" of your company or a particular "brand" your company represents. It covers a wide swath of customer interactions and experiences with your brand from brand standards (signage, lettering, colors, etc.), to advertising, to customer service representatives, to your website, to your positioning statement, and so on. The goal of a Brand Audit is to help you understand your brand's assets and customer perceptions and subsequently to make decision and changes that will ultimately help you to drive more sales.
• Web Marketing and Advertising strategies: Web Marketing is all about doing five things as part of your Web Portfolio: Get prospective customers to your website, Convert prospects to customers, Up-sell and cross-sell to customers, Provide online service to customers, and Get customers to come back to buy from you again. This portfolio runs the gamut from bidding on Google text ads, to banner ads served by Advertising Networks, to mapping the web sales process flow, to researching customer behaviour on your website through analytics and customer research, to opt-in email marketing, and on, and on, and on!
• Project Management of your Strategic Marketing Projects: Marketing Project Management ensures that projects are delivered on-time and on-scope by the "delivery partner" (e.g. an IT Development Team or a Product Development Team). The Marketing Project Plan also ensures that the Marketing specific tasks - such as Communication and Advertising - are put in place at the right time.
• RFP Response for your B2B opportunity: Writing an RFP response is an arduous task. It is also one that you may not get to do enough, and consequently you aren't practiced in crafting a great response that will catch the attention of the team that both crafted the RFP and will review your response. Your response should get you noticed, and get you to the "next step" in the negotiating process.
• Aligning your Contact Center's Behavior with your brand: Most Contact Centers or Call Centers focus on technologies and practices that will drive cost-cutting through their business. For example, the use of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) systems has been lauded by the Call Center industry as a great way to cut costs. But just find a customer who REALLY likes dealing with an IVR. Wouldn't you like your Call Centre's behavior and technology to provide the appropriate brand experience that your customers expect? That's the goal of Market GoGo's Contact Centre Strategy Approach.

Contact Market GoGo to find out more about how we can help you with your Branding and Marketing.

Trends for 2009: #9. RFP Responses will be critical

There's a lot of Government money lining up to be spent in 2009. The buzz word for the year may well be "Infrastructure". If you are in a position to deliver products or services through some of these programs, then you will probably need to craft great RFP responses to get noticed to help do the work.

Of course, RFP Responses only impacts a small sub-set of the Marketing World - that is, Marketing and Sales folks who work in the B2B (or the B2G) space.

What's a B2B / B2G Marketer to do in 2009?

• Sharpen your pencil and fill up your printer with new toner and good quality printing stock
• Get to know the purchasing people in Government offices at all levels, and get on their RFP lists
  
• Search long and hard for RFPs that suit your business
• Fully understand each RFP and what problem it really seeks to solve
• Create a compelling RFP response that clearly shows the client you understand their problem, and clearly tells the story of how you will help them resolve that problem.
  

Will I be right? The year will tell!

• Follow this blog and watch for the next marketing trends I'm forecasting for 2009.
• Feel free to contact Market GoGo to discuss this further.

Trends for 2009: #8. Online Advertising will Continue to Grow

As Marketers (perhaps like you) struggle with a tightened budget and getting the best bang for your buck, it will be time for Advertisers to look more closely at the multitude of advertising media that is part of Online Advertising. Consequently, online advertising will grow in 2009. In contrast, almost all other media will shrink dramatically.

During the Great Depression, the "new media" of radio took off. In fact, in every recession since then Radio advertising has fared very well. Expect similar this time around - except in Radio's place, you will see innovations and growth in online advertising.

Now, that said, if you are a Publisher or an Advertising Network it isn't time to start counting your coins yet. While online advertising will grow in 2009, budgets will still be tight, and it may not even grow as much as it did in 2008. Relative to other advertising media however, it will be glowing. Why? Well, the equation might look something like this for an Advertiser:

This Year's advertising budget = Last Year's Budget / 2.
Where do I put that little bit of money?

• Print 2009 = Print 2008 x 1/3
  
• TV 2009 = TV 2008 x 1/2
• Radio 2009 = Radio 2008 x 3/4
  
• Out of Home 2009 = Out of Home 2008 x 2/3
• Online 2009 = Online 2008 x 1.1

Okay ... the math may not make sense, and those numbers are all just a WAG, but the concept stands. Budgets will get cut, and the increase in online spending is going to come at the expense of other media.

What online advertising is going to grow? All of it. Paid search (probably more than the rest), Banner Ads, Video, Online Games and Contests, etc., etc., etc.. Some people are forecasting that this will lead to an overall increase in Cost Per Acquisition (CPA). Maybe, but maybe not. The content and opportunities on the internet are almost limitless, but there are only a small handfull of really popular sites. The CPM (thousand impressions) or CPC (click) will increase on those sites. But as an Advertiser, if you focus on conversions and use an outlet like an Advertising Network that leverages the power of the long-tail, then you may actually come out with a low and stable CPA.

What's a Marketer to do in 2009?

• Do review your traditional advertising spend VERY closely. What worked? What didn't? What is dubious? Slash and burn anything but that which worked. Figure out how you can build on those things that worked.
  
• Do online advertising. Look at how you can be creative with it. Also, look at how you can integrate with traditional advertising that is working. Similarly, look at how you can integrate it with Direct Marketing opportunities.
• Focus on your Cost Per Acquisition. Use analytics and look at all of your online advertising and its performance (including creative, message, placement, etc.). Use this information to tune your ads and your media buys in order to lower your CPA. To lower your media buys, look at options like bulk buys, advertising networks, or even changing the type or mix of ads you are running entirely (e.g. maybe increase your search spend, and reduce your banner ad spend).
  

Will I be right? The year will tell!

• Follow this blog and watch for the next marketing trends I'm forecasting for 2009.
• Feel free to contact Market GoGo to discuss this further.

Trends for 2009: #7. Online commerce will continue to increase (shocking ... I know)

Online commerce will grow as a net number of transactions, but maybe not dramatically in total dollars sales. The three reasons this will happen are:

1. Online traffic will increase organically. More and more people continue to get connected to the web world, even when cash is tight.
2. Online shopping will increase as people look for bargains in this down economy. More and more people will look to the internet as the place where they can find deals.
   
3. So, while the gross number of online sales will increase, the average purchase price will be lower and consequently the actual dollar value of all those sales may not be much higher than it has been in the past.

What's a Marketer to do?

• Know that more people will be hitting your site looking for deals,
• Make sure your best deals are present on your home page, and
  
• Ensure that throughout your check-out process you have GREAT and SIMPLE up-sell and cross-sell options.

Will I be right? The year will tell!

• Follow this blog and watch for the next marketing trends I'm forecasting for 2009.
• Feel free to contact Market GoGo to discuss this further.

It's fun when you find you rank high

I've been watching my Google Analytics stats lately, and it is fun to find that my content shows up on the first page of Google search results for various terms that people are searching. For instance, if you hit Google and search terms like:

• business strategy today's economy
• brand audit process
  
• big three what went wrong
  
• marketing audit rfp
• (and a whole bunch of others)

You will find that you the Market GoGo blog entries and web pages manage to show up on the first page frequently. Ahhh... SEO at work.

Trends for 2009: #6. Paid Search advertising (i.e. Google's revenue) will grow substantially again (i.e. Time to invest in Google?)

Web traffic will continue to climb. Web shoppers will increase in numbers. Web surfers will continue to start their purchase process on a search engine. The search engine of choice will continue to be Google, and in fact their share of the search market will grow dramatically.

Simultaneously ... Marketing budgets will drop. Marketing departments will be under more pressure then ever to draw prospective customers in.

So, what is a Marketer to do? In 2009 Marketers will spend more time than ever before focusing on Search Marketing - both paid and organic. Paid search advertising however is the easiest and quickest way to make things work.

It is likely that paid search advertising costs will actually increase substantially in 2009, as more Marketers bid on common phrases. Nonetheless, a good search strategy is still going to be substantially cheaper, much more effective, and infinitely more measurable than any signficant newspaper ad.

Search Marketing strategies to focus on in 2009:

• Do Paid Search Engine Marketing: Oh, and do it well. Track the ROI of keywords and be sure that you are making your money on every word that you are bidding on.
• Work your copy: A paid search ad is just a simple little bit of text. But, it may be the most powerful 12 to 15 words you ever write. Test, revise, test, revise, and don't stop. Make sure that every bit of copy you put out there on those search ads is on brand and works as well as it possibly can. Additionally, customize copy for each search term you have out there. You should have tens, hundreds, or even thousands of ads floating out there in the ether of the search world.
  
• Create Landing Pages: Every paid search bid should have its own purpose-made landing page with your call to action highlighted. No one should ever click on your paid search ad and end up at your home page (or worse, a 404 error).
• Do Organic Search Engine Optimization: SEO is "free" and having a high organic rank will pay off rapidly - even in places where you are also bidding on a relevant keyword. But, to be honest, SEO isn't free and it isn't a one-time project. SEO requires solid resourcing with people who have a good understanding of what they are doing. It is also a journey not a destination. So, you have to be prepared to continually revisit your SEO and tune your website.

Will I be right? The year will tell!

• Follow this blog and watch for the next marketing trends I'm forecasting for 2009.
• Feel free to contact Market GoGo to discuss this further.

Buying a new TV shouldn't be this hard

My parents bought our first TV around 1972. It was a black and white Hitachi and we operated with nothing but bunny ears and 3 channels until 1986. In 1986 my parents moved up to cable, and colour. The catalyst for the change was that we also bought a Radio Shack computer consoled that hooked up to our TV.

I don't remember when we bought our first VCR.

When my wife and I got married we ended up getting her Grandma's old 19" colour TV. We reverted to bunny ears for many years. We actually bought a nice "big" Sony Trinitron TV about 7 years ago. Then we moved back to cable because our old bunny ears wouldn't work in our new house. We even bought a DVD player.

Now we are looking at moving up to HDTV, flat screen LCD. Yikes, what an array of things to look at:

• TV
• PVR
• Blu-ray DVD
• Warranty
• Digital TV Box
• Sound System
• Cables

I tried to buy this all online. But, I've come to the conclusion that none of the big online sites (e.g. FutureShop and BestBuy) don't support this very well. I want them to have a check-list and shopping cart system that leads me through buying all. They have a great opportunity to provide a simple user interface that takes me through a cross-sell and up-sell.

Alas ... now I am going to educate myself as well as I can. Then, I'll brave the less then helpful salespeople at one of the big-box electronic stores.

Even Wal-Mart is setting up to be LOWER Cost

In times of financial turmoil, the thinking goes that the company with the lowest cost strategy "wins". Typically, Walmart is seen as the company with the ultimate low cost strategy. Company lore includes stories of Sam Walton and other Executives sharing rooms when they went on business trips.

Conventional wisdom is that companies should be looking at ways to reduce their costs dramatically in a time like the current recession. If you can believe it, it looks like even Walmart is looking at how it can trim costs!

Report on Business (via Reuters) reports that Walmart is set to slash prices and unveil changes to its branding (probably that blue background and yellow sun that we've been exposed to from US commercials over the recent past, as well as the new slogan "Save Money. Live Better.").

In fact, Reuters is also reporting that in the US, Wal-Mart is continuing to cut prices 10-30 pct on many items.

As the low-cost and low-price retailer, Wal-Mart expects to to win sales and new customers in the current economic environment. Wal-Mart's message will focus on value, value, and more value.

In fact, the slumping economy is helping Wal-Mart in two ways:

• They are playing on the fragile confidence of the consumer, and
  
• Negotiating lower prices from vendors.
  

So - watch for Wal-Mart to thump their competitors hard this year. At the same time, their's is a great strategy to copy regardless of what business you are in.

Pelosi Rickroll? What the?

This morning I noticed that the term "pelosi rickroll" was suddenly one of the most searched terms on Google. Why? What does it mean? Let's take a look.

The first article was on Time.com and describes how Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, staff put together a simple prank video (also shown below) with the express intent of creating a viral video that will introduce the Speaker Pelosi to the world. Time wrote about it. I'm writing about it. Thousands of others will write about it and tens or hundreds of thousands ... or perhaps even millions of people will watch it.

This is viral video nearly at its best.

As explained on Time.com:

The Rickroll, an internet meme that started a few years ago, is basically a prank in which unsuspecting viewers are tricked into listening to Rick Astley's 1987 hit "Never Gonna Give You Up". The classic Rickroll is when someone is tricked into clicking on link that takes them to a video of the song.

What a great idea! Kudo's to Pelosi's staff for (a) using the new media at their fingertips, and (b) having a sense of humour!

Maybe this also will become part of Pelosi's (and indeed Obama's) branding: Take the job seriously, but not yourself.

Trends for 2009: #5. Simple Strategies ... Back to the Basics

When times were good things were easy. It was easy to get a new customer. Consequently, it was easy to ignore a customer, since there was always at least one (and likely many more) new customers waiting to take their place.

2009 brings an entirely different playing field. As an example, I heard an interview on the radio in late 2008 of a couple of Realtors. It appears that they are actually having to learn how to market and sell again. In their "good old days" all they needed was a listing and potential buyers would flock to the property to participate in a bidding war. Those glory days are long gone.

What are the basic strategies to focus on in 2009?

• Branding - What is your brand promise? How does your company support it? (Does your company support it?)
• Retail Ads - To paraphrase David Ogilvy, a good ad is one that sells your product. 2009 is not the time for airy fairy branding ads. 2009 is the time for simple and honest ads that educate people about the value of your product and scream out at them to take action.
• Customer Retention - The cheapest customer to sell to is an existing customer. It is time to revisit and work your current customers to remind them that you are a low-risk and well-known value for them (of course, I'm expecting that you really are). Reselling, upselling, and cross-selling are all ways that you can make ends meet (and maybe even eke out a profit) in 2009.
• Customer Satisfaction - It is almost like hearing the same message twice. If you are going to revisit your current customers, then you better ensure that they are happy with your product or service, and make real steps to bolster your customer satisfaction.
• Real Return on Investment - Projects you undertake in 2009 better have real and demonstrable ROI (and they better have it fast). The Accountants will be watching every project nickle like hawks (except, of course, their own International GAAP projects which will likely be "non-discretionary", unlike keeping their company in business which is, of course, discretionary ... ooops, did I write that out loud).

Will I be right? The year will tell!

• Follow this blog and watch for the next marketing trends I'm forecasting for 2009.
• Feel free to contact Market GoGo to discuss this further.

Trends for 2009: #4. Focus on the green in your pocket ... not the green in your forests.

Environmental issues had a good run from about the time of Al Gore's 2006 smash hit An Inconvenient Truth to late 2008. As the economy was driving hard and people thought they had money to burn (pun intended), they were happy to believe they would pay more for environmentally sound consumerism. Look at the success of premium priced economy vehicles like the Prius. Leading up to late 2008 everyone has been trying to figure out ways to "green" their product.

Remember the oil crisis in the 70s? Everyone dumped their big cars and headed for "fuel misers". Everyone started to look at solar electricity and tide-generated electricity. I heard of someone selling a brand new Pontiac Parisienne for $500 (I remember telling my Grade 6 teacher this (he owned one himself)). Well, what happened? Our "environmental memories" are short. As soon as the fuel prices dropped, North Americans ran back to car dealerships and Detroit started making some of the biggest gas guzzlers to ever hit the road (i.e. SUVs like the Hummer, the Lincoln Navigator, and the Dodge Charger).

There is already evidence to support this will happen. Yahoo! reports that in December sales of the Prius hybrid dropped 45 percent as gas prices fell from their record highs in July. Meanwhile, MSN-BC reports that shrinking gas prices and attractive deals are causing a return by vehicle buyers to big vehicles like SUVs and full-size pick-up trucks.

Goodbye environment. Hello living as cheaply as I can.

But - beware - fuel prices will make a come-back. That is inevitable as there ultimately is a world-wide limited supply of oil. Also as Oil companies search out the harder to get oil (e.g. more of the Tar Sands in Northern Alberta) the cost of getting that oil, and refining it, will be dramatically higher. On top of that, the polar ice caps are still melting and the world is constantly becoming a more toxic place in which to live. So, what goes around comes around. Eventually the environment will be important again, but maybe not for a couple more years.

So, as a good Marketer in 2009, some things to do are:

• Focus on value in the short-term, and
  
• Build a credible and real environmental culture and brand for the long-term.

Will I be right? The year will tell!

• Follow this blog and watch for the next marketing trends I'm forecasting for 2009.
• Feel free to contact Market GoGo to discuss this further.

Trends for 2009: #3. Direct Marketing will be in vogue

In 2009, Direct Marketing will become critical to an organization’s marketing success.

What is Direct Marketing? DM sends its messages straight at a prospective customer typically with media that is sent "personally" to the intended target. The goal of a DM piece is unabashedly to drive a purchase. Examples of Direct Marketing include direct mail, e-mail, telemarketing, desktop applications, mobile marketing, and RSS feeds. While traditionally it is unsolicited (e.g. that junk mail in your old fashioned mail box, or that phone call at supper time), on the internet DM is moving away from the "porn spam" and is tending to quality in-house opt-in lists or programs.

Why will Direct Marketing be hot in 2009? Two simple reasons. (1) It is cheap. (2) It works. In a tight economy, you NEED to get the bang from your advertising buck. DM does that and it is also uniquely trackable. Act now!

In 2008 the best DM was done by ... Barak Obama. His campaign forged a direct communication link between the candidate and the voter through multiple Direct Means, including mobile text messages, email and Twitter.

Things to focus on in 2009:

• Creating targeted and relevant campaigns that can be executed on multiple DM channels
• Tuning existing DM campaigns
• Ensuring your lists are opt-in and accurate
• Personalizing DM campaigns based on profile, preferences, and interactions
• Treat your email list like gold. Use it carefully. Don't abuse it.
• Focus on your existing customers. Mine your customer databases and create appropriate personalized direct offers
  
• Look at each DM media and look for new opportunities.
  

By the way ... for a few years a common industry prediction has been that RSS will replace email. Email still rules. People still won't know what the hell RSS is. However, if you aren't doing RSS, it is a good time to start. First things first, is to figure out for your customers how they can easily understand the technology and use it. RSS does have slow but solid growth as a strong medium of distributing marketing information.

Will I be right? The year will tell!

• Follow this blog and watch for the next marketing trends I'm forecasting for 2009.
• Feel free to contact Market GoGo to discuss this further.

Back in the saddle

Where does time go? 2008 is gone. 2009 is off to a start. I've been trying to get back to blogging for a couple of weeks now, and there always seems to be something in the way. I have several topics I want to hit on in the next couple of weeks:

• My remaining predictions for the Marketing World through the rest of 2009,
• Marketing Strategies for 2009 (in the wake of the bleak economic outlook), and
  
• The need to polish up your RFP response skills in 2009.

Check back often if you want to see how this works out :^).