Buzz Works

I'm fresh back from holidays. I have just finished reading a couple of great books, and am also about half-way through "The Anatomy of Buzz: How to Create Word of Mouth Marketing" by Emanuel Rosen. It is a good book, and I'll spend the next couple of days "buzzing" about a few experiences I had on my vacation.

To start with, I wanted to buzz about United Airlines. Maybe this is an "anti-buzz". It is amusing and ever so telling about their overall way of doing business. It also shows the power of a consumer with a good story in the internet age.

For some background, check out CBC.ca's coverage of the story - United Breaks Guitars. Then you might want to read more from Dave Carroll's own story on his own blog. Finally, you can't miss the actual protest song.

Web advertising builds brands ... and I believe it

OPA study demonstrates Web advertising builds brands :: BtoB Magazine

A recent study by the Online Publishers Association (performed by comScore, and called “The Silent Click: Building Brands Online”, but not available until June 25) indicates that online advertising builds brands.

Now you might think ... "Hmmm, that's not too surprising. A study by the Online Publishers Association shows that there are deep benefits to online advertising." But, I believe it - and more than just from a potentially biased survey - but from real-life experience. At my last job I initiated online banner advertising, and advertising through behavior-based advertising networks. Not too surprisingly people who were exposed to our ads were exposed a lot (and for very little $$ relative to traditional media). The results? When ad recall was evaluated across media (TV, radio, newspaper, out-of-home, and online), the TV ads had the highest proven recall. But only a bit behind were our very simple and cheap banner ads. There was a huge space beteen those two media and the next (newspaper).

The lesson? Online media is a very important part of a branding effort, and must align tightly with all other media, including:

• TV,
• PR,
• Radio,
• Newspaper,
• Out-of-home,
• Etc..

PR is a very important ingredient to building brand value

Research by Text 100 (a PR firm) called "Media Prominence: A Leading Indicator of Brand Value. How Effective Public Relations Contributes to Brand" shows that PR builds brand for complex products better than ads.

Key findings from the research were interesting:

• "Media prominence accounted for 27 percent of differences between the brand values of Interbrand’s Best Global Brands.
• "The relationship between media prominence and brand value depends on “product involvement” – i.e., the degree to which customers research a given product or solution prior to purchase. Media prominence was more associated with brand value for “high involvement”products compared to “low involvement” products. Advertising expenditures, however, were a leading indicator only for “low involvement” products, and accounted for very little brand value among “high involvement” products.
• "Media prominence was a particularly important component of brand value for computer-related industries, such as software and hardware manufacturers, as well as computer and Internet service companies, accounting for 48 percent of differences between companies’ brand values.
• "The results suggest that, in general, media prominence accounts for approximately one quarter of brand value, although this value is often higher for high-involvement brands, and particularly so in technology. This underscores the importance of managing and growing brand value through public relations efforts."

I wonder ... the results show that PR heavily influences brand perception, and this result was delivered by a PR company. Hmmm ... Okay, not that I really doubt it, but it is kind of humorous.

I believe that a key important point that needs to be made is that Public Relations is a critical type of communication that needs to be managed by a company as part of its overall media strategy.

Poorly Placed Advertising

Just for fun ... from the good folks over at Trendhunter.com. It is time to sit back, relax, and enjoy some Poorly Placed Advertising.

Top 10 Internet-Advertising Websites - and other neat charts

The team over at MarketingCharts.com continues to provide good information.

Top 10 Google Advertisers - April 2009
Top 10 Internet-Advertising Websites - May 2009
Top 10 Online Retailers by Conversion Rate - April 2009

and ... my favorite:
Best and Worst US Cities for Hair

Top Brands in 2008

CoreBrands has released its 2008 ranking of brands. At the top are perennial favorites (with a couple of minor changes between 2008 and 2007):

1. Coca-Cola
2. Johnson & Johnson
3. Harley-Davidson
4. Hershey Foods
5. Campbell Soups

The listing makes for great reading.

Will the economic slump throughout 2008-2009 hurt any of the top 100 brands, or help others into the top 100? Watch for next year's release!

Viral Video Chart - Top 20 Viral Videos

Want to have some fun wasting some time? You have to check out the latest top 20 viral videos, as compiled by Unruly Media.

Why waste any more time here ... check out today's Top 20.

Pricing vs. Social Networks: "We Boobed"

It is all over the news and the blogosphere ... an interesting story about pricing and sizing. The gist of it is that British retailer Marks & Spencer was charge more for bigger bras. It makes sense ... more bra, more engineering, more costs, higher prices. Well, okay, it made sense to someone at M&S.

• How did this play out? A group formed on Facebook called "Busts 4 Justice". Sign-ups for this group took off, and the publicity they garnered was overwhelming.
  
• After embarassing itself with bad responses to the campaign, M&S reformed their pricing policy and kicked off a "We boobed" campaign (see creative below).
• The, er, upside for M&S is that there sales have, er, bounced back substantially after all of the publicity.

This experience demonstrates three things:

1. Social Media is WAY powerful. Companies need to pay attention to it and respond to it quickly, with honesty and integrity.
2. Bad pricing is just bad business. Bad PR is worse.
3. You can win when you are up against the wall - if you are smart. Pick a good strategy, put some great advertising behind it, and go win.
   

Advertising Methodology (16) - Measurement

Recalling the old adage of “you can’t manage what you don’t measure”, it is time to focus in on measurements.

Earlier in the Advertising Methodology the point was made that you have to plan and prepare to know what measurements you are going to make, and build tools to make those measurements.

Now that your campaign is in production, measurements are taken, taken again, taken again, taken again, and so on. But the purpose of taking measurements is not just to create pretty pie charts (but, hey, who doesn't like a pie chart). The purpose of taking measurements is to tune the campaign. This may reflect back on changing elements of the campaign plan – including the media, the concept, and the creative itself.

Ultimately, the campaign must achieve its desired results. If everything has been done right, then these results should equate to the goals that were set out at the beginning.

Advertising Methodology (15) - Media Buying

After it is established that the campaign should work, media space is bought. This one small line represents a lot of work. The planning and buying should actually happen much earlier in the process. But, it is at this point in the plan that the rubber hits the road, and the media space must be there. It is also the point where, if the campaign development slips, negotiations will need to be pulled off with the publishers to save the campaign.

Make sure you have a good media planner and buyer that you can trust and treat as a strong ally, and who will negotiate with publishers and other media companies to your benefit.