How do you reach out to a new audience that traditionally would not be interested in ballet?

One of the biggest problems with ballet is it’s traditionally classified as a “high culture,” which gives the dance some cachet, but also shuts potentially new audiences out.

Agency Evolution Bureau shows ballet in a new light by double exposing another cultural figure with the ballerina.  Each ad has a different tagline, but begins with “Ballet, but…”

It challenges the viewer to think about ballet in a new way by mashing it together with other forms of entertainment and sub-culture.  Good communication should always challenges the reader or viewer to reconsider prior notions.  They make the point without a lot of copy, which is even better.  Simplicity rules.

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For marketers to continue to be relevant and their communication to get noticed brands need to develop more applicability, utility, and function in their marketing that creates a more useful dialogue with consumers.  Welcome to the new world of the branded utility, where marketers provide a useful service or a helpful application consumers can utilize to make their lives better.

Branding to this point has been largely about relevance.  Good branding is seen as something that touches the target on an emotional level and inspires loyalty, market buzz, and purchase intent.  In order to achieve all these things the product and the communication has to be relevant to get noticed.  In the future being relevant alone will not be enough to get noticed; marketers will need to focus on ways to make people’s lives better through their marketing efforts.  It won’t just be about making people’s lives better through product improvement, but through the marketing of the product as well.

Social media, branded content, widgets and the branded utility are all part of a bigger shift in how brands reach out to the consumers they’re interested in talking with.  As traditional media declines marketers are now less willing to pay to interrupt consumers.  Consumers are looking for more and more ways to block irrelevant content, and we know as marketers that with the right content and the right approach we can create an audience without paying huge media companies. This approach can give marketers a direct link into people’s lives, at the appropriate moment, earning not only awareness, but more importantly engagement.

Nick Law, Chief Creative Officer, North America for R/GA said in a recent Adweek article, “When you create a utility, you’re creating something that gives people time back.  It becomes less about information as pollution and more about information to help people get through life.”  As consumers isn’t that just what we want:  less bombardment and new ways to make our lives simpler and less convoluted.

Ground zero for marketing utility is the mobile device and I believe it will continue to be well into the foreseeable future.   The iPhone and Blackberry can track your FedEx packages, make bids on eBay, and test how moronic you are. And now your iPhone can even order a Burger King Whopper—with fries and a drink.  The new app even acts like a loyalty card offering incentives and tracking order history. Nationwide Insurance offers an app that walks a driver who’s been in an accident through the steps required to file a claim. In addition to the details of the other person’s insurance, it uses the device’s GPS to create a map of scene and uses the camera to take photos (which the carrier is not obligated to use).  Customers get a direct filing through the app and have the opportunity to call local authorities and get a tow.  What makes mobile devices so useful is that they are now location aware, can retain your information and history, and also they are real-time capable.

A branded utility does not necessarily need to be digital either.  A local bike shop here in Denver builds public bike racks and installs them around the city with a built in ad for the shop.  They probably don’t look at it as a branded utility…more like good marketing karma.  However, it is a great example of how companies need to shift their thinking about marketing in the digital and non-digital world.

Branded utility is part of a redefinition of advertising. It is about the move away from interruptive ‘push’ models towards more meaningful ways of connecting. As people become immune to ad clutter or tune out the noise, brands have to work harder than ever for their time and attention.

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We all know the consumer power women yield in the marketplace.  Their influence is felt in almost every aspect of consumption.  Women account for 85% of all consumer purchases including everything from autos to health care.  Just to name a few:

American women spend about $5 trillion annually… Over half the U.S. GDP, and now according to The 2009 Women in Social Media Study by BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Partners, women are turning in even greater numbers to blogs (55%), social networks (75%) and online status updating (20%) as primary sources of community interaction, entertainment and information.

Of the 42 million women engaged in social media weekly:

• 55% of women participate in some form of blogging activity
• 75% participate in social networks such as Facebook or MySpace
• 20% use Twitter
• 45% of survey respondents decided to purchase an item after reading about it on a blog

The 2009 study found that women online are now more than ever before spending less time engaging in traditional media activities like:

• Reading the newspaper (39%)
• Reading magazines (36%)
• Listening to the radio (31%)
• Watching TV (30%)
• Talking on the phone (28%)
• Meeting in person            (19%)

Traditionally and generally, women tend to be more loyal and thoughtful consumers, and once they have a good experience are more likely to talk about it than their male counterparts.  That is why they traditionally have been such an important marketing target, and now with social media tools at their disposal this tendency and purchase influence is not only multiplied, but rather compounded.  Instead of telling 6 of their friends about a purchase experience they can easily tell 60 of their Facebook friends, or 600 of their blog readers.

The Executive Summary (PDF format) of the 2009 Women in Social Media Study by BlogHer, iVillage and Compass Partners.

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Nomis is a soccer (football) shoe sold in Europe.  Their brand is an excellent example of a challenger brand attacking the market it in a unique way.  They needed to do something different to get their shoe into the hands of soccer, rugby, and field hockey players.  They bypassed many of the traditional retailers where they would get blown away by the likes of Nike, Umbro, Addidas, and Puma and went directly to their customer in a creative way using vans.  It’s by far not a new concept; Schwann’s has been selling food door-to-door for years.  It is a new twist for the athletic and sports industry though.

What I like most about Nomis is how their communication is purpose-driven.   After seeing it you want to be a part of it.  Challenger brands should consider what their purpose would be if they were leading a movement rather than just a business.  Movements are about meaning, making a difference, not commercialism.  They motivate people to action.  To get noticed challenger brands need to move beyond just a boring mission and have a higher purpose.   They are not only creating base of  consumers, but a base of loyal believers.  Nomis does a great job of communicating their purpose.

Latest recruitment video for dealers:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdBmxbJrni8[/youtube]

Here is a spot from 2008:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6z3bGILwMg]

http://morethanadvertising.com/

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Durability. Simplicity. Sensible. Authentic.

Value does not mean lowest price, flamboyancy, or boisterousness.   Consumers are looking for more meaning in their lives and are looking for products and services based on their conscience and their emotional desire to be connected (to each other, to nature, to family).  Consumerism has evolved from bottle water to bring your own water (BYOW), from Starbucks to make-your-own-specialty-coffee-and-put-it-in-a-really-snazzy-mug, from mindless reality entertainment to edutainment.

A recent survey by Brandindex, a daily measure of brand perception by the London-based firm YouGov taken from January to April, found that some brands, like Starbucks and General Motors’ Hummer are not convincing consumers that they offer value.  YouGov polls 5,000 people a day and asks them to rate about 200 brands (http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3i6e35e0f4967c742a9cdc1acae2890b42).

Craftsman, Rubbermaid, Whirlpool all did well because they are perceived to offer dependability, while Lowe’s, Target, and Subway did well for value for the money in my opinion.  Brands that did not fare well like Starbucks, Hummer, Nieman Marcus, AIG, Perrier stand for excess.

Excess is out; right-sizing, responsible consumption, and buying ‘smart ’ (not lowest price) are in.  Challenger Brands that get this dynamic will gain market share.  Pontiac is going away unfortunately because it did not resemble any of today’s desired “value” traits, Quiznos is suffering because it is trying to be the low-price leader when it should represent more for the money, and Target is successful even though they are not the low-price leader because they have communicated to consumers they understand what “value” means in today’s economy.

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There is a lot of hype about Twitter these days.  You can’t watch a news program without hearing about it in some form.  The 18-34 year old crowd has been the demographic pushing the social media phenomenon all along, but this demographic seems less enthused about Twitter than the rest of us.  According to a recent Harris Interactive poll 74% of 18-34 year olds have a Myspace and Facebook page, but only a mere 8% of 18-34 year olds use Twitter.  Meanwhile 24% of 55 plus have a Facebook or MySpace page (probably mostly to communicate with their grand kids).  It makes me wonder if the 18-34 demo has moved on to some other new and better social networking device while the rest of us are busy twittering away.  When will twittering no longer be cool?

Furthermore, more than 60 per cent of Twitter users have stopped using it a month after joining, according to Nielsen Online research.  MySpace and Facebook have retention rates near 70% while Twitter’s retention rate is a mere 40%.
The social and cultural drivers of Twitter will continue to drive the growth of social media especially among the 18-34 demographic.  It will be interesting to see how Twitter evolves to attract more of a loyal following.  If it doesn’t evolve I can’t see how it can sustain itself in the long term.

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In today’s chaotic marketing environment marketers need less statistics and numbers and more actionable insights.  Measurement and tracking is important, but it seems we are bombarded with numbers and statistics from customer surveys, website reports, marketing dashboards, and sales prospect data that many times don’t give us the true insights we need.  Market research firms are hired to pick up the slack, but the utility of market research is often minimal.  Many times the data is worthless even before the survey hits the field due to quickly changing business conditions, and consumers are over surveyed and fatigued by the constant bombardment of surveys online or elsewhere.  Furthermore, when you have focus groups being conducted on TV in my opinion it just spoils the quality and mystery that made them effective tools 10 or 20 years ago (don’t get me wrong, there is a time and place for focus groups, but less so).  Ethnographic research is still and will continue to be a valuable qualitative technique and I find it more effective than just an interview or focus group.  It allows that deep-dive without the bias from other individuals in a group.

Consumer fragmentation is making it harder to find and understand market segments.  Traditional research methodologies were designed for a different culture than today and researchers need to evolve.  Researchers need methods:  video blogs, online portals, customer forums, emotional measurement, and analysis of online comments need to take a more prominent role in marketing research.   Traditional research only captures a moment in time, while utilizing social media techniques like creating online customer forums can help marketers take an active and continuous listening approach.  Their insights will be timelier and therefore more relevant.

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The Social Media Marketing Report by Michael Stelzner lists some new and interesting insights on how marketers are utilizing social media.  The full report can be found here: http://www.whitepapersource.com/socialmediamarketing/report/

Here are some highlights:

• Top three questions marketers want answered: (1) What are the best tactics to use, (2) how to do I measure the effectiveness of social media and (3) where do I start?
• Marketers are mostly new to social media: A significant 88% of marketers surveyed are using social media to market their businesses, BUT 72% have only been doing so for a few months or less.
• How much time does this take? A significant 64% of marketers are using social media for 5 hours or more each week and 39% for 10 or more hours weekly. Marketers using social media for more than a year time went up to 20+hours per week.
• The top benefit of social media marketing: The number-one advantage is generating exposure for the business, indicated 81% of all marketers, followed by increasing traffic and building new business partnerships. 52% said a rise in Search Engine results. As the search engine rankings improve, so will business exposure, lead generation efforts and a reduction in overall marketing expenses.
• The top social media tools: Twitter, blogs, LinkedIn and Facebook were the top four social media tools used by marketers, in that order. 61.62% of marketers who have been using social media for years report it has helped them close business. More than half who spend 16 or more hours per week find the same results. After only a few months and with as few as 6 hours a week, more than half of marketers have generated qualified leads with social media marketing.
• Social media tools marketers most want to learn about: Social bookmarking sites were ranked of highest interest, followed closely by Twitter.

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There is a lot of controversy surrounding the latest Burger King spots.  One spot uses sexually suggestive music video spoof to sell kids meals, and another has a stir by using a stereotype to offended Mexicans.  Burger King is advertising to its base in both spots.  I suspect those who are offended probably are not loyal Burger King visitors.  I can see how both spots could be offensive, but I suspect it won’t stop anyone from eating there.

The Sponge Bob spot is a spoof of the early 90’s Sir-Mix-A lot sensation that is a popular requested song at almost every wedding reception I’ve attended the last 10 years.  The target are the 30-something minivan driving parents with happy meal eating children who fondly remember that song from their more wild youth.  The spot was running during late Primetime.  The unique strategy here is that BK is targeting parents to sell more kids meals, and not kids which has been the conventional strategy up until this point.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gMZ62PsvRM]

The second spot involves a small Mexican wrestler and a weak American Cowboy who become roommates to promote BK’s new Tex-Mex style Burger. It’s been reported that some Mexicans are offended by the portrayal. I haven’t seen any Americans or Texans upset about their portrayal as a weak cowboy. I think if anyone should be offended it could be little people. Burger King took this spot off the air, but I think that just helps for it to become more of an Internet sensation.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwpNQWrD8PY]

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So your boss thinks all this Social Media and Twitter stuff is a bunch of hullabaloo.  You’ve got to make the case knowing that in order to get Social Media going in your company in this economic environment you’ll need to take funding from some other marketing budget source, which means your butt is on the line if it crashes and burns.

This reminds me of the scenario a few years back when I was trying to convince my higher-ups that we needed to reduce our print budget and re-invest it in the Internet (this seems so ancient now).

So show the boss all the facts and figures about consumers connecting online, the growth of Social Media, and its impact on attitudes and behaviors, but also show him how it can be tracked and measured.

It is important to remember there is not a silver-bullet when it comes to measuring Social Media.  It all depends on your goals.  Ultimately, the objective is to drive a closer connection to your customer so you can sell more stuff, but you’ve got to break it down into specific goals to make it more tangible and measureable. Is it to drive awareness, use it as a promotional tool, to use it as a research tool, to be more customer-service oriented, or build more customer-centric products?  You may have multiple goals.  Just make sure they are measureable and you have strategies and tactics to back it up.

My advice is to start with the basic measurements first and then get more specific.  If you make it too complicated upfront no one in the organization will get it.  This will help avoid paralysis-by-analysis syndrome too.  Start with ‘engagement’ metrics that you should be monitoring as part of your marketing initiatives already:

• Unique visitors
• Time spent on site
• Frequency of visits
• Depth of visit
• RSS Feed Subscriptions
• Site Bookmarking

Conversion is where the rubber meets the road though.  So ensuring you are collecting reliable conversion data for connections and readers filling out prospect forms, Social Media readers clicking over to your retail environment, or purchasing items is critical.  Having all the social networking friends or readers in the world won’t matter a bit to a ROI-minded boss if you can’t demonstrate how any of your social network is actually taking action.

Now take your measurement to the next level.  Make your reports comparative to drive business decisions.  Compare ROI of traffic generated from Social Media vs. SEO/PPC.  Furthermore segment visitors based on social networking traits. For example, did people who came through Social Media stay longer than people who came to you from other sources?  Did they look at more pages?  Measure how many people post to your online discussion group, comment on your blog posts, upload pictures and videos and/or answer your surveys. How many willingly sign up to be part of your online customer advisory council? These are people who care.  They have opinions, and more importantly are willing to express them. They are engaged.

Finally, I made the point earlier about using Social Media as a way to help measure the success of your traditional campaigns.  By integrating Social Media into your traditional media you can convert passive listeners into active listeners and begin conversations with consumers.  Are your TV or print campaigns encouraging consumers to join a conversation with you?  Once you do this you can then begin to segment customers who are conversing and engaging with you.

The key takeaway is that without some sort of benchmark, it’s impossible to determine your ROI.  Otherwise you are developing a social media program just because everyone else is doing it.  Use measurement as way to help sell Social Media as a viable marketing tool to add to your marketing arsenal.

Other links you might be interested in are:

I used this article by Jim Sterne as reference:

http://www.wdfm.com/marketing-tips/jim-sterne-social-media.php

Aaron Uhrmacher’s article is also very helpful resource:

http://mashable.com/2008/07/31/measuring-social-media-roi-for-business/

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