How social media is changing new product reveals.

This New York Times article offers a fascinating perspective on how social media is changing product reveals.

This is now the case in fashion.  I wonder if this dynamic is also in play in automotive and consumer electronics – two industries that also reveal products well in advance of the on-sale date.

Interestingly, the music industry is embracing a different reveal strategy – artists now "drop" a new release with no advance notice.  In doing so they own the social news cycle,  burning hot and bright at the very moment when the "product" is on sale.

Something for marketers to consider.

What we're doing online.

Great infographic.  It is mind-blowing to see the change in our online behaviors and growth of new platforms in just three years.

source: BusinessInsider.com

Anatomy of a TV viewer.

Interesting new data on TV usage among Millennials (via Adweek).

Cord cutters, aka, the death of TV.

This article from Business Insider provides a clear and fact-based analysis of the upheaval in the TV/cable industry as more and more Americans cut the cord and instead get their video fix via broadband, through services such as Netflix, Hulu, Apple TV, Aereo, ABC.com, et al.  This massive change in media consumption patterns is the bi-product of new generational trends, broadband, economics and, of course, the declining quality of network television programming.  (As the great poet Springsteen sang, "57 channels and nothin' on.")

Here are Business Insider's major conclusions:

1. People are unplugging.
2. Cable TV ratings are sinking.
3. Fewer people are watching TV.
4. Ratings for some major TV events are in decline.
5. For the first time ever, the number of cable TV subscribers at major providers is about to dip below 40 million.
6. Cable and broadband companies are increasingly unable to retain customers.
7. For the first time ever, less than half of subscribers at major broadband companies now subscribe to cable TV.
8. Fewer households actually have TV.
9. Few households have TV because they are watching video on mobile devices instead.
10. Mobile video is booming.
11. Tablets are stealing prime time, the period we used to devote to TV.
12. Ad dollars are following eyeballs, shifting from TV to digital media of all kinds.
13. Ad revenue increases are masking the macro decline in TV.
14. People who are unplugging from both Cable TV and broadband internet are likely going to free wifi.

Digital marketing as a service.

Today at a global marketing meeting I was asked for my point of view on which company is doing digital right.  My answer?  Delta.  The reason I chose Delta is two-fold:  First, they're using digital to reshape marketing as a service (MaaS); second, they are quickly distinguishing themselves in an industry often associated with poor customer service.

I admire what Delta has done over the last few years to employ digital tools to transform marketing into something that serves customers and not simply sell to them.  Witness these examples.

The Delta mobile app provides friction-free service.  I can shop, book and manage my account while sitting in Starbucks.  It will help me remember where I parked my car at the airport.  The iPad version even includes something called Glass Bottom Jet, in which I can watch the world pass underneath me in-flight.  Several weeks ago, in that wretched moment when the baggage carousel stopped without first producing my bags, the app enabled me to scan my boarding pass and find my bags.  That is mobile marketing as a service.

Delta uses social media (@DeltaAssist) to provide real-time, personalized customer service.  Their social service team attempts to resolve customer complaints on the spot.  It's impressive.  A colleague recently told me how on a recent flight his family's seat assignments were scattered throughout the plane.  So, after not receiving help at the boarding gate, he tweeted his plea to @DeltaAssist and received a direct message resolving the issue by seating his family together.  That is social marketing as a service.

By the way, I'm posting this using GoGo in-flight wifi, a standard on almost every Delta flight.

The second screen revolution.

Today Twitter announced that it bought Bluefin Labs, a software company that analyzes online conversations about television programming.  Here's why.

A decade ago pundits predicted that the battle for Interactive TV would be won by whichever company owned the set top box.  Perhaps a Cable TV company, or Microsoft's Xbox.

This didn't turn out to be true.  Like most bad predictions, we based our view of the future on what we knew in the moment.  We didn't know what we didn't know.  For example, in 2003 we did not know about Smartphones, Tablets and WiFi enabled homes.  These three technologies have since conspired to bring about a new form of interactive television – second screen viewing.

Americans are increasingly watching TV while interacting with the content via a mobile device – aka, the second screen.  We share our opinions about what we're watching on TV on Twitter and Facebook.  We quickly research information about the product we just saw advertised.

A 2012 Nielsen research study shows that:

• 88% use a mobile device while watching TV.
• 45% use a mobile device to access social media during TV ads.
• 27% look up information about a product they just saw (slightly higher among women than men).
• Not surprisingly, this behavior is higher among teens that older boomers (62% vs. 33%).

The second screen revolution is prompting advertisers to rethink the old school call-to-action.  Instead of inviting viewers to visit www.whatever.com, we are seeing a steady increase in calls-to-action to join a twitter conversation (via a #hashtag), to get deeper content by using Shazam to tag the commercial, or simply to visit the brand on Facebook, the website the viewer is likely already on as they're viewing the commercial.

Marketing's new normal.

Today I had the opportunity to be the guest speaker at Chapman University's Internet Communications class.  Cory O'Connor, the Assistant Professor who extended the invitation, knows a thing or two about shaping strong brands, having been Sr. VP for the Disney Channel.

My goal was to outline a few themes that have bounced around this blog, particularly that marketing communications professionals should embrace marketing's new normal by eschewing tired distinctions between "online" and "offline", "traditional" vs "nontraditional", as well as my favorite old school term – "new media."  Further to my crusade to simplify planning by stamping out jargon, brand pyramids and Venn Diagrams, I also outlined my simple belief that what is true in life is true in marketing – i.e., they way in which we form personal relationships mirror how we form brand relationships.

Marketing’s New Normal - updated version. from David Murphy

Social TV: second-screen viewing

Since my recent post on how the Super Bowl mainstreamed Social TV, I read the announcement that Turner Entertainment is creating companion apps to enable second-screen viewing for its hit shows like Conan and Big Bang Theory.

These apps will use audio-fingerprint technology, similar to Shazam, to offer viewers deeper content and offers that correspond with the action in the program.  The trend toward second-screen viewing recognizes that TV viewers are increasingly watching TV with the remote in one hand and the smart phone or tablet in the other.

The dream of interactive TV is alive and well.  However, unlike the early prognostications that viewers would interact with the TV screen through their set top box, the interaction is likely to take place through the ever present smart phone.

A case for SMS over QR codes.

QR codes are the rage in marketing.  I'm not yet a full-on fanboy.

Adoption rates are low.  The user experience is spotty.  Today's piece on CNN summarizes many of the key reasons, including the most basic – it is complicated and time-consuming.  My earlier posts on misusing QR codes noted that many marketers are leading customers to content that is largely unsatisfying.  Why go through the bother of snapping a QR to get the same content I could have gotten by typing a URL?

Asking consumers to text DEMO to 1234 to view a product demonstration is familiar and uncomplicated, can be done on every smart phone, in every lighting environment.  To me, that sounds like the quickest response.

Clearly, we need to avoid blanket prognostications.  Tech-savvy consumers and professionals are prime candidates for using QR codes.  It's hard to flip through an issue of Wired without seeing QRCs from marketers as diverse as The Glenlivet, Goldman Sachs and Microsoft.

We may reach a tipping point as QR readers become native features within smart phones, and as their quality improves.  We may also encounter alternatives to QR readers – I've had good experiences to date interacting with print ads embedded with Google Goggles.

Mobile is an opt-in response device more so than an advertising medium.  It has the power to blur offline and online marketing.  It is a central part of a brand's overall "screen strategy" in which we seamlessly link the power of sight, sound and motion across TV, online and mobile.

Marketers do best when they embrace fundamental human behaviors.  We all know how to send text messages.  Inserting an SMS call to action may be a better alternative to inserting a  QRC, which may not work, depending on the lighting, may not be enabled on the phone, or may or not be fully understood by most people.

The age of screen strategies.

Video content, regardless of the type of screen on which it appears, was the star topic at this week's UBS global media and communications conference.

TV advertising is not dead, as many people mistakenly proclaim. Worldwide spending on television advertising is growing. Viewership remains strong, albeit increasingly splintered.

But this fact hides the bigger opportunity for marketers — it's no longer about television, it's about "screens."

I watch football live on my TV, but I stream CNN live on my iPad. I DVR "Modern Family" but use Hulu+ for my daily dose of Stewart, Colbert and Portlandia. Other times I stream "Once Upon a Time" (my guilty pleasure) on abc.com.

Even my "print" is on a screen, mostly The New York Times and Wired on my mobile appendages.

All of these screens provide ample opportunities marketers to employ sight, sound and motion — the building blocks of memorable storytelling.

TV advertising became king in its day because of the persuasiveness of sight, sound and motion. Unlike the original Mad Men, we now have myriad opportunities to use this branding tactic. (That's why I believe this is truly the most exciting time in our business.)

The key to an effective screen strategy is not simply to create video content, but to determine in advance ways to seamlessly integrate and link these storytelling assets. For example, the SMS call to action in the print should lead to product demonstration videos that subsequently link me to customer testimonial videos on the website. Using screens is smart; connecting screens is smarter.

The successful screen strategies are those that create custom content for each screen's unique context and experience. For example, shows on Hulu+ or abc.com are usually sponsored by a single advertiser. The common mistake is to run one TV commercial four times (and be annoyingly repetitive) and miss the opportunity tell an ever-deeper story in four chapters. (Remember, unlike TV, online viewers cannot skip the ads.)

Innovation – aka, don't let a good crisis go to waste.

The Wall Street Journal's small business innovation competition shows how businesses can succeed in a poor economic climate by using the realities of the marketplace as a source of new business models and product offerings.

This made me pause to think about our small business, Barrie D'Rozario Murphy.  Starting an agency on the eve of the Great Recession is a focusing experience.  And while we were named in 2009 by the 4As as the "best small agency in the U.S.", we believe we've gotten better since because we started rethinking what marketers need from an agency.

Our clients needs ideas – not just TV ideas; not just print ideas; not just banner ad ideas.  They need the best solution for the problem at hand.  Any agency that specializes in one solution, whether that is TV or interactive or social media, is the proverbial hammer that views all problems as nails.

We deepened our commitment to being an agency with "no walls."  No walls between us and our clients; no walls between us and other partners working for our clients; no walls preventing us from discovering new and innovative partners that can help our clients succeed; no walls between people of different disciplines.

"No Walls" has inspired us to design smart phone games to sell a la carte travel options for United Airlines (using gamification as a powerful communications strategy).  We created an extensive iPad app for Medtronic to tell its corporate brand story (the modern version of the :60 corporate branding effort traditionally reserved for Sunday morning news programs).  We created social media savvy street teams to launch Best Buy's eBikes program (the new way to link local events to a larger audience).

And throughout this journey we haven't lost our advertising mojo, having created beautiful print, TV and promotional programs that have been recognized with Gold Lions in Cannes and EFFIE Awards from the American Marketing Association.

The morale of the story.  Never led a good crisis go to waste.  Rethink everything, and discover something even better.

21st century advertising.

When I started reading Marc Ruxin's HuffPo piece entitled "The New Creative Department" I was prepared to feel dissatisfied over not having reached yet another moving goal post that defines a next gen advertising agency.


Marc posits that what marketers need in today's media and cultural landscape is "a creative team that can manufacture content in an age where news feeds, social games, Pandora, daily deals, photo sharing, on demand or time-shifted video competes with live television, magazines, movies and radio."


I agree.  And I'm also proud to say that Barrie D'Rozario Murphy is doing this every day for its clients.  When we stand up to give our credentials presentation here's what we show:

• Mobile games to promote United's Travel Options.  (Check them out on iTunes, they've been played nine million times and counting.)
• Station Domination take-over to help Dell connect with hard to reach IT decision makers in D.C.
• Social media campaign for Applied Materials' burgeoning solar division.  (Follow The Sun on Twitter @TweetFromTheSun.)
• iPad app to help Medtronic's customer-facing employees tell the corporate story.
• Street marketing buzz gangs to launch eBikes at Best Buy.
• QR codes for Compellent that imbue static collateral with the sight, sound and motion of customer testimonial films.
• SMS-enabled airport banners to show video demonstrations of United Airlines' new International First and Business Class sleeper seats, as well as a microsite to help road warriors track the roll out.
• Viral film for the Chambers Hotel that won a Gold Lion at Cannes.
• Documentary films to capture the vitality of Del Webb's residents.
• Rich media to allow women to design Chamilia bracelets in the unit itself.
• And, yes, some award-winning TV and print for all our clients.

So what's the moral of the story?  First, I'm proud to partner with Bob Barrie and Stuart D'Rozario and the creative teams they lead; second, it's been my observation that those who write how the our industry needs to change must take more time to observe what successful agencies such as Goodby, Wieden, Crispin, Anomaly, etc. are already doing; finally, let's not call it "creative content" – it's advertising.

Misusing QR codes

A QR code should not be a substitute for a URL.

Used correctly, a QRC is one way to imbue offline, static communications with the brand-building power of sight, sound and motion — e.g., a link to an emotional brand video, or a provocative product demonstration, or compelling customer testimonials.  (For the record, I'm no QR fanboy.  I believe an SMS call to action is a more natural behavior for most people.  Not everyone has a barcode reader, but all know how to text.)

Use it incorrectly and you end up doing something like Medica has done, which recently wallpapered Minneapolis with its QR codes.

After a couple of weeks of curiosity (one of the secret draws of a QR) I broke down and tagged the code. Imagine my joy when it revealed a mobile site that can give me a health insurance quote. I feel this misses a QR's true potential and also overlooks the role of context in brand-building — a parking garage usually is not the place where I want a price quote on my health plan.  (Those more mundane moments in life may be the exact time to inspire me with tips and tricks to live healthier.)

If you want prospects to go to a microsite, simply give them a URL.

Shazam – The QR code of TV.

Progressive Insurance is running (testing?) TV spots that are Shazam enabled.  When I saw the spot the other day I was excited and jealous at the same time.

I love Shazam – it's a very cool music app.  Last weekend, after tagging "Pumped Up Kicks," I found myself wondering why Shazam hadn't yet positioned itself as a QR code for TV.  TV audio is just like a music track – it's all about ones and zeros.  When I later saw the spot I realized I wasn't alone in pondering this question.

Using Shazam to tag the Progressive spot downloads content from Flo, a link to get a quote, a Flo-isms app, etc.  Is Progressive the best test case of Shazam?  Not sure, but I applaud them for testing it.  It would certainly be good for a brand that needs deeper demonstrations or explanations – e.g., cars, computers, financial services, etc.

Going mobile.

I've long advocated that marketers view mobile as an opt-in response device and not as an advertising medium.  Let's agree on a simple truth:  everyone has their phone in hand or nearby all of the time.  Sad perhaps, but undeniably true.

The huge potential of mobile is captured in this infographic, courtesy of Microsoft.

By including a mobile call to action we blur the tired distinction between offline and online; between traditional and nontraditional; between one-way and opt-in communications.  Is a QR-enabled print ad in Fortune traditional or nontraditional?  Is an outdoor poster with an SMS invitation offline or interactive?

I believe mobile response is best used for bringing sight, sound and motion (an amino acid of brand marketing) to otherwise static media.  For example, for United Airlines BD'M included an SMS response on airport banners to enable smartphone wielding business travelers to watch a video of the airline's new first class sleeper suites; for Compellent we embedded a QR code in their brochure to enable IT managers to immediately see customers raving about "Fluid Data."

The jury is out on the effectiveness of QR codes vs SMS.  I believe simple solutions that require less fiddling around will always win (aka, Occam's razor).  Some people may want to snap a photo of a mobile tag, but most may find it more natural to send a text – something they already do dozens of times a day.  (To that end, check out Zoove.com, a service that makes it even easier to create and own "vanity" numbers which are more memorable than most short codes.)

More consumers are phoning it in.

I've posted frequently about the huge role that mobile will play in engaging customers and continue to hold the view that mobile is not an advertising medium; rather, it is best viewed as a customer service app or as an opt-in response device.

Yesterday's report in the WSJ documents the rapid increase in the number of consumers using smart phones not only for comparison shopping, but also to make the purchase.  We're heading to Wal-Mart to shop, then, while standing in the aisle, buying the product for less on Amazon.  According to the article, "on the Friday after Thanksgiving a year ago, consumers using mobile devices accounted for just 0.1% of visits to retail websites...this Black Friday, they accounted for 5.6%." 

Essentially, mobile phones have transformed Wal-mart's, Target's and Best Buy's stores into one massive showroom for Amazon. 

I believe a brick and mortar retailer's best response is to reimagine their stores, more as customer service centers that create a tangible value for buying there, not just shopping.  For example, whereas currently Best Buy charges a premium for its Geek Squad service, I can imagine a day when this added value is offered free of charge.  Amazon would have a hard time matching this.  I can also imagine a day when Best Buy takes a page from Apple's playbook and turns its Blue Shirts into an in-store genius bar.  I'm less likely to buy from Amazon if I know I can make an appointment at Best Buy to get a tutorial on my new gizmo.

Mobile's other big value is as an opt-in response device.  By replacing generic calls-to-action with a mobile invitation (e.g., SMS to learn more, QR code to view product demo), mobile has the ability to make moot the silly distinctions between online and offline.  To wit, is a magazine ad with an SMS call-to-action traditional or nontraditional? You get the point.

 

The PayPal of mobile commerce?

The Red Cross text message campaign to raise donations for Haiti is brilliant.  It's simple and immediate, two things that tend to resonate in America.

It's also been hugely effective, raising about $22 million in donations as of this past Sunday, or nearly one in every five dollars raised so far by the Red Cross for Haiti.

(By the way, if you haven't done so already, please text "Haiti" to 9099 and and $10 donation to the Red Cross relief effort for Haiti will be added to your phone bill.)

This makes me wonder about the future applications of this idea.  Why couldn't I do the same thing to buy a product?  Why can't AT&T or Verizon step forward to become the new PayPal for mobile commerce?

Read this today while supplies last.

Advertising has long relied on the straightforward call-to-action to prompt consumers to act now. It's been a simple tactic that never required much more thought than how loud to shout or how bold to make the type.

However, today's media environment challenges us to imagine new ways to invite a response from customers. Mobile, search and social media create smarter and more specific opportunities to prompt an immediate action.

I began thinking about this when I saw an ad for Sony Pictures' new release, "2012." The billboard said, "Search 2012." This call-to-action is brilliant in its simplicity. It recognizes that people are increasingly dialing up brands through search, not by typing in a brand's URL. The volume of Google searches prompted by this call-to-action results in a wall of search hits that makes 2012 seem like a pop culture buzz machine. Moreover, the simple request to "search" may even inspire more curiosity about what one will find.

I've long advocated that we view mobile phones as a response device, not as an advertising platform. I think we can agree that everyone we know carries a mobile phone. And smartphone penetration is around 20% and climbing. (Presumably much higher among the business crowd.) For example, including an SMS call-to-action in a magazine ad transforms an offline message into an interactive message. The exponential increase in iPhone apps is creating new ways for consumers to shop as soon as they see a brand's commercial. In fact, Pizza Hut now ends its commercials with an invitation to order via iPhone.

Social media offers an entirely different call-to-action. For example, Prius asks people on Facebook to share "Random acts of Prius" -- small gestures that can help your friends make the next 24 hours better than the previous. (Props to my former colleagues at Saatchi.)

So next time we're writing a brief, or thinking about writing a throw-away final line of copy, take a few minutes to think through a more interesting way to compel customers to interact with the brand.

But do so today!

Building iPhone apps that don't suck

I like this piece by Fast Company, "How to build an iPhone app that doesn't suck." I think we'd all agree that apps rock. But, truth be told, for every must-have app there seems to be 10 lame ones. Fast Company's slide show provides a quick guide for marketers to follow. My favorite in the list? The WebMD app. Useful content served up through a simple interface.

We love screens

I am the father of two screen-agers. I am a screen-ager as well, as are many of us. We crave screens.

Contrary to popular belief, TV is not dead. According to Randall Stross' article in the NY Times, we're spending more and more time in front of the tube. We're spending more time online. We are also spending more time viewing videos on our mobile phones, the so-called "third screen." With sites like Hulu and abc.com, even iPhone videopodcasts, we're increasingly blurring the distinctions between all of these screens.

What we're not doing as much is reading magazines and newspapers. (You would probably not be reading my blog if it weren't on a screen.) Although I am a devoted reader of the New York Times, I must confess I am reading it more often via my iPhone app, relegating the pulp version to airplane reading.

Saatchi CEO Kevin Roberts nailed this idea several years ago in his book, SISOMO, which compelled us to think beyond TV and think screens instead. Screens provide sight, sound and motion. We crave sight, sound and motion.

We need to begin having more conversations about screen strategies, not just media strategies. A screen strategy would force us to think about how to link the three screens (perhaps four when you consider the rise in digital out of home) into a cohesive experience.