October 2008 Archives

RESEARCH BRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

 

Friday, October 31, 2008

Surprise! Consumers Looking For Value and Discount Stores for the Holidays

 

According to Deloitte's 23rd Annual Holiday Survey of retail spending and trends, 59% of consumers expect to reduce their spending this holiday season. Higher food prices (73%) and higher energy prices (69%) were the top two reasons for spending less, outpacing the economy (61%) and job uncertainty (18%).

A record number of consumers say they are pessimistic about the economy. Over half of the respondents (53%) say they expect the economy to weaken next year, the highest in more than 10 years of asking this question, compared with 43% last year.

Categories in which spending is likely to be down the most from last year are

• Home improvements
• Home/holiday furnishings
• Non-gift clothing
• Socializing away from home
• Charitable donations
• Entertaining at home

Consumers also said they would buy fewer gifts this year, 21.5 gifts on average compared with 23.1 gifts last year, and they will spend an average of $532 on gifts this holiday season, down 6.5%.

Stacy Janiak, Deloitte's U.S. Retail Leader, says "... consumers appear to be reining in their non-essential holiday spending, while trying to preserve the tradition of gift-giving and the spirit of the holidays."

According to the report, 73% of consumers said the best value for the money will cause them to shop a particular retailer this season, and 72% said low prices. More consumers say they will shop at venues such as discount/value department stores, warehouse clubs, dollar stores, outlet stores, and off-prices stores. Drug stores and supermarkets also showed big increases from last year. In addition, flea markets (7%) and re-sale/used merchandise stores (6%) were cited as destinations by consumers.

Janiak notes that "... price-oriented retailers have an edge in this environment, as well as an opportunity to enhance their market share and positioning... (and) will likely not be penalized for their leaner staffing levels since consumers are focused on value rather than on other factors, such as customer service."

The report highlights that for the fifth straight year, gift cards are expected to be the top gift purchase. 66% of consumers surveyed plan to buy them, just slightly below last year's 69% of consumers. Holiday shoppers are also planning to buy fewer cards on average: 5.3 cards this year, compared with the 5.5 cards they planned to buy last year.

Gift cards for stores/products, though, are less popular, says the report: only 47 percent of consumers plan to buy them, compared with 54 percent last year. But, gift cards for gasoline increased to 17 percent from 13 percent, another sign of this year's focus on necessities.

23% of respondents, however, are concerned about the store closing before they can use a card, and 24% have had at least one card expire before they could use it.

 Janiak concludes that "... we could see a higher gift card redemption rate in January... (because of) the growing number of unused gift cards... (and) the current economic environment."

For the complete summary, and links to more data from Deloitte, please visit here.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

This week's Pizza Friday looks at ordinary people, imaginary friends, and fonts with attitude.

RESEARCH BRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

 

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

The Changing Face of the Press Release

 

According to the Executive Summary of a study conducted by Fellows of the Society for New Communications Research and made possible by Vocus, the advent of new online communication channels, the goals, target audiences, and overall scope of press releases have transformed press releases themselves into a new communication tool used by public relations and marketing professionals alike.

The respondents' top goals for online press releases indicated that the traditional goals of increasing an organization's visibility and credibility and announcing news are now almost equally as important as new goals that include reaching customers directly, creating online content, and search engine optimization (SEO).

Goals For Online Press Releases (% of respondents)
Goals	Mean Score (5=very important)	Very Important	Neutral	Unimpor-tant
Increased visibility & credibility	4.50	90.3%	8.2%	1.0%
Announcing news	4.30	79.6	16.0	4.4
Reaching customers/consumers	4.25	80.0	13.8	6.2
Creating Online content readily available	4.10	7.45	18.1	7.5
SEO optimization for website	4.09	1.1	18.6	10.3
Conduit to other Online sources of information	3.69	59.7	29.0	11.4
Using as sales tool	3.59	58.8	19.5	21.7
Reaching bloggers	3.57	56.3	23.6	20.0
Enhancing thought leadership	3.25	43.3	31.0	25.7
Source: Society for New Communications Research/Vocus, October 2008

While PR professionals placed more importance on traditional goals such as announcing news and enhancing thought leadership, marketing professionals reported SEO and reaching consumers as important goals for their online press releases. Small business owners were concerned with using the release as a sales tool and reaching customers directly.

Both traditional media and new media emerged as the top two most important audiences respondents hoped to reach with their online press releases. Bloggers and new media followed traditional media in importance, but were a very close second, separated by only 0.28 points on a 1-5 scale.

Audiences For Online Press Releases
Audience	Importance Mean (5=Very Important)
Traditional media	4.16
Bloggers and new media outlets	3.88
B2B consumers/customers & prospects	3.72
B2C consumers/customers & prospects	3.32
Webmasters to repurpose	3.27
MSAs - geographical targets	2.89
Partners	2.83
Financial analysts & investment community	2.47
Competitors	2.23
Source: Source: Society for New Communications Research/Vocus, October 2008

In terms of target audiences for online press releases, significant differences emerged between marketing and public relations professionals. Although both marketing and public relations professionals reported more than average importance for reaching traditional media, consumers, and webmasters that will repurpose the release, PR professionals were consistently more interested than marketing professionals in reaching traditional media.

Marketing professionals were consistently more interested than PR practitioners in reaching new media or consumers directly. For example:

• PR professionals rated the importance of reaching traditional media an average 4.53 on a 1-5 scale, which is significantly higher than marketing professionals' rating of 3.82 
• Similarly, marketing professionals rated the importance of reaching webmasters with an average 3.49 on a 1-5 scale, which is significantly higher than PR practitioners' rating of only 2.83

These results indicate that online press releases have been adopted as a communications tool by the marketing profession, says the report, but are being used very differently than they have traditionally been used by public relations professionals.

The most frequently mentioned criterion for evaluating the success of online press releases was:

• The number of times the release has been republished on websites (79.6 percent)
• The number of times the release has been viewed online (76.8 percent)
• An article based on the release (75.4 percent)
• Media interview requests as a result of the release (74.2 percent)

Interestingly, although marketing and public relations professionals seem to use online press releases differently, there were no statistically significant differences between the two in terms of the criteria they use for evaluating success. In fact, the evaluation criteria were homogenous across different size organizations and industry sectors as well. The only statistically significant difference identified young communication practitioners (under 30 years of age) as more interested than the other age groups in obtaining coverage on blogs and social media sites.

Open-ended responses to a different survey question indicate that higher level indicators such as "eyeballs" and "dollar value" are desired evaluation criteria of online press releases, but communication professionals do not know how to measure them, concludes the study.

Very few respondents indicated using social media release formats (26.3 percent) and even fewer reported adding video (12.8 percent) or audio (9 percent) enhancements. Of all multimedia elements, photos were the most popular, used in online press releases by 49.5 percent of respondents. Even more puzzling is that less than half of respondents (48.8 percent) link to their own press releases after they have been posted online.

The most frequently mentioned challenges of online press releases, grouped into categories according to the main themes, were:

• Cutting through the clutter. This challenge speaks to the difficulty of getting a press release noticed in an information-rich environment. 
• Targeting and distribution. Respondents often find it difficult to identify and target the specific audience for their press releases.
• Measurement. Accurate evaluation of online press release results to include not only message distribution and exposure, but also evidence of audience receipt and behavior change was another perceived challenge.

Please visit here to retrieve the complete PDF Whitepaper release.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

 

MEDIAPOST'S

ONLINE MEDIA DAILY

 

'Christian Science Monitor' To Cease Daily Publication

by Gavin O'Malley, Tuesday, Oct 28, 2008 1:34 PM ET

Signaling a fundamental shift in the publishing industry, The Christian Science Monitor today announced plans to shift from daily to a weekly print publishing format. In turn, the national newspaper plans to invest heavily in its Web presence. "We're the first national paper to switch to a Web first strategy," said John Yemma, editor of the newspaper, which is more than 100 years old and has won seven Pulitzer Prizes. "We need to make it first rather than secondary, so we can make it more of a go-to destination." The newspaper industry is facing intense pressure to downsize and reorganize due to decreasing ad revenue, rising production costs, and a whole host of new and Web-facilitated competition. "Overall macro-trends definitely played a role here," Yemma said. "Every paper that I know is struggling with essentially a broken business model that includes unnecessary production costs, awful deadlines and a horrible carbon footprint." As a result, by April of next year, the news organization plans to be producing an enhanced, constantly updated version of its Web site, CSMonitor.com, along with the launch of a weekly print edition and a daily electronic subscription product. An independent publication funded by the Christian Science Church, the Monitor is currently posting net losses of $18.9 million a year on $12.5 million in revenue, according to Monitor executives who expect that the print cuts will result in a decline in losses to $10.5 million within five years. Some industry watchers see the Monitor simply making the best of a bad situation. "Judging by the decreasing circulation and revenue numbers, it seems like (the Monitor) didn't have an option here," said Michael Hanley, an assistant professor of journalism at Ball State University. That said, Hanley was still surprised that the Monitor would be the first national newspaper to "go digital." "Their audience is known to be very intelligent, but older and not particularly tech-savvy." According to Yemma, the Monitor will continue to distinguish itself by its focus on and investment in international news coverage with 18 bureaus worldwide. Noted Ball State's Hanley: "Niche publishers have to find a way to be relevant, and one of the benefits of the Web is that it will allow (the Monitor) to become more global." The new Web edition will feature original reporting seven days a week, and the new weekly print publication will contain stories that look behind the headlines and help readers understand global issues. In the coming months, the Monitor will make significant upgrades to its Web site, including 24/7 original reporting on global news that is continuously updated. The site will also include "global conversations" between readers and Monitor staff as well as links to content elsewhere on the Web. As part of its multi-platform format, the Monitor will also launch a new daily e-news edition, which will be delivered via e-mail. The two-to three-page subscription product will include an original column from the editors, a selection of important Monitor stories and links to other Monitor stories. "The Christian Science Monitor recognizes that daily print has become too costly and energy-intensive," Yemma said. "Online journalism is more timely and is rapidly expanding its reach, especially among younger readers."   Gavin O'Malley can be reached at gavin@mediapost.com

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

New York, Chicago Test Digital Displays to Help Cover Revenue Shortfalls

By Andrew Hampp

Published: October 27, 2008

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- For New York and Chicago commuters, ads are starting to seem unavoidable, cropping up everywhere from subway turnstiles to digital banners on buses to the entire exteriors of subway cars. But the ad revenue has become essential to the long-term sustainability of the cities' transit authorities.

Take New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is projecting a $900 million deficit for 2009 and needs all the extra revenue it can get before it resorts to hiking fares for millions of commuters. Jeremy Soffin, the agency's spokesperson, said the MTA was able to generate $106 million in ad revenue in 2007, and anticipates finishing 2008 with $125 million. However, should pilot projects with advertisers continue on a permanent basis, the agency anticipates a lift in ad revenue as high as 25% in 2009.

"The advertising revenue is a small fraction of our total budget," Mr. Soffin said. "We get about half of our funding directly from customers through fares and tolls -- mostly government subsidies, taxes and other revenue sources. But obviously every bit of additional revenue helps close that gap."

The MTA is in the midst of a 10-year contract worth $800 million with Titan Worldwide, an out-of-home-advertising company. Earlier this month, Titan began testing the first digital ads on buses in both New York and Chicago, bringing external video-enabled ads to public transportation for the first time. Advertisers in the test include Oreo, Dunkin' Donuts, Sleepy's mattresses and Sony Pictures, for the James Bond flick "Quantum of Solace."

Don Allman, president-CEO of Titan Worldwide, said the first round of tests have already started to show how the ads enhance the commuter experience. "We had it parked outside one of our clients' headquarters on Madison Avenue, and people stopped and stared and walked up to us," he said. "It showed us this is going to create incremental, non-fare-box revenue."

Ads with benefits
Titan is rolling out similar tests in Chicago, with which it has a separate 10-year contract signed in April and expected to generate about $101 million in new revenue, according to Chicago Transit Authority spokeswoman Catherine Hosinki. The extra ad dollars have become crucial for Chicago as well, which by law must cover 50% of its annual budget with revenue generated from fares, advertising and investment income.

Provided the new tests go well, Ms. Hosinki said she expects the CTA to equip 100 city buses and all 144 rail stations with 1,500 digital displays by next summer. An expansion is also being made to the city's subway platforms to keep riders informed with real-time travel information. "In addition to providing a venue for advertising, the digital display boards create a new channel for the CTA to communicate with its customers," Ms. Hosinki said in an e-mail.

Of course, transit ads aren't limited to ticketed venues. NBC Universal and ABC have been active in programming New York City's taxicabs with content and advertising in the past two years. Earlier this year, NBC expanded its out-of-home efforts under the umbrella of a new organization, NBC Everywhere, to include everything from gas stations, sports stadiums, grocery stores and maternity wards.

Up next is NBC in Transit, which will bring TV screens to Port Authority of New York and New Jersey PATH trains in the first quarter of 2009. Mark French, the group's senior VP-general manager, said the company is actively creating a dedicated programming schedule for the new network comprising networks such as NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo, Oxygen, USA and Sci-Fi during different parts of the day. "We're creating relevant content that you can display in some informative way and at the same time entertain and inform someone utilizing visuals," he said. "What you will not see is repurposed TV programming with closed captions scrolling at the bottom of the screen."

With the influx of ads destined to become a permanent part of New Yorkers and Chicagoans' daily commutes, customer research is already being conducted at each transit authority to gauge initial reception of the new ad formats. "Obviously in a city like New York, advertising can be pretty ubiquitous, so we have to be very mindful of the fact we're responsible for one of the city's great public spaces," the MTA's Mr. Soffin said. "It's a very democratic space. It's just about finding the right balance."

For more information visit www.adage.com

Numantra provides this excellent overview of the digital media landscape for 2008 - 2009.  What trends in consumer behavior and online marketing are having the greatest impact on advertising?  And what do advertisers need to know to be effective in the constantly evolving digital world? Numantra helps set the stage for your online strategy with this look at the Digital Media Landscape.



Presentation Notes:

Slide 1: Navigating the Digital Media Landscape

Slide 2: THE DIGITAL MEDIA LANDSCAPE OF 2008-2009 Consumer Online Video Social Media Generated Media Search Marketing Widgets Web 2.0 Mobile Online Advertising Email Websites

Slide 3: SOCIAL MEDIA ‚ Online communities of people ‚ Share ideas, content, and recommendations ‚ 74% of respondents choose companies or brands based on customer service experiences shared by other Web users on the Internet. (Source: Brandweek/ Society for New Communications Research, Palo Alto, Calif) ‚ 81% of those polled said they believe blogs, online rating systems and discussion forums give consumers \"a greater voice\" in customer service. (Source: Brandweek/ Society for New Communications Research, Palo Alto, Calif)

Slide 4: CONSUMER GENERATED MEDIA ‚ Consumer reviews on Amazon, Netflix ‚ Consumer advertising on eBay, YouTube ‚ Consumer created ads for Doritos, Heinz ‚ Blogs created by consumers and adopted by major brands ‚ Google Ads created by consumers to promote their hobbies, businesses, and affiliations ‚ Websites created by fans of brands

Slide 5: ONLINE VIDEO ‚ Daily traffic to YouTube has nearly doubled to 48% of adults ‚ 54% of adults now have high-speed Internet connections at home ‚ 48 % of respondents used a video-sharing site, up from last year's 33% ‚ 15% of the respondents used a video-sharing site in the day before they answered the survey (Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project )

Slide 6: SEARCH ‚ Search is the number one use of the Internet ‚ Search Engine Optimization helps a marketer's website become listed prominently on the Search Results Page of Search Engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN) ‚ Search Engine Marketing (SEM) ensures that a marketer's website appears prominently on the Search Results Page of Search Engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN) ‚ Pay-per-click SEM sends qualified leads directly to your website or landing page

Slide 7: WIDGETS ‚ Widgets help marketers to deliver their product and/or service to the desktops of consumers computers ‚ Widgets are downloadable and/or are easily embedded on consumers own websites, Social Network Pages, or blogs. ‚ Examples of widgets include calendars, calculators, traffic monitors, stock monitors, weather forecasts, news tickers, sports scores, sales monitors, slideshows, blog watchers, maps, driving directions, etc.

Slide 8: MOBILE ‚ Of the 60% of consumers who will limit their discretionary spending (due to a slowed economy), 41% of consumers, however, have no plans to stop or cut- back on the purchase of cell phones, making it an increasingly viable advertising channel (Source: 2008 Harris Interactive study) ‚ 16% of U.S. homes are using wireless phones exclusively (Source: 2008 National Center for Health Statistics) ‚ Non-digital media (print ads, direct mail, outdoor) are incorporating mobile text messaging call-to-actions to generate more immediate consumer responses Pens Mobile Club - Text PENS to 32623 to Joinant to stay connected with the Pens at all times? Sign up to receive free text message alerts! Whether there is a big trade, breaking news, or special offers - you will find out first.Alerts go out after every game and include the 3 stars of the game. There is no charge to receive Pens Text Alerts. Standard text messaging rates apply.

Slide 9: WEB 2.0 ‚ Web 2.0 refers to the trend in web development that recognizes how people are using a website and uses that activity help shape the website experience for others ‚ Some examples of Web 2.0 - The "Most Popular Visited Pages" list of a website become the most useful links on that website - "Consumers who ordered this product also ordered these" - Consumer reviews of products - Onsite Comments and Feedback - Tags and Buzzclouds

Slide 10: ONLINE ADVERTISING ‚ Contextually relevant ad placements (typical ad placements based on content that matches advertisers with areas of interest) ‚ Behavioral targeting (ad networks track consumers that indicate an interest in a topic on one site and begin advertising to them about that topic on subsequent sites) ‚ Re-targeting (people that visit your website are tagged and then shown ads on other websites after leaving your site) ‚ Rich-media (transactions and data gathering are built directly into the ad unit) ‚ Sponsorships (gaining tighter ties with relevant content) ‚ Affiliations (ad serving networks that deliver click-throughs to your site)

Slide 11: EMAIL ‚ House lists over bought lists - bought lists between produce spam and subsequently backlash 40% to ‚ Content driven - email's value to the receiver is based on it's content 70% of all ‚ Sent rate, open rate, click-throughs are the primary metrics that determine an email email is campaign's success currently getting blocked by spam filters!

Slide 12: WEBSITE ‚ Websites are becoming more transactional over informational ‚ Microsites are increasing in popularity as a method for addressing specific events and supporting specific campaigns

Slide 13: TOP 10 ONLINE MARKETING TRENDS 10. Social networking will get more and more niche. 9. Viral campaign Web sites will have a purpose. 8. User-generated content will be a component on most new Web sites. 7. Email marketers will demand more strategy from their marketing agencies. 6. Great content is king. 5. Most successful companies will become media companies. 4. The Democrat majority in Congress swings the tide of online marketing. 3. Greater integration of video into all Web sites. 2. Email mantra: list segmentation + relevant content = improved results. 1. Thoughtful, cause-related (green) marketing is the biggest winner. Source: marketingprofs.com

Slide 14: WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN AN INTERACTIVE AGENCY ‚ Experience with online retail marketing ‚ Experience with building and managing databases ‚ Full-service interactive capabilities (strategic, creative, programming, hosting, email delivery, online ad development and support, web development and support) ‚ Experience with successfully integrating traditional and interactive elements in ongoing marketing campaigns ‚ Experience with Social Media ‚ Experience with creating and implementing online video ‚ Experience with implementing Web 2.0 standards ‚ Experience with developing overall digital media strategies that extend beyond the website and email campaign ‚ Experience with targeted online media and the development of rich-media campaigns

Slide 15: Numantra is a very unique and results-driven advertising & marketing agency that was started on the crest of a tidal wave of change that ushered in the 21st Century. Our founding partners recognized the coming of this change and purposefully created a company shaped in the image of the unstoppable future. Find out what Numantra can do for you. Visit hire.numantra.com for more information.

RESEARCH BRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

 

Monday, October 27, 2008

Analyze This! Branded Candidates

 

According to the 2008 Presidential ImagePower Survey by Landor Associates and Penn, Schoen & Berland, James Bond and Jack Bauer (TV 24) would be heading into the final stretch of the U.S. presidential campaigns this month. The poll of likely voters sheds light, says the study, on various aspects of the nominees' identities by associating them with familiar brands across categories. For example, in the eyes of the public, Obama is associated with BMW, Target, and Google, while McCain is aligned with Ford, Walmart, and AOL.

Brand Association (Consumer Perception of Brand & Candidate Similarity)
Brand	Candidate
	Obama	Biden	McCain	Palin
Coffee	Starbucks	Starbucks	Starbucks	Starbucks
Car	BMW	Ford	Ford	Ford
Computer platform	Mac/PC	PC	PC	PC
Retailer	Target	Target	Walmart	Walmart
Search engine	google	AOL	AOL	Google
Fast Food	McDonalds	McDonalds	McDonalds	Wendy's
Magazine	People	BusinessWeek	BusinessWeek	People
Fictional character	James Bond	Bond/Bauer	Jack Bauer	James Bond
Source: Landor Associates/Penn, Schoen & Bertland, October 2008

According to the survey, voters' perceptions of candidate attributes finds Obama as charming, approachable, compassionate, intelligent and unifying, while McCain is seen as strong, reliable and respected. On the vice presidential side, Biden was identified as respected, strong, and reliable, while Palin'sattributes include trustworthy, "shares my values," and approachable, as well as unifying and credible -two qualities she shares with Obama.

Mary Ellen Dugan, executive director at Landor Associates, says "The study suggests that both campaigns have effectively co-branded to broaden and balance their appeal. Obama and Palin... (are associated) with similar positive key attributes, despite the strong surface distinctions between the two candidates... Likewise, Biden and McCain are both aligned with similar brands despite their deep policy disagreements."

The survey suggests that Obama and Palin have a lot in common, as do McCain and Biden, demonstrating that the VP candidates compensate for Obama and McCain's perceived weaknesses, at least brand-wise.

Scott Siff, executive vice president at Penn, Schoen & Berland, notes that "...Three of the key brands that McCain and Obama are both associated with... won their reputation as game-changers in their respective categories... This similarity in the candidates' brand strategies also indicates that whichever candidate best achieves the positioning they are both trying to claim may well be the winner on November 4."

For more information about this study, please visit here.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

This week's Pizza Friday features a deal from Dr. Pepper, a creative showcase from Zune, and a wacky email from Woot.

MediaPosts's

ONLINE MEDIA DAILY

Forrester: B2B Marketers Cling To Familiar

by Gavin O'Malley, Thursday, Oct 23, 2008 7:37 PM ET

Business-to-business marketers' interest in social media and Web 2.0 services have increased dramatically over the past nine months, according to a new study from Forrester Research. When it comes to program spending and execution, however, B2B marketers cling to familiar approaches, according to the Forrester survey of 189 marketing professionals in seven different industries. The majority of survey respondents--60% or more--report using conventional lead-generation digital tactics such as e-mail newsletters, Webinars, microsites, and online display ads in their marketing mix. Far fewer--31% or less--have begun to use tactics like blogs, podcasts, and social networks as new ways to engage buyers and foster community conversations. In addition, poor business practices threaten many opportunities within this burgeoning channel, according to the report's chief author and Forrester analyst Laura Ramos. "To avoid alienating these socially adept early adopters, B2B marketers should focus on audience and objectives first and avoid deploying social technologies as just another communication channel customers will choose to avoid," said Ramos. Some business marketers plan to shift next year's program dollars to social media at the expense of tested lead-generation activities such as trade shows, PR, and direct mail. Overall, however, less than 10% of respondents say they include widgets, mashups, advergames, mobile ads, or virtual worlds in their marketing plans. "B2B marketers lack confidence that these tactics engage prospects and turn them into opportunities," Ramos wrote in the report. While 25% of respondents think social networks and online communities help to build brand awareness, they can't connect these tactics to the sales pipeline. What's more, respondents in the Forrester survey apparently did not know how to size or measure the impact that social media has on buyers. "While they see Webinars, microsites, and rich media apps delivering qualified leads, respondents scratch their heads about the value that viral video and social network marketing provide, with 31% saying it is 'too early to tell' for social networks and 68% saying the same for video marketing," according to the report. Gavin O'Malley can be reached at gavin@mediapost.com For more information visit www.mediapost.com

RESEARCH BRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

 

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Engaged Online Viewers Receptive to Advertising

 

According to a new study "Watching The Web: How Online Video Engages Audiences"  conducted by Forrester Consulting for Veoh Networks, , not all online video viewers are equal when it comes to advertising. While some online video viewers still only "snack" on short clips, there exists a large audience of young, influential, engaged viewers who watch a great deal of long-form online video and pay attention to the brand messages delivered to them in online video environments.

The study found that Engaged Viewers (viewers who watch more than an hour of online video a week) make up nearly 40% of all online video viewers and watch nearly 75% of all online video. Of these Engaged Viewers, those who spend the most time consuming and sharing long-form content:

• Are more likely to watch videos all the way through
• Pay more attention to online video more than they do TV
• Interact with and rate the videos they watch more frequently
• Are twice as likely to recall in-video ads and post-rolls than non-Engaged Viewers
• Agree more readily that advertising is fair and helps pay for their free experience
• Consider banner ads and ads that come in between videos (mid-rolls) most effective

Steve Mitgang, CEO of Veoh Networks, opines "...online video viewing... will create many new opportunities for content providers and advertisers... advertisers (should) re-think their approaches to marketing... to captivate these valuable viewers as they drive online video into a mainstream entertainment medium."

The study found that online video viewing For Engaged Viewers is not a fad but rather a growing consumer habit:

• 61% of Engaged Viewers expect to spend significantly more time watching online video
• 13- to 24-year-olds make up only 15% of the online population, but represent more than 35% of Engaged online video viewers
• Engaged Viewers watch an average of 6 kinds of video content, from animation to TV shows to movie trailers, during the course of a month

The study further segmented Engaged Viewers into three sub-groups based on time spent watching video, types of videos watched, comfort level managing the video viewing experience, propensity to share videos, and amount of attention paid to online video compared to TV:

• Watchers, those who spend just over an hour watching video each week and don't engage the experience deeply by controlling playback or sharing videos
• Controllers, those younger viewers take an active role in controlling their video experiences and feel that online video is important to their lives
• Connectors, though just 7% of online viewers, consume 20% of all online video and do 42% of all online video sharing

The most desirable viewers - Connectors and Controllers - watch long-form video more often than Watchers do, so sites that offer a great deal of long-form video are the ideal places to reach them. Long-form video sites not only attract these viewers, but they also foster an environment that secures more viewer attention and engagement with advertising. Connectors are significantly more likely to notice brands and feel ads are useful when presented with products they are interested in.

As online video viewing matures, advertisers can take advantage of the unique opportunity to reach valuable Engaged Viewers by considering these findings, concludes the report:

• Engaged video viewers are more open to enjoying the advertising they watch giving marketers an opportunity to create ads that are as entertaining as the video clips they are paired with.
• Engaged video viewers are more involved in every aspect of the viewing experience, including the advertising.
• Engaged viewers respond to ad formats that don't intrude unfairly. Their preference for banner ads supports this. But banner ads can be supported by a comprehensive ad experience
• As more viewers spend more than an hour a week viewing online video, advertisers can match ads to viewers with long-form content, where the choice of programming defines the  viewer

For more information on the study, please visit here

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

CMO Nick Utton and Spark's Ken Zasky Share Tips on How to Survive a Credit Crisis

By Natalie Zmuda

Published: October 20, 2008

ORLANDO, Fla. (AdAge.com) -- E-Trade Financial may have had a startling fall from grace a year ago, but the fact that it's still around offers hope for today's battered financial companies, the marketer and its media agency told an audience during the Oct. 19 general session of the Association of National Advertisers' annual conference.

 

Nick Utton, chief marketing officer at E-Trade, and Ken Zasky, president of Spark Communications, shared their playbook for how to survive a credit crisis. On Nov. 9 of last year, E-Trade admitted that it wouldn't be able to stick by profit forecasts, as subprime loans and mortgage-backed debt took their toll. Then, on Nov. 13, its stock plummeted nearly 60% following an analyst's use of the word "bankruptcy" in connection with the financial-services firm. Terrified investors pulled out more than $6 billion in assets between November and December.

Mr. Zasky said that the day E-Trade's crisis took hold, he was able to get Mr. Utton on the phone within 10 minutes. That good client-agency relationship enabled the pair to quickly come up with ideas for how to handle the situation.

No riding it out
"Speed is not negotiable with Nick," Mr. Zasky said. "Speed went a long way to making sure it didn't get out of hand. ... The first instinct may be to ride it out, but you can't ride it out in the basement."

E-Trade moved quickly to reassure panicked investors. It issued statements saying it was not going bankrupt, and it evaluated its advertising. Mr. Zasky said the firm went out and used every channel available, including high-profile digital advertising units on sites such as Wall Street Journal Online. E-Trade also evaluated which media sources led to higher-quality signups for new accounts, meaning consumers who were more active with their trading. Online, that led to the elimination of several websites that historically had been a large part of the media plan.

Once it had taken steps to reassure customers, E-Trade turned its attention to reassuring media partners that bills would be paid.

"When a crisis hits, being out of sight is the same thing as being out of mind," said Mr. Utton. "The message needs to be out there; you need to spend."

Where it spent
And spend E-Trade did, purchasing two high-profile Super Bowl spots in February. In creating the campaign, Mr. Zasky and Mr. Utton said it was important that the approach be people-focused, leading to a series of ads shot as if from a webcam of a talking baby buying stock over the internet using E-Trade. "Baby," created by WPP Group's Grey, New York, won the top slot in TiVo's annual Super Bowl commercial chart.

"It takes years and years and years to build up a good brand and you could lose the brand overnight," Mr. Utton said. "We went through a scary moment where consumer confidence had a huge question mark next to it." His advice: "Be honest. Be direct. Be transparent to the consumers."

Today, E-Trade has won back consumers, touting 1,000 new accounts every day. But it's still not immune to the current financial turmoil, as earnings continue to be hard hit. A loss is expected for the third quarter, the results of which will be announced tomorrow.

"I wish I knew," Mr. Utton said, when asked how the crisis would unfold. "I don't want to be a pessimist; I'm being a pragmatist. The storm will continue. Hopefully, it bottoms out and moves out. In between we'll work very closely with our partners and our brand ambassadors."

 

For more information visit www.adage.com

RESEARCH BRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR ONLINE RESEARCH

 

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

 

Online Ad Price Decline Drives Need for Accountability and Measurability

 

Online Ad Price Decline Drives Need for Accountability and Measurability

According to the PubMatic AdPrice Index for Q3 2008, online ad prices declined overall this past year by 27%. Small sites continue to command better pricing for eCPMs, now at $0.61 on average in Q3, but these price levels have been declining quarter-to-quarter in 2008. eCPMs for large sites held steady in Q3, but at a lower pricing base of $0.18.

Data from PubMatic AdPrice Index for Q3 2008 show that:

• The online ad price decline from Q2 to Q3 in 2008 was 21%; throughout the year, display advertising pricing has generally trended downwards across website sizes and verticals
• The Business & Finance vertical remained relatively healthy with $0.86 eCPMs, bucking the trend for the rest of the industry
• eCPMs for Gaming are down 34% from Q1 2008, but there may be improvement as the holiday season draws near, where gaming companies increase marketing efforts to drive sales
• The Social Networks vertical continues to experience weak $0.20 eCPMs, driving the segment to continue exploring new and non-traditional marketing methods to leverage billions of pageviews
• Technology sites have remained constant throughout the past few quarters with $0.50 eCPMs
• Entertainment had the most significant drop of all the verticals, dropping 42% from Q1 to Q3

Rajeev Goel, president and co-founder of PubMatic, said "Online advertising is one of the key indicators in the U.S. economy, as marketing spend is typically one of the early cuts when realigning corporate expenses... the measurability of the Internet shouldn't be discounted. This overall downward trend in the economy may be a call to marketers to segment more of their budgets... that allow them to better measure ROI."

Key takeaways from the current study:

• Smaller sites are affected more closely by the economy, which causes dramatic pricing fluctuations
• The comparatively higher rates for small sites are caused by a lack of sales force resources, where they rely primarily on ad networks to monetize unsold premium inventory, which is normally sold through a direct sales force
• The political cycle and holiday season could affect ad prices in the short term
• The steady growth in online advertising continues to drive the creation of new ad networks; the change in the economy may favor ad networks that do a better job of measuring value and who can manage their costs according to the fluctuations of ad campaigns

To read the complete release, visit here. Or, The Q3 2008 AdPrice Index is available as a white paper here.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

RESEARCH BRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

 

Monday, October 20, 2008

 

Magazine Ad Revenues Down

 

According to the Publishers Information Bureau (PIB), total magazine rate-card-reported advertising revenue through the first three quarters of 2008 closed at $18,452,988,859, posting a 5% decline against the previous year, There were 164,125 ad pages generated through the first three quarters of the year, a drop of 9.5% compared to the same period in 2007.

And, for the third quarter, total magazine rate-card-reported advertising revenue was an 8.8% decrease compared to 2007's third quarter.  There were 52,778 advertising pages in the third quarter, a drop of 12.9% compared to the same period in 2007.

Year to date only three categories posted gains in revenue vs. the first three quarters of 2007:  Retail, Food & Food Products, and Public Transportation, Hotels & Resorts. Overall, magazine advertising was negatively impacted by the ongoing weakness in the economy for the first three quarters of 2008. 

Ellen Oppenheim, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Magazine Publishers of America, noted that "...Consumers have cut spending and advertisers have followed suit.  It's affected every ad category and every ad-supported sector of the media industry."

YTD Magazine Advertising Revenue January (September 2008 vs 2007)
Class	2008 Dollars	2007 Dollars	%Chg	2008 Pages	2007 Pages	%Chg
Toiletries & Cosmetics	1,751,402,701	1,833,542,695	-4.5	12,718.38	14,081.43	-9.7
Drugs & Remedies	1,657,528,614	1,904,992,985	-13.0	12,380.88	14,608.38	-15.2
Food & Food Products	1,598,932,193	1,547,010,067	3.4	10,236.23	10,640.23	-3.8
Apparel & Accessories	1,432,730,525	1,501,074,935	-4.6	16,088.31	17,153.25	-6.2
Retail	1,323,078,173	1,266,575,003	4.5	12,666.59	13,152.77	-3.7
Media & Advertising	1,245,593,555	1,256,292,802	-0.9	10,629.49	10,731.34	-0.9
Direct Response Companies	1,230,785,988	1,323,619,378	-7.0	12,027.92	13,444.50	-10.5
Automotive	1,163,000,102	1,451,443,227	-19.9	10,190.54	13,346.67	-23.6
Home Furnishings & Supplies	942,421,879	1,030,278,700	-8.5	8,185.65	9,698.53	-15.6
Financial, Insurance & Real Estate	905,725,112	900,476,367	0.6	8,868.79	9,599.58	-7.6
Public Transportation, Hotels & Resorts	856,962,652	831,525,549	3.1	10,313.62	10,485.62	-1.6
Technology	658,363,602	742,340,917	-11.3	6,304.03	7,357.73	-14.3
Source: PIB, October 2008 (Data as of October 8th, 2008)

 

Third Quarter Advertising Revenue 2008 vs 2007
Class	2008 Dollars	2007 Dollars	%Chg	2008 Pages	2007 Pages	%Chg
Toiletries & Cosmetics	623,471,892	626,705,117	-0.5	4,492.80	4,822.24	-6.8
Apparel & Accessories	510,992,600	549,693,207	-7.0	5,577.83	6,186.80	-9.8
Drugs & Remedies	494,667,971	593,076,047	-16.6	3,713.35	4,638.65	-19.9
Food & Food Products	449,325,222	550,606,914	-18.4	2,883.26	3,765.24	-23.4
Retail	430,701,512	462,227,587	-6.8	4,107.90	4,756.87	-13.6
Media & Advertising	424,462,544	442,547,166	-4.1	3,614.89	3,755.14	-3.7
Direct Response Companies	396,865,779	430,577,559	-7.8	3,893.03	4,259.13	-8.6
Automotive	390,094,763	512,598,185	-23.9	3,348.57	4,642.11	-27.9
Financial, Insurance & Real Estate	317,412,316	322,621,210	-1.6	2,865.09	3,270.85	-12.4
Home Furnishings & Supplies	313,441,413	342,060,765	-8.4	2,620.85	3,215.40	-18.5
Technology	234,265,051	239,611,478	-2.2	2,221.57	2,353.95	-5.6
Public Transportation, Hotels & Resorts	227,589,712	232,846,904	-2.3	2,902.87	3,063.41	-5.2
Source: Pib, October 2008 (Data As Of October 8th, 2008)

For YTD magazine totals, please go here.

For 3Q magazine totals, please go here.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

This week, Numantra looks at Brooke Shields, Sarah Silverman, and popping bubblewrap over some lunchtime pizza.  Check out the latest news and developments in advertising when you flip through the presentation embedded below.

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

 

Friday, October 17, 2008

Holiday Spending Down Some; 1/3 Start Shopping Before Thanksgiving; Halloween For Revelers

 

Though holiday sales this year have been reported to be the weakest in 17 years, TNS Retail Forward forecasts 1.5% growth, compared with 1.2% in 1991, for the holiday fourth quarter in the key holiday retail segments combined.

Online sales across retail channels are forecast to grow 9% this holiday season compared with 19% in 2007. TNS forecasts online sales to reach $42.5 billion in the fourth quarter up $3.5 billion from the prior year.

According to the TNS study, key retail sector holiday sales performance looks like this:

• TNS forecasts a 5.6% combined growth for mass retailers, with a shopper shift toward value formats and the impact of higher food prices. Supercenters and warehouse clubs will remain among the best retail performers while discount department stores will be the laggard.
• Apparel and accessory retailers will take a toll on the softgoods sector this holiday season, expected to decline 1.3% in the aggregate in the holiday period compared with flat growth in 2007.
• Homegoods channels expected to decline this holiday by 1.0%.  Furniture and home furnishings stores will experience the biggest deterioration, while Home improvement store sales are forecast to decline 1.0%.
• Consumer electronics stores are the exception in the channel with holiday sales growth forecast at 4.0%, partly because of sustained buying to prepare for the conversion to digital TV signals

A new Mediamark (MRI) Omnibus study finds that 62.3 million adult consumers will begin holiday shopping before Thanksgiving, while thirty-six percent of holiday shoppers say they begin shopping between Thanksgiving and December 15th, and 26% start their shopping between December 16th and 23rd. Approximately 2% of holiday shoppers don't begin their holiday shopping until Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

Start Of Holiday Shopping
	% of Total Holiday Shoppers	# of Adults
Before Thanksgiving	35.1%	62.183 Million
After Thanksgiving to December 15th	35.8%	63.303 Million
December 16th to December 23rd	25.6%	45.288 Million
Christmas Eve/Christmas Day	2.3%	4.002 Million
After Christmas	1.3%	2.225 Million
Source: Mediamark, September 2008

Early shoppers combing retail shelves and online shopping sites before Black Friday:

• 62% of shoppers are women, and are 18% more likely than holiday shoppers in general to begin shopping before Thanksgiving
• 38% of early shoppers are Boomers, and they are 11% more like than holiday shoppers in general to be out there early
• 13% of early shoppers are more likely than holiday shoppers in general to have bought at least one toy in the last 12 months, and they are 18% more likely to have bought 10 or more toys in the last 12 months
• 9% are more likely to have given a personal wish list of gifts that they hope to receive to their family and their friends.

Early Shopper Profile (Base: All Holiday Shoppers)
	Composition of 35.1% of Holiday Shoppers who Begin Shopping prior to Thanksgiving	% More (Less) Likely than All Holiday Shoppers
Male	38.3%	-21%
Female	61.7%	+18%
Millenials	19.5%	-20%
GenXers	23.6%	+05%
Boomers	38.1%	+11%
Pre-Boomers	18.8%	0%
HHI< $50k	42.7%	-03%
HHI between $50-$100k	35.1%	+03%
HHI >$100k	22.2%	+01%
Purchased Any Toy	44.3%	+13%
Purchased 10+ Toys	20.6%	+18%
Gave personal gift "wish list" to Family/Friends	33.3%	+19%
Gave "gift card" as a gift	68.8%	+08%
Source: MRI's 2008 Omnibus Study, September 2008

Anne Marie Kelly, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Strategic Planning at MRI, concludes that  "Black Friday may be the traditional start of the holiday shopping season but... its strength has diminished as millions of Americans begin their shopping before Thanksgiving... "

And, not to be forgotten, more consumers plan to celebrate Halloween this year (64.5% vs. 58.7%), with the average person spending $66.54 on the holiday, up from $64.82 one year ago. Total Halloween spending for 2008 is estimated to reach $5.77 billion, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF) and BIG Research

This year, says the study:

• Consumers will spend an average of $24.17 on Halloween costumes
• People will spend, on average, $20.39 on candy
• $18.25 on decorations
• $3.73 on greetting cards
• And, 18-24 year-olds plan to spend $86.59 on the holiday, the most of any group??

People will celebrate Halloween in a variety of ways,

• Handing out candy (73.7%)
• Carving a pumpkin (44.6%)
• Decorating (50.3%)
• Dress in costume (35.3%)
• Throw or attend a party (31.1%)
• Take children trick-or-treating (33.6%)?

Phil Rist, Vice President of Strategy for BIGresearch, says "After months of bleak economic news, consumers are looking for a reason to let loose... and with Halloween falling on a Friday this year, consumers may plan to celebrate all weekend long."

For more on the NRF/BIGresearch Halloween study, please visit here.

For more information about the MRI Holiday Shopping Study, and a PDF file, please visit MediaMark here.

For more information from TNS about the forecast, please visit here.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

RESEARCH BRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

 

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Digital Ad Spend Up At The Expense of Traditional

 

According to a new Epsilon CMO Survey, Chief Marketing Officers at many of the biggest brands in the nation are seeing a major shift in the marketing landscape. 63% of the 175 marketing executives surveyed see an increase in their spending on interactive/digital marketing while 59% report a decrease in traditional marketing spend.

65% of CMOs say that the money spent on advertising as a whole will decrease due to the current economy. In contrast, 94% of CMOs and marketing executives agreed with the statement, 'A tough economic period is precisely the time when marketing plays a key role.'

When asked how their firm determines their target market for each channel:

• 50% stated that they use data driven marketing techniques
• 31% of respondents agreed that they use sophisticated modeling tools to analyze existing customer behavioral, preference and demographic data
• 19% said that they analyze past purchase behavior
• 28% said they made rough estimates based on past experience

Mike Iaccarino, CEO of Epsilon, says "... marketing executives are seeking accountability and measurable results. Data driven marketing is an increasingly important component of corporate marketing campaigns... "

CMOs of the biggest brands have been early adopters of new media with social computing and blogs receiving the most interest whereas instant messaging and interactive TV ads were the least popular.

• Social computing (including word of mouth, social networking sites, viral advertising, etc.) was the most popular emerging channel with 42% of marketing executives expressing interest in adding it to their marketing mix
• Blogs were the second most popular emerging channel: 35% of marketing executives want to pursue blogs and 19% already use blogs
• Almost one-third of CMOs mentioned Podcasting as an area of interest: 31% are interested in adding Podcasting to their marketing mix and 18% already have.
• Mobile devices also elicited interest: 29% are interested in Mobile Devices (Phones/PDAs) and 22% have added them to their marketing mix

Senior marketing executives anticipate further cuts, says the study, but are confident that they will be able to manage their budgets by focusing spending where it will have the greatest impact. As the overall marketing pool diminishes, the budget for interactive and digital marketing is dramatically increasing, while that for traditional marketing continues to shrink toward interactive, digital marketing:

 Interactive/Digital Marketing:

• Decreased... 14%
• Increased... 63%
• Stayed the same... 23%

While Traditional Marketing

• Decreased... 59%
• Increased... 13%
• Stayed the same... 29%

Source: Epsilon, September 2008

The survey included 175 U.S. Chief Marketing Officers and marketing executives of some of the largest brands in the nation. 27% of respondents work at companies with $10 billion or more in annual revenues last year.

For additional information and a PDF file, please visit here.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

RESEARCH BRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

 

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Urban and Spanish-Language Stations Dominate Major Radio Markets

 

According to Arbitron's September Portable People Meter (PPM) radio ratings, African Americans and Spanish-dominant Hispanics have the highest radio listening levels of all demographic groups, and continue to propel urban and Spanish-language stations to the top in major US markets, including New York, Chicago and San Francisco.

Persons Age 12 And Older Using Radio (Monday-Sunday 6am-Midnight)
	Other (non-black, non-Hispanic)	Black	Hispanic	Spanish Dominant Hispanic	English Dominant Hispanic
New York	9.2	11.9	9.6	9.9	9.1
Los Angeles	8.9	8.1	10.9	11.6	9.8
Chicago	10.4	8.5	10.1	10.8	8.9
San Francisco	8.1	9.3	10.1	11.3	8.9
Nassau-Suffolk	9.5	12.5	10.9	12.1	9.4
Middlesex-Somerset-Union	9.	12.9	8.3	8.0	8.5
Riverside	7.5	9.4	10.0	10.2	9.9
San Jose	8.2	- -	9.2	10.5	8.0
Source: Arbitron PPM, September 2008

How to read: In New York, the average audience in any quarter hour Monday-Sunday 6am-Midnight consists of 11.9 percent of all African Americans in the market...

The September PPM survey month covered the period from August 21 to September 17, and rated stations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Nassau-Suffolk (NY), Middlesex-Somerset-Union (NJ), Riverside-San Bernardino (CA), and San Jose. Key market findings:

In New York, the Steve Harvey Show on WBLS-FM tied with news station WINS-AM for number one among listeners age 25-54 in the a.m. drive.

Persons 25-54 AQH Share New York Radio Metro (Monday-Friday 6am-10am)
Rank	Outlet	Format	AQH Share
1t	WBLS-FM	Urban Contemporary	6.1
1t	WINS-AM	All News	6.1
3	WHTZ-FM	Pop Contemporary Hit Radio	6.0
4	WAXQ-FM	Classic Rock	5.9
5	WPLJ-FM	Hot Adult Contemporary	5.0
6	WLTW-FM	Adult Contemporary	4.5
7t	WRKS-FM	Urban Adult Contemporary	4.4
7t	WCBS-FM	Classic Hits	4.4
9	WCBS-AM	All News	4.0
10	WKTU-FM	Rhythmic AC	3.9
Source: Arbitron PPM, September 2008

Chicago, "Piolin por La Mañana" on WOJO-FM was #1 among 18-34 year-olds in the a.m. drive, after Univision Radio revamped its morning moving "Piolin por La Mañana," to WOJO-FM and resulting in a steady audience increase.

Persons 18-34 AQH Share Chicago Radio Metro (Monday-Friday 6am-10am)
Rank	Outlet	Format	AQH Share
1	WOJO-FM	Mexican Regional	8.9
2	WUSN-FM	Country	8.3
3	WKSC-FM	Pop Contemporary Hit Radio	6.1
4	WLS-FM	Oldies	5.4
5	WLEY-FM	Mexican Regional	5.1
Source: Arbitron PPM, September 2008

How to read: In the Morning Drive daypart, Monday-Friday 6am-10am, 8.9 percent of all radio listening by Persons aged 18-34 in the Chicago Radio metro was to WOJO-FM.

In San Francisco, Hip-Hop/R&B on KMEL-FM was number one among those age 18-34. The Clear Channel station has been a consistent top performer and had the highest ratings among those age 18-34 for the total broadcast week.

Persons 18-34 AQH Share San Francisco Radio Metro (Monday-Sunday 6am-Midnight)
Rank	Outlet	Format	AQH Share
1	KMEL-FM	Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio	10.8
2	KSOL-FM	Mexican Regional	7.3
3	KYLD-FM	Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio	6.3
4	KRZZ-FM	Mexican Regional	5.9
5	KITS-FM	Alternative	4.9
Source: Arbitron PPM, September 2008

How to read: For the total broadcast week, Monday-Sunday 6am-Midnight, 10.8 percent of all radio listening by Persons aged 18-34 in the San Francisco metro was to KMEL-FM.

In Riverside-San Bernardino, Spanish Adult Hits on KLYY-FM was first among those age 25-54. Radio José FM 97.5, Entravision Communications' Spanish adult hits station, has been a consistent top performer and held the top spot in ratings for the total broadcast week.

Persons 25-54 AQH Share Riverside-San Bernardino Radio Metro (Monday-Sunday 6am-Midnight)
Rank	Outlet	Format	AQH Share
1	KLYY-FM	Spanish Adult Hits	8.8
2	KOLA-FM	Classic Hits	6.8
3	KIIS-FM	Pop Contemporary Hit Radio	6.5
4	KGGI-FM	Rhythmic Contemporary Hit Radio	5.3
5	KLVE-FM	Spanish Contemporary	5.0
Source: Arbitron PPM, September 2008

How to read: For the total broadcast week, Monday-Sunday 6am-Midnight, 8.8 percent of all radio listening by Persons aged 25-54 in the Riverside-San Bernardino metro was to KLYY-FM.

For more details from Arbitron, please go here.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

Virtually all of your electronics are sucking up energy even if they're turned off or not being used. Some of the biggest culprits include your TV, computer, and printer. Even your electric toothbrush is drawing energy when it's plugged in and sitting idle.

This quick-read article from the Conscious Consumer at Yahoo! Green has some helpful insights into which appliances in your home are energy vampires and what you can do about it.

See the whole article by clicking here.

Report Examines the New Currency's Impact on Marketers, Agencies and Networks

By Claire Atkinson

Published: October 13, 2008

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- In 2007, after decades of lobbying by marketers, what had long been considered the holy grail of TV ad measurement seemed to have become a reality: Commercial ratings became the currency of the $70 billion national TV market, replacing 65 years of program ratings.

Instead of measuring the number of people watching the programs and using that as a proxy for the total number of advertising viewers, the marketing world would finally find out how many people were actually watching each commercial. Or at least that was the general idea. As the 2008-2009 TV season gets under way, advertisers still are not exactly sure how their TV efforts are faring under the new currency. This is, in part, because last year's numbers were atypical, affected as they were by a broadcast business that was saturated with repeats of old shows, largely as a result of the writers strike.

For this paper Advertising Age conducted an exhaustive study into commercial ratings (a precise definition will come later) to ascertain whether the change worked out well for marketers, what challenges remain, and how commercial ratings have altered the business in ways both expected and unforeseen.

 

For more information visit www.adage.com

RESEARCH BRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

 

Monday, October 13, 2008

Personal Information Online Disturbs Consumers

 

A poll recently released by the Consumer Reports National Research Center shows that 82% of consumers are concerned about their credit card numbers being stolen online, while 72% are concerned that their online behaviors were being tracked and profiled by companies.

Although 68% of consumers have provided personal information in order to access a website, 53% are uncomfortable with internet companies using their email content or browsing history to send relevant ads, and 54% are uncomfortable with third parties collecting information about their online behavior.

The poll revealed that 93% of Americans think internet companies should always ask for permission before using personal information, and 72% want the right to opt out when companies track their online behavior.

Joel Kelsey, policy analyst with Consumers Union, said "Americans are clearly concerned... the vast majority of consumers want more control over their personal information online... "

The poll shows that consumers are trying to take steps to limit the information that is being collected and shared about them online. For example:

• 35% use alternate email addresses to avoid providing real information
• 26% have used software that hides their identity
• 25% have provided fake information to access a website

Consumers are aware that information about their surfing habits is being collected online, but many are not aware of what companies are able to do with their information. Among the other findings of the poll:

• 61% are confident that what they do online is private and not shared without their permission
• 57% incorrectly believe that companies must identify themselves and indicate why they are collecting data and whether they intend to share it with other organizations
• 48% incorrectly believe their consent is required for companies to use the personal information they collect from online activities
• 43% incorrectly believe a court order is required to monitor activities online

Kelsey concludes that "Many consumers have misconceptions about the information available about them and how commonly it is sold by companies without their knowledge..."

For more information, please view the Consumer's Union here.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

We build better brands for our clients through an ongoing process that begins with a Numantra Brand Workshop.  In the workshop, we help companies define their brand's essential elements and then complete the process with the establishment of their overall Brand Strategy.

Here's an example of a completed Brand Strategy developed for our own brand, Numantra.



You can learn more about Numantra's Brand Workshops by clicking here.

RESEARCH BRIEF

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

 

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Consumers Want to Interact With Companies on Social Media

 

According to the findings of the 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study, almost 60% of Americans interact with companies on a social media Web site, and one in four interact more than once per week. The survey finds that 93% of Americans believe a company should have a presence in social media, while 85% believe a company should not only be present, but should also interact with its consumers via social media.

56% of American consumers feel both a stronger connection with, and better served by, companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment.

Mike Hollywood, director of new media for Cone, observes that "... social media... it isn't an intrusion into their lives, but rather a welcome channel for discussion."

When Americans were asked about specific types of interactions:

• 43% say that companies should use social networks to solve my problems
• 41% want companies to solicit feedback on their products and services
• 37% feel that companies should develop new ways for consumers to interact with their brand
• 33% of men and 17% of women interact frequently (one or more times per week) with companies via social media

 "The ease and efficiency of online conversation is likely a draw for men who historically do not seek out the same level of interaction with companies as women," says Hollywood.

33% of younger, hard-to-reach consumers (ages 18-34), believe companies should actively market to them via social networks, and the same is true of the wealthiest households (household income of $75,000+). Two-thirds of the wealthiest households and the largest households (3 or more members) feel stronger connections to brands they interact with online.

And eMarketer reports that Generation Y (those born after 1979) online buyers are more immersed in online and mobile activities than any other generation, according to 2008 research from shopping comparison site PriceGrabber. Some 85% of Gen Y respondents said they participated in social networking, and 57% reported involvement with blogs.

Data from an August 2008 survey of Web merchants, sponsored by Internet Retailer, found that, of the 39.3% of retail respondents that use social networks, 32% have a page on Facebook, 27% on MySpace and 26% on YouTube.

Social Networking Sites on Which US Online Retailers Currently Maintain a Page
Site	% of Respondents
Facebook	32%
MySpace	27
YouTube	26
Flickr	5
Other	10
Source: Internet Retailer, September 2008

Hollywood concludes that "All of this is great news for marketers... men and younger consumers are traditionally the most challenging to reach... (and) they are saying... market to us and interact with us online... "

For more information about this study, please visit Cone Research here.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

The innovative RecycleBank will reward you for recycling, and it'll pay by the pound. Chances are, your town or city demands that you recycle at least some of your household trash already, so here's a way to get paid for what you're already doing.

In the RecycleBank system, the truck that picks up your recycling bin, weighs it, and that amount is converted into points that turn into coupons that turn into savings when you shop.

Companies such as Coca-Cola, PetSmart, Stonyfield Farm, CVS, and Kraft are participating, with more expected soon.

One potentially bad side effect of this plan is that it implicitly encourages you to go ahead and make more waste, since the more you trash, the more you make.

We'll see how that goes, but in the meantime, it's a clever idea that should be given a chance to succeed. Right now it's kicking off in 13 states including Texas, and you're invited to ask your town to participate.

Check out RecycleBank by clicking here.

Media Post's Search Insider and SEOptimise
Tad Chef says to eschew all the "link building" talk (and tactics) in favor of more organic methods. "More and more conventional link building methods, like directory submission, are of less and less value," he says. "In fact soon we'll see a situation where all artificial ways of link building will be frowned upon."

Chef serves up a number of suggestions for growing links naturally, including being useful to your target community by developing a WordPress theme, Firefox plugin or other free tool, as well as organizing a recognition ceremony like the Web 2.0 awards.

Other tips include launching a charity contest or drive, offering product rebates or discounts for specific groups (i.e. students, people working from home, etc.) and starting some kind of green initiative. "Of course, all these ways of getting links also get you reputation and fans, and thus traction in social media too," Chef says. "People hate companies and businesses overselling but they love free stuff and those who offer it. When everybody loves you also, those who are willing to spend money will find you."  

READ THE WHOLE STORY (including 30 ways to grow links naturally) HERE

OVERVIEW
Numantra developed a banner ad campaign for McAfee based on insights gained through our research on small business owners. Our new campaign has produced a 10.9% response rate.  Ok, it's not exactly a standard banner, but it is certainly an inspirational campaign (and it wasn't insanely expensive.) Plus, the best part is McAfee got killer data on post-view activity. Turns out 85% of campaign conversions happened up to 90 days *after* otherwise untouched prospects saw the banners.

CHALLENGE
"We were using email as an acquisition tool until this fall," explains our client, McAfee eCommerce Marketing Manager Gladys Gavlak.

McAfee would probably have stuck with email to SMB lists for longer, except for one big problem: no matter how targeted the list by company type and job title, fewer than 1/17th of the names would be remotely in the prospect pool.

That's because small business executives are infamously uninterested in learning about anything that's not a super-urgent need.

So, Numantra developed rich media ad units designed to learn when a small business owners security software was about to expire.  The interactive ad unit offered a free whitepaper and product demo for those who registered - directly through the ad unit.

THE CREATIVE
McAfee's Total Protection product is a security service that is monitored by McAfee's team around the clock.  We likened this security monitoring to the activity of a news station that monitors and broadcasts the news 24 hours a day.  

We created the (fictional) LAN Network News Team, a team of four news anchor people that are constantly monitoring on the events that take place on the McAfee protected computer network.  The twist here is that since McAfee's Total Protection works so well at stopping security threats before they happen, our intrepid news team had very little real action to report.

The LAN Network News Team broadcast were produced as 30-second videos and integrated into the rich media ad units.  The ad units themselves were multi-layered, allowing for three different videos/broadcasts to be incorporated in each ad unit.

These LAN Network News broadcasts were also used on landing pages for the ads.  And separate videos were produced for the ShopMcAfee.com website.  There the LAN Network News Team is presented as celebrity spokespersons, introducing site visitors to the various McAfee products.

The Mini Crossover is a concept car from Mini that contains so many innovations that words would never adequately describe it.  Good thing we have this YouTube video to watch.  Check it out.

RESEARCH BRIEF

 

FROM THE CENTER FOR MEDIA RESEARCH

 

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Media Buyers Will Watch Online and TV For Most Campaigns

 

According to eMarketer's recent prognosis for online video advertising, the market will take until 2010 to surpass the $1-billion mark, while beyond 2010 huge additional sums will go to online video advertising each succeeding year.

The report concludes that more trusted video content to sustain advertising, and more large advertisers seeing enough scale to enter this market in a big way, will support that growth.

While only 2% of total Internet ad spending will go to video in 2008, that share will be nearly five times higher by the end of 2013.

Further, says the report, as total Internet ad spending approaches total television ad levels in 2013, it will become commonplace for media buyers looking to both online and TV for most campaigns, even in the upfront market.

US Online Video Advertising Spending
Year	Online Ad Spending (million $)
2007	$324
2008	505
2009	750
2010	1,150
2011	1,900
2012	3,400
2013	5,800
Source: eMarketer, August 2008

 

US Online Video Advertising Spending ( Percent of TV and Total Online Advertising Spending)
Year	% of TV Spend	% of Internet Spend
2007	0.5%	1.5%
2008	0.7	2.0
2009	1.1	2.6
2010	1.6	3.4
2011	2.6	4.7
2012	4.5	6.8
2013	7.6	9.8
Source: Brenstein Research, May 2008; eMarketer, August 2008

EMarketer estimates that by 2012 four out of five Internet users will view video ads, projected to 183.3 million viewers in 2013.

US Online Video Ad Viewer Penetration (% Total Internet Users)
Year	% Internet Users
2007	59.2%
2008	66.8
2009	72.0
2010	75.1
2011	77.7
2012	80.6
Source: eMarketer, August 2008

NB: Online video advertising viewer is defined as an individual who sees any form or video advertising (in-stream, in-banner, in-text) at least once a month.

For more information from eMarketer about the study, please visit here.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

Search marketing and optimization is a volatile business.  The competition is constantly learning new tricks.  And the customer is constantly on the move.  The rules are constantly changing.  Case in point: Google has once again modified their Webmaster Guidelines (Google's way of telling people how to get the best results with Google's search engine).  This time, they've removed the line that suggest you should submit your site to directories like Yahoo.  Which basically removes their hypocrisy for penalizing those who buy inbound links. 

You can check out the whole story from Search Engine Roundtable by clicking here.

The bottom line of this story is a caution: today's search marketing tactic can easily become tomorrow's search marketing offense.  If search is an important part of your web strategy (and it should be), make sure you've got your ears on.  Or call Numantra.  We've got our search radar turned up to 11.

MEDIAPOST'S

ONLINE MEDIA DAILY

 

Study: Young Men Give Nod To Net Over Tube

by Mark Walsh                                                                       Tuesday, Oct 7, 2008 7:00 AM ET

Nearly 70% of men ages 18 to 34 would rather rather give up TV than the Internet, according to new research commissioned by Web content provider Break Media. And 26% would rather surf the Web than have sex.

Of course, they could be watching "videos featuring hot girls," the third-most-popular category for online entertainment behind funny videos and full-length movies.

Among other findings from the study conducted by brand and communications research firm Hall & Partners: Nearly half of men in that age group spend 22 hours a week online, and nearly half said they bought something at retail after viewing an online ad.

"The results speak to how far the Web has come as an entertainment and communications platform in a short period of time," said Keith Richman, CEO of Break Media, which runs male-oriented video site Break.com and other online properties.

The report is the latest in a series of efforts that Break has commissioned to help establish the efficacy of online video advertising. In April it formed the Online Video Advertising ROI Council with partners including Ogilvy One, AT&T and Horizon Media to provide a research and education forum for the emerging ad category.

Richman said the new study, based on a survey of 500 men who use the Internet at least once a month, was intended to provide greater insight on the target audience for many consumer brands. "We're trying to help advertisers and ourselves create a portrait of the audience we're reaching," he said.

That young men spend a lot of time on the Internet and funny videos are their favorite form of online entertainment shouldn't come as a big surprise to anyone. But Richman said the research highlights the imbalance between time spent online and the relatively small share of ad dollars the Web garners.

Emarketer estimates that the Internet will account for 8.7% of total U.S. ad spending this year compared to roughly 60% for TV. "It's still a pretty stark difference," Richman. Encouraging marketers to shift more dollars online were findings indicating men are receptive to online advertising. They often recall online ads after viewing them, and nearly 60% like or don't mind 5-second video pre-roll ads. (Only 31% feel the same about 30-second pre-rolls.)

Avoiding pre-roll ads has been a driving force behind the development of less intrusive formats such as overlay ads by YouTube and other video companies. But the Break study suggests that pre-rolls are not as reviled by avid video watchers as widely assumed. "It's not nearly as bad as we think," said Richman, who has found a similar a response with Break's own audience.

The Wall Street Journal reported over the summer that YouTube was considering adding pre- and post-roll ads in its continuing efforts to increase video ad revenue. Earlier this month, the Google-owned site began testing post-roll ads on a small portion of its inventory, perhaps as a way to ease into rolling out pre-rolls.

In addition to being open to short pre-roll ads, the Break study found that 63% don't mind page takeover ads--indicating a preference for either pervasive or brief, discrete ads. Men also preferred ads that feature interactive elements such as a contest or game, and those that include video.

If the acceptance of pre-rolls seems surprising, consider some of the survey results in the psychographic realm. For instance, only 20% of men said they valued appearance over personality when it comes to attraction.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

When people share information, ideas, and sentiments, it's called "conversation."  If people were not equipped with the natural ability to listen, think and respond, then "conversation" would be called "advertising."

In the past, companies had to use advertising to communicate.  But today, with all the advancements in communication technology, companies, like people, can listen, think and respond.  It's time for these companies to stop advertising.  And start a conversation.  It's time for Conversational Marketing.

Conversational Marketing isn't a completely new idea. Perhaps the earliest sign of Conversational Marketing were those ads fifty years ago that sported body copy that was "conversational."  Instead of flat, lifeless copy that espoused the features and benefits of the client's product, some copywriter began speaking to consumers like they were really there.  

That copywriter was Bill Bernbach, the man who radically revolutionized advertising creative as we know it.  And because of Bill's insight and creativity, advertisers learned that they could be more effective if they talked to consumers instead of themselves.  Advertisers learned to talk to consumers as if they were really having a real conversation with them.  Right there in their own living room.

Conversational Marketing is the natural endgame in advertising's compromise between genuine communication and fabricated communication.  The advertising industry has been heading in this direction for the last fifty years.  And headed even faster for the last ten years.  The evolution of Conversational Marketing has left a wide trail that's easy to follow.

Remember "direct marketing"?  This is the notion that marketers will communicate directly with individuals.  Which became "direct response marketing" which realized if you communicate with someone directly, you should give that someone some way to communicate back.  And that lead to "relationship marketing".  Here's where the industry realized that if they talk to you and you talk back then what you have here is a "relationship."

What you also have is a conversation.  But let's not stray too far away from "relationship" just yet.  Because it seems that after a few years of this "direct-response-relationship-marketing" going on in the mailboxes across America, along came the World Wide Web.  (Yeah, remember how everyone actually called it that for the first couple of years.)

The Internet came along and changed everything.  Because the one thing that no one expected to happen, happened. Consumers began initiating the conversation with brands and businesses online.  They were actually using those powerful search engines to look up things like Palmolive and Chuck E Cheese and Valvoline so they could ask a question or get a free sample.

And out of this unexpected behavior was born "one-to-one marketing".  Which basically describes an e-commerce transaction.  Suddenly every other advertiser out there learned about the value of customer data.  Not only did marketers sell to consumers online, but they learned so much in the process.  What's your favorite color?  Who's your favorite band?  How many glasses of Ovaltine do you drink in a day?

So, what's a marketer supposed to do with all of this information?  "CRM."  Customer Relationship Management.  It seems that businesses were getting so much genuine dialogue with their customers that they needed entirely new systems to be built just to manage it.  Of course, the first order of business for the marketers of these businesses was to make the term "CRM" completely meaningless.

Everybody in the industry, clients and agencies alike, began calling just about everything they did "CRM".  If they sent out an email newsletter, it was called "CRM".  If they collected information about a customer and added it to a database, it was called "CRM".  If they did a customer survey, it was called "CRM".  Of course all of these things can be part of a "CRM" program.  The problem is that for most marketers, there isn't a program in place--just some convenient jargon.

It's not much of a surprise, though.  The thing that everybody is using "CRM" to describe is a thing much bigger than just managing customer relationships.  The thing that everybody is using "CRM" to describe is actually the basis of the business to customer relationship.  A basis that has seemingly evolved overnight while most businesses' ad agencies were busy crafting television commercials.

And can you blame the ad agencies for ignoring this profound sea change?  After all, what do email newsletters, surveys, and databases have to do with advertising?  Who cares about that stuff anyway?  As it turns out, the clients are the ones that care.  And so now you have everybody and their brother crafting "CRM" campaigns.  Customer Relationship Management campaigns?  Ad agencies just don't seem to get it.  

Fifty years ago, Bill Bernbach inspired advertisers to talk with consumers like they were real people.  Back then, no one thought about the listening.  So the advertisers marched off and created millions of ads just like good ol' Bill would've done 'em.  After a few generations of advertisers doing the same old routine, consumers learned to tune it out.  And why not?  Who's listening?

What would have happened if fifty years ago, the industry would have looked at Bill's ads and said, "Wow!  This is great!  People are going to talk about this one.  We better come up with a way to pick up on their conversation."  What would have happened to advertising as we know it if all the energy that went into to trying re-create Bill's magic had been spent trying to support the next part of the conversation.  The part where the consumer gets to respond.

Maybe it was inevitable.  The power of the consumer is so great that they just had to be heard. They say in a capitalistic society, consumers vote with their wallet.  Obviously that wasn't enough of a voice. Which might explain why we have consumers creating Doritos commercials for the Super Bowl.  And posting their favorite ads on their MySpace page.  And writing about their frustrations with their recent airline experience on their blog.  And producing their own video commentary in response to advertising videos they see on YouTube. Whatever the forces are behind this communication revolution, one thing is clear.  You can't have a relationship with a customer without having a conversation.

The good news is you already know how to have a conversation.  Now you just need to carry this knowledge over to your marketing communications.  For example, you know in order to have a conversation there must be a two-way exchange.  Someone is talking.  Someone else is listening.  So the first step in Conversational Marketing is to make sure you can listen.  Here are some obvious signs that your marketing communications are ready to listen.  

•    You have a specific call to action.  Write. Call. Email. Click.
•    You make a specific invitation.  Join.  Register.  Sign up.  Opt in.
•    You ask a question.  Survey.  Poll.  Vote.
•    You open yourself to questions.  Search.  Feedback.  Chat.

Now that you're listening, make sure you're paying attention.  Don't listen like the 50s husband with your head buried in the Sports section.  "Yes, dear.  Uh-huh.  That's right, dear."  Here are some signs you are really paying attention.

•    You have a single customer database.  It's not divided up into separate databases serving separate departments in your company or performing separate functions for your customers.
•    Your customer database not only collects data important to your business goals (name, address, payment method) but it also collects data important to your customers' interests (survey answers, search queries, comments).
•    You make intelligent responses.  You send a thank you email when they leave a comment.  You customize your newsletter by highlighting content you know they are interested in.  You reply to their emails with a personal response as often as possible.

These are the basic signs of Conversational Marketing.  You can take your conversation up a notch by inviting your customers to join a discussion group, sign onto a bulletin board, join a focus group, or become an advocate by sharing the conversation with their friends and associates.

Knowing what tactics to employ that enable conversations with your customers is important, but none of it will be effective without a Conversation Strategy in place.  So, before you update your website, revise your email newsletter, start a podcast, or open the phone lines, make sure you understand who and where your customers are.  And then devise a plan that intersects your business goals and objectives with their needs and expectations.  Do this, and you are sure to strike up a very effective conversation indeed.

And soon, you won't be working for an ad agency or a marketing firm anymore.  You'll be going to work for a Business Conversations Company.  You'll be producing Conversational Marketing.  And kids in college will be taking Conversational Marketing Communications 101.  And majoring in Business Conversations.  And your family will finally understand what it is you do at work because everybody understands what a conversation is.

Carmaker Forgoes Reason for 'Love' in Ad Push That Led to 6% Boost in New-Car Sales

By Jean Halliday

Published: September 24, 2008

DETROIT (AdAge.com) -- As the auto industry sputters through its worst sales year since 1993, Subaru of America is clipping along, and it's doing so without an ad message touting price, performance or gas mileage. Despite offering the lowest incentives in the industry, the niche brand reported the industry's biggest percentage jump in U.S. new-vehicle sales -- 129,298 units through August, according to Automotive News, some 5.8% better than a year ago. ...

Read the rest of the article (with a subscription to Ad Age) here:
http://adage.com/abstract.php?article_id=131251

This week's Pizza Friday looks at auto dealers going viral, Starbucks getting green and Good, and advertisers getting nasty.

25% of Auto Dealers Are Now Using Viral Video in Their Marketing Mix

You might expect that the last person to upload a video called "The Seven Ways Dealers Screw You" would be an auto dealer. But Norwood, Mass.,-based Clay Corp. is among the one in four U.S. dealers embracing web video as a marketing vehicle to inform, entertain -- and sell.  This article from AdAge explores this burgeoning trend in automotive advertising.

READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE BY CLICKING HERE

This four minute video was produced by Numantra for client ManeGait to kickoff their fundraising event on October 4, 2008. 

At ManeGait Therapeutic Horsemanship, children and adults with disabilities will move beyond their boundaries through the healing power of the horse and the dedication of a professional and caring community.  Learn more about ManeGait by clicking here.

Numantra helps companies build stronger brands through a systematic approach referred to as the Numantra Brand Workshop. 

SYNOPSIS
The Brand Workshop brings together the collective insight and input from all of your brand's stakeholders to produce a clear and effective brand strategy.  Through company surveys, secondary research and an in-person workshop with the brand's primary stakeholders, our strategists and creative professionals collaborate with you to develop the Strategic Concept for your brand that will become the foundation for all of your future brand communications.

DELIVERABLES:  
Brand Worksheets.  Surveys your team and gathers their knowledge, attitudes and opinions about your brand.

Secondary Research.  Evaluation of your brand, your competition and your customers and their relationship with the brand.

Brand Workshop.  In-person workshop that brings unity and consensus among your brand stakeholders to the meaning and purpose of your brand.

Strategic Concept.  Provides the strategic foundation for all future brand communications.

Brand Strategy. A focused description of each of the Brand's Essential Components culminating in a presentation of the Brand's Strategic Concept.

OVERVIEW
What is the heart and soul of your brand? What makes it tick? And more importantly, what makes it tick with your customers? We have answers to these questions and a whole lot more when we conduct a Brand Workshop for your company's brand. This workshop will help you define the essence of your brand and lay the groundwork for all of your brand marketing efforts. Whether you are launching a new brand, re-launching an old brand, or trying to find out what is and isn't working for your brand, Brand Workshops provide a fun, interactive, and informative forum for solving the needs and requirements of your brand. A Brand Workshop is an interactive process that involves the main stakeholders of your brand working with Numantra strategists. Together, we will systematically deconstruct and reconstruct your brand to ultimately meet the business and marketing goals you are challenged with today.

BUT FIRST, A WORD ABOUT BRANDS
When discussing brands, it's important to recognize a few important factors.  Contrary to common belief, a brand is not a name or a logo.  But it does find itself expressed most commonly in those forms.  And as much as people consciously recognize a brand by its name or its logo, for most people the brand holds much greater significance than its surface expression.

For example, VOLVO is a name that represents the company that makes cars but because of branding, most people will tell you that the brand stands for SAFETY.  Similarly, NIKE isn't about tennis shoes as much as it is about PUSHING YOURSELF.  Nor does MCDONALD'S stand for quality hamburgers as much as it stands for FAMILY SMILES.

Successful brands are built on a relationship between a product or service and the people that use it.   Successful brands are an effective expression of the basis of that relationship.

What does your brand stand for?  What is its strength?  Who is it meant for?  What is its promise?  These are the questions being addressed in this Workshop.  These are the questions that, when answered with insight and considered strategically, will lead us together to building a successful brand for your company.

THE BRAND'S ESSENTIAL COMPONENTS
What makes up a brand?  Our Workshop breaks brands down into their essential components and explores each one in detail, leaving no stone unturned in our quest for discovering the brand's true essence, that which will provide the foundation of an enduring and effective Brand Strategy.

Genesis
If you were a historian, what would you write about the brand and its roots?

Intrinsic Abilities/Greatest Strengths
What about your product/service is exemplified by your brand name, icon or universally accepted attribute?

Unique and Different
What can you do that your competition can't?  What have you created, invented or perfected?

The Perfect Customer
Describe the perfect customer.  Are they divided into segments?  What makes them valuable?  What do they value?

Brand Behavior
Who am I like as a person?  How do I behave?  Do I need to change going forward and if so, who will I be like and how will I behave?

Sacred Cow
What long standing practices or closely held ideals are considered off limits to change?  What self-imposed limitations have been placed on the brand?

Promise
What do I stand for?  What is my commitment to the market?

Soul
What is at our very core that drives our mission?  What is our reason for being?  What motivates or inspires us to do what we do?

Strategic concept
How can you summarize the brand essence in the most succinct terms?

THE PROCESS IN A NUTSHELL
We help companies discover the essence of their brand and strategically define the basis for all of their brand's communications.  Our Brand Workshop process starts with Brand Worksheets that survey brand stakeholders for their critical insights.  Then our team leads an interactive, in-person Brand Workshop that includes a select group of brand stakeholders who work together through the critical elements that comprise the essence of a brand. Finally, our team concludes the process by defining the Strategic Concept for the brand through a series of collaborative meetings with the brand's primary stakeholder.

Brand Worksheets  The Brand Worksheet is an online survey that collects input from the brand stakeholders.  The survey is conducted in advance of the Brand Workshop and provides Numantra's strategists with invaluable insights into the range of ideas and opinions that are currently formed around the brand. The survey is focused entirely on the Brand's Essential Components.

Research  Based on the input received through the Brand Worksheets, Numantra's strategists prepare for the Brand Workshop by researching the brand's history, competition, and customers using secondary research resources.

Brand Workshop  The Brand Workshop is a 3 - 5 hour in-person workshop conducted at your location of choice -- your office, Numantra's office, or sometimes it is desirable to go completely offsite to eliminate distraction and inconvenient interruptions.  Brand Workshops are more effective when conducted with small groups -- 3 to 7 people.  However it is imperative that the key decision makers and stake holders be present at the workshop since critical input, direction, and decisions are made that will shape the future of the brand.  Through the course of the Workshop, each of the Brand's Essential Components will be explored through a variety of interactive exercises, polls, interviews, and discussions.  All of the input and feedback is collected throughout the process.  All points of consensus and dispute are then taken from the Workshop to be further reviewed and considered by Numantra's strategists following the conclusion of the Workshop.

Strategic Concept  The last of the Brand's Essential Components is the Strategic Concept.  With the Workshop complete, our strategists work with our creative department to develop the Brand's Strategic Concept.  This is the culmination of all of the input and feedback, bringing focus to all of the Essential Components.  The Strategic Concept IS NOT a tagline or an icon.  But the Strategic Concept IS the foundational idea behind all taglines, icons, campaigns, and communication developed for the brand for evermore.  Like the Volvo example, SAFETY is the Strategic Concept while Volvo's tagline is Volvo. For Life.  The tagline changes from year to year and campaign to campaign.  But the Strategic Concept remains.

The Brand Strategy  Once the Strategic Concept has been determined, a Brand Strategy Presentation is prepared that includes a focused description of each of the Brand's Essential Components culminating in a presentation of the Brand's Strategic Concept.  The Brand Strategy is presented in person and usually takes less than hour to review.  Once approved, the Brand Strategy is delivered in Powerpoint and PDF formats and should be distributed to both internal and external parties that share in the responsibility of building, supporting, and maintaining the brand.  The brand Strategy provides these parties with the necessary background and insight they will need for their branding efforts.

The following video is a collection of television and radio commercials we developed for United Regional, Wichita Falls, Texas' leading non-profit hospital.

You can learn more about United Regional by clicking here.