Recently in Media Category

Mobile Ads Pointing To Social Sites Increasing
by Mark Walsh, Thursday July 1, 2010

The expansion of social media on mobile phones is no secret. In a June report, comScore identified social networking as the fastest-growing content category across both mobile browsers and applications. And then there are the 100 million people worldwide accessing Facebook on mobile devices.

The latest piece of evidence in that vein is a 50% rise in mobile ad campaigns that send users to multiple social networking sites in the last six months, according to the May metrics report released today by mobile ad network Millennial Media. Overall, 12% of campaigns direct people to social sites as a call to action within ads, a higher proportion than send users to m-commerce sites or store locator maps.

While mobile advertisers are increasingly trying to drive users to brand pages or promotions on social sites, click-to-call remains the most common type of action they encourage in ads at 36%, followed by signing up for a service (29%), submitting a form (28%), application download (24%) and watching a video (23%).

More than three-quarters (77%) of campaigns overall directed users either to a mobile site or a custom landing page. When it comes to ad formats, Millennial said spending on rich media units was up 85% as marketers that use the higher-impact units "doubled down, making sure it was a key component of their May campaigns."

Spending on mobile rich media ads more broadly will increase dramatically with the launch of the iAd platform today, for which Apple has said it has already taken in $60 million in ad buys from a group of initial sponsors that includes Nike, Nissan, Sears and Target. Whether competing mobile ad networks like Millennial and AdMob enjoy a halo effect from higher spending on the iAd -- or just the reverse -- remains to be seen.

Among other findings from the Millennial report, the number of ad requests per page view was just over one (1.03) and the average monthly page views per user was 108. The average session time was up by a minute to five minutes -- three seconds -- as the ending of the school year led to more time spent on mobile phones.

Millennial's audience grew slightly in April to 61.5 million from 60 million unique users, or 82% of U.S. mobile Web users.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

Virgin Asks Twitter Followers To Name Its 'Canadian Bird'
by Laurie Sullivan, Friday, June 11, 2010

Social media has become an interesting way for consumers to connect with Virgin America, especially via Twitter. So when the airline decided to add a flight to Toronto, Canada -- its first international destination -- it turned toward Twitter followers asking for names.

The promotion, Name our Canadian Bird, asked Twitter followers to submit their Canadian-themed plane names for the Airbus A320 set to take flight to Toronto later this month. Virgin America plans to post the 10 top picks for voting, and then christen the No. 1 choice on the new aircraft. The promotion kicked off earlier this week, but Virgin America service from Los Angeles and San Francisco to Toronto begins June 23.

Twitter followers got creative. There have been 400 Canadian bird plane name submissions so far. Although not yet ranked, Abby Lunardini, Virgin America's director of corporate communications, says a few company favorites are Plane Gretzky, OOT & ABOOT, Eh-bus in the Hoose, The Eh 320, Like a Virgin, International for the very first time, V-Dot in the T-Dot, Torontino, Flying Zamboni, Northern Exposure, and Canuck Connect.

It doesn't appear that Twitter's failure to support the volume of traffic on the site during the past week has had a negative impact on its Promoted Tweets program. Lunardini says it has not angered or frustrated consumers at all. In fact, Twitter has become a common way for consumers to communicate with Virgin America.

Lunardini recalls that a consumer using WiFi during a flight had trouble getting an attendant's attention, so he sent a tweet to the brand asking for help to track down an attendant to order a meal. Marketers back at corporate managed to get that message and seat number to the flight crew on the plane.

Although Twitter had difficulties with the site recently, experiencing periodic outages, that kind of quick response from Virgin America has become quite common.

Susan Etlinger, consultant at analyst firm Altimeter Group, describes Twitter's "Fail Whale" as an artifact from the days when the site was the "latest bright, shiny object -- a whimsical, human way to say, 'sorry, we messed up," she says. But increasingly, marketers have begun to think of Twitter as an integral part of their mix.

Fail Whale sightings definitely lose their charm for organizations that rely on Twitter as an essential medium to connect with consumers, but Etlinger doesn't think marketers will give up on the platform just yet. "Many know -- or should know -- they don't have access to the full Twitter feed anyway, so even on a good day, they are only seeing a sample of the total Twitter traffic," she says. "That's why they need to have a social media monitoring tool that aggregates multiple media streams -- news, blogs, communities, images, YouTube -- so they have a comprehensive view of what's happening online as it relates to their brand."

For more information visit www.mediapost.com

Denny's Pumps Up Social Media Efforts Amid Troubles
by Karlene Lukovitz, Thursday June 1, 2010

Social media is likely not the #1 priority these days at Denny's, what with searches for both a new CEO and a new CMO now underway and heavy investor pressure to rejuvenate the brand and jump-start its sales.

(On June 8, Denny's announced that chairman/CEO, Nelson Marchioli, who had survived an ouster attempt by an investor group in May, is now being replaced on an interim basis by board chair Debra Smithart-Oglesby. The chain's former CMO, Mark Chmiel, resigned at the end of last year.)

Still, from a marketing standpoint, it's interesting to note that the company is pushing forward with efforts to enhance its social media outreach, even as a new top-level strategic team tackles the job of reassessing the business's fundamentals.

In the last six months, in particular, the chain has been accelerating social media efforts intended to go beyond pushing out basic promotional/coupon offers -- efforts more focused on engaging fans and prospects with one another and with the brand, confirms Alan Miller, co-founder/co-owner of L.A.-based Filter Creative Group, the agency handling Denny's social media programs.

The latest effort, launched on June 8 and running through June 27, is a Father's Day "card maker" application being promoted through the chain's main brand and "Allnighter" Facebook fan pages and Twitter presences, as well as its email database.

Users register and create a card to email or print out for dad, and the card comes with a coupon for a free ice cream float for dad ... well, free with any purchase from the chain's new "$2 $4 $6 $8 Value Menu" or an entrée from its general menu. (The free-with-purchase nature of the offer is perhaps notable, given that disgruntled investors' criticisms have included charges that outright food giveaways, such as Denny's annual Free Grand Slam Breakfast day, have not succeeded in winning new, regular customers.)

As of June 10, more than 7,000 consumers had already created Father's Day cards, according to the chain. This follows a similar card-maker effort for Mother's Day, in which more than 13,000 users created cards in less than a week, reports Miller.

Denny's main brand Facebook page has attracted about 49,000 fans since its launch (along with an associated Twitter presence) in February 2009. But these general-brand Facebook/Twitter presences actually emerged from the success of the launch, nearly a year earlier, of a Facebook page and Twitter account that were created specifically in support of Denny's "Allnighter" initiative -- its effort to attract a young crowd with a hipper environment and special menu featured between 10 a.m. and 5 a.m.

The Allnighter Facebook page (which now has about 72,000 fans) has offered a variety of engagement devices, including mobile apps like virtual dancing video games and Webisodes featuring live-action puppet characters enjoying the Allnighter vibe. Allnighter fans have also been able to access personalized profile pages created by the animated characters, appearing on MySpace, as well as Facebook and Twitter.

Denny's two Facebook fan pages regularly cross-promote engagement and promotional opportunities, and Webisodes/videos, along with Denny's TV spots, are readily available on YouTube.

Earlier this year, Denny's' main Facebook page hosted eight video episodes featuring its popular chicken characters -- a follow-up to the chain's three Super Bowl commercials promoting its Free Grand Slam Breakfast day and Free Grand Slam birthday offer. One of those Bowl spots ("Chicken Warning") showed its chicken characters fleeing town as they were warned about the volume of eggs they'd have to lay to meet the demand for the free breakfast promotion. The video episodes offered humorous updates on the chickens' plight.

Denny's subsequently created "The Chicken Show," a series of monthly Webisodes on a "chickens" tab of the brand's main Facebook site that feature the chickens and their humorous interactions with a clueless fictional character, "Brian the Intern." A current episode, for instance, has the chickens begging for Denny's fans to volunteer as reviewers of the new Value Menu, because "Brian" has fallen gravely short as a reviewer (Allnighter Facebook fans are also being urged to become reviewers).

In April, Denny's also teamed with ESPN on both branded content sponsorship segments within the network's "Wednesday Night Baseball" programming and a weekly, online "Denny's Kruk Report," in which ESPN baseball analyst John Kruk blogs on baseball, food and fans and answers questions submitted by Denny's Facebook fans. Participation in the Kruk Report is heavily promoted on both Denny's Allnighter and overall-brand Facebook pages.

What's next? Miller says a July Fourth social media campaign/ promotion is soon to be announced.

Denny's sales declined from $939.4 million in 2007, to $760.5 million in 2008, to $608.1 million in 2009. During fiscal year 2009, its same-store sales decreased 3.7% in company-owned units and 5.2% in franchised units. However, 2009 fiscal net income was $41.6 million, up from $12.7 million in fiscal 2008.

In first-quarter fiscal 2010, net income was $4.6 million, versus $4.3 million in Q1 fiscal 2009.

For more information visit www.mediapost.com