Posts Tagged ‘ consumer trends ’

Brands work to strengthen their relationship with the social consumer in 2011

According to research conducted during the October 2010 Pivot Conference in New York, marketing and adverting eyes are on the social consumer. With 58 percent recognizing the social consumer as a pivotal element to the brand, marketers and advertisers understand the value and power of the social consumer. In addition, 84 percent see social consumers as a primary or secondary target market this year.

Who is the social consumer?
They are tech-savvy consumers who speak to brands through social media. They “like” brands on Facebook and will retweet your brand’s newest promotion on Twitter. They will let all their social friends know they are spending some time with your brand when they check-in on Foursquare and spread online coupon love with your brand through Groupon.

Businesses keep social media management close to home.
The survey found that 52 percent of respondents run their social media efforts in-house, while 19 percent use full agencies and another 15 percent rely on specialized agencies to lead their social media efforts.

Among the 700 marketing and advertising professionals surveyed, 90 percent recognized social media as a marketing function. Public relations followed at 64 percent with sales not too far behind at 46 percent, and customer service at 39 percent. When asked what roles or functions they oversaw, the majority (64 percent) were responsible for social media marketing with brand management following closely at 58 percent.

So, how will marketing and advertising professionals divvy up their time in 2011?
The survey provides a quick breakdown:

  • Social Media. Marketers plan to increase usage of social media by 75 percent. Only 19 percent will remain at current levels, while one percent of respondents actually plan on decreasing usage.
  • Mobile. Apps for iPhone and Droid will see a rise of 62 percent, 21 percent will remain constant and 1 percent will decrease.
  • Microblogging. More than half of marketing and advertising professionals, 61 percent, will increase use of streaming apps such as Twitter and Yammer, 27 percent will stay the course and 5 percent will reduce current usage.
  • Video. At 55 percent, a little more than half of marketers will increase video production and distribution with YouTube, Vimeo and the like, 31 percent will continue as is, and no one plans to decrease their efforts in this category in 2011.
  • Blogs. Contrary to a recent story in the New York Times insinuating that the statusphere would spell the end of the blogosphere, brands will increase their focus on top tier blogs to reach customers and peers by 52 percent, with 35 percent staying constant and 5 percent reducing focus.

Social Media ROI
Such a hot topic in the world of social media for business, isn’t it? According to the survey, the majority of respondents are measuring social media success against internal goals and objectives. Of those who measure, 73 percent find social media useful, however; four percent say it hasn’t been all it’s cracked up to be.

Hmmm…Interesting…
As the survey proves, social media use will definitely grow this year. On the contrary, certain platforms won’t be receiving the same love. Geo-location networks such as Foursquare and Gowalla and Review sites will see a 10 percent retraction in focus this year. However, brands will increase usage of virtual worlds such as Second Life by 11 percent.

For the complete Pivot Conference social media branding survey, click here.

2011
03/03
CATEGORY
communications
consumer trends
Marketing
public relations
Social Media
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Why marketers will love mobile marketing in 2011

I’ve said it. Our industry experts have said it. You’ve probably said it too. Mobile marketing is where it’s at this year.  Big name brands get it, too. Starbucks recently launched their new mobile feature that lets consumers conveniently pay for their lattes from their iPhone or iPod touch.

Marketers should love mobile because consumers love it. We see this in the increase in smartphones and mobile activity like text messaging, and email.  A 2010 Pew Internet Research report found that 40 percent of adults use the Internet, email or instant messaging on a mobile phone. This is up from the 32 percent of Americans who did this in 2009. According to a January 2011 study done by Knotice, a direct digital and email marketing company, 13.36 percent of emails are opened by a mobile operating system or device.

Report says 88 percent of marketers are planning to use mobile marketing in 2011, and 75 percent plan an increase spending on mobile initiatives. What else can we expect from mobile this year? Glad you asked.

Courtesy of Ragan.com, Patrick Kerley, senior digital strategist at Levick Strategic Communications, has put together a list of five trends in mobile media:

  • Return of the mobile web
  • App alternatives
  • Tablets
  • Payments
  • Online/offline blend

So, what are your plans for mobile marketing this year?

2011
02/14
CATEGORY
communications
consumer trends
Marketing
mobile
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Consumers crave commercials during the Super Bowl

So, do you watch the Super Bowl for the game or for the commercials? For some people, this is a challenging question. For me, it’s rather easy. I watch for the commercials. I am looking for those major contenders (Doritos, Budweiser, Snickers, CareeerBuilder.com, Monster.com, etc.) and am curious as to how they are going to top themselves this year. I want to be a part of the Monday morning chit chat around the water cooler as everyone is sharing a laugh over their favorite and funniest commercials in addition to griping about the worst ones. Oh, and I’m sure they are talking about the game, too.

Apparently, I’m not alone. A 2010 Nielsen survey of more than 25,000 household’s in the Nielsen Homescan panel found that 51 percent of viewers surveyed said they enjoyed watching the commercials more than the game itself. With that being said, the Super Bowl is the prom of the advertising world. Big name brands are spending $3 or 4 million dollars on Super Bowl commercials. According to a January 2011 article in Ad Age, a spot on the Super Bowl is equal to, on average, 250 spots on regular TV for the top spenders. All of that just for 30 seconds of Super Bowl fame, but consider the impact of these commercials. In this age of social media, Super Bowl commercials are being tweeted, posted on Facebook and YouTube and viewed by millions of online viewers who either missed it the first time or couldn’t wait to see it again.

How does this effect ROI? Most brands that advertise during the Super Bowl see an average increase in sales of 12 percent the week following the big game. More established brands will feel the effects for longer. Considering Super Bowl related sales start long before game day, it is estimated that consumers will invest into this day more than they have in the past. A study from the Retail Marketing and Advertising Association, conducted by BIGresearch, found that consumer Super Bowl spending is expected to exceed $10.1 billion.

As much as consumers are looking forward to gathering around the TV to watch the big game on February 6, they are looking forward to the Super Bowl commercials just as much. With that said, let’s take a walk down memory lane, shall we?

Courtesy of The Daily Beast, here is a list of the 20 most effective Super Bowl commercials. Did they leave any off?

Enjoy!

2011
02/06
CATEGORY
consumer trends
Marketing
Social Media
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Mobile Marketing: Why you need it and how to use it effectively

As mobile marketing becomes more and more accessible to businesses and their marketing budgets, public relations and marketing professionals are finding different ways to communicate with their target audience through their phone.

According to a 2010 survey by Pew Internet Research, more than 70 percent of adult cell phone carriers use their phone to send and receive text messages, nearly 40 percent use their mobile browser to access the Internet and more than a third use their cell phones to send emails. With so many consumers relying on their cell phones to send and receive information to others, communicators should be taking the opportunity to speak to their audience in a manner that works best for them.

We’re starting to get it. According to Forrester’s 2011 Mobile Trends report, businesses are expected to spend $1 billion on mobile advertising by year-end (that’s a lot of standard text messaging fees that may apply! Sorry, just a little mobile marketing humor…). Forrester also predicts businesses will use mobile marketing to generate leads, drive foot traffic to their businesses and sell product; in addition to building brand awareness, driving online traffic and increasing their communications efforts.

Per Forrester, here are some mobile trends we can expect to see more of in 2011:

Mobile, social and local. Think Groupon. Markets will find more ways to combine mobile with social and local in an effort to attract a more targeted audience.

Dumb Smartphones. As the Android and iPhone compete to be the master smartphone, older models will become cheaper and more accessible to consumers.

Mobile Fragmentation. Blackberry, iPhone, Android, Windows. Marketers will need to prioritize based on which platforms their target audience relies on most. Cross-platform development has not yet been achieved successfully, but this may be one of the new developments to come about in 2011.

Apps versus Web. Okay, I’ll admit it. I’m #teamapp for sure. I love the instant access it gives me to whatever I need. Movie tickets, weather, horoscope, news, gossip…you name it. According to Forrester, there will be a never ending debate on which is better to have. However; the smart communicator knows you should invest in both.

Mobile to interact with the physical environment. Think QR codes or text messaging contests. Forrester predicts mobile will continue to prompt consumers to interact with their physical environment, whether that means scanning a bar code, using augmented reality or responding to a call to action that asks them to text in.

For Forrester’s complete list of trends, check out this article from MobileMarketer.com.

Now that you know why mobile marketing is important, you need to know how to improve those efforts. Shane Ketterman, writer for CopyBlogger, has created a list of tips that will help communicators engage with their mobile audience.

Include a plain text version of every message. Including a plain text copy of every HTML message you send will help eliminate potential issues for those subscribers with mobile readers that do not support HTML.

Keep links uncrowded. If your email message has links that you want your readers to click on, such as navigation back to your main site (recommended), then make sure those links stand out on their own. Imagine your loyal reader flicking around on a tiny screen to get to that link — and how frustrated you get when the links are so close together that you can’t land on the one you want. If you want clicks, make it easy.

Pull the reader in with your subject line. Like any headline, an email subject line has to capture attention quickly and drive the reader to click through. By the way, the current best practice for subject lines for mobile devices is to keep it within five words. Why? After about five to seven words, the subject line gets truncated and thus it’s a lost opportunity.

Use the right tags for your images. If your email marketing message includes images, make sure you include an alternative (alt) tag to describe what the image is. Don’t stuff this tag full of keywords, it doesn’t work. Use it for what it was meant for — to briefly describe what the image is, in a way that lets your reader make sense of it if the image isn’t visible. Many devices can display all your images correctly, but not all of them will, so it’s just smart to use alternative text to make sure every reader gets the message that image was supposed to convey.

Is your call to action clear? People using mobile devices spend a little less time taking in the content due to the smaller screen sizes and the fact that they are usually on the go, so make sure your email marketing has a clear call to action. Put it either near the beginning or somewhere where it will stand out. Don’t make it hard to find … after all, it’s the key to getting the response you want.

After writing this post, I have one question for you. Are you making the best of your mobile marketing efforts?

2011
02/01
CATEGORY
communications
consumer trends
mobile
PR 101
public relations
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