Posted by truecreek on May 2, 2009 under More Dam News | 
This is just huge. Even the USPS is having a sale. This is from their hot press release.
Today we filed a notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission for a Summer Sale. The Sale will provide a 30 percent reduction in postage for qualifying Standard Mail customers mailing letters and flats. The Summer Sale will run from July 1 through September 30, 2009 . The Summer Sale offer is subject to review by the Commission for up to 45 days following May 1.
UPDATE:
The United States Postal Service has issued further specifics on its proposed “summer sale.”
The sale will run from July 1 through September 30 and will be open to mailers who mailed more than one million Standard letters and/or flats from October 1, 2007, through March 31, 2008.
The USPS said eligible mailers will receive a rebate of 30% on any mail volume in the summer sale period, which is over the past threshold.
The rebates will be adjusted if the mailer’s October 2009 volume is less than their October 2008 mail volume adjusted their mailing trend.
Mailers will pay full postage during the summer, and their rebates will be determined by the USPS after October 31. Rebates will be credited to the mailer’s permit account before December 31.
The USPS will be sending eligible mailers letters that will provide the threshold as determined by USPS data systems.
Once they receive their eligibility letter, mailers may enroll in the program on the Web on or before July 1.
The summer sale proposal must still be approved by the USPS board of governors and the Postal Regulatory Commission.
Posted by truecreek on May 1, 2009 under Opinions. Everyone has them. |
For those of you who are following the saga of sale or no sale for the automakers: this is NOT what I was suggesting at all. This kind of local stuff just gives me the heebie jeebies.
I just sense so much desperation in the art direction. Agreed?
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News |
From eMarketer:
If media attention is any indication, Twitter has exploded into an all-out phenomenon. Celebrities, politicians, entrepreneurs, business leaders and everyday users are flocking to the service en masse, generating a frenzy of activity and attention.
Everybody is talking about Twitter, but what do the numbers say?
There were roughly 6 million Twitter users in the US in 2008, or 3.8% of Internet users.
It’s projected that the number of Twitter users will jump to 18.1 million in 2010, representing 10.8% of Internet users.
By all measures, Twitter is growing, and quickly.
What’s driving this phenomenal growth?
“Twitter lets people know what’s going on about things they care about instantly, as it happens,” Evan Williams, Twitter’s CEO, told The New York Times. “In the best cases, Twitter makes people smarter and faster and more efficient.”
A survey of Twitter users from MarketingProfs backs Mr. Williams’ views. On a scale from 1 to 5 (with 1 for strongly disagree and 5 and for strongly agree), the phrase “I find it exciting to learn new things from people” averaged a score of 4.65 and “I value getting information in a timely manner” averaged 4.58.
“Above all, people on Twitter are truly motivated by learning new things and getting information real-time, as it’s developing,” said Ann Handley of MarketingProfs.
Posted by truecreek on April 29, 2009 under Opinions. Everyone has them. |
A very good friend of mine and a member of The Creekbed, is a great designer by the name of Kyle Williams. This is a cool little piece of work he produced for the Tampa Bay Brewing Company.
Beer is your friend. Never forget that.
Posted by truecreek on April 28, 2009 under The Work |
We’ve just completed a very smart campaign for Comcast. A strong winback message, IMHO. Honest. Just the way it should be. And you have to appreciate the humility of the subhead. Here are two of four oversized postcards, which will be followed by a letterpak.
Posted by truecreek on April 27, 2009 under The Work |
Posted by truecreek on under The Work |
Posted by truecreek on under Opinions. Everyone has them. |
By Emma Hall
Welcome to social-media message overload.
The constant barrage of invites to sign up for this group or download that app are starting to wear on social-network users, presenting big challenges for the brands and marketers who are looking to use these sites to aggregate fans and cultivate relationships with customers.
Nearly a third of social networkers say they are fed up with the constant requests to join groups and try new applications, according to research by the Internet Advertising Bureau in the U.K. That means marketers will need to work harder and keep innovating if they want to harness the consumer power of social networks and persuade people to join their sponsored sites or pages.
When asked “What do you dislike about social networks?” by far the highest response, at 31%, was that there are too many invites to install applications, followed by 16% who said “when advertising isn’t relevant to me.” Slightly more than 5% complained about messages from brands and another 5% actually lamented the addictiveness of social networks. About 12% said they had no complaints. The research showed that 7% of respondents sign up to find out about brands.
“From a marketer’s perspective, social networks look brilliant on paper,” said Alistair Beattie, head of strategic planning at AKQA, London. “It’s a switched-on crowd with a huge amount of time who hold brands close to them. The difficulty is that they regard this as their space. We have all become our own source of entertainment. But there is a resistance to being advertised at in our own spaces.”
Amy Kean, IAB senior marketing manager, said, “Despite [social networking's] popularity, this study shows that respect for the user is just as important in social media. Users will not respond to spam or irrelevant advertising.” And controlling those intrusions will have to become a higher priority for social networks, said Union Square Venture’s Fred Wilson at Ad Age’s recent digital conference.
“One of [social networks'] biggest costs is ‘environmental mediation,’ or keeping the bad people at bay,” Mr. Wilson said.
AKQA had success with a Marmite group on Facebook. The savory spread’s advertising message is “Love it or hate it,” so the group works well as a discussion topic for social networkers. Fans post recipes, discuss weird and wonderful ways to enjoy the sticky black spread, tell tales of conversion to the taste and share frustrations about not being able to purchase it outside the U.K.
Too often, Mr. Beattie said, advertising on social networks is “still a traditional interruptive approach where brands are piggybacking on content that people value.”
The IAB research found that exclusive content, which appeals to 28% of social networkers, and a genuine interest in the message, which attracts 37%, are the keys to a positive response from consumers on social networks. And because only 5% say that they actively dislike messages from brands, there are big opportunities for marketers who can hit the right notes.
“To be popular, brands need to have a personality and be someone that people want to be friends with,” Mr. Beattie said. “The guiding principle is to offer things that are not available elsewhere, things that give social kudos or bragging rights. Brands are part of the fabric of people’s lives and ultimately most are happy to be identified as friends of a brand.”
The IAB study of nearly 2,000 internet users also showed that social networks are taking on extra relevance in the current economic climate. Forty-one percent of members say they now place even more value on ratings and reviews from family and friends on a social network. Mobile social-networking is also on the increase. Updating social-network sites via mobile handsets is increasing, with 25% of all respondents logging on to check or update their pages.
Posted by truecreek on April 25, 2009 under The Work |
Some nice card design from Pete Buttecali. And a nice tagline from Mike Matson. Of course.
Posted by truecreek on April 23, 2009 under The Work |
Posted by truecreek on April 22, 2009 under More Dam News |
By Wayne Friedman
Not all TV teen viewers are into new TV technology — at least not the ones that delay gratification.
According to a new study by Pangea Media, an online quiz technology company, and Ypulse, a digital youth media company, 65% of tween and teen users prefer to watch TV shows live. This contrasts with 25% who say they will view it using a DVR, and 10% who watch online.
Traditional TV genre programs also play better than new-style TV formats. Tweens/teens prefer scripted series 64% of the time versus reality TV, at 36%. They like programming on cable TV, at 77% of the time to network TV’s 23%.
But some prevailing trends seem to follow tweens/teens. Asked to forgo either TV or the Internet for a week, 77% of respondents overwhelmingly said it would be television. While 60% say they have seen an original Internet video series, 85% say they have never visited a TV show’s social-networking area. Most of tweens/teens online video viewing goes to YouTube, with a 50% score. Some 40% of the time, they go to a channel’s Web site, and 20% of the time, they head to iTunes.
Multitasking is still big among this group. They watch TV and are online 78% of the time, while TV and texting is at a 66% rate.
Television still influences their buying decisions. Sixty-six percent say they downloaded music because they heard it on a show; with 30% saying they purchased clothes because they were seen on a TV character.
Posted by truecreek on April 20, 2009 under The Work |
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News |
By Richard H. Levey
If a proposed test rollback of mail rates this summer goes through, listen for the sound of corks popping in Plano, TX. That’s because J.C Penney Co., which makes its headquarters there, was the biggest mailer during summer 2008, and stands to reap the largest benefit.
On Friday, word began circulating through the direct mail industry that The U.S. Postal Service was mulling temporary postage discounts for high-volume mailers that schedule drops between June 15 and Sept. 15. While the details of the program are still being worked out, discounts are expected to be between 20% and 30%.
This assumes that the highest-volume mailers haven’t negotiated separate, individual discounts with the U.S.P.S., or that those that have won’t be allowed to participate in the program. There has been no comment, official or unofficial, on either speculation at deadline.
But assume that the largest mailers pay the going rate. Penney mailed at least 119 million letters and catalogs in at least 23 separate campaigns, as far as could be ascertained from several editions of the U.S.P.S’s Postal Bulletin.
A positive decision by the Postal Service could give an effort-free extra bit of income to the $572 million the company earned during its most recent fiscal year, which ended Jan. 31.
Information within the Postal Bulletins can be a little dicey: Among the June 15-Sept. 15 mailings scheduled for 2008, a few mailings, such as a 2.65 million-piece drop identified only as “Summer Sale and Clearance Postcard”, was not included in Direct Newsline’s calculations And since the Bulletin only lists individual campaigns in excess of 1 million pieces, it’s very likely high-volume mailers with smaller-yet-regular drops were overlooked as well.
While the Postal Service’s fourth quarter doesn’t exactly correspond to the period being scrutinized (the quarter starts and ends 15 days later), for comparison’s sake the Service carried just over 23.7 billion Standard Mail pieces during the quarter, which generated $4.94 billion in revenue.
Should the program be implemented, discount levels will be based on mailers’ meeting individually calculated levels based on the volume of mail they sent out between June 15 and Sept. 15, 2008. Because of the manpower needed to calculate each level and discount, the sales may apply to only the 4,000 largest Standard Mail users, according to a Direct Marketing Association (DMA) statement speculating on the discount program.
If it does go through as currently on the table, mailers that have reduced their volume during the first two quarters of the Postal Service’s fiscal 2009 year may have the levels needed to quality for discounts reduced as well, according to the DMA. The Postal Service’s fiscal year began on Oct. 1, 2008.
Posted by truecreek on April 8, 2009 under More Dam News |
By DEBORAH YAO
WASHINGTON (AP) – You’re watching Jon Stewart’s “The Daily Show,” when suddenly you see a commercial for the Mustang convertible you’ve been eyeing – with a special promotion from Ford, which knows you just ended your car lease. A button pops up on the screen. You click it with the remote and are asked whether you want more information about the car. You respond “yes.” Days later, an information packet arrives at your home, the address on file with your cable company.
This is the future of cable TV advertising: personal and targeted.
Cable TV operators are taking a page from online advertising behemoths like Google Inc. (GOOG) to bring these so-called “addressable” ads onto the television. “It hasn’t really been done on TV before,” said Mike Eason, chief data officer of Canoe Ventures, a group formed by the nation’s six largest cable operators to launch targeted and interactive ads on a national platform starting this summer.
They’re betting they can even one-up online ads because they also offer a full-screen experience – a car commercial plays much better on your TV than on your PC. As such, they hope to charge advertisers more.
The stakes are high: Cable companies get only a small portion of the $182 billion North American advertising market. Eason said the cable operators, which sell local ads on networks like Comedy Central, get roughly 10 percent of the commercial time on those channels. With targeting, they are hoping to expand that. But they have to tread carefully. Privacy advocates worry the practice opens the door to unwanted tracking of viewing habits so ads can target consumers’ likes or dislikes. They also fear it could lead to discrimination, such as poorer households getting ads for the worst auto-financing deals because they are deemed credit risks.
“You’ve got to tell people you’re doing it and you’ve got to give people a way to say no,” said Pam Dixon, executive director of World Privacy Forum in Carlsbad, Calif. “Otherwise, it’s just not fair.”
By the end of the year, Canoe will start rolling out ads that let consumers request information, such as the hypothetical one for the Mustang, industry executives said. Cable operators involved are Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), Cox Communications Inc., Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC), Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR), Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC) and Bright House Networks.
Initially, over the next two months, they’ll tailor ads by demographic profile of a community, such as age and income. So households in a youth-oriented neighborhood might get pitches for concerts, while those in higher-income areas might get exotic travel ads. Previously, cable could only target an entire metropolitan area or town. Ultimately, cable will target down to the ZIP code and individual household, although when that will happen isn’t clear.
That means eventually, while you and your neighbor could be watching “Iron Chef” on Food Network at the same time, you might see a commercial for golf clubs, because you had tuned to The Golf Channel earlier, while your neighbor would see an ad for Disney vacations, because she has young children who like to watch Nickelodeon.
Experian, a data collection and credit scoring company, will cull profile data and match them with information advertisers have on their consumers. The advertiser won’t know who will get the ads. Advertisers can also provide a customer list to Experian, which then can make a match. So an ad can be targeted toward someone who just ended a lease with Ford.
Niche ads aren’t new to television. Advertisers have long pitched beer and cars on sports programs and cosmetics on the female-heavy Hallmark Channel.
But cable hasn’t been able to get more specific until now. With better targeting, advertisers might pay more to run the same ad, but they’ll be reaching the audience most likely to buy, increasing the effectiveness. Advertisers will also be better able to measure how wisely their marketing dollars get spent, by keeping track of who responds. These are areas TV hasn’t done as well as online.
Canoe says it has already developed the technology and will start deploying it in May. The cable companies’ movement toward standardizing their systems on a common platform will aid in the deployment of these ads. What remains to be worked out are financial issues such as how cable operators and cable networks will share revenue.
There are signs that targeting works. Cablevision has just completed an ad trial involving 100,000 homes in Brooklyn, N.Y., in which it sold additional services to its own customers. For instance, someone who only subscribes to cable TV might get ads for adding phone and Internet services. Cablevision said it saw a double-digit percentage increase in sales in areas with targeted ads.
The company will roll out targeted ads to 500,000 homes in the New York area this summer. But privacy advocates such as Dixon worry that customers might not have a way to disable cable’s tracking of their viewing habits, and won’t likely have the option of another cable operator to buy from.
“If you’re sitting at home watching a cable TV box, you’re stuck,” Dixon said. “You’re looking at a version of television that no one else is getting. That’s a big deal.”
But Eason said despite its flaws, this is where TV advertising is heading – measurable ads. “This is the future for measurement on television,” he said.
Posted by truecreek on April 7, 2009 under The Work |
A pretty nice example of how a set of great headlines make for a compelling and effective direct campaign.
Posted by truecreek on under Opinions. Everyone has them. |
By Joseph Young
I just don’t get it. Today, I read ANOTHER full page ad in The Washington Post from GM, touting their new TOTAL CONFIDENCE PLAN, complete with a deal for OnStar, an upgraded powertrain warranty, vehicle value protection (whatever that means) and the newest and most popular trick in the book, a payment protection plan should the buyer lose their job.
Nice stuff, but for me, I just like it simple. So, I have an idea. Lower your prices. Have a sale. 25% off all Pontiacs. 30% off all GMC trucks. Buy one, get one free. But you have to close the deal by the end of the month.
It’s that simple.
Sure, there are the folks that bought cars in the past few months that wouldn’t be very happy. Well, extend their warranty, or something like that. It’s so easy to think about why it wouldn’t work, but we all know it would. Long term, it might be an issue, but right now the writing is on the wall for these guys and they have to make a bold move.
It’s time for the Automaker Inventory Reduction Sale. Now through the end of the month.
Think about it. Today, there are a gazillion cars just sitting on docks all over the place. Things are so bad they are even storing them in airport parking lots, for Christ’s sake. Why not take all of that inventory and put the stuff ON SALE? Talk about getting cash flow moving again.
Dealers would be happy, because this would be a manufacturer driven sale. Customers would be happy because you would be speaking in a language they fully understand and can appreciate. And I would hesitate to think that the poor car salespeople just wouldn’t know what to do with themselves. It hasn’t exactly been nirvana for them lately.
Everyone loves a deal, but a deal that is clean and simple is to die for. All of these ‘creative’ new bullet points, complete with all of their disclaimer copy just confuse the issue at hand.
Can you imagine walking into a dealership today knowing that you were about to get a car for 30% under MSRP? Shoot, let’s go for 40%. They would just fly out the door.
If the retail establishment can do it, why not the automakers? From a competitive standpoint, it would just smoke the foreign competition. It would take virtually every sale off the table. It would be a Made in the USA home run for GM and Chrysler. But they better hurry. Time’s a wastin’.
Posted by truecreek on April 6, 2009 under Opinions. Everyone has them. |
By Beth Snyder Bulik
YORK, Pa. (AdAge.com) — Consumers don’t have to look far these days for a deal; it seems marketers everywhere are pitching discounts, bargains and value.
Walmart allows consumers to save money and live better. Microsoft reminds that PCs are cheaper than Macs and just as good. JCPenney promises the trifecta of value: style, quality and price. Kia Motors says it has features competitors can’t beat at a price they can’t match. Pillsbury Grands biscuits are only 25¢ a serving. Subway and Quiznos are duking it out by the dollar with $5 foot-longs and $4 torpedos, respectively.
As ’90s infomercial guru Susan Powter might say, “Stop the insanity.” On its face, the rationale behind value-based advertising seems to make sense. It’s a recession, and consumers are watching what they spend. But assuming everyone really is only out for the best deal during this recession, at what point does it all become one big blur? That is, if everything is a value, then what’s the value of being a value?
“When everyone is offering 10% off or 25% off or 50% off, what’s the point of difference?” said David Murphy, co-president and director of brand innovation at Barrie D’Rozario Murphy, Minneapolis. “A lot of the noise you’re hearing now is price noise. … Value in the traditional definition is getting more for less money or getting something for nothing. But value has an emotional quality, too, where I feel smart or I feel reassured or I feel in control by buying this product.”
He pointed to Hyundai, Target and Kodak as recent examples of brand marketing that tap that deeper kind of value. The Hyundai Assurance program reassures by taking the risk of job loss off the table, while Target harked back to simpler times with its fall campaign tagged “A new day. New ways to save.” And Kodak offers consumer-smart and less-wasteful picture printing with its newly launched “Print and Prosper” campaign.
“We’re promoting the value of saving people money. That gets to the trust of Kodak,” said Kodak Chief Marketing Officer Jeffrey Hayzlett of the work created by Deutsch, New York. “It’s not a pricing model; this is a value model. … Kodak wants you to take more pictures, have more memories and more Kodak moments. We don’t want you to have to worry about whether you can afford to print those moments and memories out.”
Even the word value can raise consumer suspicions, no matter a marketer’s good intent. “‘Value’ is the most overused and least believed statement in branding,” said Kevin Joy, VP at BrandProtect. “It’s OK to want to be perceived as providing value, but just keep it out of the slogans, please.”
Posted by truecreek on under More Dam News |
By Heidi Dawley
Mar 19, 2009
Mobile internet may have taken time to find its footing with consumers, but now it is powering along, gaining users at a fast clip.
What’s more it has moved beyond just an occasional toy for a rapidly increasing group of people.
The number of people who access news and information on the internet on a daily basis more than doubled in the last year, rising to 22.4 million in January from 10.8 million in the same month in 2008, according to a new study from ComScore.
“It is now more than a novelty. It is something that is a utility,” says Mark Donovan, senior vice president for mobile at comScore.
The transformation for mobile stems directly from improved web technology and a dramatic improvement in content.
In many ways the change is similar to what happened with internet access via the PC some years ago. In the early days, when dial-up ruled and content was limited, people might surf a bit each month. It was still a novelty. It became a daily habit as more content became available and fast internet connections gained over dial-up.
“You saw how the computer became knitted into the fabric of their lives. That’s now happening with the mobile phone,” says Donovan.
Another factor is handsets that are handier for surfing, but as comScore points out, it’s not just smartphones like Apple’s iPhone. It found that 70 percent of people accessing mobile internet content were using phones with lesser features.
The big draw for mobile surfers is news and information. ComScore found that the number of mobile users who visited such sites on a daily basis has more than doubled, rising 107 percent, to 22.4 million, by January as compared the prior January.
But the fastest-growing category in terms of the number of daily users is social networks and blogs. The number accessing these sites was up 427 percent to 9.2 million.
The third-biggest category was financial services, trading stocks, and accessing bank accounts and the like. That was up 188 percent, to 3.2 million daily users. This is also a category that Donovan believes is likely to continue growing rapidly.
For advertisers the rapid shift to accessing the web via mobile phones makes this area far more appealing, says Donovan.
“We have shown that mobile is sizable audience, it is frequently used by 35 percent daily. Plus a big portion of those people are additive, in that advertiser wouldn’t get them by just advertising on the PC web,” he says.
He is referring to some previous comScore research that showed that light PC internet users are 30 percent more likely to be using the mobile internet. So mobile is a key way to reach them.
What’s more, the people who are surfing from their phones are a nice sweet spot for advertising, believes Donovan. They tend to be men ages 18-35, who are highly connected and highly distracted. The mobile phone is their connection to the digital world.
Posted by truecreek on March 28, 2009 under More Dam News |
Adult Americans spend an average of more than eight hours a day in front of screens — televisions, computer monitors, cellphones or other devices, according to a new study.
The study also found that live television in the home continues to attract the greatest amount of viewing time with the average American spending slightly more than five hours a day in front of the tube.
The figure drops to 210 minutes a day of average TV viewing time among 18-24 year olds but rises to 420 minutes a day among those aged 65 and older.
The “Video Consumer Mapping” study was conducted by Ball State University’s Center for Media Design (CMD) and Sequent Partners for the Nielsen-funded Council for Research Excellence (CRE).
For the year-long study, observers recorded the exposure of 350 subjects to four categories of screens: traditional television, computers, mobile devices and other screens such as store displays, movie screens and even GPS navigation units.
The study found the average amount of screen time for all age groups was “strikingly similar” at more than eight-and-a-half hours although the type of devices and duration used by the respective groups throughout the day varied.
It found that people aged 45 to 54 averaged the most daily screen time at just over nine-and-a-half hours.
The study did not include anyone under the age of 18.
Among other finds:
– computer video consumption tends to be quite small with an average time of just over two minutes a day.
– Adults spend an average of 6.5 minutes a day with videogame consoles with the number rising to 26 minutes a day among those aged 18-24
– Adults spend an average 142 minutes a day in front of computer screens
– Adults spend an average 20 minutes a day engaged with mobile devices with the highest usage — 43 minutes a day — among the 18-24 age group
“What differentiates this study from all other attempts to measure video exposure at the consumer level is its scale, the range of media covered and the fact that it is focused on consumers first and the media second,” said Mike Bloxham, director of insight and research for Ball State’s CMD.
“It’s not a study about TV or the Web or any other medium — it’s about how, where, how often and for how long consumers are exposed to all media.”
Posted by truecreek on March 27, 2009 under More Dam News, Research |
Well, it’s in. TV watching is still KING, by a long shot.
By Gary Levin, USA TODAY
Despite the quick spread of video to computers, cellphones and iPods, their use is more hype than reality, and TV watching hasn’t suffered.
Those are among the findings of a new $3.5 million study out today from the Council for Research Excellence, a group of top media researchers, funded by Nielsen. The study confirms similar findings in earlier reports but uses a more statistically reliable method of observation in which researchers followed 476 people for two 14-hour days and recorded all of their media usage and daily activities.
“If you ask people how much time they spent online yesterday, they’re going to give you a wrong answer; they don’t remember,” says Steve Sternberg, chief analyst at Magna Global, a major ad firm, and a member of the Council. “The idea of doing a study where you actually observe the user and keep track of all the media they’re using is compelling.”
The research, conducted in five cities last year by a team from Ball State University, showed adults ages 45 to 54 were the heaviest users of all electronic media, spending an average of 9.5 hours a day. All other adults spent about 8.5 hours on a combination of TV, computers, mobile devices and other screens.
That same crowd of Baby Boomers also spent more time on e-mail, instant messaging and DVR playback than other age groups.
But while 43% of TV viewers in the study watched some form of online video, they spent only a few minutes a day doing so.
Adults 65 and older spent seven hours a day watching live TV, by far the highest amount for any age group, though they were far less likely to use computers or cellphones. That TV usage is double the time spent by the youngest adults, ages 18 to 24, who conversely were the heaviest users of online video, cellphones, console video games and computer software.
Yet even that younger crowd spent just 5.5 minutes a day watching computer video.
Michael Bloxham, a Ball State researcher, says that since the study was conducted last spring and fall, “you might slowly be seeing growth in online video,” especially after sites such as Hulu began aggressive promotional campaigns. BlackBerrys, iPhones, DVRs and social-networking sites also have increased in popularity.
Those under 55 spent 27% of their time with media multitasking, researchers found, though TV was more frequently viewed by itself than computers. Adults were exposed to about 72 minutes of advertising a day across all media.
Posted by truecreek on March 26, 2009 under Opinions. Everyone has them. |
I love newspaper. Always have. It’s just a wonderful creative medium that allows clients to not only project their brand image in a tasteful manner, but it allows for the communication of additional points of importance without destroying the creative at hand. It’s artwork. And it can really work for the client. Martin’s Mike Hughes thinks the same.
By Mike Hughes
It’s time the advertising industry did something important.
For our own self-interest — and for the common good — we need to start paying attention to newspapers again.
To begin with, it would be good for our business. For our own selfish reasons, we need a medium that targets the well-informed. We need a medium that lets us tell our whole story — and not just the 30-second version. With each passing month, we need more media that target people where they live. We need more media that let marketers build a brand and ask for the business. We need more media that let writers, art directors, photographers and illustrators practice their crafts.
We need a medium with the immediacy and importance of newspapers. Lee Clow says, “Newspaper is a special medium. It’s urgent, not yesterday or tomorrow but today. Sitting with a newspaper and a cup of coffee in the morning will always be one of the most intimate media experiences there is.”
Online or in print, we need newspapers. There are no substitutes. Magazines, TV channels and websites don’t do the same things. Not even close.
Our industry needs newspapers — but just as important, so does humankind. The world needs the kind of journalism practiced by newspapers when they’re at their best. The local investigative pieces. The foreign correspondence. The war reporting. Without them, news goes unreported. Viewpoints are narrowed. Governments can run amok.
That kind of reporting is expensive, and right now no one knows how it will get paid for in the coming years. With newspapers cutting costs every day, who will pay to man a substantial bureau in Baghdad? Who will spend the money to report the atrocities in Africa? Who will find the resources to blow the whistle on the next Watergate?
Even at their best, magazines, TV channels and websites don’t come close to giving us that kind of reporting.
Of course, humankind’s problem isn’t necessarily the advertising industry’s problem. If online and print newspapers weren’t proven effective, no one would say our industry needs to address this important problem.
But decades worth of evidence — including evidence gathered in 2009 — points to the uncommon efficacy of newspaper advertising. You know how excited our industry gets about the Super Bowl? Well, every single day of the year, more American adults read a printed newspaper than watch the big game once a year. And in 22 of the top 25 markets, the local-newspaper site is the No. 1 local site in town. And the newspaper-website audience has grown 80% in the past five years.
So why aren’t we creating more newspaper advertising? Part of the answer is undoubtedly fashion. Twenty-five years ago, an advertising campaign usually meant “TV and some print. Maybe radio.” That was the fashion then. Say “campaign” to ad people today, and their minds leap to “TV and digital.” We say we’re media-agnostic, but our behavior often says something else entirely. How many agencies aren’t selling newspaper advertising to their clients as hard as they should? How many advertisers are overlooking the medium that still has unsurpassed credibility with its audience? It’s time for a wake-up call.
No less an authority than Jeff Goodby reminds us that far from being out-of-fashion, a good newspaper ad is actual art. “The art is the part that gets people to look. Show outrageous things that don’t belong there. Shock people with a new logic,” he says. “If we all do this, it will become very difficult to find which newspaper page we want to wrap the fish in.
“I will like that day.”
Let me be clear here. I don’t think the newspaper industry is going to die anytime soon. With some well-publicized exceptions, most papers are surviving the economy’s near collapse. They might be holding on by their fingernails, but at least they’re holding on.
But if the newspaper business is going to give us the content our industry feeds on — and if it’s going to give us the journalism the world needs — newspapers need to be robust.
If we don’t give them a fair shot at our budgets, they might never be healthy enough to do the job we want them to do.
And we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves.
Posted by truecreek on March 24, 2009 under More Dam News |
eMarketer
Worldwide communication in the future will be done through mobile devices.
According to TNS Global, 74% of the world’s digital messages were sent through a mobile device in January 2009, a 15% increase over the previous year.
In emerging markets, the trend is even more dramatic; nine out of 10 messages are sent via mobile.
Some of the growth can be attributed to mobile instant messaging. Thirteen percent of all mobile subscribers used the feature, but 41% of smartphone users did so.
Other increases in mobile usage can be attributed to the abandonment of fixed-line telephones.
“As mobile devices slowly take away usage share from fixed services in developed markets, in emerging markets consumers are more likely to by-pass fixed communications altogether and go straight to mobiles,” said Sam Curtis of TNS.
As for developed countries, the PC e-mail remains the most popular message method, but its use is waning.
In Japan, 40 out of 100 e-mails sent are from a mobile device. In North America, 69% of those using e-mail on their mobile phone use it daily, high compared with 43% worldwide.
The trend will increase, TNS says, as smartphones such as the popular iPhone enter the marketplace and gain share.
Posted by truecreek on March 21, 2009 under More Dam News |
(CNN) — When Christopher Moore isn’t jumping rope, shooting baskets or playing the board game Chutes and Ladders, the 8-year-old can often be found at home using his ninja fighting skills, protecting the world from would-be enemies.
“I’m trying to save the other people from being hurt,” he said of his Avatar video game adventures. “And I be beating him bad,” he added with a coy smile and a nod toward his 15-year-old brother.
The Moore household, in Birmingham, Alabama, enjoys a good blend of at-home entertainment, something the foursome is doing more and more during these precarious financial times, explains the boys’ mother, Lisa Moore.
They grill, play outdoors or whip out traditional games that may be decades old, and although she doesn’t plop down at the video console with them, the boys and her husband often duke it out virtually.
“They’re always in competition,” she said with a laugh. “It keeps them busy. It keeps them occupied.” iReport.com: Show us how you’re entertaining yourself on the cheap
Numbers show that at-home entertainment is doing better than ever, flying in the financial face of so many industries that are struggling in this recession.
Netflix, a DVD rental service, has had a record quarter and now boasts 10 million subscribers. With no late fees, a selection of 100,000 titles (outdoing typical video stores by about 97,000), free postage, nine price plans and now the ability to stream 12,000 movies, Netflix’s offerings are resonating loudly with concerned consumers, spokesman Steve Swasey says. 
Watch Candy Crowley’s report on how lifestyles are changing »
“Netflix has always provided unprecedented convenience and value … [and] has been a growth company for the past 10 years,” Swasey explained. “There’s something for everybody. … Right now we think [the surge in success] is because the value argument is stronger. People aren’t buying DVDs, and they’re not going out as much.”
Bang for the buck and “affordable escapism” is what people want, agrees Scott Steinberg, publisher of DigitalTrends.com. That shows, too, in the gaming industry, which has become a $22 billion business, the Entertainment Software Association reported this year.
A movie, concert or sporting event gives several hours of entertainment. But a video game, even if it seems pricey at $60, can offer 40 hours of fun, Steinberg says, and can amount to a “much sounder investment.” And many games can be downloaded cheaply or for free online, from the comfort of one’s home.
“It’s all about instant gratification,” he said, adding that iTunes and streaming video services are two other examples of booming businesses. “You can sit there in your boxers with Cheetos on your chest and have a grand old time.”
The gaming experience, too, has changed with the years.
Five years ago, online gaming was considered a solitary activity, says David Williams, who heads up the Nickelodeon Kids and Family Games Group. And although games can still be played alone, the social component is burgeoning.
“Over a third of families will play games together online,” Williams said. They’re staying home more, and they’re “using games to connect with one another.”
Addicting Games, a Nickelodeon free online brand that caters to teens and tweens, counted 40 million visits from 11 million individuals last month alone, Williams says. Another Nickelodeon brand, Shockwave, has also grown. The free offerings have boomed, but hesaid the subscription business, too, has continued to grow “more than 20 percent year after year.”
When it comes to the games children and adolescents play, many parents such as Lisa Moore may choose to sit it out. But Christina Vercelletto, a senior editor at Parenting magazine, says that engaging in the games with them can do a family good.
“It can be an opportunity to bond with your kids,” she said. If parents express interest, kids “will probably be thrilled. And you’ll get a little window into what has them so excited.”
Plus, by playing the games, parents can determine how comfortable they are with what their kids are doing.
For those who want to get the opinions of others, she points out that the Entertainment Software Rating Board provides feedback and that parents are always learning from one another on, for instance, discussion boards.
Beyond traditional entertainment, people watching their wallets can watch out for themselves while staying home. Take, for instance, the practice of yoga.
Rodney Yee, a nationally recognized instructor, says video and DVD sales are up. Also thriving is the Gaiam Yoga Club, his and his wife’s first of its kind online 12-week yoga practice, which costs $5 a week.
“I really believe that this is an opportunity for all of us to re-evaluate the way we live in the world,” Yee said. “Even though they seem like hard times, they’re reflective times. We can look at our lives and question what we value by what we’re doing.”
Posted by truecreek on March 20, 2009 under More Dam News, Research |
By Mark Dolliver.
NEW YORK Not so long ago, a report on Hispanic Americans’ Internet usage would likely have been focusing on a “digital divide,” with Hispanic and other minorities lagging far behind the general population in online access and activity. The title of a Scarborough Research report released today, “The Power of the Hispanic Consumer Online,” gives a quick hint at how times have changed. The report finds Hispanic Internet users to be “avid downloaders of digital content,” thanks in part to a broadband adoption rate mirroring that of the nation’s overall online population.
Scarborough says 54 percent of Hispanic adults are online, vs. 69 percent of total U.S. adults. (If anything, the gap is likely to be narrower now, as the national data for the report were gathered between February 2007 and March 2008.) Among Hispanics who are online, 68 percent have a broadband connection in their household, as do 71 percent of U.S. Internet users in general.
In Scarborough’s polling, 42 percent of Hispanic Internet users (vs. 35 percent of Internet users in general) reported downloading some sort of digital content in the 30 days before being questioned. And what have they been downloading? As with the total online population, Hispanic Internet users are most likely to be latching onto music. Thirty-two percent of wired Hispanics reported having done so in the previous 30 days, vs. 24 percent of Internet users in general. Seventeen percent of online Hispanics (and 14 percent of all wired respondents) reported downloading something in the catchall “other video” category within that period.
Fewer Hispanic respondents said they’d downloaded audio clips (11 percent), movies (9 percent), TV programs (8 percent), video games (6 percent) or podcasts (3 percent) within that 30-day period. Aside from podcasts, the incidence of downloading in each category was slightly lower among Internet users in general than it was for the study’s Hispanic respondents. Scarborough (a joint venture between Arbitron and AdweekMedia parent The Nielsen Co.) notes that younger Hispanic adults were, as you’d expect, more likely than their elders to have downloaded digital content in the previous 30 days, with 51 percent of the 18-34-year-olds saying they’d done so.
Another section of the report notes that mobile devices are “an important point of Internet entry” for Hispanic adults. Among Hispanic cell-phone subscribers, 55 percent use it for text messaging, 28 percent for picture messaging, 22 percent for instant messaging, 15 percent for downloading video games, 15 percent for e-mail and 11 percent for “other” Internet usage. Here again, the polling finds Hispanic respondents more likely than cell-phone users in general to use the device in these ways.
When it comes to buying online, Scarborough found Hispanic Internet users lagging behind the total online population — but not by much. Sixty-two percent of online Hispanic adults reported having made at least one online purchase in the previous 12 months, vs. 70 percent of Internet users in general. Among those who did make such purchases, the average spent in the previous 12 months was $762 for Hispanic respondents and $861 for Internet users generally.
The report also took a look at some metro areas that have disproportionate numbers of Hispanic adults. Among the findings about these markets: The incidence of broadband access among online Hispanics was particularly high in Miami (76 percent), San Francisco (75 percent) and New York (72 percent). The incidence of past-30-day downloading among Hispanic Internet users was highest in Phoenix (60 percent). The average amount of online spending, among Hispanics who’d made any online purchase in the prior 12 months, was highest in New York (at $883), San Francisco ($879) and Phoenix ($831).
Posted by truecreek on March 19, 2009 under More Dam News |
From Knowledge@Wharton:
Heartland Payment Systems, a credit card processor, may have had up to 100 million records exposed to malicious hackers. Payment processors CheckFree and RBS Worldpay, and employment site Monster.com have all reported data breaches in recent months, as have universities and government agencies. Experts at Wharton say that personal data is increasingly a liability for companies, and suggest that part of the solution may be minimizing the customer information these companies keep.
Indeed, according to Wharton marketing professors Eric Bradlow and Peter Fader companies should deploy a technique called “data minimization.” The concept: Keep the customer data a company needs for competitive advantage and purge the rest. “I think there is a fear and paranoia among companies that … if they don’t keep every little piece of information on a customer, they [can't function],” says Bradlow. “Companies continue to squirrel away data for a rainy day. We’re not saying throw data away meaninglessly, but use what you need for forecasting and get rid of the rest.”
The problem with the data hoarding approach is that companies can’t use most of the information they keep, adds Fader. Meanwhile, they become data pack rats, chasing an illusory dream of one-to-one marketing, which he says “is a myth. The best thing to do is aggregate information so companies can predict something like, ‘Among all people who bought five times or more, how many times are they likely to buy in the next year?’”
Fader and Bradlow discussed data minimization concepts when they presented papers at the recent Wharton Information Security Best Practices Conference. Their papers illustrate how companies can still predict customer behavior even if they minimize the customer data they keep.
However, data minimization isn’t a panacea, argues Wharton operations and information management professor Eric Clemons. Some industries — such as insurance or credit card companies — may need to collect detailed customer data for competitive advantage. Meanwhile, companies that serve as pack rats for customer data are focusing on installing better defenses and procedures to protect information.
“The dominant argument of the day is that more data improves the accuracy of targeting,” says Andrea Matwyshyn, a legal studies and business ethics professor at Wharton. “But there are additional risks associated with storing that information. More may not always be better.”
Indeed, the cost of a data breach in 2008 was $202 per compromised record, up 2.5% from $197 per record in 2007, according to the Ponemon Institute, a Michigan group that researches and consults on privacy and information security issues. Ponemon’s estimates are based on interviews with companies that have suffered breaches to customer records that include credit card numbers and, in some cases, personally identifiable information. Following a data breach, companies often must hire security consultants, engage legal counsel and offer credit monitoring services to affected customers. The Institute also found that companies will lose customers in the year following a data breach. For example, health care and financial firms lost 6.5% and 5.5% of customers, respectively, after such incidents.
Fader and Bradlow argue that companies are taking on undue risk to their reputations by hoarding data with little business benefits. While companies generally disclose what data they keep in little-read privacy statements, consumers can still be surprised when breaches occur. “Companies are actively collecting data without realizing the work involved,” says Fader. “And given how companies are stretched thin, they can’t manage the data correctly. Keeping detailed data is a blessing and a curse.”
What to Keep?
The real challenge for companies is assessing what customer information they need to retain, says Fader, who adds that firms may be keeping an excessive amount of data because they can’t pinpoint what they actually want. “Data minimization involves more than just the data. You can’t minimize data until you know what to do with it. What data elements do you need to predict customer behavior?”
The inability to answer those tough questions, says Bradlow, could be one reason why companies default to storing as much data as possible — not the best strategy when it’s clear that many companies don’t know what to do with this data even when they have it.
Fader and Bradlow recommend a simple approach to data minimization. First, companies should figure out what information they need to track consumer behavior. Then, aggregate that information — including, for example, grocery bills, shopping frequencies and e-commerce sales for a retailer — over a defined period such as two to four months. With that aggregated information, a company can create histograms — graphical representations of aggregated data –and throw away original data.
Fader suggests that histograms offer accuracy rates close to individual targeting — without the risk. Purging individual information lowers costs because companies don’t have to secure information in transit, store and analyze data, and navigate a bevy of regulations across the globe. “Maintaining data warehousing is costly because the minute you keep data, you have to protect it,” says Bradlow. “Most firms realize they can’t do one-to-one targeting so why not only keep data that’s relevant?”
According to Matwyshyn, the discussion by Fader and Bradlow was an eye opener for privacy and legal experts at the Wharton security conference. What remains to be seen is whether privacy experts, marketers and security professionals can agree that data minimization is an important step. “The key is that there is discussion on the issue,” says Matwyshyn. “Marketers and privacy experts may not be as far apart as people presume.”
Fader and Bradlow acknowledge that the argument for data minimization is only just beginning. For data minimization to become the norm, a company’s management, privacy officers, legal counsel and marketing team will have to reach consensus on customer data collection. Legal and privacy experts are likely to support data minimization, while marketers will argue for keeping all the data they can collect.
Poaching Profitable Customers
In addition, data minimization practices will vary by industry. Clemons says that data can be a competitive advantage for many companies. For instance, Capital One used customer data to better segment its most profitable customers and poach similar ones from larger rivals. In this example, customer information led to varied pricing models — such as interest rates that varied by customer credit ratings — that maximized the profit from the top decile, or 10%, of customers. “Under the uniform pricing models of the mid 1990s, the top decile of customers produces 150 times more profit than average,” says Clemons. “Capital One found a way to attract the best customers away from other issuers.”
In a co-authored study, Clemons found that Capital One used what it calls an information-based strategy that allows the company to try varying approaches based on differences between itself and rivals. This strategy allowed Capital One to deploy a mass customization model. That model also generated returns, says Clemons. Capital One sustained double-digit returns on equity and double-digit increases in sales and profit growth due to its approach.
Clemons argues that storing customer data in bulk could lead to new pricing strategies. He agrees that one-to-one marketing is illusory at best, but a move to precision pricing — or figuring out exactly what an individual customer will pay — may warrant being a data pack rat. “I am not talking about pursuing some sort of illusory one-to-one marketing relationship with customers,” says Clemons. “I’m talking about making the transition to precision pricing, which does indeed require understanding your customer.”
Meanwhile, there’s another conundrum companies face: Data purged today could be valuable tomorrow. “Ten years ago, one of my clients wanted to purge his database. It was an insurance company, but once you purge your database, you know no more about your customers than a new entrant,” says Clemons. “That was okay under existing pricing models, but after any form of insurance deregulation, the information they were purging would have been enormously valuable.”
Ultimately, the choice to follow data minimization practices boils down to one question: What will a company do with the data?
“If you are collecting data just for its own purposes, follow a minimization approach,” suggests Matwyshyn. “If a company is doing something else with data, like selling it, then there’s no incentive to minimize the risk.”
Bradlow says data minimization has the potential to be one of the key security tools used by companies, even if it remains largely an academic concept today. “Security professionals will buy [data minimization]. Next, you have to convince the marketing world and begin giving talks outside the ivory tower. I think firms will start buying in.”
