My name is Pedro Laboy and I am a business strategist. My specialties are marketing and
branding. My tools of choice are technology, social media, and analytics. My name is
Pedro Laboy and I am a business strategist.
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Posts Tagged ‘Digital’
While conducting a competitive audit of the financial services industry for a client I came across a campaign that does a superb job at integrating print, search and display advertising. The campaign was deployed by T. Rowe Price (TRP)—by the way, I have no association with TRP or any of its agencies. The campaign supports two lines of business: mutual fund and retirement services. It is glued together by a web of well thought-out landing pages, unique toll-free numbers and tracking codes. These allow TRP to segment its audience, deliver unique value propositions and track performance of different channels as well as creative. I will give you a visual breakdown of the campaign starting with the TRP landing pages before analyzing print, banner and search ads.
Landing Pages
Each ad sends users to a unique landing page or URL. The messaging on the ads and the landing pages works seamlessly. Great content is included for those looking to learn more about the brand and its products. Unique toll-free numbers are displayed for those users further along the conversion funnel.
Print Ads
The print ads are nicely done. They include both unique landing pages and toll-free numbers. TRP should have tested different creative approaches, though. Based on research I recently read, the use of images on financial services advertising results in higher conversion rates.
Display (Banner) Ads
For this campaign, TRP took a contextual approach to its digital media. I am sure the media plan included behavioral and retargeting buys as well. The ads were created by the book. The include message segmentation and unique toll-free numbers. Each ad is tied to a unique landing page.
Search Ads
TRP’s paid search campaign was built around a robust keyword list. The ads include clear value propositions and a call-to-actions. Ads placed within the three top positions for all keywords. I would have done one thing differently, though. I would have used DNI scripts to dynamically generate Toll-free numbers on landing pages
Putting All Together
The image below demonstrates how the campaign comes together through TRP’s website and its landing pages.
What About TV?
Interestingly, TV ads have been running concurrently with the campaign above. However, these ads are not tightly integrated with other channels. Viewers are not directed to unique landing pages and a general toll-free number is used. Also, the messaging is not inline with other ads. I imagine that, as usual, TV advertising is handled by a different agency or team.
The chances of a viral ad becoming an effective brand vehicle are similar to those of a high-school basketball student making it into the NBA. By the way, viral ads are those that propagate through email and/or social networks rather than paid media channels. Here are five viral ads that have made the cut.
VW
Bing
Tony Hawk
Dove
Budweiser
There are three approaches to integrating and managing complex web properties: First, we have families of websites that use a common template and that are fully integrated either through navigation or visual design. Second, there are those websites that use a common template but are not fully integrated. Finally, there are organizations that take an ad hoc approach to their web properties. That is, they neither use a common template nor make an effort to integrate their websites. I will provide examples of all three.
Wall Street Journal Digital Network (WSJDN)
- Group of five primary and several secondary websites
- While each website has a distinctive layout as well as look and feel
- However, all sites have been built on the same infrastructure and with the same foundational template
- Adding new properties to the group is relatively easy
WSJ.com
WSJDN – Wall Street Journal, Market Watch, Barron’s and All Things Digital. The same global navigation is used across all WSJDN websites
Pew Charitable Trust (PCT)
- Group of websites not tightly integrated
- There is no global menu or navigation that allows users to go from website in the family to another
- All websites have been built on the same platform and based on the same template
- Adding new web properties can be achieved with little effort
PCT – Pew Center on The States, Pew Research Center, Pew Hispanic Center and The Pew Forum on Religion
US Government
- Group of related websites with little to no integration
- Redesign of the White House website has redefined what users expect from a government website
- However, no other government website delivers
- P&G takes a similar approach as well
Exit Warning! They seem to discourage users from leaving whitehouse.gov and moving into other US Government websites
Selected US Government websites
I know I am going to take a lot of heat for this post. Where exactly are all these so-called social media experts coming from? It seems that nowadays anyone with a Facebook or Twitter account can claim to be a social media strategist. I am afraid it takes much more than that. There is a big difference between understanding a subject and being an expert on it. For example, following the PGA tour on TV and playing golf on weekends does not make me a golf expert. A social media expert must be able to:
1. Develop and execute content and delivery strategies that align to the client’s overall marketing and sales goals. Simply posting videos to YouTube does not count.
2. Integrate social media with offline as well as other digital vehicles such as email, search, and display so they support and enhance each other
3. Have an in-depth understanding of the underlying technologies behind social platforms. Why? So you can make recommendations on how to integrate these platforms–either through third-party applications such as Salesforce, Gist or Cliqset; the client’s website CMS; or a customized applications built (i.e. using Adobe Air) specifically to fit the client’s needs
4. Provide social media usage guidelines that go beyond the marketing department. It only takes one misguided posting by a client’s employee to undo a year’s worth of social marketing
5. Collect and mine social media data to identify trends and opportunities the client should promptly embrace. This must be go beyond providing meaningless metrics such as “sentiment” or “mentions.” Social media analytics should include mining data to determine the client’s Social Graph and identifying influencers that should be targeted.
In my opinion, you cannot be a social media “expert” if you cannot master ALL of the above. What do you think?
Everyone speaks about the importance of integrating your digital channels. However, I find that integration rarely goes beyond the creation of landing pages. I recently came across a very clever rich-media banner ad that does an excellent job at integrating with social media. I came across the ad—for the Toyota Prius—while on the Mashable website. The ad works as follow:
1. A Toyota Prius icon appears on the bottom right of the screen. On click, the ad takes over the page.
2. The Prius icon reappears on the ad and the user is prompted to drag it into a social media bar with Facebook, Twitter, Email and IM options.
This social media sharing approach for display ads will become as common as social sharing features found on web pages. Marketers who embrace this approach to integrating display ads and social media will undoubtedly increase both the efficiency and effectiveness of their online campaigns.
The future of the Internet or what some may call the “Internet of Things” is finally taking shape. Rather than simply linking websites or web pages, the new Internet is evolving to link objects. They can be digital objects such as an image that has been labeled with semantic tags; products or people that are tagged through RFID or codes (2D or bar); or large physical objects such as buildings that can be visualized through mobile applications. This last example is referred to as Augmented Reality and below I am including three videos that demonstrate how this technology works on mobile phones. I will provide examples of the others in posts to follow.
Layar
Wikitude
TwittARound
Undoubtedly, the media world is in disarray. Specially, traditional, old-school, newspapers and magazines. The purpose of this review is not to join the choir and tell printed publications that they must embrace the digital world. Rather, this analysis will provide best practices online newspapers and magazines should follow.
Target Audience
Who are the intended readers of the new website? What demographic, psychographic and other qualities define them? What is their current online media diet? How do they differ from the existing audience of the printed edition? For example, as we can see from the sample information for three online publications, audiences cover a wide demographic spectrum—particularly, it is important to note how theonion.com and wsj.com compare. Thorough research should be conducted in order to define and understand the right audience for the online publication.
wsj.com
theonion.com
Visual Branding
In an increasingly crowded online media world, with sites like Slate and DailyBeast attracting huge audiences, the online publications must have a compelling visual approach that immediately connects visitors. Should the website share a visual style with the printed version, or should it appear completely different? What “personality” should the website project? Here are some best practices to follow:
Typography – whether online or in print, one of the most important decisions publications must make is that of typographic treatment and guidelines. While the visual look and feel of online publications can vary from the rich media driven (i.e. washingtontimes.com) to the typography focus (i.e. nytimes.com), recently online newspapers and magazines are striking a balance. Two publications that have re-launched with a more balanced visual layout are newsweek.com and popsci.com.
Color scheme – Choosing a color scheme is as important as choosing an online publication’s typographic treatment. Approaches vary from owning a color (time.com’s red) to no color (nytime.com) to using color as a wayfaring guide (usatoday.com).
Navigation – The one rule of thumb when it comes to navigation is that most publication websites place it at the top. Two notable exceptions are nytimes.com and msnbc.com.
Layout – From a usability perspective there are, in fact, a few things we can learn from the printed world. In specific, how to layout information so it is easy to consume. Virtually all online publication use a grid-based layout for their pages. This approach not only creates a clean layout but it is also an effective way to present and manage content rich websites. Good examples are telegraph.co.uk and theonion.com.
Content Strategy
Some publications face the daunting challenge of offering sufficient engaging content to attract the loyal readership required for a sustainable business model. Thus, an effective yet feasible content creation roadmap must be at the core of an online publication’s strategy. Online publications should leverage technology and users to support and complement content created by its staff writers and/or bloggers.
Blog driven – Today, the lines between a blog and an online publication are blurred—with most magazines having a prominent blog section. The trend for online publications is moving towards a blog-driven model where traditional news and content take a supporting role. Best in class blog-driven sites include good.is and wired.com (also best in class for layout and visual feel).
Auto Content – Auto content generators are a good way to enhance blog postings and articles with other proprietary content or content from other websites. The San Jose Mercury News (mercurynews.com) uses such auto content generators very effectively. For instance, the page below was auto generated.
Auto Content for Blogs – Even bloggers can benefit from auto content technology. A product from TextDigger allows bloggers to automatically generated complementary content based on the semantics of the posting.
Debates – A great idea for generating content as well as engagement from targeted audiences is to sponsor debates on relevant topics. Bloggingheads.tv sponsors debates through their website using a video format. However, I feel that The Economist Debate Series take the concept to a new level—using a social media approach to drive engagement and participation.
Inbound Syndication – Another trend in online publications is that of using syndicated blogs to enhance existing content. Sites such as reuters.com, statesman.com and foxnews.com use blog syndication services.
Tagging – Tagging articles and pages based on the semantic meaning of the content rather that on individual words is a great tactic to follow. This allows for publishers serve more meaningful pages by suggesting related content that is pertinent to the user. For instance, star-telegram.com uses semantic technology to create a web of relevant content that engages users.
Social Media
Online publications should leverage social media to engage and create a true “conversation” with users. Research will uncover how the target audience prefers to interact online, whether through on site social features on the website or on social networks like Linkedin or Facebook.
Commenting – User comments are extremely important to blog-based magazine websites. For those publications that cover sensitive or controversial subjects, a structured approval process for comments can be put in place. At the same time one must take into account users expectations that their comments must be promptly posted—or their level of engagement will quickly dissipate. From wsj.com to foxnews.com most news organizations allow for near real-time posting with only the use of automatic filters to keep out profanity and/or specific words.
Sharing – Sharing functionalities are ubiquitous in online publications websites. Given the spread and fragmentation of social and sharing sites, we recommend that the largest number of sharing options be offered to users. Technology from ShareThis and TryThis allows sites not only to share content across social sites but to email, AIM and/or text content as well.
Leveraging a Community – the last thing that users want is to join one more social network. Rather than creating their own social networks, online publications should leverage existing social sites such as linkedin.com, facebook.com and myspace.com. Nevertheless, a social strategy must go beyond creating a fan page and ensure that fresh and relevant content is delivery through these sites. newsweek.com does an excellent job at engaging its users through Facebook by conducting live interviews. nytimes.com puts Twitter to good use.
Creating a Community – Although this is something that will not fit most websites, there are online publications that deploy their own custom made social sites. For instance, my.stltoday.com is an online community created by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
Multimedia Options
Online publications should seize every opportunity to incorporate multimedia content. This might include audio podcasts, video or interactive graphics. However, the right multimedia strategy will depend on audience preferences as well as budget constraints.
Video, Webcasting and Podcasting – As users’ download speed increases, online publications are delivering more of their content through multimedia. I consider nytimes.com’s podcasting series to be best in class. For video, I like the format used by bigthink.com.
Interactive Features – another trend worth mentioning is that of data visualization to summarize and convey information that would otherwise be difficult to digest. Msnbc.com, nytimes.com, usatoday.com and even foundations such as rwjf.com publish interactive features on a regular basis.
Outreach Strategy
Building a compelling site with compelling content is no guarantee that it will attract an acceptable level of traffic. The new online publications must be developed in concert with an integrated outreach strategy. Content and syndication partnerships should be at the center of this strategy. Newsletters, emails, and feeds will help acquire and retain users.
RSS Feeds – while major news sites tend to minimize the use of RSS, niche publications make the most out of feeds. huffingtonpost.com and wired.com provide guidelines worth following.
Newsletters and Emails – the key to a solid newsletter/email strategy is quality of the list used. While we might have to initially use purchased a list, it imperative that the publications develop their own qualified list of users—most can start with their subscriber database, if they have one. Another way might be by requiring users to create an account if they want to comment or participate on forums. Always provide options to opt-in or out.
Platforms
A thorough technology evaluation must take place before a content management system (CMS) platform is chosen. For publishing purposes, CMS come in four flavors: open source, specialized, enterprise and custom made.
Open Source – When it comes to open source CMS there are three platforms that usually make to the top of the list. The first two, Movable Type and Wordpress, were originally blogging content management systems that have evolved into full-fledge online publication platforms. For example, barackobama.com was built using Movable Type and the Wall Street Journal’s new magazine was created using Wordpress. The third option is to use Drupal. This option is particularly attractive since Drupal offers a plug-in from Open Calais that allows for semantic tagging—theonion.com, obsever.com, fastcompany.com and usmagazine.com are built on Drupal.
Specialized – There are several software companies that specialize in the publishing vertical. The specialized CMS is made by Nstein (ft.com). Vignette, now part of Open Text, offers the Vignette Media CMS . Ektron and CoreMedia also offer a products with strong publishing features.
Enterprise – There is no need to go into detail about enterprise level CMS platforms—as there are only a good fit for only a handful of organizations. Enterprise level CMS are offered by Oracle, IBM, Microsoft and EMC.
Custom Made – Another approach popular among online publications is custom develop their own CMS platforms. These are usually developed on either an open source or .Net framework. There are development shops that specialize in the publishing sector. The one shop that makes it into every short list is Optaros (note: I have no affiliations with this company. I have worked with them in the past, though). Optaros has developed custom CMS platforms for washingtontimes.com and nytimes.com.
This amazing graphic from Information Is Beutiful reinforces what we have already learned in Anthropology 101. That is, women’s social and communication skills are more advanced that those of men. From a marketing perspective, these data should be taken into account when crafting channel strategies that target women. By the way, the data for this graphic were obtained from Google’s Ad Planner–a great source of publicly available web data.
The “three screens” continue their steady march towards digital convergence. I just came across an interactive television (ITV) ad that provides a perfect example of just this. The ad was created (likely by a WPP line of business) for the Ford Mustang brand and ran through the Dish Network. ITV ads provide an option for viewers to click on an ad and navigate to microsite—right on their TVs—where they can obtain further information on the product being advertised. I will provide a visual walkthrough to better demonstrate how ITV ads work.
Within seconds after the ad starts playing on your TV, a popup that feels like a clickable web bottom prompts users to press “Select” on their TV remote controls to learn more about the product.
The interface feels and looks just like a regular web microsite. The navigation menu allows users to dig deeper into the site to find obatain information.
Viewers can watch other ads or look for related products
If the viewer wants to sign up for a newsletter, a virtual keyboard is provided
Finally, the advantage of cable or satellite TV is that they know exactly where you live–yes, I live in New Jersey
