VBR for Video

Inside Radio shares these Nielsen stats in regard to increased interaction with online video:
Nielsen released May video viewing data that shows 134 million Americans watched online video content last month. That's up 13% from a year ago. The number of minutes a typical online video user watched jumped 49% to 189 minutes.

If you have a client that you know is using using tv spots now or in the past, a video pre-roll opportunity on the radio site can take advantage of video that has already been produced, but perhaps not fully utilized due to the higher cost of television airtime.

If the client has a product or service that would benefit from visual expores to our audience in addition to the audio spots already being aired, a landing page featuring product demonstration, client testimonials, or an amusing video that drives home an important point of their service can greatly increase the likelyhood of response by your audience.

Some great examples of video used to promote products:
1. http://www.insurance-mitchell.com/
Take a look about halfway down the page to see this creative use of a simple YouTube video embedding to brand his services and point out some perfect reasons why you need great insurance coverage.

2. http://www.savingsanity.com/
Simple 'talking head' video that promotes the advertiser's product while providing real informational content to the audience via the free tips presented in the video.

3. https://www.getsnuggie.com/
And the classic -- Snuggie. Sales not only increased exponentially once this landing page was created to enhance their already successful television spot, but a cult following developed by simple virtue of the new internet audience being reached. It wasn't long before people took the brand and product and started using it for their own creative ends:
Snuggie Remix (over 300,000 views)
Snuggie Pubcrawls (video from Chicago - WGN Radio, NYC, and San Diego - complete with media coverage)
Snuggie Parody (warning: strong - but hilarious - language) (4 MILLION views and climbing!)

Encourage your clients and prospects to use video.
Who knows where it might lead?

Social network ads are tough sell to Gen-Y

Seeking to grab the attention of Gen Y's on social networks? Better put away the old online display ads if you're seeking to grab the attention of Gen Y's on social networks. A new study by the Participatory Marketing Network and Pace University shows traditional banner ads to be ineffective to young adults aged 18-24.

Researchers asked a group of Gen Y's if they notice ads at all when navigating through a social community, and if they approve of them. While 84% said they notice ads on social networks, only 19% said they find them "relevant."

Researchers also found that 74% of the young consumers in the study click on social network ads "infrequently," and 36% don't click on the ads at all.

There were a few signs of hope in the results --
62% of the respondents said they have "visited a brand or fan page on a social network" and 48% said they have "become a fan or friend of the company or organization" showcased on a brand or fan page.

The top three reasons respondents cited for joining a brand or fan group were: get product updates ( 67%), view promotions (64%) and view or download music videos (41%).

Read full article: http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=29703

Are You Helping Your Clients 'Work the Room?'

...or are you just selling them advertising?

Nationwide Is All A Twitter

Meet Shawn Morton.
He's the Senior Consultant for Social Media at Nationwide Insurance.

Nationwide Insurance hired a full-time guy to oversee their social media. That's huuuuge. Shawn's job (according to his linkedin.com profile) is "establishing the enterprise social media strategy and advocating social media within the organization." (Watch your back Shawn. I want that job.)

Shawn recently held a Twitter 101 seminar for his Nationwide associates and was kind enough to post his slides on a (what else?) social website dedicated to sharing presentations.

Twitter 101

View more presentations from Shawn Morton. (tags: socialmedia twitter)

Slide 12 should be of special interest to any of you with 'boring old insurance accounts who cut all their advertising budgets this year...' It's a screen filled with some logos of corporate entities who are using Twitter. Among them: State Farm Insurance, Allstate, and of course Nationwide.

For any of you who've wondered why I send links to companies and articles and examples of businesses who are embracing new media as an option to traditional advertising -- THIS is the reason. Because, although they've reduced their spending on traditional media advertising, they are embracing and investing time AND MONEY into developing their social media efforts.

Become an expert in social media and apply the concepts of effective marketing principles to this new way of communicating to your audience and YOU will be the expert to whom they turn when they decide to reallocate advertising dollars to social media dollars. YOU can be the social media expert who gets rewarded for helping these companies strike up a dialogue with the audience that already loves YOUR brand and communicates through YOUR traditional media and social media tools.

$1 Billion in Sales. No Advertising Required.

Good article from AdWeek covering some of the reasons why Zappo's didn't need traditional advertising to create a company with $1 Billion (with a "B") dollars a year in sales.

Some insight from Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh...
"One of our core values is being open and honest. It ends up creating more trust with our customers... It's the opposite of what most businesses do."

"One disgruntled or happy employee can write something on a blog and have that read by millions. It's the same thing with a customer. Our belief is a company's culture and brand are two sides of the same coin. You can't control every touch point like you could 50 years ago."

"About 75 percent of our orders are from repeat customers. We've grown from zero to $1 billion in gross sales in 9.5 years. The No. 1 driver has been from repeat customers and word of mouth. It lets us to spend less on customer acquisition."

"There will be less reliance on advertising for a long-term, enduring brand. Word of mouth is so effective right now."

"If you go to twitter.zappos.com, you'll see all the employee Tweets. We have lots of stories of employees meeting up with each other outside of work because of Twitter. With customers we find it's good for building a more personal, emotional connection with them."

"With most Web sites, it's hard to find any contact information. We put our 1-800 number at the top of every Web page because we want to talk to our customers. It's our best branding opportunity. We have 5-10 minutes of our customer's attention where we can let our true personality shine and develop that personal connection."

The scary part?
Zappos just started a consulting group specifically created to teach other companies their method of growing business using their (proven!) non-traditional means.

The takeaway?
It's more important than ever to be perceived as a marketing and promotions expert/consultant/resource rather than a plain old media salesperson.

Facebook is free.
Twitter is free.
Domain names are less than $10 each.
Site hosting can be had for $5/month.
YouTube hosts videos for free and a myriad of sites offer podcasting and blogging options at no cost. (And we all know traditional media costs are falling like a rock.)

Your value comes from having a sound strategy to grow profits and build business for your client.

Everyone has access to the same tools.
It's what you do with them that counts.

Godin Delivers the Goods

Video recording of a live seminar with Seth Godin.
Well worth the investment of an hour to view.
Pass this opportunity up at your own risk!

How/Why Consumers Share Info

ShareThis.com has just completed an extensive study on sharing with Forrester Research. Forrester and ShareThis, teamed up to find out what and how people are sharing information online with one another. The study, which will be released next week, provides some interesting statistics around how people share online information --

• 69% of adults cite email as the primary source of sharing information
• Less than 1/3 of online adults said they learned about the new content from shared content sources such as YouTube, a wiki, or social networking sites
• 84% of people still use the traditional cut and paste method to share a URL or information
• 81% of adults claim that they share to help others -- believing a person will benefit from the information they share
• Sharing increases site traffic 2x, thus increasing ad dollars or revenue for publishers
• Men are more likely to share recommendations and videos than women; 77% of adult males and 74% of younger males shared news and web links
• Women are more likely to share products or ideas they like via easy or direct sharing methods (ie texting.)

You can read the full press release here.

Knowledge is Power... and Profit

The Radio Audience Has Changed -- Has Your Marketing Strategy?
The two articles below paint a pretty clear picture of the evolution of the traditional Radio listener. Do your client proposals reflect these changes by incorporating effective Internet strategies to better reach your audience?

New ratings have been released, and a lot of stations have taken a hit. It's likely that analytics from your station website do not reflect the same data you're receiving from traditional ratings-by-sample-diary reports. Perhaps you've even seen a significant increase in Internet traffic. Do you know why? Do your clients? Are you educating them on the way today's Radio audience uses your broadcast and your website? Probably not.

The articles linked below provide valuable advice about your audience, but it's up to you to learn it and share it with your advertisers. Educating yourself on the new ways your audience uses media is the only way to continue creating more effective solutions to your client's marketing problems.

What's The Digital Application?
Interesting insights about how radio listeners -- in this case, members of station databases -- use other media and technologies, along with other revelations about how radio listeners' time is being sliced and diced by new media options.

Highlights...

• Nearly three in ten report they listen to AM/FM radio less or a lot less at home.
  
• More than 95% have access to a high-speed Internet connection.
  
• About 95% have a cell phone -- seven in ten text regularly.
  
• Nearly six in ten now own an iPod or a similar device.
  
• Four in ten have a TiVo or DVR.
  
• Over half regularly visit social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, and Classmates.com.
  
• More than four in ten have played Guitar Hero or Rock Band in the past year.
  
• Nearly one-fourth have participated in a fantasy league in the past year or so.
  
• More than two-thirds download/stream videos from sites like YouTube frequently/occasionally.
  
• Nearly half shop online each month.

Podcast Consumer Information
The Podcast Consumer Revealed 2008 is the third study in this annual series on podcast consumption, and contains data derived from the 2008 Arbitron/Edison Media Research Internet and Multimedia study. Highlights of this study were originally presented on April 16th at ad:tech SF.

Highlights:

• The audience for both audio and video podcasts has grown tremendously since last year.
  
• Podcast listeners enjoy additional listening opportunities.
  
• Podcast consumers are extremely attractive advertising targets, though difficult to reach via traditional interruption models.
  
• Podcast consumers are heavily involved with social networking.
  
• Podcasting is a viable alternative means to target attractive consumers who are otherwise proving difficult to reach with traditional advertising.
  
• Podcasters should consider lifestyles, context and even potential 'dayparting' for their audiences.

Online Gamers Spread WOM About Auto Purchases

The Mix website (and very soon to come on The Fan) has an online arcade of video games. Not only was this site feature developed to keep visitors on our site for longer periods of time, it was also designed to take advantage of the growing popularity of online gaming.

Recent research shows that online gamers are more likely to spread Word-Of-Mouth marketing about automotive purchases. If you needed a VBR for pitching a car dealer, auto parts store, tire store, muffler dealers, or oil change locations -- this could be ideal!

Online Gamers Spread WOM About Auto Purchases
Online gamers are active information seekers and influencers, according to a recent study from Ziff Davis and ConStat. The study found that on average, one third of all gamers have doled out vehicle purchase advice in the past six months, and 63% of gamers' car talk focused on which make or model to purchase.

Ziff Davis reported that gamers' conversations involved a wide range of touch points in the car-buying timeline, from where to search for a car to features and dealership recommendations. Thirty-four percent of gamers gave advice about which dealership to purchase a car from and 64% indicated that they prefer to buy car models that they or someone they know have owned and liked.

Add to that an early August study from Parks Associates, which reported that 34% of U.S. internet users play video games at least once per week while fewer (29%) U.S. internet users watch online videos and (19%) visit social networking sites weekly. With online gaming topping the usage charts and boasting chatty, influential users, it's a medium ripe with word of mouth potential.

NOTE:
In the last 30-days, the Mix Arcade has received over 4,100 pageviews with over 3,300 of them being unique visits. The three most popular games on the site are: Putt-Putt, Tetris, and Darts. The average time spent by a visitor on the Mix site in that time period was 1:02. The average time spent on the Arcade pages was 2:40. Please refer to the FEATURE PAGE : MIX ARCADE sales one-sheet in the Shared drive for details on Page Sponsorship.

Word of Mouth Sways Women's Buying Decisions

From a recent Word of Mouth Marketing Association newsletter...
When it comes to influencing women's purchases, family and friends have the most impact, finds a recent survey conducted by WOMMA member company Ketchum.

"Before women go shopping, they go CROPing, looking for CRedibleOPinions," maintains Kelley Skoloda, Partner and Director of Ketchum'sGlobal Brand Marketing Practice. "They trim research time by consulting a few close friends and family members, as well as experts, local news andmagazines. These people offer credible opinions by validating research and helping to determine buying decisions. It's the intersection of two very hot marketing topics -- word-of-mouth and influencers."

Of the women surveyed, 91% indicate that family and friends give either "very" or "somewhat" credible information, and women follow these influencers' lead when it comes to making decisions about buying consumer-packaged goods, consumer electronics, and food.

Other findings:

• 7 in 10 women do research prior to making big purchases.
• 25% of women claim they are the first to try new products and services.

Click this link to read the article and learn more.

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VBRs & HALF-BAKED:

• Assemble a listener panel of female listeners to evaluate new offerings from clients.
  
• Create a weekly podcast convering cool things (advertiser services, products) in which our listeners would be interested.
  
• Connect the ideas above with an advertiser campaign of :60s that promote the web-component.

Interesting Stats & Studies

48 Million Consumers Have Posted Internet Content
Thirty-five percent of internet users claim to have posted online content, according to Pew Internet & American Life Project's report "Home Broadband Adoption 2006."

Other findings:

• 8% of all internet users surveyed have created/work on an online journal/blog
  
• 14% have created/work on their own web page
  
• 13% have created/work on web pages or blogs for others (friends, work, etc.)
  
• 26% have shared something online that they created -- including artwork, photos, stories, or videos
  
• 37% of men and 32% of women surveyed were content creators
  
• Content creators included 43% of 18- to 29-year-olds, 36% of 30- to 49-year-olds, 29% of 50- to 64-year-olds, and 18% of those 65 and over.

Learn more: http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_Broadband_trends2006.pdf

Twenty percent of online advertisers are ready to test viral marketing in vehicles such as blogs this year, though the majority of consumers (69%) don't trust the product information found on social media sites, according to a recent Jupiter Research report. The report contends, that Consumers are twice as likely to trust information they find on a company or professional review site.

Other findings:

• After viewing an online ad, consumers are three times more likely to simply research the product using a search engine than to forward the ad to a friend
  
• 52% of online advertisers attempting it this year are new to viral marketing
  
• 71% hope to increase brand awareness with viral campaigns
  
• 54% expect to drive online sales with online viral marketing
  
• 44% expect to drive offline sales with online viral marketing

Learn more: http://www.jupiterresearch.com/bin/item.pl/research:concept/1231/id=97731/http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=19880

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VBRs & HALF-BAKED:

• The stat saying Consumers are twice as likely to trust information found on a review site fits perfectly with the function of a readio station website.
  
• Check out the age of 'content creators' -- 36% of 30-49 years olds, and 29% of 50-64 year olds -- Those are pretty good percentages of our respective audience that can be reach through online marketing components of campaigns run on Mix 97.1 and 1460 The Fan.

Butterfinger Points Out Video Contest

Nestle USA teams with YouTube.com for a Butterfinger consumer-content video contest that will award a grand-prize Ultimate Mobile Movie Studio package.

The video contest, "Make the Most of Any Moment," broke last week. Entrants will submit videos that show how Butterfinger (and its orange "Finger" icon) can perk up any mundane moment.

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VBRs & HALF-BAKED:

• Our stations can easily put out an invitation for the same sort of contest using our listener base and host the video on our sites for voting.
  
• This could be executing as a cross-company Convergence project.
  
• I would suggest also posting the vids on YouTube.com -- their user base could only increase response.
  

Kinds of companies/videos?

• Customer testimonials
• User reviews
• Capturing a memorable event (engagements, anniversaries, vacation)
• Auto Dealers
• Jewelry Stores
• Cleaning Services
• Repair Services
• Handyman
• Restaurants
• Travel Agents
• ...need more ideas?
  See DON!

Networks Tout Fall Shows Via Web

From Promo Xtra:
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In an effort to promote the new fall line-up, broadcast networks are turning to the Internet to give viewers a taste of what's to come.

AOL has teamed up with Warner Bros. Television and NBC to feature online premiums of Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip and Twenty Good Years before the shows air this month. The shows will be available at AOL.com/television one week before the network broadcast. The Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip episode launched yesterday and Twenty Good Years rolls out Oct. 4.
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VBRs & HALF-BAKED:

• With so many shows trying to appeal specifically to male or female viewers, our stations have the perfect individual audiences to which to preview the new fall tv season.
• Why not offer the shows via streaming video from a special TV page on our site(s)?
• Streaming videos could certainly carry a short preroll promoting the network on which the show appears (perfect for the promo requests we get from WWHO and FOX -- and a helluva a lot better than a moldy 'watch and win' contest!)
• The preview page could also offer a ratings-based feedback system to allow visitors to weigh in on what they think of the individual show (1-star = bad... 4-stars = good.)
• Our listeners feel special because they are getting a 'sneak peek' from the station, and the previews are perceived as CONTENT instead of ADVERTISING.

Whirlpool Spins Love & Laundry Social Events

See the linked article for details, but here's the gist of it...

Whirlpool is taking its laundry appliances to the social scene by hosting Spin Cycle events that will give singles a chance to meet, mingle and have some good clean fun while playing laundry-themed games that can earn them Whirlpool prizes.

The first of four Whirlpool Spin Cycle event loads up in Atlanta on Sept. 7 at the brand's Insperience Studio, a showroom featuring Whirlpool appliances. Others will hit restaurants, lounges and unique locations in Minneapolis and Charlotte, NC, before the cycle ends on Oct. 9 in Dallas.

Whirlpool hopes to connect singles to its brand through social events. Relationship expert Dr. Pepper Schwartz who penned the relationship guide Finding Your Perfect Match will host each singles mixers event. Playing off of the age-old, romanticized notion of people finding their match at the Laundromat, each Spin Cycle will feature laundry-related games. For instance, Find Your Sole Mate matches couples based on socks, and a Laundry Olympics tests who can perform timed chores the fastest, such as folding bed sheets blindfolded. Winners receive Whirlpool Fabric Fresheners and copies of Finding Your Perfect Match.

Throughout the evening, consumers will get to tinker with the brand's new suite of appliances aimed to fit their lifestyles; whether a bachelor doing mini-loads in a city apartment (Duet Sport system) or a family doing several loads of laundry each day (Cabrio system).

Each event is geared toward reaching second-time singles (divorcees) and singles over 30 because of their level of disposable income, Whirlpool said.

Whirlpool paired with relationship Web site Perfectmatch.com to draw Perfectmatch.com's relationship-minded members to the event in each region. E-mail blasts were sent to the Web site's members, and some event-goers will receive a free Perfectmatch.com membership.

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VBRs & HALF-BAKED:

• A chance to create "It's Just Laundry"?
• Involve 'big box' retailers?
• What about the local 'suds & duds' type places?
• I've seen a internet cafe / laundromat combination...
• Whirlpool's focus on 'second-time singles' and 30+ singles match well with Mix audience

Boomers are a Booming Business Online

WashingtonPost.com (free registration required for access to the source article) reports that the Boomer generation is taking to the web in increasing numbers, and supplies info on how they are using features and service found online --

Half of all Americans over 60 years old use the Internet, while more than 80 percent of baby boomers are online. Nearly 21 million boomers and 7 million Americans born before 1946 have been online for more than decade.

Most older Americans use the Internet for e-mailing, but some users make travel arrangements, check news, and find health information online. Thirty percent of web-savvy boomers shop online a few times a month, the same percentage as younger generations. "Our goal for this study was to find different behaviors than conventional beliefs," said Mike Irwin, president at Focalyst, a market search company focused on older consumers. "The degree to which these Americans use the Internet is much greater than what most people would think."

Irwin expects to see older Americans to increasingly use the Internet for financial transactions and management as they become more confident in Internet security. Online social networks that have lured younger users may also become more popular with younger boomers.

Focalyst's findings are part of a larger survey studying the behaviors of older generations.

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VBRs & HALF-BAKED:

• Excellent source material for calling on verticals mentioned in the article.
• Rebuttle statements for claims that the web is strictly for the young.
• Companies that train Boomers to use their online tools ahead of the competition will win.
• Create member-interactive social hubs on the web targeted to Boomers.

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