Brand Becomes Part of the Content

Even as print media and television find it increasingly difficult to maintain their audiences, advertisers are finding it harder to grab the attention of these prospective customers as well. Our habits are evolving with the ongoing digital revolution and some leading brand name companies are starting to produce their own content to reach their desired target market. Content being short films or articles where brands are weaved in with the actual content.

I’m not referring to the can of coke or bottle of beer sitting on the table for all to see, although that can be effective too, I’m talking about movies being produced by businesses with the primary objective of creating a hit movie people want to watch. If their movie hits it will go viral reaching more viewers (i.e. prospects) without any additional cost. Call it the anti-Tivo. People don’t forward through a great video, they forward it to their friends.

The short Featured Video was produced by BMW and is an excellent example of an advertiser becoming a producer with their brand (BMW 740i) not-so-coincidentally being right in the middle of the movie start-to-finish. It bares no resemblance to a commercial and young males, the ultimate BMW prospect, will love the flick.

My point? Times are changing and changing fast. Today’s effective advertising is not advertising at all. What works better is your brand being there when your customer or prospective customer is doing something they enjoy doing. For a BMW a series of short films works superbly. For a small restaurant it might be rolling out and maintaining a blog or holding a contest or throw-down between two chefs. Of course, the video would go on YouTube and the local press would have to be there to cover the story as well.

Just watch my teenagers TYPING on their cell phones while listening to their iPods with no TV in sight and think about how you’re going to get their attention and business 10 years from now. Better start preparing for the future because it’s here now. Enjoy the movie!

Blogging is Smart Business

My take on blogging: Blogging is smart for businesses and individuals alike. Blogging significantly increases the volume of communication and interaction with prospective customers, vendors, and other potentially meaningful contacts. Blogs make it easy for someone to connect with the blogger and begin a dialog.

Blogs are also easy on the blogger, with easy to setup blog sites, and easy to update blogging tools. Yes, it’s hard to carve out the time to make a habit of blogging, whether it be for personal reasons or for your business, but it’s worth doing it if you can stick to it. If you need help getting started or want to outsource the startup and upkeep there are companies that do that. (pssst. we can do that.)

Millions of people are blogging and many millions more are online, giving you great opportunities to earn new customers. Eventually someone is going to post things about your business and their experience in dealing with it. May as well get out there in cyber-public and gain a little more control over your destiny.

If you don’t fully get it yet just look at the various online initiatives the strongest brands have underway right now and you’ll see that they’re spending heavily to remain relevant in this rapidly evolving marketplace. All businesses of the future will have an online presence that will need to be tended to just like the office or store or shop.

Reputation Management for Companies

Like individuals companies had better pay close attention to their reputations and those who would do them harm posting online. This 8 minute video from vator TV talks about how big reputation management is becoming for companies.

There’s also an interesting segment that talks about the enormous potential of embedding ads in youtube and other online videos. Interesting discussion and information.

Online Sales Surge 26% on Cyber Monday

“Cyber Monday” (the first Monday after Thanksgiving) was a success for retailers on two fronts: traffic and sales, according to two Internet industry analyst reports. Traffic on retail sites rose 26% on Cyber Monday compared to the same day last year, Web site metrics company Hitwise found in its survey, while comScore reported that Cyber Monday sales reached $733 million this year. The day is referred to as Cyber Monday because of a sharp increase in online shopping that day.

What this means for traditional brick and mortar stores long term is not clear, but for online retailers it’s very good news. The more people order online and have good experiences the more likely they will be to continue moving all of the purchases online. This will continue to present new opportunities to current dot com businesses and entrepreneurs of tomorrow.

dot com on…

European Moms Spend More Free Time and Money Online

The European Interactive Advertising Association (EIAA) performed a study* of internet usage among European moms and came up with some interesting conclusions:

• 75% of the time moms spend online is for personal reasons and online activities are becoming a valuable and crucial part of their busy everyday lives.
• Moms who use the internet and have babies and very young children (0-4 years old), are far more likely to visit family and kids websites (61%) and banking and finance sites (63%)
• 79% of all online moms have bought items online, buying 10 items on average in just six months. Mothers of younger children are the most likely to buy online - 86% of women with children aged 0-9 years old bought a product or service online compared to 75% of women with children aged 10-18.
• Since 2005 there’s been a 63% increase in the number of moms who regularly download TV programs and films.

Although there aren’t comparisons between European and American moms I suspect the numbers would be similar. When moms, arguably the busiest among all of us, spend a significant amount of their free time online then they’ve cut back on something else. Soap operas? Tea with the neighbors? Just where they cut back isn’t in the study, but one thing is strikingly clear: Companies that ignore the continuing shifts in people’s daily lives, as evidenced again in this study, will be the dinosaurs of tomorrow. On the flip side, there are still major opportunities for entrepreneurs to tap into the revolution.
* The study involved 7,036 random telephone interviews with over 1,000 respondents in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the Nordics respectively and 500 respondents in Belgium and the Netherlands respectively.