K-Swiss realizes sex sells

AdRants recent post, K-Swiss Makes...Half-Dressed Tennis Hotties That Want Me? is hilarious, but also poignant. Here's a snippet:

K-What? I'm sorry, I know you want me to look at your logo and go visit your website but I just can't take my eyes of that figure of perfection lying on the tennis court as if she's channeling Christina Ricci in Black Snake Moan and wants it...NEEDS it really, really badly!

OK, so we know sex sells. And K-Swiss, as it gets more and more into the pro tennis scene, realizes this obviously. Not to mention, and I say this as a lifelong tennis player and fan, they realize that pro tennis is full of babes. They are the first tennis brand that I know of to blatantly play this angle, and I think its very smart. One, its different - they can't unseat Nike or adidas from the "winning" angle. Two, they realize that they are not simply a tennis brand, they are a lifestyle brand, as can be seen in their other ad campaigns and website. Selling the tennis babes builds a broader base of consumers than just tennis players.

From AdRants

A True Buyer's Market - The Intention Economy hits real estate

"The Intention Economy grows around buyers, not sellers. It leverages the simple fact that buyers are the first source of money, and that they come ready-made. You don't need advertising to make them.” - Doc Searls

Dutch bank ING has a new program called WoonWaarUWilt ("LiveWhereYouWant"), which launched yesterday. It lets people make an offer on a house they'd love to own but isn't necessarily for sale. Its a partnership with online real estate firm iBlue.

Here's how it works:

1. Potential buyers fill out an online form on with the home's address and the initial offer.
2. iBlue contacts the them to discuss whether the offer is reasonable. A mortgage consultant also determines whether the buyers would be able to finance the purchase.
3. iBlue sends a preliminary offer to the property's current owners, explaining the situation and inquiring whether they'd consider selling.

It is all about giving the homeowners "an offer they can't refuse," to get them thinking about selling their house when its not "on the market." Aside from the financial upside for sellers, the program takes some anxiety out of the process as well.

So, the question is how to facilitate your buyer's intentions? This shift in thinking could change the whole market dynamic in your industry and give you a competitive advantage.

From Springwise

When Viral Video Isn't...

AdGabber, Steve Hall to be specific, nailed it on his critique of this lame "viral video." Note to overly ambitious, frustrated creatives out there...all video is not viral.



This isn't Hall's first foray into critiquing viral video, my personal favorite is "Giant Fake Boobs? Hmm, Must be a Viral" in which he states what any sane marketer should know, but many don't acknowledge because its easier to think everyone can have viral success,

"A viral is not a viral until it has become a viral. Viral is a result, not an intent. Just because I call something viral does not mean it will become a viral."

Find more videos like this on AdGabber

Read the critique.

Read Giant Fake Boobs?

My name in print! Hypermediate blogger gets letter in Conde Nast Portfolio

If you're a reader of this blog (all 10 of you), you may have seen the post in December called "Robert Reich Gets It All Wrong." If so, you no doubt know about my feelings towards Reich's article in Portfolio that month.

Well, I did what I have never done, I wrote a letter to the editor. Lo and behold, they chose it. Who would have thunk it? They edited the letter a bit, so my point is a little diluted, unfortunately, but oh well. Here is the link to the letter in this month's Portfolio - and below is what they printed.

Nobody wants big companies to have more power than the government does, but Reich's worldview is fundamentally different from that of most capitalists. He doesn't seem to trust the market to agree with his views, so he calls for government to mandate them. And he fails to mention that for every government mandate placed on a business, there is a direct cost to that business. More costs equal higher prices. That doesn't sound like a consumer-friendly idea to me.

Contrast Reich's article with Roger Lowenstein's review of Daniel de Faro Adamson and Joe Andrew's The Blue Way ["The Wild Blue Yonder of Markets," January]. The book's authors note that companies that back Democrats and populist causes outperform those that do not. They are 100 percent correct.

I mention this because it gives proper credit to the real driver of the economy and the government: the individual. We get what we ask for, on the shelf and in our government. Reich thinks that price is the sole driver of consumer preference and that the people aren't capable of driving social change. Tell that to Toyota as it sells the Prius in high volume. Tell that to Method, whose safer, cleaner, more environmentally sound cleaning products are selling like hotcakes. Tell that to Patagonia, which leads the apparel industry in social causes as well as performance outdoor wear.

Why are these companies successful? Not simply because they are more socially conscious, but because that social consciousness is combined with great design, quality, service, and a reasonable price.

—Robert Wallace, Chandler, Arizona

US Retail E-Commerce Sales Up in 2007

Despite all the doom and gloom you hear incessantly on TV about the economy, the Department of Commerce has reported that US retail e-commerce sales in 2007 were up 19.0 percent from 2006, while total retail sales were up 4.0 percent in the same period.

Retail e-commerce sales in the fourth quarter of 2007 (adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes) totaled $36.2 billion — an increase of 4.6 percent (±1.8 percent) from the previous quarter.

Read More

From MarketingVOX

ad:tech Survey: Best and Worst Online Tactics

Some highlights from ad:tech's Best & Worst List of 2007:

• SEO is gaining in popularity among marketers: 57 percent of those surveyed in 2007 said it outperforms other tactics ("great ROI - outperforms other tactics"), compared with 45 percent in 2006.
• Email marketing from house lists, a top tactic of 47 percent of marketers in 2006, was cited by 42 percent in 2007.
• Behavioral targeting offers a stronger ROI than contextual targeting, marketers again said - but in greater proportions: 44 percent said so (up 10 percentage points from 2006), while 21 percent cited contextual advertising (down 8 points).
• Paid search remains a strong money maker for 34 percent of those surveyed, but that's down from 49 percent in 2006, likely due to increased competition that raised keyword prices and lowered ROI.

What's on the 2008 horizon?

• Some 32 percent of marketers cited PPC (i.e., agreed that they plan to increase their budgets for the tactic more than 5 percent).
• Strong ROI from behaviorally targeted ads is likely to attract more investment - 27 percent of marketers said they'll increase their spend, compared with 18 percent in 2006.
• 93 percent said agencies recommended an increase in spending or begin spending on viral video.
• 87 percent were asked to start or increase viral marketing spend on social networking sites.
• 60 percent were urged to try, for the first time, wireless ads on mobile networks.
• 62 percent said agencies advised advertising, for the first time, in games and virtual worlds.

From MarketingVOX

Some truly creative OOH ads

Check these out. No doubt, these are some of the more creative OOH ads we've seen in a long time. You may have seen some of them in emails that are being passed around.

The big question, however, is whether they get you to think and/or remember what they're selling. You be the judge.

To us, the ones that get you thinking about the product and brand the most are the coffee cups and the ASPE bag. Sadly, in the case of the ASPE bag, what makes for effective advertising may also make for getting yourself shot.

Are young, educated men being hurt by online usage?

Two interesting demographic articles caught my eye this week.

The first reported that the vast majority of ad clicks are generated by a small percentage of online users, according to a report from comScore, commissioned by ad agency Starcom and AOL's Tacoda. The study finds 80% of online ad clicks are generated by 16% of internet users. And that 16% is skewed toward young men that don't earn much money.

The second is that bloggers are also younger, better-educated, but earn less than the general US adult (18+) population.

Of users that blog occasionally or regularly (26 percent of those polled):

• 53.7 percent are male.
• Nearly half (44.7 percent) are married.
• One in 10 (10.4 percent) are students.
• 28.4 percent hold a professional or managerial position.

Bloggers have a lower average income than most adults ($55,819 vs. $56,811) and are better educated (14.3 years of education vs. 14.2).

They also tend to be younger, with an average age of 37.6, compared with 44.8 for the US adult population:

It would appear that these two groups are likely the same people. Why the lower income? Are they becoming apathetic by being online so long? Are they simply becoming more a part of the online community than the real world and thus making less "real world" income?

Read more at MarketingVOX here and here.

Placecast to target ads at Wi-fi hotspots

As if you weren't already a little worried about privacy at public wi-fi spots - Placecast is releasing a product that targets users by Wi-Fi hotspot, delivering ads based on where they are and what content they're perusing.

from MarketingVOX

Google looks to 2D barcodes for its newspaper biz

2D barcodes are big. Well, actually they are quite small, but they are a big deal. Rather, they are a huge deal in Japan and will eventually become a big deal in the US and all over (right now the software's penetration is pretty low, with estimates being 1-10% of the population).

Case in point, Google's looking to insert 2D barcodes in their print ads. bottom of print ads. The barcodes can hold an enormous amount of data, and can be used for many purposes. In the case of Google, when a person scans the barcode with a compatible camera phone, it takes their phone's browser to a mobile Web address encrypted in the graphic.

Among other reasons the barcodes are a big deal is that it allows the advertiser to drive a specific person to a specific message or a specific purchase opportunity. Plus, think of all the data you would get about that individual. The mind reels.

To be continued...

Has branding become a joke?

Jennifer Whitehead writes a fascinating piece in the MediaGuardian on whether branding has gone too far.

Whitehead brings up a great point, though, about companies going too far. Lacoste recently lost a legal battle with a dental practice for logo infringement - claiming consumers might get confused (see Paranoia Running Rampant at Lacoste & More on the Lacoste/Dental Practice Logo Battle). This is a narrow-minded, cowardly stance for a venerable brand like Lacoste. No one, especially people getting a root canal, will be getting the dentist mixed up with the classic polo shirt maker. Companies need to stop thinking brands are simply their logo.

On that note, I am a believer in the emotional tie consumers can have to a product, company or brand. And I am a believer that people need to brand themselves. But I believe what Tom Peters et al meant by the "Brand Called You" was that you, like all truly good brands, you must stand for something and deliver on that promise. It doesn't mean we have our own logos. That's thinking that a brand is a logo. Wrong. The swoosh is not Nike's brand. Nike's brand is what the swoosh represents - excellence, competition, performance, winning, etc. Personal branding is not "treating yourself like a bottle of ketchup" as Whitehead suggests.

Read the full article here.

Has the Tipping Point Jumped the Shark?

Full disclosure, I am not a fan of The Tipping Point and Malcolm Gladwell. Its not that I don't believe there are certain points in the life of a company/brand where they hit a vein and go very well (or very badly) - spreading like crazy. Its that a former employer of mine, Airwalk, is in the book, and Gladwell gets their story completely wrong. Let's just say the bias in his sources on the story call into question the overall veracity of his"influencer" model.

Which is why Is the Tipping Point Toast? in this month's Fast Company is so interesting. Duncan Watts, Columbia professor and now viral model builder for Yahoo!, believes that influentials have no such effect on trends whatsoever.

Take aways:

1. Success in a networked society is quite random, and Influencials can't tip a trend into existence.
   
2. The problem with the influentials model is that it is too vague. There is lots of talk about Influencers' power, but never specifics about how an Influencer actually influences. No one actually analyzes the influence in action.
3. The success of a trend doesn't simply depend on the person who starts it, but on how susceptible the society is overall to accept it. The disease metaphor of viral marketing is misleading. They are more like a forest fires: thousands break out a year but only a few become monsters. They become monsters because the landscape was ripe (drought, dry woods, unequipped fire departments, etc.) - nobody talks about the spark that started the fire.

One has to ask, if it were as simple as reaching the influentials to trigger WOM and viral marketing, why haven't more companies been successful at it? Could it be that keeping a vague but popular notion keeps Gladwell and all the other intelligentsia in business?

So what are we to do? Have no fear, Watts is developing his own model at Yahoo! called Big Seed marketing. Another "silver bullet?" We'll have to see.

Read more

Brand Ambassadors to combat the possible recession

If a recession hits, the marketing budget is likely the first to be place in the cross-hairs. A recent post on the Brains on Fire blog, brand ambassadors can be a way to spread the word, build goodwill and your brand when marketing budgets are lean. The initial post is just so-so. But check out all the comments to get more out of it.

More from Brains on Fire

Email - the once and future social media king

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 91% of Internet users aged 18-64 send or read email. Ho-hum, you say...but the conventional wisdom would have said that email's in decline with that group versus text messaging and social networks. But it doesn't look like that's happening anytime soon.

from Online Spin

The trials and tribulations of Word of Mouth...for the Consumer??

Always looking at things in a slightly different way, Godin talks in this post about how WOM is difficult for consumers too, not just businesses. Why? Because only a relatively small percentage of people like to spread the word, most like anonymity and keeping quiet.

"Sure, 1% of your customers blog or post or just plain talk. They're louder than ever before. But the other 99% represent a real opportunity for you."

Figure out how to get the 99% our of their shell to stump for your brand and you're on your way to cult like status. Godin mentions the Iowa Caucuses and uses the "get out the vote" analogy. Case in point, Obama has mobilized his supporters, specifically the historically apathetic youth vote. That is one of the main drivers of Obama's success, to Godin's point - Obama got to "the other 99%" vs. the Ron Pauls of the world who have great buzz, but terrible mobilization.

More from More from Seth Godin's Blog

Books by Seth Godin:

• Meatball Sundae: Is Your Marketing out of Sync?
• The Dip: A Little Book That Teaches You When to Quit (and When to Stick)
• Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
• Word of Mouth Marketing: How Smart Companies Get People Talking
• Permission Marketing : Turning Strangers Into Friends And Friends Into Customers
• Small Is the New Big: and 183 Other Riffs, Rants, and Remarkable Business Ideas
• All Marketers Are Liars: The Power of Telling Authentic Stories in a Low-Trust World
• Unleashing the Ideavirus
• The Big Moo: Stop Trying to Be Perfect and Start Being Remarkable
• The Big Red Fez: How To Make Any Web Site Better

Social Media - your first line of defense for customer service

In a recent BRANDWEEK article, blogger Shel Holtz makes an argument for customer service to be used as an organization's front line of public relations. Bad service experiences spread like wildfire through the blogosphere. Using the same channel as a way to get the word out about your company's good work should be a top communications priority.

"a blogger who has attained expert status among his readers is more influential than anything you do on your own site. That expert blogger has no problem ripping your company when his own experience is less than satisfactory...And nothing ticks off that expert blogger more than a frustrating encounter with customer service or tech support."

Holtz's recommendations are solid, although sad that these no-brainers need to be continually restated for those companies who still don't get it. The idea that every employee should be a customer service rep, that those reps should be seen as communicators, and that those people should go to the problem instead of waiting until the problem comes to them are not new ideas. But Holtz correctly explains that the voice of those who have bad (or good) experiences is more pervasive and more amplified than ever before, so you better take it seriously.

How to keep up with the massive amount of buzz online, and eventually use it to your advantage? We've reported before that there are ways to do this, most notably Crawdad Technologies. See our previous posts: Call it WOM, call it buzz, I call it the marketplace and Why companies better be paying attention to "Web 2.0".

More from BRANDWEEK (01/ 8)

70% of Consumers Research Packaged Goods Before Buying

Seventy percent of consumers do research before making purchases, even on products such as packaged goods. And 86% say they're not relying on brand websites for the information they seek.

This means they're getting it from other sources - are you properly communicating to your consumers?

More from Marketing Daily

from Marketing Daily via WOMMA blog

Johnny-on-the-Spot Xerox changes its logo

Touted as "the biggest brand change in the company's history," it looks like this old-school technology company has gotten a fresh face. But wait...this is not just a logo change for the company who missed the OS market to Apple all those years ago, this is an "ethos" change "to make the brand more amenable to an increasingly digital landscape."

The company says the logo is "a bit less formal [and] a lot more lively," and incorporated the company's new proprietary font called Xerox Sans, which "visually communicates the openness and approachable nature of the company."

There is nothing aesthetically wrong with the logo, but its a big jump from their existing brand. Bottom line, I think they're trying too hard. You can't be more open and more lively from a font. You also can't tell people you're lively when you're not, just because those are the buzzwords of today. Classic Xerox being late to the party again.

The logo took plenty of fire, rightfully so, on Adrants.

from MarketingVOX

The Lame Name Game

Has anyone besides me noticed a trend toward changing cable networks changing their name? Three immediately come to mind, one which did it for the better and two which are idiotic in my opinion. Rebranding a company is an expensive and sometimes risky proposition, which has me scratching my head on two of these.

The Good:
TNN (The National Network) changed its name a couple years ago to Spike TV, as it changed its direction to be the Maxim Magazine of TV. This is a good change, the name it more memorable and more in line with the new direction.

The Bad:
CourtTV is changing their name to TrueTV. Now, they seem to be changing to be more about reality TV. That too is a bad idea, but that's for another post. Unless they are dropping the court coverage entirely, its a dumb move. Not to mention, their tagline says, "Not Reality. Actuality." What the hell does that mean? Now I'm confused about whether they do reality TV! There are very few cable networks with as clear a brand. A&E, Discovery, even SciFi have convoluted their brand by adding in either irrelevant or tangential programs. Why would CourtTV want to do this, much less change its name? They obviously think the reality thing will get more viewers, but it seems its at the expense of a strong brand.

The Indescribable:
The WB and UPN combined to form The CW. Same general youth-oriented programming. Different name that means nothing, its an "empty vessel" brand name right now. Which means they have to spend the time and money to fill the vessel. It would've been better to roll one into the other, or at least pick a new name that was indicative of something.

I don't get it. What do you think?

Almost Half of U.S. Consumers Post Content Online

So...I don't think user-generated content is a fad...

According to a recent survey from Deloitte & Touche USA LLP, nearly half of all U.S. consumers frequently create and post content online. This figure rose 12 points from Deloitte's spring survey.

More from Online Media Daily