Saturday, June 23, 2007

DCist: Rochambeau Your Way to Free (Well, Almost) Tortillas

DCist: Rochambeau Your Way to Free (Well, Almost) Tortillas: "Rochambeau Your Way to Free (Well, Almost) Tortillas

snipshot_e4njq71x0ai.jpgThanks to a tip from the writers at WeRiteGoode, we are letting you know of yet another fast food giveaway (well, almost).

For those of you who find that standing in extensive lines for a dollop of ice cream or a free doughnut is a tad 'lazy,' California Tortilla is offering a bit of competition with their discount. For today only, if you beat the cashier in a game of Rock Paper Scissors, (Rochambeau, Jankenpon, Muk-Chi-Ba, etc...) you will earn $1 off any entrée item. But please, do not play the 'extreme' variation and assault the cashier afterwards. Bask in your win while munching on some tortilla chips.

If you've forgotten how to play, you should brush up on the World RPS Society's rules, and practice some Rochambeau tactics. With enough practice, you too will feel the satisfaction of earning your $1 discount and perhaps find yourself in any number of RPS championships. Don't forget to stretch, or you'll sprain a finger.

Locations can be found throughout the D.C. area, including Chinatown, Cleveland Park, Courthouse Arlington, Bethesda, and Silver Spring."

An Integrated Agency "Pulp Fiction" Style?

An Integrated Agency "Pulp Fiction" Style?

Separating agencies by specialties can work, but it's time to stop passing the buck. Here's a better approach.

My brother-in-law is an electrician for IBEW Local 3, which I vastly underestimated when he married into the family. Lawyers, doctors and accountants are nice to have, but a blue collar union guy is way more useful. He's also extremely handy at other construction matters, but I still wouldn't let him build me a whole house. Instead, there are carpenters, electricians, plumbers, et cetera who work together, leveraging their strengths to build a structure. The underlying theme here is that while you have people who can do facets of other people's jobs, it makes sense to leverage their strengths in a collaborative setting. This begs the question: If you wouldn't let an electrician build a whole house, why would you have one agency plan and execute all of your online marketing?

I was reading a recent article from The Wall Street Journal in which several companies that I respect were critiquing the current agency structure and trying to push Madison Avenue to come up with an integrated model. Based on my 10 years in the online space, not only do I not think we are getting there but, more importantly, I don't think it should be that much of a concern. I fear that if clients push us there, they'll end up with decent plumbing and lighting but a crooked house.

Shouldn't this have been solved by now?
With all the money, resources and clout, don't you think that if a large agency could have nailed integrating traditional and digital they would have by now? It would obviously provide them the ability to stamp out the pesky interactive agencies and eliminate their need to continue trying to buy us. How many e- or i-versions of a traditional shop do we need to see to realize that it's not as simple as it may seem. Culture, philosophy, logos, P&Ls and egos are just different -- between traditional and interactive -- and not the easiest things to meld together. It's not that big agencies don't want to adapt; it's just tougher to turn a battleship then a Schooner.

I want to make sure I am clear; I am not saying give up, or that it will never happen. I'm just saying that separating agencies by specialties can work, if handled properly.

Stop passing the buck
Here is the thing that I find the most interesting: Clients would like us to integrate, but I have met few if any traditional companies that are set up to plan and purchase in an integrated format. When I sold cross-media programs there were several clients I had to work with who all had a specialty. If you would like agencies to integrate, please integrate as well. If not, we're still going to have to deal with multiple meetings and learning curves.

I have a few clients that are struggling with internal competition. We have some ideas on who should own the category based on market share, company value, offerings to consumers, et cetera. However, there are a lot of politics, finance and egos that make this decision a lot more difficult. Although we know the answers, we have to manage the decision-making complexity that they live in. If an agency with this much experience struggles with category integration across business units, how easily can you expect your agency to handle integration?

Let's try and figure out why you want an integrated agency. Here are a few ideas:

Upfronts don't work online
The upfront is counterintuitive to interactive. In a world that changes so fast, why would you want to commit to a handful of partners? We continue to attend conferences that talk about the consumer being in control and that they want their media the way they want it when they want it. The theme here is flexibility and being able to adapt based on popularity and what's hot to consumers. The upfront buying strategy puts you in a box that doesn't allow you to take advantage of the very reason that you want an integrated agency in the first place, which means taking advantage of the fragmented media society.

One agency's view
Using one agency, you're stuck with one agency's view of how things work. One agency leads to vanilla plans that focus on their view of what is important or profitable. When you bring in experts from a few fields, ideas get bounced around and real marketing happens.

A hypothetical theory on this that I like to discuss is with Johnson's baby. Their tagline is "having a baby changes everything," and they're right. When I had my second daughter Logan, I didn't need to know that having a baby changes everything; I kind of knew that. Logan had sensitive skin and the same lotion that worked for Zoe (my first daughter) didn't work for her. If you're using one agency for all tactics they may be blinded by the baby message and not realize that they can stay broad and targeted for this campaign. They should continue with the broad reach campaign with print ad and TV, but online and search should change the online focus to both first-time parents, and parents who now have a second child. When I search for "changing diapers," I should get the "changes everything" message, but if I search for "sensitive skin lotion," I better get lotion.

Buying power?
How often will it make sense to buy the same property across multiple channels? Just because you buy Viacom, Fox, et cetera in the traditional world doesn't mean you should buy them online. For every print ad in American Baby, I can show you a better reason to compliment that with Babycenter or About.com on pregnancy. So do you want a discount or a good strategy?

Pssst. Another secret from someone who has worked at two media companies: 90 percent of us are not compensated the same way and, while we smile at the meeting, we're fighting internally as to why one is more valuable than the other, which means you, the client, lose. Last I checked, one of the best-performing tactics is search. There is no buying power in search. If Google breaks into traditional it still won't care that you're spending millions on TV because the auction model works perfectly for Google and levels the playing field. The company can't discount search pricing because you're a big company or it will have a revolt on its hands.

Agencies are just good at what they do
There is a reason Ogilvy has managed IBM so well, for years making some of the best campaigns I can remember (I still love "the magic box," and I have no idea what the box actually was). There's a reason Avenue A | Razorfish (whom I work for) is the only interactive agency to crack Ad Age's top 10; like the union analogy, we all have specialties.

I promise not to sell you print if you promise not to buy interactive from e-traditional. My wife's old business partner is a recruiter. When he had his kid, the doctor asked him if he wanted to cut the cord, to which he replied, "I don't ask you to phone screen, don't ask me to cut the cord." You don't want my search people to write print copy or your traditional agency to write search copy.

So what do I do?
Next to Jules, the best character in "Pulp Fiction," is The Wolf because "he solves problems." That is what your agencies should do, but we need your help.

In a previous article on handling paid and organic search, I said that you should put your agencies in the same sandbox. Instead of forcing your agencies to crack a model that they haven't been able to just yet, let them live off their strengths and deliver you a world-class strategy. In order to make this happen, bring your agencies together at Zed's Pawn Shop and read them the following:

"I'm tired of reading Insert thought leader of the month and hearing Insert cliché of the month. I don't believe digital will kill traditional and vice versa. You're all important, and you're all going to help us solve our problems. Sometimes the answer is going to be traditional, but sometimes it's going to be digital. Sometimes we're going to lay out different tactics for each of you based on goals, but we're going to do it together. This means no more separate meetings on strategy or tactics. This means we all get together and decide what's best for me, because in the end, it's all about me. Don't feel threatened by each other; neither of you are going to steal the other's money unless it makes sense for my business. At the first hint that you're not playing well together, I'm bringing in the gimp and replacing you with Insert cool agency. We're going to develop a fees structure that plays to all your strengths and doesn't discount one of you because your tactic may be cheaper; it will be about performance. Now finish your Denver Omelet and let's go to work."

Joshua Palau is group director of search engine marketing for Avenue A | Razorfish. Read full bio.

NPD: Younger Kids Are Using CE Products

By Colleen Bohen -- TWICE, 6/5/2007 12:57:00 PM

Port Washington, N.Y. — Children begin using consumer electronic devices at an average age of 6.7 years old, according to findings in The NPD group’s recently released “Kids and Consumer Electronics Trends III” report.

This number is down from the average age of 8.1 years found in the research firm’s similar 2005 study.

“[Children] appear to have no fear of technology and adopt it easily and without fanfare, making these devices a part of their everyday lives,” said Anita Frazier, an industry analyst with NPD.

NPD said the study measures device usage dynamics and trends to determine the penetration of consumer electronics in kids’ lives today and how this has changed since the group’s earlier studies on the topic in 2005 and 2006.

The group reported that the average age at which a child initially uses a product has shown a decline in virtually all categories since 2005. In this year’s survey, televisions and desktop computers were the CE devices shown to have the youngest initial exposure rates at about 4 or 5 years of age. Satellite radios and portable digital media players (PDMPs) showed the oldest initial exposure rates at about 9 years of age.

The report found that kids’ ownership of PDMPs, portable video games and digital cameras showed the most growth of the categories studied, even though it found that overall the average number of CE devices both owned and used by kids is down slightly compared to the year before. Cellphones and DVD players also showed increases in ownership.

In terms of purchases, cellphones, digital cameras and PDMPs were mentioned most as being bought in the past year.

When compared to their adult counterparts, NPD found that kids’ versions of all electronic products show “strong performance” and children are using kids’ versions at a younger age and more frequently. However, almost all adult versions of these products, save for video games, show higher penetration rates than do the children’s versions of the same products.

Though the level of interest in branded kids’ versions of electronics products is still present among the majority of parents surveyed, that level of interest has declined from 83 percent last year to 74 percent this year.

According to a release, NPD collected data for this report via an online national survey of adults ages 25 and older with children ages 4 to 14 in their household and whose children had used at least one of the CE devices measured in the study. The study was conducted from March 16 to March 22.

CrunchGear

Coming from CrunchGear: "iPod Controls On Your Lady Lumps

I’m really thirsty and I’m not sure why. Anyways, these fine young ladies are sporting the hottest new trend for the Summer: iPod controls on a bikini. I’m certain that this will cause a few pubescent lads to be smacked when they try and skip to the next song. “I was only trying to fast forward, I swear. I can’t help that your boob is right there.” Sure, pal. Whatever you say. Her eyes are a little north, buddy. Focus!
Read the rest of this entry »"

Is Wis.dm Your Next Web Obsession? | TIME

Is Wis.dm Your Next Web Obsession? | TIME

Check out another cool web 2.0 social networking site, interestingly based on conversations and Q&A.....
That reminds of Consumating, a tags based socialk site agian with querstions and interactions being the base of the whole site.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Advertising Age - Major Marketers Push 20% of Ad Budgets Into New Media

Advertising Age - Major Marketers Push 20% of Ad Budgets Into New Media: "Major Marketers Push 20% of Ad Budgets Into New Media
AAF Study, Conference Demonstrate Advertisers' Feelings About Web

By Ira Teinowitz

Published: June 14, 2007
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AdAge.com) -- Facing a shifting media environment, major marketers are allocating up to 20% of their total ad budget for experimentation in new media, according to a survey unveiled at the recent American Advertising Federation annual meeting, where grappling with the changing marketing world was a common theme among the 750 attendees.



Marketers and media executives described several ad campaigns that achieved significant results with virtually no media spending, instead aiming limited dollars toward creative that developed web buzz.

Coffee and razors
Mary Baglivo, CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi, New York, detailed a campaign for Procter & Gamble's Folgers coffee aimed at an 18-to-24-year-old audience (well below its normal target) fashioned around the idea of how to wake up in the morning. Matt Freeman, CEO of Tribal DDB Worldwide described a campaign for a Philips razor that would have been next to impossible to run on TV -- but it generated so much traffic that the number of razors the company hoped to sell in a year sold in six weeks.

Aldo Quevedo, president-chief creative officer at Dieste Harmel & Partners,"

Analytics Simplified......

Have been thinkin for a while to sit down and put these thoughts down so that a dialogue could be initiated and we all could get to learn more on the fascinating subject of web analytics.

Simply put analytics would be the science and equally so the art of studying the behaviour of the actions ocurring in a space inorder to arrive at actionable information to support decision making.

Now as funny as it may sound, even a highly regarded peer information source such as wikipedia cant arrive at a satisfactory definition of the word. More on that here .

Nevertheless, suffice to say that anaytics gives you the numbers to play around so that you can get a better picture to make decisions.

Now this gets more interesting and more relevant when we apply it to websites and online marketing
The key feature of any web related marketing activity is the fact that everything is measurable and quantified right from the moment someone clicks on your banner to the point of checking out from your website.

Now the very fact that everything is measurable and accountable leads to unprecendented accountability and shall i say reliability on online media.Because at the end of the day if the objective is to drive sales or to sell then why spend on website A or Approach B ( Email marketing, Search Ads, Viral Marketing) if you know that it doesnt work.

Which actually brings me to the point of how much information or analytics would one require to get enough information as to smoothen the transaction process and figure out which segments in a media plan works and doesnt work.

In the past few days two of my clients have shown a remarkable level of interest in knowing what happens beyond the click and what is really working for them and not working for them.

In lieu of this i jus did some diggin around in order to understand where to start in this regard.

I have to admit that i jus know the few bare minimal things on web analytics ie, the various vendors in the market and the two primary types of web analytics sytems etc.



To clarify on this i jus did the usual basic reasearch on google









The 10 / 90 Rule for Magnificent Web Analytics Success » Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik