Digital Media and Marketing

Feb 05

Key Digital Trends for 2013 -

Great eMarketer deck on the top 5 trends forecasted for this year.

Feb 04

[video]

Jan 23

“By 2016, over a quarter of the world will be using location-based services.” — eMarketer

(Source: emarketer.com)

Dec 11

“Globally, mobile devices will outnumber PCs next year.” — Jason Spero, Head of Global Mobile Sales & Strategy, Google

(Source: stanfordbusiness)

Dec 08

Measuring Online User Actions from Offline Marketing

Offline to online media engagement is a popular current topic in the digital marketing space. This eMarketer article shows the significance of TV ads in driving action through mobile and tablet devices. These user actions range from brand searches, website visits to app downloads, social engagement and more. Given this emerging pattern, brands should consistently track and analyze the impact of offline media on online behavior.

Many marketers probably already look at the “before and after” effects of a TV campaign on online media. However, for an even deeper analysis, marketers can go down to the frequency level of TV spots. For example, what was the increase in the number of brand searches during high frequency / primetime airing of the spots? Was it proportionate to the increase in frequency or viewership? At the end of the campaign, did the number of brand searches revert to pre-campaign levels?

This data can inform not only digital strategy, but the brand’s overall marketing strategy. To some marketers, the lack of measurability makes it hard to attribute any online activity to offline marketing. One way to reduce this ambiguity is to include a channel or campaign-specific webpage or phone number within the creative. Then, all visits made to that webpage, or calls made to that number would be from users exposed to an offline campaign such as TV ads. There could also be separate webpages / phone numbers for print, TV and out-of-home media, so the impact of each channel on online user behavior is clear and distinct.

This level of setup and analysis, although time-consuming, can go a long way in informing ongoing marketing strategy. The more accurate and thorough the data, the more marketers will be equipped.

Nov 22

Mobile Devices and the Holidays

This holiday season, like the last few, expect a boom in smartphone and tablet ownership as people scour through deals for gift-giving. In addition, an eMarketer survey found that more than half of smartphone are tablet owners plan to use their devices for holiday shopping, whether its for research, planning or actually purchasing.

This has both implications and opportunities for brands. What can brands (especially e-commerce businesses) do to leverage this growth and ensure readiness? Here are a few thoughts:

Brands should ensure their sites have enough bandwidth to withstand a potential increase in traffic during the holiday season. If a site crashes, or even if it’s slow to load, the lost viewership could result in a massive missed opportunity.

Advertisers who run ads strictly on desktop should also think of launching mobile-specific campaigns. A good place to start would be search engine marketing, such as Google AdWords. If an advertiser already has SEM ads running on desktop, he/she can select the top ad groups to run on mobile devices too.

Ads running on mobile phones should leverage mobile-specific actions, such as the click-to-call functionality to increase conversion rates. If the click-to-call CTA is selected, advertisers need to ensure there will be a guaranteed response within a reasonable time frame for users.

Mobile ads should also drive users to a mobile-specific landing page that is easy to navigate. Many advertisers send clicks to the homepage of a non-optimized site that is not only cluttered, but requires multiple actions from the users (such as zooming in and out, scrolling in all directions, etc.) before they can find the information they are searching for. A mobile optimized landing page should be highly relevant to the ad that was clicked and get users to their destination within a couple of clicks.

Brands running ads on traditional media should also think about changing the creative to drive mobile actions, such as scanning a QR code, downloading an application or simply visiting a mobile site.

Brands should also create / curate content relevant to the holidays. Content does not always have to be around sales or product announcements From articles on budgeting tips (for businesses in the financial sector, for example) to videos on backpacking gear (for travel-related businesses) would serve as fresh, timely and relevant content for users.

Happy Thanksgiving all!