By Ben Haber
Today Racepoint Group is launching a new offering – Racepoint Labs – to help companies, communities, causes and countries leverage the power of social media. To mark this launch we sat down with W2 founder Larry Weber, to get his thoughts on what this means for the overall digital marketing landscape.
Racepoint Launches Racepoint Labs from Kyle Austin on Vimeo.
26 comments March 10th, 2010
By Kyle Austin
ExactTarget made fairly big news on Tuesday with their acquisition of CoTweet. The email marketing and one-to-one marketing provider acquired the popular Web-based platform that allows companies to manage multiple Twitter accounts from a single dashboard. To date, CoTweet has teamed with brands such as Whole Foods, Starbucks, JetBlue, Ford, Pepsi, Sprint and Coca-Cola to effectively manage global Twitter engagement. So what does an email marketer want with a Twitter platform?
What they originally have planned for the service, may shed some light on that. According the their release, CoTweet will operate in San Francisco as a business unit of ExactTarget and will lead the company’s social media product development. CoTweet co-founder and chief executive Jesse Engle will also lead the San Francisco operation and spearhead the creation and expansion of the company’s social media lab.
“What we’re seeing in the market is organizations are moving quickly to try to capture the potential of social, but are discovering that it’s siloed and not integrated effectively with other forms of digital communications,” said Scott Dorsey, ExactTarget co-founder and chief executive officer. “By combining the power of ExactTarget and CoTweet, we can provide businesses a complete solution to tie together all forms of interactive communications and drive deeper customer engagement online.”
An end-to-end marketing tool, which includes social media functionality could be huge, but initially I would have some fears with an email marketing company (synonymous in some consumers’ eyes with spam), imploring similar tactics with social media. Do they really understand the back and forth engagement between consumers and brands that makes Twitter what it is? It doesn’t sound like Jesse Engle of CoTweet has that fear.
“We see a huge opportunity to build on ExactTarget’s incredible business and customer relationships to help companies drive more measurable value from social media,” said Engle. “As part of ExactTarget, we’ll have the global resources to cement our early lead, rapidly expand our platform and develop the next generation of social media communication tools.”
Perhaps then, they do understand the difference in the social media channel. If it allows for CoTweet to build on their services and offer more real-time measurement and CRM functionality then I’m all for it. If they can apply email measurement and CRM to social, and even mobile, ExactTarget could turn the acquisition into a future leadership position in the holistic Web marketing space.
1 comment March 4th, 2010
By Molly Galler
One would have to be living deep under an enormous rock not to know that today Apple is launching its new product – the iPad. As the media continues to flood with buzz about the product launch, there are several key takeaways for businesses planning their next product launch:
1) Who are you again? – Part of the reason the Apple iPad is creating such a stir is that it’s attached to a major brand name. If the press and consumers already know about your company, they will be more eager to see what you do next. Building strong brand recognition should be a top priority in on-going business strategy.
2) Go big or go home – Although this may seem obvious, when launching a new product, be sure it is actually new. Offer your target market something completely unique that the industry has not yet seen or experienced.
3) Anything you can do, I can do better – Consumers are already able to read content on their laptops, mobile phones and e-readers, but those screens can be small. Apple is bringing to market a product that will enhance electronic reading with a large, sleek screen and agreements with newspapers and magazines to display their content on this new wider lay out. Why have something that only meets some of your needs, when you could have something that meets all?
4) X Marks the Spot – When blocking off a day on the calendar for a launch, be sure to do your homework. Find out what other stories and events are taking place that same day or week. For example, launching a product today, the same day as the Apple iPad announcement and the President’s State of the Union address would not be a good idea. Choose a date for your launch when the story will have the biggest impact.
5) Plant the seed – Want to make a splash on launch day? Let your top press targets know about the announcement in advance. Although the topic of embargoes is a heated debate amongst PR professionals and reporters, if a reporter is willing to honor an embargo, giving them time to research their story in advance of launch day is extremely beneficial. Highly informed, accurate news coverage is the best kind of coverage.
Disclosure: Racepoint works with Sony’s e-reader division.
3 comments January 27th, 2010
By Molly Galler
This week is the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas and each morning we’ve been inundated with updates on the newest unveilings from the electronics giants.
Today’s news seems to be focused on the internet going mobile. I am not talking about on your laptop or on your smart phone; I am talking, actually on the move. In your car.
Yes, that’s correct Ford has announced it will soon make an internet dashboard that will become a standard feature in all of its vehicles.
In today’s New York Times article titled “Despite Risks, Internet Creeps Onto Car Dashboards,” Ashlee Vance and Matt Ritchell give all the details of the new system:
“A complex new dashboard console from Ford, which it plans to unveil Thursday, brings the car firmly into the land of electronic gadgets. The 4.2-inch color screen to the left of the speedometer displays information about the car, like the fuel level, while a companion screen on the right shows things like the name of a cellphone caller or the title of the digital song file being played. An eight-inch touch screen tops the central console, displaying things like control panels and, when the car is not moving, Web pages. The system has Wi-Fi capability, two U.S.B. ports and a place to plug in a keyboard — in short, many of the features of a standard PC. The automakers’ efforts are backed by companies that make chips for PCs and that want to see their processors slotted into the 70 million cars sold worldwide each year.”
In addition to the new dashboard USA Today is reporting that Ford is also commissioning tech companies to create apps for this new system, one of which will read your tweets from Twitter out loud while you drive.
Obviously the concern here is safety. What does Ford have to say for itself? Jim Buczkowski, the director of global electrical and electronics systems engineering at Ford said, “We are trying to make that driving experience one that is very engaging.”
While in general, the concern here is that distracted drivers make for unsafe driving conditions for all, from a PR and marketing perspective, this also changes the game.
Currently, tradition media, both print and broadcast, is struggling to hold onto it’s advertisers who are opting for the higher traffic online and mobile outlets. Without advertising it is impossible from some of these traditional outlets to stay afloat. Brining mobile off of laptops and smart phones and into people’s cars give those advertisers one more reason to choose to advertise with online and mobile, as opposed to with traditional print or broadcast media which could be the final nail in the coffin for some of these struggling outlets.
Is Ford driving away with the future of traditional media?
2 comments January 7th, 2010
By Molly Galler
This morning while driving into work I was listening to the radio and the DJ announced in his morning news wrap up that McDonald’s will now be offering free Wi-Fi in all of its locations.
Normally when a popular destination announces a new, convenient service, I feel overjoyed. However, this announcement left me . . . puzzled.
If the typical McDonald’s customer is one who relishes in the low priced dollar menu, is this same customer likely to own and carry a laptop?
Doesn’t a significant amount of McDonald’s business come from the drive-through?
Aren’t most McDonald’s locations on the highway where people zip in and out with no desire to stop?
Would you ever consider conducting a business meeting at a McDonald’s?
This morning on Mashable.com, blogger Brenna Ehrlich explained, “So why the switch to free Wi-Fi? Well, McDonald’s is hoping to become a hang-out spot of the coffee shop variety — it also plans to start selling frappes and smoothies mid-2010. And given the fact that coffee chains like Starbucks charge customers to surf while they sip, the idea doesn’t seem all that pie-in-the-sky.”
While I applaud McDonald’s for joining the technological revolution and trying to bring further convenience to their customers, they seem to be offering a service to a demographic that is likely uninterested.
I don’t know about you, but free or not, I have zero intention of plugging in my laptop beneath the golden arches.
2 comments December 16th, 2009
By Molly Galler
As any PR or marketing practitioner knows, it’s all in the messaging. Disneyland is not merely an amusement park, but “the happiest place on earth;” Visa is not just a credit card, “it’s everywhere you want to be;” and now thanks to a new ad campaign Nutella is no longer just a delicious, chocolate treat, it’s “what mom’s use to get their kids to eat healthy foods.”
Excuse me? Did I hear that correctly? Nutella is marketing itself as the secret weapon in feeding children a healthy breakfast?
If you haven’t seen this new commercial, the short spot shows a mother describing to what we presume is other mothers, how she gets her children to eat healthy by spreading Nutella on foods they would otherwise push away. The advertisement gives the impression that Nutella is in fact the key ingredient to serving up a nutritious breakfast.
The ad even goes so far as to describe Nutella as a hazelnut spread with a “hint of cocoa.” Have you seen the jar? It’s full of chocolate deliciousness.
By visually positioning the Nutella jar next to pieces of whole wheat bread (repeatedly) and scripting a commercial to highlight the importance of a healthy breakfast, it would be easy for a consumer to ingest this advertisement and walk away with the exciting, new belief that Nutella is in fact a health food, all because of the messaging.
In a BusinessWeek piece about the success of Coors beer advertising, Jon Fine wrote, “To win in a market crowded with media and message, forsake the fanciful. Just repeat something extremely basic—over and over and over again.”
It seems the folks at Nutella have headed Fine’s advice. One clear message (Nutella is healthy), over and over and over again.
Why market Nutella as healthy instead of the decadent spread it really is? Because we have an obesity problem in this country and rather than add to the problem, Nutella wants to showcase itself as part of the solution.
In a recent PR Week article describing the vital importance of a direct, clear messaging (in this case for President Obama) Howard Opinsky, EVP for Powell Tate stated, “You must be offering suggestions, offering solutions, being clear about your position and the value your products and services bring to the nation.”
While Opinsky made that comment in a discussion about the importance of messaging for the President, the same holds true for consumer products. How do you become part of a solution to a problem, thereby appearing more valuable? And furthermore, how do you convince consumers that value-add is worth spending money on?
The marketers at Nutella knew that positioning themselves as a dessert product was not going to move the sales needle as well as positioning themselves as part of a healthier America.
Just some food for thought.
8 comments December 8th, 2009
By Kyle Austin
At 37, Josh Tyrangiel has quickly worked his way up the journalistic ranks. Today, he becomes the first editor of the Bloomberg-run BusinessWeek. Most recently serving as editor of TIME.com and deputy managing editor of TIME , he was thought to be by many as the heir apparent to Richard Stengel.
The move shouldn’t come as a total shocker given that Norman Pearlstine, Bloomberg’ chief content officer, formerly looked over Tyrangiel’s work as editor-in-chief of Time Inc. We’ve also heard that Jim Kelly, TIME’s former managing editor has been sitting in on the Bloomberg editorial meetings with other former TIME Inc. staff.
Given Tyrangiel’s success with TIME.com, he recently worked with Peter Ha in launching Techland and also boosted the Web site’s traffic to what some expect will be 1.8 billion page views this year, the move is also a show of support for John Byrne who has been driving BusinessWeek.com’s growth and was retained by Bloomberg. Tyrangiel made TIME.com a top consumer, multimedia portal: tying text, audio, pictures and video together with an integrated approach. One of BusinessWeek.com’s top revenue drivers in the past has been ad-supported slides shows – which will likely increase 10-fold (while becoming more interactive) under Tyrangiel’s watch. And judging by the video embedded above, he articulated this approach to his managers and “troops” in a way that resonated.
In addition, if Bloomberg’s goal is to reach a broader consumer audience, beyond Wall Street, with the magazine – Tyrangiel’s non-business background will come into play. He’s a music-critic at heart (not an economist or someone with a Wall Street background), who sat down with music luminaries such as Bono and Kanye West for cover stories, during his time at Rolling Stone.
One of Tyrangiel’s first challenges will be assessing if he can save Business Exchange, BusinessWeek’s information-sharing, social network. According to previous reports, the company has sunk $16 million into the site over the last two years, while drawing only 1.5 million page views on average per month and bringing in $600,000 in revenue last year.
3 comments November 17th, 2009
By Kyle Austin
As we begin to talk more smartly about social media ROI as an industry, we need to look closer at what actions are leading consumers to search, click and ultimately buy. A joint-study last week from Performics and ROI Research and the 2009 Razorfish FEED Report, released yesterday, begin to do that.
Performics study of 3,000 consumers, which was released at ad:tech New York last week, looked at how various segments of consumers use social networks in their daily lives, specifically in regard to finding out about different types of products and in relation to other media channels. Two specifically interesting points from their study, were:
Meanwhile, Razorfish’s report, which was based on a survey of 1,000 “connected consumers,” echoed the sentiment of consumers engaging with brands online, taking action (recommending / posting feedback) and ultimately purchasing – especially when deals are on the table.
With that data it’s obvious that engagement is continuing to increase, but why are they following? Similar to last week’s study, Razorfish found that the #1 reason for following or ‘friending’ a brand is simple. They want deals.
But perhaps the biggest takeaway from the Razorfish study was the data on how online influences (blogs, YouTube, Websites, online customer service, etc) can change brand opinion and ultimately purchase decisions.
2 comments November 9th, 2009
By Kyle Austin
I’ve spent some time the last few days going over the detailed findings of Technorati’s 6th annual State of the Blogosphere report which was released as a five part series last week. Although those at the leading edge of communications and technology are now more apt to talk about Facebook, micro-blogging or the death of blogging, the findings indicate that the state of the blogosphere is still strong, hugely influential and rapidly evolving.
The research was driven by a detailed, Internet survey conducted by Penn, Schoen and Berland Associations from September 4 – 23 among 2, 828 bloggers and data that Technorati has on the 5 million blogs which have registered with it.
In addition it also conducted interviews with leaders in the blogosphere, including: Arianna Huffington, Seth Godin, Steve Rubil and Mattew Ingram and leveraged supplemental data from Lijit which tracked 2.5 million blogs within its network. All of this helps in solidifying the report as the most detailed analysis of the blogosphere, for a sixth straight year.
According to the findings, the vast majority of the blogosphere is still made up of hobbyists (72%), who post relatively frequently (71% of which post at least once a week).
As for the 28% of bloggers that are more than hobbyists?
These findings are intriguing, as the group of “pro” bloggers, blogging full-time, continues to rise. In addition, the numbers probably don’t adequately represent the folks that are corporate blogging for the 16% of Fortune 500 companies active in the blogosphere. They most likely have other job responsibilities outside of blogging.
However, while professional blogging is on the rise, the report also illustrates that the “hobbyists” have a voice. In fact, 45% of the 5 million blogs tracked by Technorati have an authority ranking of at least 1. This makes at least a portion of the 72% of hobbyists (with some following) a growing challenge for brands, who must allocate most of their blog relations time for more influential bloggers.
A challenge that will grow with the media meltdown increasing the number of well known bloggers: in the shape of former journalists exploring new options and reporters at surviving media outlets being encouraged to blog. In fact, 35% of current bloggers worked within traditional media of some form in a previous life. That fact has surprisingly not changed bloggers’ optimism for traditional media in the digital age, with only 31% of bloggers noting they believe newspapers will cease to exist in ten years.
Perhaps the most interesting findings, which I was looking forward to seeing, were the stats on how Twitter has affected blogging. We’ve heard stories of blogging being dead and popular bloggers hanging up their blog for Twitter or live-streams. However, most of the findings indicate that bloggers are simply leveraging Twitter as an additional tool which enhances their blogging experience, reach and distribution. 52% of respondents indicate that they are syndicating their blog through their Twitter handle.
The report does note that Schoen and Berland ran a survey earlier this year in front of the Wall Street Journal’s All Things Digital conference which found only 14% of the general public use Twitter. However, when they asked the same question to this group of bloggers, Schoen and Berland found that 73% use Twitter. It may not be surprising that these technologically sound folks are using the service but it is surprising that only 26% said it was cutting into their blogging time.
In addition to Twitter, bloggers are also leveraging improvements with video and mobile technologies. 50% of respondents note that they use video on their blogs and 59% are updating their blog more often from their mobile device. These advances are also assisting bloggers with gaining industry recognition, with 70% noting that blogging has improved their awareness and recognition with their respective spaces.
As Technorati looks into its crystal ball, its no surprise that they believe that blogging will continue expand as its own medium (blogging is media). It’s also not a surprise that they believe it will continue to have an impact on business, technology and politics (as it did with this year’s election, along with the Iranian election). As they note, blogging is driving the “globalization of freedom of speech.” Maybe that’s why more than 70% of 18-24 year respondents noted they’ll be blogging more in the next calendar year.
7 comments October 30th, 2009
By Kyle Austin
Ayelet Noff put up a very insightful post last week on the top five misconceptions about Social Media, which had a good answer to the “is social media only right for certain companies” question. Her answer: “Social media is right for every brand as long as the brand is able to find its target audience within a certain platform and converse/interact with it in an effective manner,” is what really got me excited about this announcement from Zipcar last week.
Yes, Zipcar is already a really, cool, consumer company. Look no further than the recent cover of Fortune. However, when we talk about finding the right social media channel to reach your customers / target audience, this is still great example.
Last week the Cambridge, MA- based, ‘car-share,’ company made news by officially announcing an iPhone app that allows its users to:
Sounds like great value, but what makes it truly great as a business / marketing move is the stat which Scott Griffith, Zipcar’s chairman and CEO, was using in media interviews as well as the press release. In polling their user base, Zipcar uncovered that 25 percent had iPhones. Talk about a marketing / channel sweet spot! In addition, in an interview with Wired, their CTO noted:
“There are currently 15 million people within a block of a Zipcar service station and about 47 million iPhone customers,” he said. “We therefore estimate that our car sharing network could potentially increase to 32 million customers in years to come as a result of our new partnership and expansion into new markets.”
Zipcar is obviously on the leading edge of integrated marketing. With more than 23,000 fans on Facebook, past use of ’social experiments’ and a broad understanding of the power of their brand advocates, their use of an iPhone isn’t necessarily surprising. However, their understanding of the new channels available to reach their target audience, and the research that brands / agencies need to put into finding the right channels, should serve as a case study for other brands.
7 comments October 5th, 2009
