 |
|
|
Wise Foods’s Scan It To Win It Sweepstakes (Promo Magazine)
|
|
Posted: 03/31/2011
|
|
 |
|
|
The 2009 launch of Wise Foods’s first sweepstakes generated 37,000 opt-in email addresses to its database. Last year, the company ran the same program during the same time frame and added another 20,000 addresses to its list. "The biggest chunk of our yearly database has come through this one promotion," said Kevin Foltz, marketing manager for Wise Foods. Designed to capture return visitors, this year, the 90-day sweepstakes is being tied to Wise’s 90th birthday celebration. The company promotes the sweeps via its Website and Facebook page, on partner Coupons.com Web pages, through text messages and banner ads and via in-store displays and header cards.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
North America
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
What's In A Name? The Term Cloud Computing Breathes New Life Into An Existing Technology (Forbes)
|
|
Posted: 08/05/2010
|
|
|
|
|
In an industry where fancy buzzwords abound, "cloud computing" really signifies more of a generational evolution than a new technology. While there may be some hype related to doing business "in the cloud," on-demand, internet-based computing leverages the same technology companies like Google and Amazon pioneered and perfected through trial and error. Now, companies can access even more highly evolved programs like Google App Engine and Apache Hadoop - as well as a steadily increasing list of other options - to write their own data center infrastructure applications. In a virtual world where complete computer security is always somewhat questionable, the flexible and economical strengths of cloud computing remains very attractive to corporate computing operations. The end-goal is to partner with trustworthy, security-focused services that respond to and eliminate threats as they are exposed.
|
|
Industry:
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business
|
|
|
|
Voices From The Crowd: Crowdsourcing May Be Ineffective Tool for Government (Fast Company)
|
|
Posted: 09/02/2010
|
|
|
|
|
Can the rise of crowdsourcing sway public policy? According to a Fast Company article, government should stick to the polls rather than relying on crowdsourcing platforms like IdeaScale, which allows the public to raise its collective voice and vote on ideas from state budgets and federal transparency to health care priorities and education. Government 2.0 crowdsourcing is an ineffective tool because it’s not reflective of the entangled way new public policy is brought to fruition – officials can’t simply tap into public opinion and then implement those ideas into law, no matter how popular they are. The article suggests that “what the government needs isn't more lofty suggestions ("End the income tax!"), but grounded ideas on how to actually get things done in Congress.”
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
North America
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
Video Voyeurs: Nordstrom Rack Previews New Store At Construction Site (Marketing Vox)
|
|
Posted: 06/09/2010
|
|
|
|
|
The Nordstrom Rack at Union Square in New York City generated buzz for the launch of its new store by integrating video screens into the facade of the construction. Peephole boxes offered the chance to preview the store’s up-to-the-minute fashion in 30–90 second looped video displays of models browsing racks of clothes and trying outfits on in a virtual dressing room. Touted as 'fun, provocative and playful,' digital out-of-home (DOOH) campaigns like this extend the reach of marketers looking to connect with consumers in places beyond their living rooms. Other successful DOOH campaigns include interactive exhibits and place-based video networks, reaching an estimated audience of 237.4 million in 2009. One Los Angeles shopping mall provides visitors the experience to transform themselves into Avatar’s blue-skinned Na’vi while video screens in Lego stores prompt reality checks when visitors hold a Lego product box in front of the screen.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
North America
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
Video Girl Barbie Goes Viral (Promo Magazine)
|
|
Posted: 09/30/2010
|
|
|
|
|
In true Barbie fashion, the social girl charged the virtual social world this July to build the buzz for her latest professional stint: videographer. Mattel tapped into social networks Foursquare and Twitter to launch a campaign that criss-crossed the boundaries of traditional marketing. The campaign celebrated the new Video Girl Barbie with a scavenger hunt that had fans scouring San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York to locate Barbie’s real whereabouts. The first follower to find the fashion-forward doll in each city won a Barbie Video Girl doll. “We really embraced social media as a marketing platform a year ago as part of a major campaign in support of Barbie’s 50th anniversary,” says Lauren Dougherty, director of Barbie marketing at Mattel. Barbie currently has 17,600 Twitter followers and about 440,000 likes on Facebook—more than 200,000 of those added since January. Future plans include a promotion that puts the camera in the consumers’ hands with user-generated video, as well as introducing other members of Barbie’s entourage, including Ken, onto the social platforms.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global,
North America
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
Uplift Modeling: The Upside to Marketing (Ecommerce Times)
|
|
Posted: 07/08/2010
|
|
|
|
|
The key to spending a lot less on marketing while receiving better sales results may be uplift modeling. Specific customers have specific wants and needs; uplift modeling uses intelligent predictive analysis to target relevant needs specific to certain customers. Uplift divides customers into segments, allowing companies to focus solely on the “Persuadables”- customers likely to respond to being contacted through marketing outreach tactics and begin or renew their purchasing as a result. Time and money isn’t wasted on “Sure Thing”, “Lost Cause”, and “Sleeping Dog” customers- those who always buy, never buy or just don’t want to be bothered. Uplift modeling saves valuable company time and money, while avoiding the negativity associated with uninterested customers.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business
|
|
|
|
Trigger Happy: Ways To Create Successful E-Mail Campaigns (Practical eCommerce)
|
|
Posted: 02/03/2011
|
|
|
|
|
When it comes to e-mail campaigns, there are a handful of strategies to use that can help capitalize on the power of triggered mailings, which have a proven track record of phenomenal response and conversion rates. The best approach is to begin with the simplest e-mails proven to elicit conversion, and then scale up the campaign to include more nuanced and complex e-mails. Here are six proven examples that can help your company establish a personal connection with your customers: (1) Welcome e-mails; (2) Reorder or order reminder e-mails; (3) Birthday or special-occasion e-mails; (4) Transactional emails; (5) Abandoned cart e-mails and (6) Abandoned site browse or search emails. All these examples offer the marketer’s toolbox a number of ways to create and maintain long-term relationships with customers and stimulate repeat business at the same time.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
Top Tips To Evaluate Online Ad Value (Internet Evolution)
|
|
Posted: 09/30/2010
|
|
|
|
|
When it comes to online adverstising, what is the best way to sift through the massive amounts of quantitative information available (impressions, clicks, repeat visits, context, etc.) to determine if a campaign has made any qualitative progress? According to one author, the best way is to follow six simple steps to gain measurable success: (1) Return on Investment (ROI) which, in essence, measures what you get vs. what you give; (2) Branding/awareness, which focuses on cultivating loyalty from existing clients vs. attracting new ones; (3) Positioning/SOV (share of voice), which focuses on edging out the competition; (4) CTR (click-through rate), although this dominant metric is slightly giving way to Engagement, it remains the best way to measure a campaign’s success; (5) Engagement, which is evidence that “the user did something more meaningful than clicking,” such as leaving a comment or playing a game; and (6) “Learning,” which means paying attention to all the different variables that could eventually play a role in future campaigns.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
E-Commerce,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
The Winning Combination: Tracking Preference and Behavioral Data To Improve Email Campaigns (BtoB Online)
|
|
Posted: 06/17/2010
|
|
|
|
|
Want to increase your business through more successful email campaigns? All it takes is an effort to track customer behavioral data, which will make you better aware of your customer’s needs. Asking yourself if links are being clicked on, if emails are being opened, forwarded, or sent to the junk mail folder is beneficial. Monitoring your website to find out which customers are viewing your Web site and adding various links to your emails to track what customers are looking for will help you better understand their wants and needs. Collecting and analyzing your customer data will put you on the right track to increasing the success of your business.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
The Wine Connection: iPhone Application Uses Image Recognition (Red Herring)
|
|
Posted: 12/01/2010
|
|
|
|
|
Intent on increasing consumer interaction Snooth, a social site for all things wine, recently unearthed an iPhone application that gives consumers the low down about bottles of wine. All the consumer needs is a picture of the wine label to find out everything from the nearest place to find a bottle to how much it costs. Other details include reviews, similar products, and food pairing suggestions. The high tech app uses software from Canadian startup TinEye, which allows for a coded image on the wine to be taken by a photograph, despite the curved glass of the wine bottle or the mood lighting of the restaurant or winery. With 820,000 searchable wines and links to 11,000 wine merchants around the globe, the gist behind Snooth's image recognition tool is akin to QR codes, which use matrix codes to effectively marry digital and print information, bringing consumers even closer to information about the goods they consume.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
The Virtual Dressing Room (CNET News)
|
|
Posted: 10/27/2010
|
|
|
|
|
Finding the right fit is often one of the most frustrating elements of shopping online. Now, with the help of a new, headless “shape-shifting robot mannequin,” shoppers don’t have to simply leave their purchases to chance. Created by Estonian start-up Fits.me, the virtual fitting room service allows customers to enter their measurements and presto! The “me”-shaped mannequin previews the coveted item in whichever styles and sizes the customer specifies. The service is being tested by retailers across Europe, including Germany's Quelle and U.K.-based Hawes & Curtis. Apparel has potential for huge e-commerce gains. "Only 8 percent of clothing is currently sold online, and Fits.me Virtual Fitting Room is the disruptive technology that will enable online apparel retailers to successfully compete with traditional brick-and-mortar clothing shops," Heikki Haldre, CEO and co-founder of Fits.me said. Initial findings are very positive with a 28 percent reduction in online apparel returns, while sales increased threefold, said Haldre.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global,
Europe
Audience:
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
The Ultimate Question: To Optimize For Mobile Or Build An Application? (Marketing Vox)
|
|
Posted: 11/11/2010
|
|
|
|
|
A report by Taptu, “The State of the Mobile Touch Web," compares mobile web and applications and reveals upcoming trends business should keep in mind. These days, with so many vendors offering touchscreen devices, it’s not just a matter of optimizing websites or mobile, but determining if the site should also be optimized for nimble navigation and rapid loading pages on mobile touchscreens. While retail and service oriented sites are the most likely to optimize for the mobile touchscreen (20% compared to 3.6%), many consumers are already demanding the technology from the sites they frequent. The report states, "With support for HTML 5 features already being rolled out in these browsers, it's getting easier and easier to create rich touch screen user experiences with the browser without having to create platform-specific apps." Google has integrated mobile browsing into its service offerings. For instance, consumers that conduct searches will now pull up relevant apps accompanying the typical search results that can be downloaded to an iPhone.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
The Social Factor For Online Retail (New Media Knowledge)
|
|
Posted: 03/03/2011
|
|
|
|
|
New Media Knowledge recently reported that social networks are responsible for directing 13 percent more traffic to online retailers than they did in 2009. “As more time is being spent on social networking sites, we are seeing retail brands tapping into the power of social media to drive online traffic and sales,” said Robin Goad, Research Director, Experian Hitwise. The competitive intelligence research company says that while Facebook, YouTube and Twitter dominate the social sphere, others sites such as Vimeo, Badoo and tumblr have increased their online traffic by 50% or more in the past year. “It is important that retailers understand which social networks their customers and potential customers are using,” Goad told NMK. What about mobile? “Successful retailers will be those that support their customers across multiple channels depending on the scenario – allowing customers to add items to wish on the go, integrating location based services to provide (opt in) special offers and discounts, mobile price comparison via photo or barcode recognition,” Goad said.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global,
Europe
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
The Good, The Bad And The Ugly: Crowdsourcing Provides Answers For Online Marketers (Marketing Vox)
|
|
Posted: 07/22/2010
|
|
|
|
|
For marketers looking for solutions to a plethora of problems, crowdsourcing could be the answer. Marketers gain key insight while spending minimal dollars to survey the expertise of entire online communities. Still, crowdsourcing is not without limitations. Primarily, crowdsourcing is dogged by knowing how to separate the great ideas from the bad ones. To illustrate, Jez Frampton, CEO of Interbrand, tells of a creative director who tried crowdsourcing for a campaign and within 48 hours received hundreds of ideas, leaving him with the even bigger problem of how to sift through the crowd’s offerings. (via Forbes). Marketers should not be deterred, as crowdsourcing has a number of advantages, including web usability testing sites like UserTesting.com and Feedback Army, where companies post questions about their websites and testers choose which questions to answer.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
The Domino Effect: Popular Pizza Company Taps Into Social Marketing (ClickZ)
|
|
Posted: 09/16/2010
|
|
|
|
|
On the heels of a 61 percent increase in online sales in the UK and Ireland from the same period last year, Domino's is singing the praises of Facebook and Foursquare promotions. The global pizza chain credits growth in web-based sales (jumping from 26 to 33 percent this year) to its social media marketing tactics – which include cultivating a strong presence online with both a global Facebook page and individual local pages, as well as securing 531 Twitter followers and launching Foursquare’s geo-location service. "We've had nearly 10,000 check-ins since it launched from around 3,500 unique visitors," Georgina Wald, spokesperson for the London-based division, said. The company has also enjoyed recent growth in sales by turning their attention to search marketing.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Europe
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
Text-Happy In 2G:GupShup Offers Simple Texting Service To Millions (Forbes)
|
|
Posted: 08/19/2010
|
|
|
|
|
With 1.8 billion global Web users and 4.6 billion mobile phone subscribers, including multiple SIM cardholders, the reach of social media is hard to ignore. Beerud Sheth, cofounder of Webaroo, gets the message loud and clear. Text messaging via basic handset and SMS opens up a path to reach an overwhelming market of hundreds of millions, particularly in India and other parts of Asia. UK’s Portio Research expects the $100 billion market of simple texting to grow by 20% by 2014. Taking text messaging social through a service called SMS GupShup, Sheth aims to enlarge the social scope of interaction from one to one to one to many, or even many to many. Much of GupShup’s (Hindi for "chitchat") revenue comes from a feature that allows users, called publishers, to send messages to users signed up for a group. Another feature targets smaller groups for more personal communication. GupShup makes ideal sense for mass consumer products – Webaroo suggests that as many as 150 brand advertisers like Pepsico and 10,000 smaller-size enterprises like Mumbai Traffic Police are using the platform.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Asia Pacific
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
Tailoring To Customers Both On And Offline (New Media Knowledge)
|
|
Posted: 06/17/2010
|
|
|
|
|
Customers’ purchasing patterns are easily tracked online allowing website display of offers and promotions specific to customers based on their online buying behavior. Even with a unified marketing strategy, the challenge is to maintain consistent customer experiences across online and offline shopping. Monitoring offline shopping experiences can be done with real-time vouchers, coupons, and customer recommendation and review forms. Merging online and offline customer data will allow businesses to successfully retain and cater to their customers anywhere.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
Sweet Sleuthing: On The Hunt For Missing M&M Spokescandy (Strategy Magazine)
|
|
Posted: 01/05/2011
|
|
|
|
|
Now that the red M&M’s spokescandy has dropped out of sight, sweet-toothed Canadians are on the lookout for the sweet sensation. The disappearing act is part of a contest M&M recently launched, signaling the brand’s first foray into social media, which also means Red didn’t simply vanish without a trace. Fellow M&M's characters will be dropping hints via Twitter and Facebook. Toronto fans can visit Findred.ca, where they’ll access a version of the Google Street View API to search out three locations in the city where the white-gloved bandit might be located. The campaign also includes a location-based element as part of its social media mix using mobile apps like Foursquare and Stickybits. The campaign features postings throughout Toronto, each containing a QR code, which releases a Community Clue to aid in the sweet search.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
North America
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
Success In Numbers: Choice Hotels Increases Mobile Sales By 250% (Internet Retailer)
|
|
Posted: 02/03/2011
|
|
|
|
|
Since entering the mobile realm in 2008, Choice Hotels International Inc. says its mobile sales surpass seven figures each month. The sales represent more than 1% of all online sales. Furthermore, mobile revenue is up 250% year over year, reservations are up 205%, mobile page views 130%, mobile conversion 106% and mobile traffic has grown on average 190% each month since launching. “Mobile customers want things as quick and simple as possible,” said Christopher Brya, director of mobile and emerging channels. The company’s in-house usability lab helps further refine its mobile approach. It’s a strategy that seems to be working: the iPhone app the company developed in the lab last year was downloaded 500,000 times in 80 countries, some of which don’t even house a Choice Hotel. Future plans include developing an app for smartphones on Google’s Android platform.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
Stamped And Delivered: Send Gifts And Goods Using E-Mail Addresses (BBC Business News)
|
|
Posted: 11/11/2010
|
|
|
|
|
In an age where security and privacy top the list of priorities for most, a new method of sending mail is likely to garner attention. In order to acquire goods through sites like eBay, individuals are required to provide their physical address to a stranger. Now, there are several companies offering services that depend on e-mail addresses alone to deliver the goods. While most of the companies are primarily U.S.-based, gift-giving site Parcel Genie delivers across 40 countries. To send packages, all the sender needs is a username from Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. Going beyond gift-giving, the U.K.’s Send Social enables users to send and receive any type of package with a special label only partner delivery companies are capable of reading. "The only piece of information you see is the information you already know - that might be a Facebook name, a Twitter id or e-mail address," says Jonathan Grubin, head of Send Social. One such partner, Bybox, operates a network of locker boxes around the UK, and deliver box-to-box, rather than door-to-door.
|
|
Industry:
Retail & Products
Topic:
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
North America,
Europe
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
Social Sampling: The Campbell Brand Joins Facebook (BrandWeek)
|
|
Posted: 08/19/2010
|
|
|
|
|
In an effort to grow sales of its healthy beverages and baked snacks, Campbell Soup Co. has launched a Facebook campaign to promote its new V8 V-Fusion + Tea line via social sampling. Each week through September 30, the Camden, N.J.-based maker of Chunky and Select Harvest soups will give away 1,000 free samples. Another Campbell brand, Pepperidge Farm, also launched a page to promote its new strawberry flavored Milano cookies, gaining nearly 9,000 fans in the month since its launch. Taking a cue from other big name brands – like Ford and P&G's Gillette – Campbell is incorporating more social media marketing into its overall marketing plan to drive consumption. The strategy to connect with consumers online seems to be working: In the first 24 hours, all 1,000 samples of V8 V-Fusion + Tea were gone, Campbell rep Juli Mandel Sloves said.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
Social Media Becomes Key Tactic For Strategy Execution (Forbes)
|
|
Posted: 09/02/2010
|
|
|
|
|
Scores of consumers are using social media to connect, express and impact the world around them, and savvy marketers are tapping its power, too, with nearly 80% implementing the medium to bring their customers to the table rather than talk at them from the proverbial soapbox. While much of the literature highlights how companies can implement social media outside of their organizations, there is significant room to use social media as an inside strategy tool, too. Bad communication can freeze any organizational idea, especially if employees feel ostracized from the process. What better way to get the entire organization on board with a branding initiative or new program than using social media as a strategy to help organizations better talk with, rather than talk at their employees. The tool will not only help companies build and execute better strategies but build stronger employee cultures in the process.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business
|
|
|
|
Social Globalization; Global Socialization (Practical eCommerce)
|
|
Posted: 01/20/2011
|
|
|
|
|
Social media has established a stronghold that reaches around the globe. Social networking, blogging, microblogging, social bookmarking and video sharing bring people closer together than ever. Companies like Dell attribute mass profit directly to campaigns using social media, including the $3 million the company earned through incentives offered via Twitter. Still, in light of the rapidly increasing internet population of non-English language speakers, one question that remains is how the foreign language internet pieces into the social media puzzle? With most Internet users living abroad, how can smaller companies incorporate international social media strategies into their bag of marketing tricks? According to Practical eCommerce, a company’s foreign language social media strategy should consider the most popular platforms within its target demographic, in addition to streamlining efforts to mesh with other global online marketing practices.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
Shoutlet: One-Stop-Shop For Social Media Management (Ecommerce Times)
|
|
Posted: 12/16/2010
|
|
|
|
|
Shoutlet’s social media management application now features CRM functionality. The app is designed to let customers monitor and manage multiple accounts and brands with additional functionality that eases the process for companies to post and monitor responses to content. Given the number of users that use social media to complain about a service or product, or get help, one of the app’s most powerful features is its collaboration component. One such collaboration feature includes the ability to tag a prospect or commenter and then forwarded it internally for someone within the organization to take care of. "Let's say a company has several customers talking about or complaining about a certain issue," President and COO Aaron Everson said. "Shoutlet can tag all of those commenters and send them to someone for follow-up or assistance." The company intends to enhance functionality even further by increasing its reach to mass influencers and adding a mobile component.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
Shazam! How One Company Plans To Change The Advertising Industry (.net)
|
|
Posted: 09/30/2010
|
|
|
|
|
Shazam CEO Andrew Fisher recently sat down with Oliver Lindberg to discuss why the company chose to charge for the popular mobile music discovery app and how the company plans to change the face of advertising as we know it. While Facebook may be the most downloaded iPhone app in the US, Shazam is Europe’s frontrunner. The app, which identifies a piece of recorded music via a mobile’s mic, tallied 50 million users across all platforms in October with the goal to double that number by the end of the year and reach 300 million users by 2015. Users are apparently willing to pay the price: the London-based start-up introduced a paid-for version of its iPhone app – Shazam Encore – with a limited free version offering five tags per month for new users. The service offers unlimited tagging, faster performance and a range of extra features such as music search and geo-location ticketing.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
Retailers Dial-In To Smart Phone Shopping Trend (CRM Daily)
|
|
Posted: 01/04/2011
|
|
|
|
|
With one-third of mobile phone usage to be “smart” this holiday season (Nielsen), retailers are getting dialed-in to e-commerce. The 21 percent increase over last year indicates that retailers can no longer rely on independent strategy for their retail outfits, whether they are bricks-and-mortar stores, Web sites or mobile shopping channels. Heather J. Brunner, chief operating officer of Austin, Texas-based Bazaarvoice, said a phone is "just a mini-computer, and our challenge now is to transfer the Internet experience to a much smaller screen." For instance, outdoor brand Patagonia recently launched a new application that suggests similar items and price ranges while customers browse. In-store, the app will recommend complementary items based on the tag’s bar code. Companies like Neustar are working on types of “second-generation” bar codes for smart phones that are square rather than rectangular while Pronto, a company owned by New York-based IAC, plans to launch a mobile app for product price alerts.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
Puzzling Together Business Data: Salesforce.com Buys Jigsaw (CRM Daily)
|
|
Posted: 06/17/2010
|
|
|
|
|
Salesforce.com’s purchase of contact provider Jigsaw makes it even easier to access, create, and even clean up contact information for businesses all over the globe. Salesforce.com chairman and CEO, Marc Benioff, said it will be “as easy as Wikipedia to source data, as easy as iTunes to buy data, and as easy as Facebook to stay updated as the data changes.” Boasting a 1.2 million member count and a database with 21 million professionals working at 4 million companies, Jigsaw describes its role as “collecting, refining, managing, protecting, and organizing the global list of people in business – so you don’t have to.” Through the use of Jigsaw’s cloud platform, new applications can also be created by software vendors to better use business contact information.
|
|
Industry:
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Experience & Interaction
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business
|
|
|
|
Pulling Klout: Website Helps Users Measure Their Social Influence (CNN Money)
|
|
Posted: 08/19/2010
|
|
|
|
|
Users can now discover their social “Klout” by numerical rank by inputting their Twitter name into Klout.com. The San Francisco-based social media start-up is shoring up its position to become the online standard for measuring social impact by partnering with Virgin America to offer a hand-picked group of “influencers” a free flight from San Francisco or Los Angeles to Virgin America's newest destination, Toronto. Here’s how the new type of marketing campaigns (implemented by brands like Starbucks and Cover Girl) work: (1) Users accept product offers; (2) In return, Klout requests for disclosure of the freebie; (3) Klout measures some two dozen variables, including the number of times their comments are retweeted, the size of their Twitter audience, and the influence of those followers, to come up with a numerical value and ranking on a 0-to-100 scale.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
Professional And Personal Identities: Building Brands Into Your Blog (BusinessWeek)
|
|
Posted: 08/05/2010
|
|
|
|
|
Who knew that blogging and business go hand in hand? According to eMarketer, a New York based-research firm, “71 percent of bloggers who post for business [create] greater visibility for their companies.” Blogging gives companies a chance to act more like people and connect with their customers by giving posts a personal touch. Employees looking to promote the companies they work for should formulate branding strategies based on personal missions and values. With permission from company managers to get personal with posts, employees can promote new products, mention awards they’ve won at work, and keep followers updated on projects they’re working on. It’s a win-win situation for everyone involved; companies and employees will be recognized and remembered.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
Procter & Gamble Seeks E-Commerce Innovation (Internet Retailer)
|
|
Posted: 07/08/2010
|
|
|
|
|
Consumer favorites manufactured by Procter & Gamble are now even more available. P&G’s new retail web site offers 52 products (with more coming) for consumer purchase, including Tide detergent, Oral-B toothbrushes, and Gillette razors. Though P&G made $76.7 billion in sales in 2009, increasing those sales is not the Web site’s main goal. According to the manufacturer, the site will provide a “living learning lab for developing e-commerce innovation.” Data gathered about P&G’s online consumers will provide a better understanding of various shopping behaviors and preferences. “As big and influential as Procter & Gamble is, there is no doubt this is a sign of a broad trend with consumer goods manufacturers,” says Jim Okamura, senior partner with consulting firm J.C. Williams Group.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Content Strategy,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
North America
Audience:
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
Powerade Dives Deep In YouTube Social Campaign Video
|
|
Posted: 07/08/2010
|
|
|
|
|
In preparation for the FIFA World Cup, Powerade will provide players sports drinks and promote the importance of rehydration through a social media campaign. The campaign is a digital, viewer-interactive video of a never-ending football game on YouTube.com. Using the "Deep Dive" technique, viewers are able to click on a player in the video and "get a glimpse of that player’s psyche, showing them what effect Powerade has on his game", according to executive creative director Juan Morales. Click-through hotspots lead viewers further into players' stories providing a deeper level of meaning to the campaign. Following the digital ad world philosophy to "fish where the fish are", Morales says it makes sense to feature the video on YouTube where the viewers already are.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
Online Game Features Upscale Brands To Give Users A Virtual Retail Fix (BrandWeek)
|
|
Posted: 09/02/2010
|
|
|
|
|
Popsugar's new online game, "Retail Therapy", merges social gaming with e-commerce to give users an insanely addictive fashion fix. Available on Facebook and at Playretailtherapy.com, the game can be played for free or users can purchase virtual goods priced from $1 to $100. Here's how the fashion-forward game works: players fill empty store shelves with virtual goodies from premier labels like Banana Republic, Barneys New York, Gap and Juicy Couture. Sponsors like Diane von Furstenberg and Topshop have even opted to launch virtual stores in which users can purchase products. Players can also make the leap into any of the retailers' sites to fill their shopping carts with real merchandise. Friends can visit other friends' shops or create unique looks to share among their networks. By modeling aspects of the game after the wildly popular Farmville, CEO Brian Sugar "believes that Retail Therapy can entice users to open up their wallets . . . to purchase virtual goods by promising competitive advantages and overall better game play."
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic:
Content Strategy,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
New Tweet Button Simplifies Sharing (Digital Arts)
|
|
Posted: 09/16/2010
|
|
|
|
|
In an effort to simplify sharing and make retweeting one of its core functions, Twitter recently launched a new Tweet Button, which prompts a pop-up box allowing visitors to share a Twitter feed without leaving the site they are visiting. The feature also allows publishers to incorporate custom text into their Tweet Button box, as well as suggest other Twitter accounts to follow. "The Tweet Button will help publishers grow traffic and increase their Twitter following," reads Twitter's announcement. While TweetMeme will be phasing out its popular “retweet” service, the company plans to launch other Twitter-related services. "We have grown to more than 750 million daily retweet button impressions.... That said, the market requires an official solution that can accelerate this growth. So today Twitter is launching its own Tweet Button and we are very pleased to be partnering with them to continue to grow the overall Twitter ecosystem," reads a TweetMeme statement. CNN.com, YouTube, Time.com, Hulu and USA Today have already incorporated the function into their websites.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
New Old Spice Campaign Aims To Go Viral With A Little Mystery (Fast Company)
|
|
Posted: 08/19/2010
|
|
|
|
|
Ad firm Wieden+Kennedy has taken a successful “Old” television ad concept viral. Old Spice, owned by Procter and Gamble, is leveraging the appeal of its TV spot star, Isaiah Mustafa, by taping 30-second YouTube videos in response to Twitter feeds. The team behind the campaign works in conjunction with technology to scan responses and identify the social influence of those responders to choose messages that will create a wow factor and perpetuate themselves throughout “virally-relevant” communities. Wieden's global interactive creative director Iain Tait asserts that rather than using a dedicated proprietary site, the campaign gets maximum exposure on YouTube, especially since the current spots are being watched and re-tweeted extensively. The ability of embedded material on YouTube to be liked, shared, favored and dispersed quickly factored into the decision for which social medium to use. Heeding the nature of the ‘want it new, want it now” internet culture, the company strives to produce the video responses in real time to the keep the content fresh, relevant to the brand and newsworthy. The content goes successfully beyond pure entertainment value to make “the connection between the content, the product and the experience of the product.”
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
Motricity Delivers User-Preferred Content On-the-Go (CIO Magazine)
|
|
Posted: 10/27/2010
|
|
|
|
|
Motricity recently launched mCore MobileCast, a service that allows wireless carriers and large companies to define content based on their smartphone users’ preferences. Requiring "zero touch" by the users, the cloud-based service takes a user’s location and prior usage into account before delivering audio, video, text and HTML5 content streamlined to the user’s preferences. For instance, a mobile user purchases tickets to a rock concert via a mobile device. Enter mCore MobileCast: The service ingests the concert data in combination with GPS data to disseminate auxillary information to the user, such as the concert's opening act, parking locations and even places to eat nearby. "All that information is in separate places today, but we aggregate it all up," said Jim Ryan, Motricity’s chief strategy and marketing officer. The company provides mobile infrastructure services to "hundreds of enterprises" and 10 major wireless carries, including the top four in the U.S., Ryan said.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
Mood Guides Consumer Choice For The Perfect Cup Of Tea (Strategy Magazine)
|
|
Posted: 12/16/2010
|
|
|
|
|
Tea-maker Tetley discovered surprising results in their focus group testing, namely that tea drinkers are primarily motivated to buy tea based on their current mood. In response, the company launched a new “Colour Therapy” campaign. The campaign allows consumers to discover which herbal tea colour best matches their personality. The site features two threads: “Find your colour” and “Find everyone’s colour,” and recommends the perfect cup of tea based on visitors’ answers to criteria like the current weather, time of day and even the customer’s state of mind. The site also incorporates a social element that allows visitors to share their “tea” colors among social networks. Users can view the color mood of Canada, which is based on Twitter posts, via the "Everyone" stream. A "Colour Therapy" page for Facebook launched on November 11.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
North America
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
Mobile Commerce Sales Grow Exponentially In 2010 (Internet Retailer)
|
|
Posted: 02/17/2011
|
|
|
|
|
Reports from research and consulting firm ABI Research indicate that total U.S. mobile commerce sales, excluding travel, exceeded $3.4 billion in 2010, up 143% over $1.4 billion in 2009. Previous skyrocketing growth also occurred between 2008 to 2009, up over 253% from $396.3 million to $1.4 billion. Mark Beccue, senior analyst, consumer mobility, at ABI Research said, “Mobile online shopping growth in the U.S. has been fueled this year by the massive migration of consumers to smartphones, the explosion of highly innovative use-cases deployed by retailers and third-party players, and a significant shift in consumer behavior as more consumers choose mobile shopping over traditional online shopping.” Rather than being driven by one or two product categories, mobile shopping crosses all retail boundaries (and product and service lines), helping brands connect directly to their customers in meaningful ways across all types of mobile marketing campaigns.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Content Strategy,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
Mirror, Mirror On The Wall: Macy’s Magic Fitting Room (CNET News)
|
|
Posted: 12/01/2010
|
|
|
|
|
Looking for an interactive dress-up experience without actually taking your clothes off? Clothes shoppers had the chance to, quite literally, tap into a 21st-century shopping experience at the new Macy's Magic Fitting Room in the retail chain's New York's Herald Square flagship store. The 72-inch multi-touch screen let shoppers select clothing items like tops, dresses, bottoms, and coats and then superimpose the pieces on their reflection. Macy's hired LBi International to create the interactive mirror, heralding in a new era the company deems as “the future of retail.” The experience becomes even more interactive and social when customers share their new looks on Facebook, or via SMS or e-mail.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
North America
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
Mastercard Campaign Praises Hockey’s “Unsung Heroes” (Strategy Magazine)
|
|
Posted: 06/09/2010
|
|
|
|
|
“Unsung heroes” are typically the faces behind the scenes, eschewing the limelight to help launch others to the top spot. In an unexpected turn, Mastercard’s new campaign casts new light on the "unsung heroes" of the hockey world. In support of its title sponsorship of the 2010 MasterCard Memorial World Cup, MasterCard’s saucy, mockumentary-style campaign features live-action vignettes that pit inanimate objects against each other to battle it out alongside real athletes. The digital campaign celebrates mundane objects like alarm clocks, cups of coffee, garage doors, dumbbells, slush and shock absorbers, whose efforts are often overlooked in the hockey player’s quest to meet challenges. Designed to be dynamic, memorable and cost-effective, the campaign extends the creative theme with trading cards featuring each item and rich media ads on TSN.ca, Sportsnet.ca, CHL.ca and NHL.com, as well as the major Canadian portals that drive visitors to the Mastercard.ca site to vote on their favorite videos. Mastercard will run the "Unsung Heroes" campaign until the end of the Memorial Cup on May 23.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
North America
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
Like This: Google Acquires Like.com (InformationWeek)
|
|
Posted: 09/30/2010
|
|
|
|
|
In an effort to fortify Google’s search and e-commerce capabilities, the mega-search company recently purchased visual search company Like.com. Like.com’s computer vision and machine learning technology allows users to search and conduct visual comparisons for goods as they shop, making it particularly user friendly for mobile devices. Like.com CEO Munjal Shah confirmed the deal, stating, "We were the first to bring visual search to shopping, the first to build an automated cross-matching system for clothing, and more. We see joining Google as a way to supersize our vision and supercharge our passion." Google’s likely goal in the purchase is to beef up it core search products and image recognition services (Google Goggles), as well as intensify its social capabilities (Jambool and Slide.com) to make search more “social and more deeply integrated with e-commerce.”
|
|
Industry:
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Experience & Interaction,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
Latinos Make Up Huge Piece Of Mobile Marketing Pie (ClickZ)
|
|
Posted: 03/31/2011
|
|
|
|
|
Mobile phone use is on the upswing among the Latino population, rising 26 percent from 2006 to 2010 compared to 18 percent of the general population. Three key markers indicate that the Hispanic population will continue to drive mobile marketing: they care about social connectivity, they are actively seeking fun experiences and they are open to innovation. The proof is in the pudding: 82 percent of the market has been penetrated; mobile phones are outpacing landlines among this demographic as the primary source of communication; this group is more interested in mobile web browsing than the average population; 24 percent of mobile users have downloaded at least one app; and the group has demonstrated that enhancing their lives through social connectivity is a priority.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
Kitty Crowdsourcing? New Service Helps Businesses Collect And Rank Innovative Ideas (Fast Company)
|
|
Posted: 09/02/2010
|
|
|
|
|
When Princeton sociology professor Matthew Salganik came across KittenWars.com, he knew he found a valuable model for his own crowdsourcing website, All Our Ideas, which merges sociology and computer science techniques to enable organizations to collect ideas and rank them more effectively. A virtual idea factory, the service allows users to launch their own question and answer websites. If neither answer presented is acceptable to visitors, they can simply add their new ideas to the mix. Those new ideas then get filtered into the voting pool. Salganik explains, “If you ask for suggestions, especially online, you may get thousands of ideas that can take weeks to sort through. On the other hand, if you use a survey with preset questions and answers, you can get lots of data but few new ideas." The service is already gaining traction with organizations like Princeton’s class of 2008 student government, which used the tool to pinpoint the most pressing issues on undergrads minds.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
Karmaloop’s Online Roots Run Deeper Than Facebook And Twitter (DIRECT Marketing Online)
|
|
Posted: 03/17/2011
|
|
|
|
|
Long before Facebook became synonymous with social marketing, Karmaloop’s rep program was successfully hawking its line of streetwear to its audience of teens and young adults. Nearly a quarter of its $100 million in annual sales is generated by 6,500 reps across the globe. Assigned a customized code to track sales and earn points, reps essentially build their own customer base by promoting the brand via personal blogs, Websites, Facebook pages, and other social networks. “We have our built-in audience and the trust and loyalty of millions of 18- to 24-year-old kids, and they’re going to follow us, because peer-to-peer is how we do that,” director of lifestyle marketing Giovannah Chiu said. The same philosophy led to the creation of KarmaloopTV.com in 2008, which has since expanded to include channels devoted to specific brands and regularly scheduled programs.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Content Strategy,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
J.C. Penney Makes Mobile Holiday Move (Internet Retailer)
|
|
Posted: 01/04/2011
|
|
|
|
|
J.C. Penney Co. is initiating a major multichannel mobile push with holiday retail plans that include the launch of an m-commerce site, enhancements to its mobile applications, location-based app promotions and an iAd campaign. Along with the full suite of m-commerce functionality such as browsing, searching and buying—the mobile site also includes a Find Near Me button and updated applications for iPhone and Android users that lets shoppers browse the weekend sales circular; create portable shopping lists; find the nearest store to either their current GPS location or to a ZIP code or city name; and sign up for mobile coupons. Location-based services Foursquare, Brightkite and Facebook Deals also play a role, allowing shoppers to cash in for $10 off a $50 purchase when they check in at one of the retailer’s 1,100 stores. In addition to its ongoing mobile coupons program, the campaign will also include mobile display ads on Apple’s iAd network, featuring a treasure hunt through a variety of J.C. Penney gifts as shoppers search for a $10 off $50 coupon.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
|
|
InterContinental Hotels Group Offers Hospitality With A Technical Twist (InformationWeek)
|
|
Posted: 10/14/2010
|
|
|
|
|
It’s easy to chalk IHG's, InterContinental Hotels Group, ubiquitous success up to one thing: customer loyalty. Tom Conophy, IHG's CIO, said the company’s core focus is on making customers "the center of our universe," and customer loyalty is vital to growth in the hospitality industry. The ever-growing hotel group, which owns seven hotel chains, including Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, and InterContinental Hotels, keeps its guest doors swinging by making business intelligence one of their core competencies. 200 million guest profiles currently occupy the company’s 25 TB database, with detailed information on 43 million loyalty plan members. The company currently receives 30 million availability requests per day, supported by its own proprietary search technology, the Bottom-Up Optimum Search Strategy(BOSS). "Search is the killer app for us," Conophy says, and with IHG’s iPhone app as the industry’s most downloaded, adding mobility is another success factor with a concept the group has named “Virtually Me.”
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
Creative & Design,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
InStyle Splashes Into E-Commerce (B&T)
|
|
Posted: 05/27/2010
|
|
|
|
|
Online shopping has never been more InStyle. Pacific Magazines recently launched into e-commerce with ShopIt!, which is linked exclusively to its iconic title, InStyle. The Web site crosses insight from the fashion magazine’s glossy spreads of products to online purchase and home delivery. ShopIt!’s launch is being coordinated with InStyle Australia’s 10th anniversary and is designed to impart a consistent brand experience across the print and online mastheads. The launch will begin with InStyle’s April issue and the site will be refreshed with major monthly updates that correspond with each new issue. An integrated campaign to promote the launch will feature TV commercials, point-of-sale advertising, social media, direct marketing and cross promotions across the magazine and virtual storefront. The media conglomerate also has plans to launch a similar site for Bride-to-Be.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Asia Pacific
Audience:
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
In Online Advertising, Search Ads Are Where The Money’s At (Internet Retailer)
|
|
Posted: 07/08/2010
|
|
|
|
|
In the world of online advertising, there is no doubt that mobile ads are hot. So hot, in fact, that according to IDC analyst Karsten Weide, “the IDC projects U.S. spending on mobile advertising will grow 97% this year, to $433 million from $220 million last year, following growth of 47% in 2009 over 2008.” Despite this statistic, paid search will become central in online advertising in the coming years. Weide says “search ads may be less sexy than mobile online ads, but it’s where cash registers will ring most loudly in the coming years” but she also strongly urges marketers to become acquainted with mobile advertising.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Content Strategy,
E-Commerce,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
If At First You Don’t Succeed: Give It Another Go (Ecommerce Times)
|
|
Posted: 05/27/2010
|
|
|
|
|
A new Google feature is giving advertisers another go at customers they may have baited, but didn’t fully hook with a purchase. Tested in beta last year, the “remarketing” feature is now available throughout the Google Content Network (GCN), including on YouTube. Although remarketing is not a novel idea, it does help marketers limber up their campaigns. The feature can be tied into search campaigns, leveraged with targeted messages across different Web pages or run simultaneously with other remarketing campaigns. Here’s how it works: companies drive traffic to their Web site via search ads and then retarget those same customers with customized ads as they browse other sites across the GCN. Remarketing is an often underutilized yet successful tactic – only 31 percent of marketers surveyed by Advertise.com and the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) have tried it yet 53.1 percent of those enjoyed great success with it.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
How Big Is Big? The Rise Of The Mobile Advertising Market (Marketing Vox)
|
|
Posted: 12/01/2010
|
|
|
|
|
eMarketer recently revised its assessment of the mobile ad market, predicting it will grow 79% to over $743 million this year alone – growing to more than $1.1 billion in 2011 and more than $2.5 billion by 2014. Based on these numbers, it’s safe to say mobile has been elevated to mainstream status. The report indicates that SMS is still the largest format, with an estimated tally of $327 million for 2010. Companies like Phizzle and Skycore are further enhancing their service offerings to engage audiences and allow increased functionality to their users, including enabling mobile marketers to run applications such as movie trailers sent with tickets or sports videos sent with tickets. eMarketer predicts that display formats will increase. Apple’s iPhone remains the top choice with 82.7% of marketers, but Android’s 9% increase since last quarter indicates it is quickly gaining traction. Other services new to the market include Opera Software’s Ad Marvel, Sprint’s Sprint ID and Burstly.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Technology, Consulting, & Professional Services,
Telecommunications
Topic:
Business Intelligence,
Content Strategy,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications,
Technology Implementation
Region:
Global
Audience:
Business to Business,
Business to Consumer
|
|
|
|
Group Buying Sites: Strength In Numbers? (Knowledge@Wharton)
|
|
Posted: 10/27/2010
|
|
|
|
|
Harnessing group buying power, e-commerce sites like Taggle, SnapDeal, MyDala, Koovs, Deals and You, and Grabbon are just a few of the group buying websites continuing to pop-up in India. With the middle-class population on the upsurge in India, there is plenty of growth opportunity for e-commerce in a developing market. "Group buying in India as a business development and customer acquisition strategy makes an enormous amount of sense," suggests Eric K. Clemons, professor of operations and information management and management at Wharton. Typical deals include retail services like restaurants, spas and salons, and weekend getaways. "The retail market in India is estimated to be close to US$500 billion, of which 17-18% is services. Even if we can take 0.5% or 1% of that market online, that is a sizeable market," notes Kunal Bahl CEO of SnapDeal parent firm Jasper Infotech. The e-commerce sites are also trying to integrate social networking into the group buying experience.
|
|
Industry:
Marketing, Design, & Interactive Communications,
Retail & Products
Topic:
Content Strategy,
E-Commerce,
Experience & Interaction,
Marketing Communications
Region:
Asia Pacific
Audience:
Business to Consumer,
Peer Groups & Communities
|
|
We cut through the clutter of the web to highlight innovation and forward-thinking. The best stories from leading publications – hand selected and organized to provide you a single point of access.
Title (Z-A)
|
M3W Favorites
