Social Media Department – Examples

Marketing Cheat Sheets – just published

Now there are cheat sheets for the two most important steps of marketing planning:

• for the selection of the right strategy,
  
• for the selection of the right marketing channels.
• (the two cheat sheets are also available as a combination)

The cheat sheets come with instructions in a few steps and with the necessary worksheets. You may use the worksheets in your marketing presentations. Check it out –>

Sponsoring Tangibles

What on earth is sponsoring tangibles?

Its consumers receiving tangibles branded with a companies’ brand. The tangibles are mostly wearables, e.g. t-shirts. They bear a logo or a slogan with a logo or an ad, sometimes a QR-code.

The consumers opted into a program that identified them as potential brand ambassadors (so you can be sure, they are gonna wear your t-shirt). This works with randomly assembled groups of interested consumers as well as with amateur sports teams or even with a group of people attending a birthday party. Marketers will surely find other ways to benefit from this idea.

Experiences so far are too few to actually say how successful this is, but Unilever and State Farm Insurance were already willing to test it. How? By using the offers of new breed of opt-in ad-networks who offer this service.

Comprehensive List of Marketing Channels – Digital and Classic – 2013

Is there anything new on the marketing channel horizon? Yes, there is: Sponsoring Tangibles. What is it? Read here –>

Get the full list as pictured below –>

More about methodically selecting marketing channels –>

Germany’s Top 100 Websites by Reach

December figures from AGOG (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Online Forschung eV – Institute for online Research) – the association of online marketers based in Frankfurt.

The Secret of Social Media Seeding

… is find key opinion leaders (including important bloggers), target group media and cooperations with industry voices (eg. scientific organizations, universities). There is nothing online or digital about it – at first sight.

Once you have identified KOLs, media and coop prospects, you need to reach out and  get in touch, based on your industries habits and get them to have a look at your product/service. Give them all necessary information to see your product in the most positive light. And give them an incentive to

• use it,
• tell others about it (preferably in writing),
• run an article about it,
• exchange links.

That’s it. Sounds pretty dry and boring and YES, it is!!! A huge part of seeding is about outreaching by grabbing the phone and establishing a personal connection.

Martin Sorrell: 30% of advertising budgets totally misspent

Today’s Financial Times prints a few highlights of an interview with Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP. Asked about monetization of mobile advertising he gives a general diagnosis of budget allocations in mobile, online and print.

• Advertisers spend 20% of budgets on print  - consumers spend only 10% of their time there.
• Advertisers spend 20% of budgets for online – consumers spend 30% of their time there.
• Advertisers spend 0.5% for mobile – consumers spend at least 7 % of their time on their mobile devices (and this is definitely a fast growing segment considering all the new developments on the tablet sector).

Reverse calculate these numbers and your result is at least 30% spent on the wrong channels.

So how do you re-allocate? It’s probably not possible to achieve a budget which is exactly in line with your target groups media and communication habits. But you should not be 30% off – that’s simply not necessary and you could be made responsible for wasting money.

1. Do a little research about your target group’s media behaviour. Do not forget to account for the growing segment of communication channels, because the line between media and communications is broadly blurred today. List time spent on different media as a percentage.
2. Calculate a re-allocated budget that matches  the media percentages.
3. Check: There are hidden cross benefits. For example: you have a terrific video (ad spot or product documentation, whatever). You place it on TV but you can also put it up on YouTube, trying to get viral viewership. In this case you need to allocate production cost to online/YouTube and not only to TV.