Sorrell on social media

Filed Under: social media by BD2
Sep.19, 2011

Despite the multi-billion dollar market valuations, questions about the commercial value of social media, especially as a business to business marketing channel, continue to be raised – how do you make money out of social media? When the man who runs the world’s largest advertising agency joins the debate, it’s hard to ignore his comments. Sir Martin Sorrell, The chief executive of advertising giant WPP speaking at the Royal Television Society’s Cambridge Convention, questioned if Facebook, Twitter and other social networks can make profits from advertising because, whilst they may have billions of users, will those users accept promotional activity?

“I’m not sceptical about social media,” said Sorrell, “I’m concerned about when you monetise it because by its nature it’s me talking to you electronically, digitally. If I’m talking to you and I send you a commercial message how do you feel about that? If I say ‘buy this’ or ‘do that’, it’s not the right context for sending commercial messages.” However, he also said that social networks were an “extremely powerful way of building brands, building trust and building reputation” because people recommend products to each other.

Consumer advertising is increasingly directing us to Facebook pages or Twitter feeds rather than a business’s URL, but even that somehow feels slightly uncomfortable. I might want to engage with a brand for any number of reasons, but do I really want to befriend it? I certainly wouldn’t want to ram it down the throats of my friends or contacts directly even if I might rave about an especially good, or bad, experience. It’s a bit like being invited to a house party only to find out it’s a pretext to sell you tupperware or candles.

“We used to write letters to each other and now we correspond through Facebook and Twitter and other forms of communication.” Comments Sorrell “If you interrupt that with a message you may run into trouble. Mark Zuckerberg tried two failed experiments — Beacon and one other — which were withdrawn in 24 hours after a revolution on Facebook.” He continued, amid reports that Facebook has been forced to delay its flotation by at least a year because it had missed its revenue target by $400 million.“I have some fundamental doubts about the ability to monetise social platforms,” he said.

Even some of the commercially driven social media enterprises are facing serious questions. Groupon, which promotes local business by offering discount coupons to signed-up subscribers based on location, was last year’s fastest growing company ever according to Forbes magazine and is expected to float for £19 Billion. However, they’re experiencing a backlash from their business subscribers who have lost money through the scheme having been coerced into offering unsustainable discounts. The discounts have been taken up by ‘professional bargain hunters’ who just follow the deals around rather than becoming customers. Groupon’s new business sign ups are dwindling and many disgruntled partners have left the scheme prompting some analysts to question whether Groupon is just a flash in the pan; “Running a Groupon deal can be a terrible financial decision for merchants. Groupon’s financials also raise questions about its ongoing viability.”

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Blog about blogs

Filed Under: uncategorized by BD2
Aug.22, 2011

We were just thinking ‘it’s been a while since we blogged’ and that maybe we should. But then we thought ‘what should we blog about?’ which led us to the dilemma of quality of content versus frequency of posts. Which led us, in turn, to blog about blogs.

Quite often the sentiment is there but exactly what to blog about is the question, as we’ve just proven. When writing blogs we think that content is crucial and whether your audience will find it engaging and interesting or not. Blogging out of obligation, blogging because you feel you have to post a blog every week, is probably a mistake. Generally speaking, people don’t like and spread content because of when it was blogged; they spread content because it appeals to them, it’s interesting and they think others would be interested too. This might be useful information such as ‘How To’ guides, proven case studies highlighting a return on investment or business success, a real-life experience demonstrating expertise, passion or knowledge or perhaps an open and engaged topical discussion – whatever it is, it’s definitely NOT a hard sell.

This may seem obvious advice, but there are a surprising number of blogs out there that are too focused on direct selling and so not really of any interest to the audience – beyond anyone who actually wants to buy who are probably already in dialogue through the sales process anyway. Social media is not a sales pitch; it’s about engaging with your target audience.

Perhaps, in order to generate interesting content, social media should be corporate-wide initiative? This can still have controls but allows team members to get involved and add to the overall interest of the content.

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Social Media for business

Filed Under: social media by Vicky Graty
Jul.28, 2011

Founded in 2003, but now with over 100 million registered users, Linked has become the biggest business-based online network. LinkedIn is predominantly free and is a business networking platform that was sometimes overlooked in its early days as it was perceived just as a way to showcase your career or CV online, so became the domain for job hunters and recruitment agencies.

Facebook and Twitter have really raised the bar in terms of the level of functionality social media users have come to expect on line. Whilst Linkedin is perhaps still a bit ‘dry’ in comparison, it has invested heavily in usability to ensure users can search for people, connect and engage with them, ask questions, target them with specific content as well as access their networks.

With engagement being the key to social media success, the group discussion function is an effective way to encourage relationships online. LinkedIn can be very powerful because of the reach it offers and by connecting users – how else could you be introduced to so many targeted business professionals so quickly?  Discovering information about prospects and customers will also help make the conversation on and offline much easier.

Businesses can also link it to their Twitter and blogs so that LinkedIn sends out updates to the various groups, streamlining and simplifying the social media process and driving traffic to your site. And Linkedin can only get stronger in future as the membership base continues to snowball. As the economy becomes more splintered and specialist, it’s an ideal central hub for sourcing and sharing skills, building relationships and referrals.

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ads advance

Filed Under: the web by Will Bentley
Jul.15, 2011

This isn’t the first time I’ve mentioned the mind-blowing valuations attached to online businesses which highlight the ever growing significance of all things web. Although these numbers also raise the question of whether we might be living in another dotcom bubble. It was only in May that the business social media site Linkedin listed at $45 dollars a share. On Monday they topped $100, valuing the business at over 8 Billiion Dollars. And online gaming business Zynga, whose main success is ‘Farmville’, is set to follow suit with a flotation that is expected to value it at a staggering 20 Billion Dollars [despite business revenues of less than 600 Million in 2010]. All these numbers should be read out loud in the style of  Dr Evil from the Austen Powers films.

Notwithstanding the bubble question, the numbers only serve to further underline the ever increasing impact of the internet in all aspects of all our lives, from buying online to sharing with friends. The digital shift is also changing advertising, with a move away from the traditional print media of newspapers and magazines to online. This trend is global and it’s expected that we’ll see online advertising spend exceed newspapers and magazine advertising for the first time in 2012 – this year marketers will spend $4 Billion more on newsprint but next year it will be reversed to $2.9 Billion more online. This change is being driven by increasingly sophisticated and efficient targeting tools. Have you ever noticed that if you look at a product within an e-commerce site, then go to say an information site such as a newspaper, that the ads are for the same product? Then there’s some less subtle drivers – Zynga gives bonuses to their players who click onto the ads in their sites, which puts pressure on all players to do the same. “These types of integrations will get smarter eventually and you will start seeing real world coupons, discounts and deals being based on virtual achievements in the games.” [Julius Harper, social networking consultant]. Zynga proves the trend of advertisers moving away from traditional print media to online as they’re reporting significant increases in the advertising revenues within their sites, up over 400% year on year.

It’s also anticipated that video ads will play a growing role in supporting brand awareness for products that aren’t even sold online, such as cars. Videos provide familiarity and comfort as they feel similar to TV ads, there are no longer download issues or delays with faster broadband and they are easily shared through sites like Youtube and Vimeo.  Which, in turn, links into the social media phenomenon as large sites like Facebook carry ads, often from local companies, benefiting from specific geographic and demographic targeting. Concepts such as Groupon have taken this principle into the mobile arena with offers and ads based on location and individual preference.

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RIP DW

Filed Under: uncategorized by BD2
Jun.30, 2011

My Design Week magazine arrived this morning, as usual, with the cover bearing a simple message: ‘The Last Issue. Design Week closes after 25 years.” Having been a subscriber for at least half of those 25 years, with many boxes of old editions in the garage, I have to say it’s a sad if not wholly surprising day having seen the publication get thinner and thinner. On reading the detailed announcement it seems that DW is to continue as a digital service providing daily emails and its website with industry information and comment. But there’s nothing quite like ripping open the poly bag and reading DW over a coffee and a digestive, then to mark up or tear-out features of interest, indeed next to my desk is a pile of assorted magazines, articles, brochures and prints half of which are Design Weeks folded open on various pages or interesting images. I guess, as an advocate and producer of digital media, this might sound like crocodile’s tears and some might say you get what you wish for, but there’s a time and a place for everything and I do like a good magazine with well designed spreads, strong images, good writing.

On the upside those boxes in my garage might become collectable.

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Turning adopters into advocates

Filed Under: branding by Will Bentley
Jun.28, 2011

It takes a lot of effort, and usually expense, to get a new customer to buy into your brand, to try your product or service. Evidently, otherwise the advertising and marketing industries wouldn’t exist. Then, having done so, making them repeat customers requires basic delivery on your brand promise – ‘it’s as good as I thought it would be, so I’ll try it again.’ Keeping repeat customers, so the old adage goes, costs a tenth of creating a new one, so looking after them makes sound commercial sense. Then, transforming them into adopters requires consistent delivery on that promise – ‘I always buy this product or service, because it’s good.’ Mission accomplished.

But, there is another level of customer; the brand advocate. Someone so enthused by the product or service, they tell everyone else about it. Brand advocates are created when expectations aren’t just exceeded, they’re smashed through. And brand advocates are extremely valuable from a marketing perspective because they evangelise to a wider audience and they don’t charge for it because they’re so enthused. In order to build brand advocates you need to be able to understand what their expectations are, which can only be done by identifying and understanding their motivation. Evidently, otherwise the market research industry wouldn’t exist. This is both the internal motivation of needs, expectations and idealised self-image, and the external ones such as our concerns over others’ perceptions of us and what’s socially acceptable and aspirational. This external motivation is key, as what really matters is what the cool kids think. We all are influenced by our own various style leaders such as celebrities or style gurus – people like Jeremy Clarkson when it comes to deciding which cars are cool, for example. It’s worth noting that these key influencers affect a much wider circle, as long as their credibility is maintained; it’s why fashion houses give away clothes to celebs or brands spend millions on product placement in films. And the external motivation of aspiration underpins the very concept of brand, otherwise we’d all wear unbranded clothes, shop at Lidl and drive Skodas.

Strong emotional bonds are built when a product or service enriches the user at every stage of interaction – ‘it’s better than I thought it would be; I enjoy it; I feel cool because of it; and everyone [I’m sure] thinks I’m cool because of it’. The brand that this instantly brings to my mind, perhaps inevitably for a designer, is Apple. The desire to own one, be it iphone, ipod or ipad, makes people queue for hours and hours, even overnight and pay top prices just to get one because it excels at every level of interaction. And Apple has created millions of advocates, users who will tell and show you, almost endlessly, how fabulous their ithing is. Generally, people like to share good things because they feel appreciated, knowledgeable and well connected – in whatever order relates to the brand or service, from mega consumer brands down to personal recommendations. Conversely of course, where a brand or service disappoints or fails in the extreme, negative advocates can be created. Users who are so hacked off they want to complain to everyone about it.

The key drivers for turning adopters into advocates, people who will go out of their way to recommend a brand or experience typically to people they care about so it often holds greater influence, is strong emotional engagement and by seeing their own identities, real or more probably perceived, strongly represented in its use and ownership. It’s worth noting too, that the significance of brand advocates from a marketing perspective is rising through the exponential growth of social media as it massively extends their reach and influence. From the seriously followed Tweeters and bloggers, to an individual’s comments on their Facebook walls, brand experiences are now so easily, and often, communicated to a wider audience.

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Handsome

Filed Under: bd2 news, gargle by BD2
Jun.22, 2011

We’ve built a strong, and now quite long, relationship with the Graphics Department at Wigan College which stems from an initial approach by Course Leader David Beattie some 4 or 5 years ago. Since then we’ve taken on a few placements, set briefs, marked projects, advised students and even found jobs for one or two graduates, which has all been very rewarding from our perspective and is, hopefully, mutually beneficial. We were more than happy, therefore, to be one of the sponsors of the final show for the first year of the new Graphic Design Foundation Degree Course. Naturally we attended last night’s Private View, as we have for the last few years, and were delighted to see the quality of work on display produced by the Foundation Degree’s dozen graduates under the guidance of David. Both from a conceptual and a production perspective most of the work was very strong and it’s no surprise that the new graduates are moving on to complete full degrees or are even going into industry, where demand for their skills is testament to their ability and training given the current tough job market.

Congratulations must go to David for his work with this group, the quality and dedication of which is evident in their output and obvious respect. Hats off too for his personal and proactive efforts to engage with industry by building relationships with local agencies such as ours, but also with some of the bigger London names leading to studio visits for his students to the likes of Pentagram, McCanns and BMB.

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A sweeping statement on E-mail marketing – “Don’t ever generalise.”

Filed Under: email marketing, social media by Stuart Green
Jun.17, 2011

In business, of all the electronic methods at our disposal for communication both internally to our colleagues and externally to our prospects, it is pretty much universally accepted that email will long continue to dominate.

In the consumer brand world, SMS, blogging, in-boxing, poking and tweeting are now an integral part of a ‘switched-on’ marketing strategy. But in the B2B arena the efficacy of such ‘new wave’ electronic communication is very much less understood largely due to the view that it’s immeasurable, ineffective and therefore frivolous. As we know however, relevance of use is key to the success of a particular communication method, and, where there is justification through results, adoption of these ‘new’ channels will no doubt be inevitable.

So currently, in the B2B space there are many ways to engage with our prospects using email marketing; To educate, influence, and stay ‘top-of-mind’ with customers, qualified leads, vendors, and colleagues. To glean information by measuring responses, and to feed leads to sales. To keep prospects warm and nurtured, upsell existing customers, generate more high-quality sales leads, strengthen your relationships overall, generate more referrals, and give sales intelligence that ultimately helps convert more leads into more sales. These methods fit perfectly into the email vehicle and can all be justified as relevant reasons for interaction.

With all of the above diligently in mind, you might be forgiven for treating email marketing as simply a ‘one to many’ means of ‘blanket bombing’ our prospects. BUT, in engaging with the audience, it is important to remember that we are developing a one to one relationship with savvy individuals who will very quickly see through a volley of thinly veiled generalist emails. As with all brand/company perception, once an opinion has been formed it is difficult to change that view.

It’s with this in mind that businesses are now turning to an even more forensic and sophisticated set of techniques which build ‘customer life-cycle’ marketing strategies using gathered intelligence in the form of ‘behavioural’ and ‘engagement’ data. In essence the technologies needed to track and communicate with customers one at a time and based upon their specific behaviours are now available.

By allowing email subscribers to specify email preferences, by dynamically personalising email content, by segmenting email campaigns based upon a sales cycle, or upon behaviour and by sending automatically generated emails based upon triggers, businesses are able to increase click throughs and open rates from 20%-30% significantly by delivering highly personalised and relevant content.

When engagement data is tracked and analysed the resulting segmented intelligence identifies the customers who are likely to buy/contact/order and, those customers engaged with a segmented email are up to 8 times more likely to buy/contact/order than those who are not. Behavioural data is gleaned through the online activity of site visitors and therefore behavioural email targets visitors based upon their online activity for best results. With open rates as high as 70%, you can in turn expect higher click through rates and conversion rates. Automated email strategies incorporating behavioural data and engagement data allow you to pro-actively communicate with prospects throughout the sales cycle and can be defined into many different categories from Welcome programme’ to ‘content triggers’ (i.e. viewed section x of site) from ‘regular browser’ to ‘twitter follower’ and many, many more.

Through our Windowbox e-marketing solution coupled with an initial e-marketing workshop we are able to put the theory into practice in order to help your business make the most of its relationship with individual prospects via behavioural and segmented email campaigns. After all, if you’ve invested in an online presence to generate more business, it stands to reason that you’ll want to drive the buying traffic through it’s door. Otherwise, it’s like investing in a brand new mobile phone and never giving the number out to any of your business network or your best prospects.

To find out what we can do for your business, you guessed it, drop us an email.

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The future’s bright, the future’s round.

Filed Under: industry news, the web by Will Bentley
Jun.13, 2011

If the UK’s internet economy were a separate sector, it would be its 5th largest at 7.2% of GDP. That’s bigger than construction, education or transport and only 2% smaller than financial services [Boston Consulting Group Report 'The connected Kingdom' October 2010]. A fact not lost on the Government who seem keen to further encourage the dotcom generation with business breaks like capital gains tax and venture capital trusts incentives as they attempt to drive Britain forwards as the leading tech economy in Europe. At an event for 100 internet entrepreneurs in Downing Street on June 1st, David Cameron stressed that Britain is relying on the dotcom generation to generate employment not just to preserve it. And e-commerce luminaries, such as Natalie Massenet of Net-a-Porter fame, believe that Europe is addressing the gap between it and the US with Britain at the helm – although it’s safe to say that the big players like Google, Facebook, Linkedin, and Groupon are all Silicon Valley based. “There is a need and an opportunity for Europe to narrow the gap with Silicon Valley, where there is a huge start-up community,” said Niklas Zennstrom who co-founded Skype one of Europe’s big internet successes. He sold Skype in 2005 for $2.6 Billion but it has just been bought by Microsoft for $8.5 Billion demonstrating, yet again, the phenomenal growth in values of e-businesses. Similarly Linkedin, the business social media vehicle, went public on the 19th May at $45 a share which rose to over $90 a share by the end of the first day, valuing the business at over $9 Billion. Such mind-blowing numbers further fuel fears of a second internet crash, but whether it’s dotcoms or bubbles, the future’s definitely round.

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How Did How Do Do?

Filed Under: bd2 news, industry news by Will Bentley
Jun.07, 2011

You have to admire How Do’s knack of putting together a decent speaker line up and consequently pulling in a decent crowd. The ‘How Do Manchester Creative Business Forum’, held at the stylish Studio at The Hive yesterday was typically well attended by a healthy mix of creative industry types drawn in by a wealthier mix of creative industry leaders. The speaker list was topped by Sue Little, Chief Exec of Mccanns, the acknowledged largest agency outside London, which if translated into the famous ‘That was the week that was’ sketch with the Two Ronnies and John Cleese, puts her firmly in the John Cleese position on the left – we all look up to her. Her presentation, whilst b2c biased and inevitably Mccanns view of the world, did capture the current mood of change with its challenge everything message – “think the unthinkable and do the undoable” driven by the rise of social media and newly empowered consumers. Liane Grimshaw, former Amaze director, punchily delivered some widely known but ever relevant home truths summed up, really, as focus – focus on your team, your clients and what you’re good at. And finally there was a dry but fascinating presentation by a ‘Deputy Agent’ (disappointingly not dressed in Cowboy get up as I imagined) from the Bank of England on the overall picture of the economy which turns out to look like a lot of complex graphs cleverly vague enough to accommodate sizable margins for error and frequently caveated by global economic factors outside their control or ability to predict. Summed up, I think, as cautiously optimistic. Which I felt was the general mood of the event, coupled with the ubiquitous rhetoric about collaboration.

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