Jump on it before it's too late

Many moons ago, while working for one of the most innovative agencies in Germany, one of our main competitors came up with a brilliant idea for a car rental company: While customers were waiting for their luggage in the arrival hall, the conveyor belt carried two suitcases with clever lines (Lost Orientation? Try our cars with Navigation System). People were hypnotized by the suitcases and airport rentals went through the roof. It worked so well because nobody ever thought of advertising in arrival halls, except for the typical hotel ads. When you walk today thorugh German airports, you can still see the suitcases but the value of this marketing technique has dramatically increased.

Innovation and outstanding ideas don't stay innovative and outstanding. Competitors caught on to their ideas, came up with different ideas to market to bored passengers and cluttered arrival halls with billboards and monitors.

Social and Emerging Media are beginning to gain traction in the marketing world. What's new today will be an integral part of the marketing mix in the next years. Many brands ask: When is the right time to utilize social and emerging media in their marketing mix?

Frankly, the time was yesterday. Or, at least, today.

Emerging and Social Media will always be effective. But the value of both will decline in the future when everybody begins jumping on that bandwagon. Now is the time to experiment with social/emergine media. Remember BMW Films, Subserviant Chicken and the Doritos Superbowl Ads. The first movers claimed the benefits, the second movers looked like cheap plagiarists and produced sub-par results.

Jump on it already.

Brand Extensions

Most companies still don't understand that each interaction with their brand and people determines the value of their brand.

I meet with Sales Reps almost every day: Sites, Emerging Media, Technology Providers, etc. More than 50% of these brand ambassadors feel like a brand mismatch: There's the sales rep for an emerging media company that relies on print-outs for his presentations, the rep for one of the hottest sites on the Internet that doesn't know what Web 2.0 is all about and and and...

One of my job duties is to evaluate all opportunities and generate recommendations/strategies for our clients. Since many of these opportunities revolve around Web 2.0 and Emerging Media, I don't have tons of data to determine my recommendations. I have to rely on basic data, overall match for respective brand and the sales rep to offer me additional insight to support my case when I go back to client.

Sure, you might have the right target audience, matching psychographics, decent reach and a good match with the brand I try to market. But many brands do. The difference between a sale and a non-sale is the sales rep. If he's really in tune with the brand, if he understands and represents the essence of the brand, lives and breathes the brand; that's where magic happens.

It seems there's a dearth of good sales people out there. And most Internet/Emerging Media companies decide to hire seasoned sales veterans. This might work once in a while. Most often it doesn't. It's not about the sales skills of the sales reps. It's about their street cred. Because most of Emerging Media buys are experimental, the outstanding sales rep has to to play a much broader role than usual: He doesn't have to be a sales person, he has to be a brand evangelist.

So, next time you need to hire someone in your sales department, forget about resumes and experience. Focus on passion. Find the person that creates a space where your brand becomes more than you ever dreamed of being.

Media Multitasking

Luth Research just released a report about media multitasking: We seem to sleep less than the needed 7 hours and spend an increasing amount of hours (around 20 hours a week) on consuming media simultaneously.

"On average, 17 percent of our time awake -- approximately 19.80 hours per week -- is spent using two or more media simultaneously, according to the latest quarterly findings (Quarter 1, 2007) from Luth Research's IndicatorEDG™, an online study surveying more than 5,000 respondents in the U.S. The media in question included all mass media (e.g., TV, radio, Internet) and personal electronic devices (e.g., cell phone, MP3 player, wireless email device)."

Employed people spend less time media multitasking while the unemployed, retired or homemakers tend to raise the average. And in the center of all this multitasking is TV:

"Watching TV was named by nearly half of the respondents to be what they typically do
when working on the Internet or email through a computer. One in five people have their TV on while using their cell phone to make phone calls. TV seems to be a natural fit to co-own consumer time and space with other print media, as 20 percent of the respondents cited TV as the medium they were also using when reading a newspaper, a magazine, or a book."

And this is the most interesting part:

"Compared to the 60 percent of the respondents who spent less than 20 hours per week on media multi-tasking, those who spent 20 or more hours were found to be less happy in general about their life. Specifically, people spending 20 or more hours media multitasking expressed a lower average rating of happiness with their work, family and romantic lives.
Furthermore, the high consumption media multitaskers (those who spent 20 or more hours per week multitasking) were more likely to say they never had enough time and they experienced a higher level of stress. No doubt, quality of life is determined by many diverse elements. However, as we may want to pause and ask ourselves: Are we driving ourselves to be less happy?"

Media Consumption has become one of my focal points when thinking about the future of media and how emerging media can engage people in a more meaningful way.

Clearly, multitasking is a time waster and sometimes even dangerous. Research shows that people waste/lose up to 2 hours a day. And, when multi-tasking while driving a 2,000 lb. torpedo (car), it can turn into a more significant event, as in an accident and possibly fatal.

Focusing on media, multitasking will continue to be a major issue for measuring media effectiveness and media value: You're researching cars on Edmunds while watching Lost. Are you completely ignoring commercials or are there instances where they attract your attention? How about the ads on Edmunds? Are they of any value while you watch Lost, do they leave any impression or just a waste of money?

At this point, we don't know. In the meantime, we need to more precise with our messaging. And more entertaining. Only outstanding creative that has a clear message with cut through the clutter. No matter what channel you're deploying.

Audi TT promotion

Audi launched the new Audi TT and utilized Realise Studio to project this stunning, promotional piece up onto buildings. The combination of virtual windtunnel, beautiful colors and animation makes for an engaging piece.

Emerging Technologies

Forrester issued a report highlighting which emergent technologies matter most to the 15 largest U.S. interactive agencies. They focused mostly on new channels, technologies and platforms and how they affect the agencies' design practices. I would hope that the next study will ask the real important question how the new channels affect their marketing approach. The results are not very surprising but still worthwhile posting.