Dullard Llama

The only cure for boredom is curiosity. The teachings of a curious communicator

Well done Carl.

www.thedullardllama.blogspot.com

Why campaigns fail

Extract from Antony Young 29 Mar 2007

According to a study by Copernicus Marketing Consulting, 84 per cent of marketing campaigns fail to drive value. Why?:

1. Failure to match the budget to the goals. Lofty goals and a low budget or simply having too many objectives, generally leads to poorly allocated spending across too many marketing programmes, communication channels or brand messages. We found that spending is inefficient if there is too little frequency, repetition and consistency.

2. Not setting out clear outcomes and metrics at the start of a campaign. Too many marketing campaigns lack clear objectives as a result frustrate their Boards and lead to weak communications. A survey by Wirthlin and Atlantic revealed that where no ROI goals or processes were established at the outset, 56 per cent of senior stakeholders judged marketing’s performance as unsatisfactory.

3. Unwillingness to be consistent with messaging. One of the prevailing trends we see from many companies is inconsistent messaging. For instance, with few exceptions retail banks generate multiple advertising and direct mail offers simultaneously originating from the separate product marketing units within their organizations. This often lacks cohesion creating competing messages and confusion rather than synergy of marketing effort.

4. Over-reliance on acquisition rather than retention strategies. Companies so often measure success in terms on acquiring new customers and growing market share. However, businesses lose half their customer base every five years. Bain & Co estimates increasing retention by 5 per cent can increase corporate profitability by 25 per cent.

5. Sameness of the communication. The few campaigns that stand-out are harsh reminders of the many you don’t remember. Brave marketers that step outside the expected in their category seem to be rewarded. Think Dove, Honda and Stella Artois … different and successful. With day after recall of advertising falling from 40 per cent in the Sixties to today just 6 per cent, where’s the real risk in being different?

Second Life

Extract from lessons From Second Life BY Chad Stoller March 27, 2007

Is Second Life today's hottest emerging media fad or the future of online communities and experience?

I've been asked this question a lot over the past year as Second Life increasingly graces the covers of mainstream magazines and conference room whiteboards of communication agencies. While multiuser, networked platforms have a long, deep history, Second Life has become the poster child of multiuser, Internet-enabled environments because of its no-cost entry, universal access, nonlinear user experience, and multiplatform availability.

Sounds a bit like how people talked about the Web in 1995, doesn't it?

One thing's for sure. Second Life is going strong, with a community of over 4.8 million citizens and growing. Although there's been a lot of chatter in the blogosphere about actual (or repeat) users versus registered users, Second Life provides us with a glimpse into the future of networked communities.

Kids Are Getting Into the Act

The booming success of Club Penguin is a sure indicator metaverses (define) have appeal beyond early adopters. But don't go to ClubPenguin.com by yourself. Go with an 8-year-old power user and watch carefully. Social networking is a natural experience for kids as they learn to network, play games, earn coins, and budget their spending. And the recent launch of Nicktropolis only emphasizes that they're very comfortable with multiuser environment platforms.

Social Networks Affect the Web As We Know It

Though I can't predict the future, I can make a few educated guesses about what really works in Second Life and what's likely to influence the future of online communities from content and navigation perspectives. In addition, I'll provide an example of new platforms that might have been influenced by Second Life's success.

What really works and what might have influenced it:

More environments are going UCG. Second Life environments aren't predefined, story-driven, or liner experiences. In fact, the environment isn't driven by a single aesthetic or direction. It's a collage of different cultures, designs, and artistic expressions. Places look different because in the real world, things are different. Other than properties developed by Linden Labs or Second Life development agencies, most properties are another form of user-generated content (UGC).The media like to talk about UGC in the form of YouTube videos and blog postings and comments, but UGC is the least talked about (but most important) part of Second Life. Users don't create a piece of content to stick in a public system and hope they're viewed, rated, or commented on. These users are working with complicated tools to create environments, experiences, avatars, artifacts, clothing, vehicles, terrain, and more. This behavior, often considered a form of Second Life entertainment itself, provides a glimpse into the future of UGC.Sony recently announced its "Home" service for the PlayStation 3. To link members of its online network, PlayStation is taking a metaverse approach and building a multiuser environment users can explore and meet up with friends and other players. Additionally, the Home service will allow users to customize their own home that stores game rewards and artifacts collected across the network.

Navigation is increasingly a journey. Second Life residents do more than just point and click to get from A to B. They walk, fly, teleport, and ride objects. This physical metaphor brings a more varied navigation experience and transforms travel from clickstreams to journeys. When users embark on journeys, they'll find both well-traveled and secret paths. Club Penguin uses travel as an important part of the gaming experience. Players can choose to participate in episodic games that encourage players to explore the Club Penguin universe. Through these travel initiatives, kids are encouraged to look for secret places and methods to travel there.

Limitless customization will be required. Social networks are great platforms for users to define a persona, but the avatar design and customization system of Second Life offers limitless creativity options to every citizen. Although the system is clunky, its benefits certainly outweigh the process flaws. Anyone who's spent time with the Nintendo Wii will tell you how much fun it is to create a Mii (an in-game representation of the player). The process for designing a Mii is fun and painless and encourages you to keep going back to modify your appearance. In addition, WeeWorld's WeeMee (interesting choice of name, don't you think?) provides a simple character design process to build an avatar for use in WeeWorld and that can link to your AIM account.

If you can imagine it, you can be it. One primary reason Second Life (and most metaverses) is so interesting is it allows people to reinvent themselves. While observations by Linden Labs and other Second Life developers suggest people start off with a complete reinvention of themselves only to eventually pull back and create near-representations of their real appearance, the reinvention process applies to everyone, even brands. Imagine you're an automotive marketing executive and you're sitting in a room with several strategy consultants. They ask you, "What would your brand be if you didn't sell cars?" That's what metaverses offer you the opportunity to do. If people can be different, so can brands.

What Do These Things Mean for You?

It means if you plan on participating in Second Life or other metaverses, you should keep these ideas in mind. Ask yourself the following:

• Does your initiative allow users to participate in and contribute to your efforts?
  Do you provide tools to help them do this?
• What does your brand journey look like to a metaverse citizen?
• Are you taking advantage of the opportunity to reinvent your brand or maybe bend it to become more acceptable or interesting to the metaverse community?
• Look for confident brands to take full advantage of these trends. Give them some thought, and let's keep the dialogue going.

Email strategies - how to get one part 2

Extract fro, Ten Steps for Developing an Effective E-mail Strategy, Part 2
BY Jeanne Jennings March 26, 2007

If you do e-mail marketing without a formal strategy in place or have a strategy but aren't meeting business goals, you're in luck. This is the second is a series of five columns covering the 10 steps required to develop an effective e-mail strategy:

1. Identify qualitative goals.
2. Analyze the current situation.
3. Complete a competitive analysis.
4. Define the target audience.
5. Determine which types of e-mail meet your needs.
6. Develop a content strategy and a frequency and send schedule.
7. Design the e-mail template.
8. Create quantitative goals.
9. Compile budget and ROI (define) projections.
10. Evaluate results and tweak the strategy accordingly.

Complete a Competitive Analysis
This critical step in the process is one many organizations skip. Some feel funny "spying" on their rivals. Others don't believe there's anything they can learn from their opponents. Still others aren't sure how to go about gathering this type of information.

The short answer to all these objections comes from Michael Corleone in "The Godfather: Part II": "Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer."
The easiest way to begin is to sign up for any e-mail newsletters your competitors offer. I recommend using a nonidentifiable address rather than a business or personal address; just get a free e-mail account. Not all companies screen competitors' e-mail addresses from their lists, but some do. Also, it's helpful to keep these e-mail messages separate from your regular correspondence. And if you're looking to gather data on how your competitors segment their lists, you may want to utilize one e-mail address for each segment or e-mail newsletter so you can see how they treat different selects.

From the subscriber side, you won't be able to get the detailed information you have on your house list, but you will be able to observe such things as:

1. How frequently they mail
2. What types of e-mail they send:
3. Commercial or transactional
4. Formats, such as postcard e-mail, long-form e-mail newsletters, and short tip e-mail
5. When they send: days and times
6. Whom they send to (which list segments
7. What products or services are mentioned
8. What types of content are included:
9. Editorial or promotional
10. Long or short
11. Content quality: great, fair, or poor

Define the Target Audience
The more you know about your readers, the better you can match content offerings to their interests. Focus on things that matter in the context of the relationship you want to have with them. For consumer lists, standard demographics such as gender, age, marital status, educational background, and hobbies may make sense. In the business world, those data points may be moot; title, seniority, and job function may be more appropriate.

Figure out business goals in respect to each group. You may be looking to generate qualified leads from a prospect pool while trying to sell additional products to current clients. Don't limit your audiences. You may want to communicate with the press for PR purposes or with companies offering complementary products to your markets in the hope of getting referrals.
Note features, benefits, and advantages your products, services, or information offers your audiences. These may differ by segment and product. You'll likely end up with multiple paragraphs or a grid-like structure. That's OK. The better you define your groups, the better you'll be able to target content.

Trends - crowd clout

Crowd clout. I like it. Power to the people, all of them.

http://www.trendwatching.com/briefing/

CROWD CLOUT: Online grouping of citizens/consumers for a specific cause, be it political, civic or commercial, aimed at everything from bringing down politicians to forcing suppliers to fork over discounts.

Social networks - how to get it right.

Extract from Harness the Power of Vertical Social Networks E-Marketing Strategies
BY Chad Stoller March 13, 2007

Find networks that appeal to your audience. You know who your audience is and what they like to do. Chances are, there are already a handful of online communities and social networks that appeal to their interests. Check out LibraryThing, Yelp, and Meetup to get your feet wet.

Check out the community. Don't just jump in, check out the community to see how vibrant it is. Are they active? What do they talk about? Who's there?

Learn what works. Get a meeting with the people who run the site. Let them tell you about their firsthand experience with their community. They'll know what works and what doesn't.

Don't market; create a conversation. Resists the urge to buy a banner or brand a page. Instead, find ways to encourage participation and see if you can get the community to come to you through conversation and criticism. Create a contest or sponsor an initiative to start conversations.

Be transparent. Observe appropriate marketing efforts and let the network know who you are. Once you introduce yourself as a voice of a brand, you'll be impressed with the quality of your responses.

Study through observation. Reports provide metrics, but if you really want to learn more, you'll need to spend time in the network.

Near game advertising

Extract from Near-Game Advertising - Intellectual Capital BY Gary Stein March 12, 2007

As gaming's reach has increased, so too has advertiser interest. Who wouldn't be attracted to a channel in which consumers spend hours upon hours each day, heavily involved? Advertising in games has exploded. We've seen a small flurry of interest as companies like Microsoft (buying Massive) and Google (buying Adscape) have made forays, investments, and out-right purchases that got them ('scuse the pun) in the game.

Essentially, the logic around game advertising has followed three paths. That is, you can do one of three things, based on three broad categories of games. Simulation games (especially sport simulation games) allow you to place a relevant product within the game. Tire manufacturers can have their products featured in a NASCAR game, for example. Games with broad landscapes (such as a first-person shooter) allow for simple display advertising; you can buy a virtual billboard.

Finally, there are the deep fantasy games that take place in Middle Earth, the Star Wars universe, or other virtual spaces. These games allow you to do a whole lot of nothing. Sorry. No Yoo-Hoo allowed in Middle Earth.

There's a new category of space quietly growing, however: the passage pages manufacturers offer as consumers access directly from their consoles, such as the Xbox Live Marketplace.

Portal to the Games
The Live Marketplace is an interesting space. In a way, its like a TiVo-style interface to the gaming universe in that it's a portal through which people can get new content or review the choices available to them. To date, there hasn't been too much interest in this sliver of media space. Everyone's been trying to wedge their ads into games. But this spot, while overlooked, could hold a lot of potential.

Consider the behavior around these pass-through spaces. Game consumers specifically go online to see what sorts of things are available to them, be they new games to buy, demos to try, or even video content to consume. This is a group looking for an opportunity to engage with content.

The normal set of tactics -- banners and buttons -- could certainly be extended to this space. But there's also the chance to bring in branded content and even behaviorally targeted ads. Because of the space's nature, a brand could even conduct e-commerce on the site, allowing consumers to purchase actual items via a simple interface.

More important, these middle spaces could represent real opportunities for brands to begin experimenting with that swirling world of games and advertising without having to totally understand all the delicate rules and balances of power brands need to negotiate, and still get plenty of exposure.

All advertisers who consider using video games must be cognizant of a simple rule: don't get in the way of the play. If Lara Croft has to stop and wait while Tony the Tiger dances across the screen, there will be trouble. But if the advertiser follows the rules and puts the logo or brand into a subtle corner, the impression's value begins to dissipate and get lost. How do you ensure you get the ad's value while not damaging the ad vehicle's value?

It's certainly a tough spot to be in, but as you can see with Xbox Live Marketplace and similar opportunities, there are spaces near games where an advertiser can simply be an advertiser. Since these spaces often offer casual, fun games, there may be a way for an advertiser to poke around and experiment with the space while not having to get too deep, too quickly.

Games Are Ad Disruptors
Games are advertising disruptors. Their increasing presence means more time in front of the television is dedicated to a space where the old rules of broadcast are destroyed like a Romulan being attacked by a Borg. That means advertisers who want to get a little slice of that sitting-in-front-of-the-box time must be creative, imaginative, and unafraid.
This doesn't mean advertisers need to be reckless. Instead, they should find the spots that allow them to engage and learn.

Email strategies - how to get one part 1

Extract from Ten Steps for Developing an Effective E-mail Strategy, Part 1 E-Mail Marketing
BY Jeanne Jennings March 12, 2007

10 steps you need to take to develop an effective e-mail strategy:

1. Identify qualitative goals.
2. Analyze the current situation.
3. Complete a competitive analysis.
4. Define the target audience.
5. Determine which types of e-mail meet your needs.
6. Develop a content strategy.
7. Set the frequency and send schedule.
8. Create quantitative goals.
9. Compile budget and ROI projections.
10. Evaluate results and tweak the strategy accordingly.

Identify Qualitative Goals

What will the programme do for you?

• Sell my products.
• Deliver qualified leads for my services.
• Entice people to register for my events.
• Drive repeat traffic to my Web site.
• Generate revenue via advertising.
• Build my reputation as an expert in my field.
• Keep my company top of mind with prospects.

There are a million ways to express qualitative goals. Use language you're comfortable with. That said, all qualitative goals tend to revolve around one of two things:

• Acquiring new customers and/or revenue
• Retaining or renewing existing customers and/or revenue

Your industry may use "clients," "members," "donors," "subscribers," "advertisers," or another term in place of "customers." Whatever you call them, it's all about acquisition and retention.

Analyze the Current Situation

Start with brainstorming and writing down the basics:

House list
How many e-mail addresses do you have?
How did you acquire them?
What's your monthly growth rate?
What are your best sources of new names?
How much, on average, does it cost to acquire a new e-mail address?
What else do you know about your house list?

Current e-mail campaigns
How frequently do you mail?
What do you mail? Include campaigns and one-offs.
What's your current e-mail marketing budget?
How much does it cost you, on average, to send 1,000 e-mail messages?
How does your e-mail perform?
Deliverability, opens, and clicks
Conversions and bottom-line success measures, like leads, sales, renewals, and revenue
Any other performance metrics relevant to your qualitative goals
What else do you know about your current e-mail campaigns?

Other marketing
What other online marketing are you doing related to your qualitative goals?
How well do they perform?
Are they related to e-mail marketing efforts?
Offline marketing
How well do these perform?
Are they related to e-mail marketing efforts?
What else do you know about your other current marketing campaigns?

Other aspects of your current e-mail situation
What staff or outside expertise on e-mail and your industry do you have access to?
How well does your current e-mail technology solution meet your needs?
What's the process for developing an e-mail from scratch?
How do you determine what gets sent to whom, when, and how often?

Random thoughts - why not?

Random thoughts - trains

Random thoughts - client service

30 ways the UK has changed

This is a great aticle (thanks Kelly) about how things aren't how they use to be.

Nice little reminder that things move on (with the acception of Noel Edmonds (No.25) who is ever present) and that brands and behaviours do change even in the shortest of time.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6412083.stm

CGM glossary

Extract from ClickZ Experts
The Official CGM Glossary› › › CMO
BY Pete BlackshawMarch 06, 2007

Consumer-generated media (CGM): At its core, CGM represents first-person commentary posted or shared across a host of expression venues, including message boards, forums, rating and review sites, groups, social networking sites, blogs, and, of course, video-sharing sites. It's commonly influenced or informed by relevant experience with brands (e.g., "I'm so angry with Jet Blue," "I love Target"). Although direct company feedback and general offline water cooler talk technically count as CGM, they have less of an enduring latency effect because they're not archived online for easy access by other consumers. CGM emphasizes the "media" rather than "content" precisely because it acts like paid media. Whether through search queries or serendipitous discovery, CGM frequently intercepts other consumers during the purchase cycle and, coupled with high trust levels, impacts business results.

Consumer-generated multimedia (CGM2): This subset of CGM is more anchored to "site, sound, and motion" components, each with the potential to dial up the effect and persuasiveness of the consumer storytelling. Visualization elevates drama, emotional resonance, and the ability to prove one's case through documentation (one big reason TV commercials have been so hard for advertisers to shake). Video is far and away the most significant form of CGM2, and sites like YouTube and MySpace lead the pack. By and large, CGM2 reflects unaided, or organic, consumer content creation. It may implicate brands positively or negatively, but the marketer has no direct hand in its creation. The Kryptonite lock video is one of the earliest examples. Brands like Apple have seen plenty of CGM2 on both the positive and negative side of things.

Consumer-fortified media (CFM): Unilever's Dove Evolution is a classic example of CFM. The advertisers created the spot, but its meaning was shaped, or fortified, by the conversation, commentary, and debate that wrapped around the content. The right combination can create an exponential positive buzz lift or outright disaster. In the case of Dove Evolution, tens of thousands of women talked about the ad, embedded it in their blogs, and wrapped fresh commentary around the core. The same thing often happens when the news networks drop enticing news segments on their sites or YouTube. Just think about the New York TV video on rats at Taco Bell or the TV networks seeding a Justin Timberlake "rap" on YouTube. The input is credentialed and formal; the output is fortified (and validated) by the consumer voice.

Consumer-solicited media (CSM): The term that most commonly captures this form is "co-creation." Others loosely call it "participatory advertising." In essence, the marketer sets the specs, and consumers exercise a range of creativity and brand evangelism within those parameters. It could be a create-your-own-ad contest, or an upload-your-experience photo or video utility on a brand Web site. Recent examples include the Dove ad during the Oscars (the product of a contest) and the Frito-Lay, GM, and NFL spots during the Super Bowl. One of the very first examples is MoveOn.org's "Bush in 30 Seconds" campaign three years ago. Think about an RFP (define) whereby we set criteria for suppliers to duke it out to win our marketing business. CSM has the potential to be hugely effective, but it's not entirely pure or organic.
Compensated consumer-generated media (CCGM): This is when marketers outright pay consumers to do certain things, or when publishers compensate artists or content creators for submissions. In a video context, there are both benign and inappropriate applications. Revenue-sharing models like Revver (potentially forthcoming on YouTube) apply an issue- or slant-agnostic approach to the compensation structure. Positive or negative, if your contribution draws the eyeballs (and provided you're not using illegal content), you take a piece of the revenue. On the less savory side, if your video model is like PayPerPost, where contributors are outright paid to endorse or promote a product and the disclosure factor is submerged in murkiness, there's a far higher risk and backlash factor. Lots more discussion is needed over this... soon.

Paid media: This is exactly as it sounds. Marketers buy media, usually in the form of impressions, to affect sales. Some call this "marketer-generated media" (MGM), but the old description works just fine. In the context of video, paid media may come in the form of the pre-roll, post-roll, or official sponsor link. Sometimes this, too, gets a bit fuzzy, but by and large the distinction is pretty clear.

Nice idea