So I ask you, what’s the Big Idea? How are you building up a relationship with your consumers so you aren’t just another company selling trinkets to them?

Wieden and Kennedy, the marketing agency we should all remember from the 90s, has a pretty impressive client list that includes Nike, Coke, Diet Coke, Electronic Arts (EA for any gamers out there), and of course Old Spice. Why should I mention them? Well W&K can now add to their list of greats as having the most successful advertising to internet campaigns to date.

What’s their big idea? That your man could smell like the man you fancy on TV. We could all learn from Old Spice/W&K on how to best resonate with our consumers and produce a campaign that gets those consumers talking.

“There are very few commercials that are that special…” Ellen Degeneres

Please enjoy the video below for a more indept look at the Old Spice Compagin:

If the video doesn’t open automatically please visit the following link: http://creativity-online.com/work/old-spice-responses-case-study/20896

Coke has unveiled a new Viral Video in the Happiness Machine. It was great to hear Adam Brown explain the idea and execution from the powerhouse brand’s perspective. Brown acknowledged that Media Impressions is an easy way to track social campaign success and in this case YouTube views as a measurement for success. Coca-Cola and Adam Brown believe this is their first video developed exclusively for online communication and distribution only.

One of Brown’s key notes was to fish where the fish are and YouTube would count for one place with plenty o’ fish.

The video tells a story and is content that people care about and can identify with – check it out for yourself.

1. Identify Goals (Awareness, Loyalty)
2. Set Strategy
3. Establish Obectives (Measurable Tasks) for a great reference check out KD Paine’s Measurement Blog
4. Select Tactics (YouTube, Facebook, Blogs, Twitter)
5. Measure Against Objectives
6. Make Adjustments and Repeat

Thoughts?

What are your reasons?

Below are some top reasons that Shel offered:

The majority of Facebook users become fans of businesses because they want deals. They crave exclusive coupons, updates on deals and expect to have access to deals that they can only get by becoming a fan on Facebook.

Twitter users have different expectations of brands. (Twitter Logo accounts as Shel referred to them) Twitter users expect to be engaged in conversation with the business that can occur nowhere else and on a real-time basis. I think users feel empowered by having the ability to have one-to-one communication with the brand.

Both make complete sense, so when considering tone and social strategy consider these two items of interest and user expectation for each medium.

I will try to have several more posts from this conference put on by Ragan Communications at Coca-Cola HQ in Atlanta. You can also track conference Hashtag #RaganCoke on Twitter.

-Ryan Hilliard, Interactive Marketing Manager

However, our reliance on “the click” must be re-evaluated moving forward. Online Marketing being so measurable can be both a blessing and a curse for this reason. ComScore has referred to the overwhelming reliance on the value of a click and click-through-rate as “click crack.” Marketers, I am not devaluing the click, it is vital to digital campaigns.

With that said only 16% internet users clicked on display ads in March 2009 and that rate could decrease in the coming years.

What to do? Use the medium how it was intended to be used for marketing – value every impression, use available targeting and develop memorable creative for a good offer.

Targeting Options for Online Display:

• Geographic
• Demographic
• Behavioral
• Contextual
• Retargeting

CPMs can vary depending on the complexity of targeting.

No matter how good the media placement and targeting with a weak offer and/or poor creative the ads the campaign will most likely NOT be successful. And most of the time there is no difference in price to add flash.

If you’re one of the 84% of online users that do not click on display ads then consider if you remember ads? Why do you remember those ads? That is why we as advertisers must remember – to value each impression as if it was our own.

Sharing is of great importance to email and social media marketers. Unfortunately, sharing doesn’t get the glamourous attention that it deserves. Sharing is no longer about just copy and pasting links. It is posting to Facebook, Forward to a Friend, ReTweeting, or Posting to Digg. Sharing is of great value to marketers.

Everyone shares.

But it is important to note that People only share what matters. Tim said, “69% of adults say that email is top for finding new content.” Also, “81% share to help someone that could benefit from the info.” How can we as marketers leverage this?

1. Know Your Audience
2. Make content worthy of sharing
3. Use the appropriate medium for them to share

Maybe most important quote from Tim Schigel was equating a value to what sharing traffic is worth. He acknowledged that sharing traffic is 2 to 5 times more valuable than those that come in from search links. And it does make sense, people are sharing content with those they know and trust so people are more likely to view the shared content as trustworthy and valuable.

One panelist noted that – “Sharing Knowledge is Power.” So true.

Update: Jay Baer’s Slides from this Panel Discussion

Source: Nielsen

A new study by Engine Ready helps enlighten businesses that are contemplating that same question. Assuming that maximizing sales is their primary business objective, the results are rather intriguing.

The study concluded June 30 of this year and is based on traffic to 26 e-retail sites during a 12-month period. The study identified and used four primary traffic source categories:

1. Organic Results
2. Sponsored or Paid Results
3. Direct or Bookmarks
4. Other Referrer (possibly social media)

Some of the top findings from the Study:

• Visitors who arrive from Paid Search Ads are 50% more likely to purchase than those clicking on Organic Results.
• Conversion Rate was 2.03% for Paid Search versus 1.26% for Organic Search.
• Direct access produced the most visitors at 40% other referring sites and email were at 28% while paid search had 20% and organic search 12%.
• Paid Search visitors spent the most. Average order amount for a paid search visitor was $117.06 versus $109.27 for those coming from other sites, $106.64 per order on average from Organic visitors and $95.29 for direct visitors.

What can we take from this study? Paid Search performed well. Paid Search (SEM) ranking best for average order value and conversion rate is a big deal. Reasoning?  SEM’s strong call to action in the description section could play a factor. So could the ability to enhance and optimize individual ads for individual products. As we mentioned last week, it is important to optimize your meta descriptions for SEO and a strong call to action should be a part of that.

What’s your take on the study?

New York Times Take on the Study

• About 1 in 5 users consumers searched the advertised brand
• Consumers exposed to display advertising spent 50% more time than average visitors on these websites over a month.
• Exposed Visitors on News Sites view 40% more pages on Advertiser’s Site
• Audiences exposed to display advertising become more engaged in advertisers’ sites
• High income audiences tended to visit advertiser’s site
• E-commerce can be positively effected when display and search are mixed together correctly

This study helps demonstrate that advertisers should consider a mix of display and search when allocating their budget for an interactive campaign.