Not sure who thought of this, but seriously, what a brilliant marketing move!

http://fcinf.com/v/dyc4

 

You know how it goes. And so does Huggies which is why they have partnered with us on this fabulous giveaway!

Huggies® Enjoy The Ride Daily Diaper Giveaway

Huggies® is here to help you celebrate and enjoy the parenting ride by bringing you the Huggies® Enjoy the Ride Rewards Program.

Parents will be able to earn points, then spend them for a chance to win fabulous prizes. Plus, when you sign up before June 30th, you’ll be entered into the Daily Diaper Giveaway Sweepstakes for the chance to win a year’s supply of Huggies® diapers!

Become a fan on Facebook and follow on Twitter to be notified of special coupons.  Be sure to check out the current coupons for Little Movers and Little Snugglers diapers on Facebook.

And you haven’t checked out the BlissTV Huggies Little Movers episode yet, you need to! At not even a full minute into it, my son is already trying to eat the camera. And he’s non-stop to the very end.

Mass push marketing with very little ROI is thankfully on the way out!

Leaders, unlike scared marketers, know how to push and pull the right levers. Leaders know when it’s time to dump marketing techniques and mediums that simply aren’t producing a direct return on investment. Leaders know when a site or medium has jumped the shark and when it’s time to create something completely different. Leaders also know that you don’t have to be first in order to be the best. Leaders also know how to hold their agencies and staff accountable for their programs. The best clients I’ve had have been those willing to take risks. Over six years ago when I started practicing online word of mouth it was a few brave souls (who, by the way, moved up the ladder quickly and solidified their position and reputation at their companies) that took a chance knowing it was the right thing to do. And the smattering of case studies from Dell, JetBlue and others show it can be done if you’re willing to put some thought — and more importantly budget — into it.

Staples realized that Twitter wasn’t just another version of the helpdesk on their site, or the customer service number. Reports ClickZ

[Heather Deschenes, director of digital marketing for the brand,] had to train those new members to her team in not only the technical aspects of using Twitter, but also how to keep the brand’s “tweet voice” intact. And the incoming reps wouldn’t have the copy-and-paste response sentences that they may have become accustomed to employing during instant chat sessions.

As part of their Twitter effort, Staples has created a “Tweet Team” of reps, who maintain their individual personalities while adhering to the “tweet voice” of the overall brand. And they’ve done that in a matter of months.

I think the lesson here for marketers is that you can jump into social and make efforts quickly—and you should start now. A study released last month by Edison Research shows that just over half of all Twitter users follow at least one brand.

The fact that individual employees/reps have accounts and keep their unique personalities is key. This is a great example of Twitter marketing!

The awesome crew over at SocialMediaExaminer.com just released their 2010 Social Media Marketing Industry Report. The 33 page report is geared to marketers and has some great info for anyone looking to create and grow their personal brand.

Here are some of the major findings from the survey:

• Marketers are mostly new to social media: A significant 65% of marketers surveyed have only been involved with social media marketing for a few months or less.

• The top benefits of social media marketing: The number-one advantage of social media marketing (by a long shot) is generating exposure for the business, indicated by 85% of all marketers, followed by increasing traffic (63%) and building new business partnerships (56%).

• In 2009, only 23% of marketers were using social media for years. Now that number has grown to 31%.

• A significant 56% of marketers are using social media for 6 hours or more each week and 30% for 11 or more hours weekly. It’s interesting to note that 12.5% of marketers spend more than 20 hours each week on social media.

• People age 20 to 29 spend the most time using social media marketing (59.1% spending 6+ hours weekly), followed by 40- to 49-year-olds (58.3% spending 6+ hours weekly) and then 30- to 39-year-olds (58% spending 6+ hours weekly).

• The number-one benefit of social media marketing is gaining the all-important eyeball. A significant 85% of all marketers indicated that their social media efforts have generated exposure for their businesses. Improving traffic was the second major benefit, followed by building new partnerships.

• More than half of marketers indicated a rise in search engine rankings was a benefit of social media marketing. As search engine rankings improve, so will business exposure, lead generation efforts and a reduction in overall marketing expenses. More than half of marketers found social media generated qualified leads.

• Those who invest the most time in social media marketing gain the most business partnerships. However, 53.1% of people who’ve only invested a few months with social media marketing report newpartnerships were gained.

• We asked marketers which social media tools they most want to learn more about.Social bookmarking sites slightly edged out Twitter for the number-one slot. Facebook came in third, followed closely by Digg/Reddit/Mixx/StumbleUpon and then LinkedIn.

 

According to a survey of ad advertising agencies commissioned by the video network BrightRoll, a whopping 94 percent plan on increasing their Web video budgets this year. That’s despite the fact that nearly half of those surveyed have either had a video campaign executed in a way other than how they expected (17 percent) or are are unsure about whether their campaigns have run as planned (31 percent).

Indeed, BrightRoll’s report found that online video still has some credibility issues. Among the practices identified as concerns are the polarizing tactic of auto-start video, cited by 43 percent of respondents, as well as “misrepresented pre-roll’ ads (26 percent) and video ads that appear below the fold on a Web page where few people may actually see them (22 percent).

Pricing and metrics are also points of contention in the Web video industry. Many buyers gripe about paying CPMs that are sometimes higher than those charged by TV networks, and complaints about the lack of standards when it comes to Web video impressions and/or views are common. BrightRoll found that many agencies are gravitating towards some sort of engagement based sales model (34 percent of survey respondents said so), yet close to half are interested in a “cost per view” model (45 percent).

 

I agree with the three problems with online video: auto-start, pre-roll (commercials before the video are useless) and videos below the fold.

I am happy to see companies with information on campaign effectiveness. Hyper targeted ads are coming, but not quickly enough. Throwing it all at the wall via mass marketing techniques are a huge waste of resources.

Marketing is changing, the future is based on the development of new technology. Mobile & tablets changed everything.

I love this quote, referring to marketing staff, "they have to do lobotomies because some of their marketers are still doing things the analogue way."

Ouch.

I can't say enough good things about this article in Mashable. While bloggers and publishers are trying to build their sites, the Social Web is quickly changing the whole game. Neilsen data shows that because of Social Media's impact on how we engage online, more and more people want to get their content in a news feed style or stream. Your content has to go everywhere, and this article helps you spread content in a smart way.

Distribute

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Once you have identified your digital center, connect it to all your other social networks. Think of your digital center as the hub and the other networks as the spokes of a wheel. The idea is to create the content once. In today’s world of the siteless web, your customers are choosing their own digital centers, and chances are, they’re not the same as yours. You need spokes to make sure you’re reaching everyone you need to and, more importantly, everyone who wants information from you. And, since we’re all short on time, making this process automated and intelligent is key. Here’s how you can do this:

• Filter: The expectations on each social network are different. Understand your audiences on each and tailor your content accordingly. Twitter has a different vocabulary (hashtags, RT) than Facebook (). Your readers on Facebook may find it odd to see a hashtag in their stream.
• Control the flow: If you are creating multiple pieces of content per day, it is important to not send it out all at once. The half-life of a piece of content in social media is measured in hours. Things are flowing through your audience’s stream all day long. To keep their attention and increase the opportunity for them to see your content, regulate the flow, just like a dam. Hold some things back. Track the time of day you are seeing the most engagement and adjust your flow accordingly.
• Customize: With the amount of content your audience is seeing in a day, yours may go unnoticed as they scan their stream. The headline is now more than ever, the most important sentence you write. Add in some branding elements –- it doesn’t need to be over the top. Just let your audience know where it is coming from, especially if you are cross-posting.

I hope this article will stop all the people who import all their Twitter updates to their Facebook stream. Filter for the individual networks people!

As somebody that develops strategy for large corporate brands, I often work with different types of brand advocates in various social media channels.  A common tactic of many marketers and PR professionals is to try to go after “influencers” to get them to talk about their product.  Sometimes these influencers are individuals, sometimes they are communities, but a common denominator is that they have substantial audience sizes. The typical way of approaching these people or groups is to ship them a sample of your product and include a note that says something like, “Hope you enjoy this, please blog about it”.  I think this is a good shotgun approach to communities, it’s a good step up from a press release and it gets your product information out to a lot of people very quickly.  For individuals, I think we have to look at a more measured and personal approach.

To truly be effective in social media with influencers, I think you need to build a relationship, not ship a press package. You also have to recognize and understand the different groups that exist in social media, so you know how to develop and target brand programs and exposure.  In case you fear that I’m starting to sound a little too professional and polished in this approach, I submit for your approval a hand drawn diagram in the picture to the left.  Fancy, isn’t it?

The "Hope you like this, please blog about it" approach is definitely more personal than a press release, but this article gives a smart overview of the Consumer, Enthusiast, Influencers, Inciters.

Most marketing executives cite email or search marketing as their company's top-performing advertising channel in 2009—39.4% and 23.6%, respectively—and over nine in ten (93.6%) say they plan to increase their budget allocation to digital marketing in the next five years, according to the Fourth Annual Marketing and Media Survey from Datran Media.

Just 9.4% of marketers cited offline channels as their most effective response channel last year. Another 4.7% cited social media, while mobile marketing, still in its early stages, was cited by 0.8% of marketers.

Below, other findings from the Fourth Annual Marketing and Media Survey from Datran Media.

Budget Shifts to Online in 2010 and Beyond

Among marketers who plan to increase investments in digital marketing, 75.2% say their allocations will increase steadily as 2014 approaches, while 18.4% say their allocations will increase greatly.

Moreover, 58.4% plan to reduce or keep flat their offline marketing budgets.

In 2010, most marketers (59.8%) are allocating over one-half of their overall multichannel advertising to digital channels. Another 15.2% of marketers are allocating 30-50% of their budgets to digital, and 7.1% of marketers are allocating 20-29% to digital.

Online Marketing Objectives

Asked to identify their company's objectives when conducting online marketing, marketers cited the following:

• Reach a target audience: 82%
• Lead generation: 72%
• Convert leads into sales: 63.2%
• Measure and understand audience: 60.0%
• Retain existing customers: 56.8%
• Digitally transact with customers: 53.6%
• Avoiding wasted media spend: 40.0%

Among specific tactics, over three-quarters (77.6%) of marketers are using targeting as part of their online marketing strategy this year. Some 71.2% say they are employing customer analytics and measurement tools.

Over six in ten (62.3%) are focusing both on retention and loyalty campaigns and on email list growth.

Mobile, Social, and Video

Interest in online video and mobile marketing is substantial this year: 67.2% of marketers are planning to leverage video, and 54.4% are planning mobile marketing initiatives targeting smartphones users (vs. 34.3% who planned to do so last year).

Marketers are leveraging social media as well: 72.3% have a company Facebook page, and 72.0% have a company Twitter account.

Still, marketers are mixed on whether social media marketing can deliver results: 50.4% say social media will generate quantifiable results this year (vs. 49.4% last year); however, another 37.6% are uncertain and 12.0% say social media cannot deliver quantifiable results this year.

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Looking for real, hard data that can help you match social media tools and tactics to your marketing goals? The State of Social Media Marketing, a 240-page original research report from MarketingProfs, gives you the inside scoop on how 5,140 marketing pros are using social media to create winning campaigns, measure ROI, and reach audiences in new and exciting ways.

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Online Audience Analytics

Marketers are focused on quantifying ROI this year: 72.8% say they now use audience measurement and analytics to assess the success of their digital campaigns, while just 21.6% do not.

Over one-half (54.4%) of marketers say they have optimized campaigns based on audience measurement analytics, while 29.6% have not done so as yet, but plan to in 2010 or beyond.

Most marketers cite clicks (72%), conversions (59.2%), and impressions (58.4%) as the three most important metrics:

Driving Brand Awareness and Revenue with Analytics

Nearly one-half  46.4%) of marketers say accurate online audience measurement is very important for driving increased brand awareness, revenue, and better campaign performance, while another 40.8% say it is somewhat important.

Among the greatest challenges to conducting online audience measurement, marketers cite the following:

• Accuracy: 29.5%
• Lack of ability to take action on data: 23.2%
• Wasted impressions: 9.6%
• Standards: 8.0%

Some 26.4% of marketers say they do not conduct online audience measurement.

About the data: Findings are from the Fourth Annual Marketing and Media Survey, conducted in December 2009 by Datran Media among over 5,000 marketing executives from Fortune 500 brands, top publishers, and leading advertising and media agencies. The survey was conducted in association with the Direct Marketing Association Email Experience Council and other media partners.

Quantifying ROI is still so difficult, but marketers are trying. Surprised that 21.6% do not focus on quantifying ROI of digital campaigns.

Video and Mobile will continue to be huge. Great for BlissTV :)

"In 2010, most marketers (59.8%) are allocating over one-half of overall multichannel advertising to digital." Impressive.