Artists.MTV: Smart or Just More Confusion?

It feels a little bit like deja vu.

This month Viacom's MTV announced a "MySpace"-like initiative called Artists.MTV.  The basic idea is to provide music artists a centralized place to access MTV's 60 million+ monthly visitors.  Aritsts.MTV will allow musicians to "claim" their sites and upload music, videos, photos, and link their "pages" with social-media accounts and other online shopping carts. "Pages" will go public at MTV's Video Music Awards this fall.

We've seen this before.  MySpace's music initiative was a mildly successful attempt at the same "thing."  Digital downloads have driven the price of music down to very affordable levels for consumers.   Once there were only a few places for consumers to get their media.  Now the problem is that there are almost too many places to get your music, music videos, and self-promote.  Add the juggernaut of iTunes into the picture, which is estimated to have up to 70% of digital music sales market share, and one has to wonder if anyone can change consumer's buying and mind-share habits.  At first glance, Artist.MTV could just be adding to the current marketplace confusion outside of the iTunes ecosystem.  But if you take another look at it, it very well could be extremely smart.

One of the biggest pet peeves of many artists is that they don't get a large enough cut of music sales revenue.  Over the last decade, declining CD sales revenue, piracy and a paradigm shift to digital music sales have steadily lowered the revenue artists receive from their music. Lower concert-ticket sales have also lowered the income artists receive each year.  According to Shannon Connolly, VP of digital-music strategy at MTV Music Group, "We felt like the world needed a place that's comprehensive and thorough, and that allows artists to connect with fans at scale...The goal is to help artists get paid." Summarizing their efforts, Ms. Connolly commented that ..."the goal here is to give artists the opportunity to monetize what they do...artists can get heard, get promoted and get paid."

What?  They want the artists to get paid?

It may be a basic play off of greed, but quite frankly, it may be enough to make a difference.  The Artists.MTV initiative (which includes the  VH1 and CMT brands) will share sales revenue with artists and ANY ad revenue generated on the pages through an agreement with Topspin Media.  This also gives artists the ability to receive the majority of revenue from sales of music, tickets and merchandise.  An increased share of sales may be the "ticket" to show iTunes, and other record companies, some real competition.

Digital sales, the digital marketplace, self-selling and self distribution are all meant to increase the income of the actual creators and producers.  Artist.MTV may actually be more than lip-service.  It may actually be the real deal.  Only time, and MTV's 60 million monthly visitors, and a significant marketing campaign, will be what tells us if anything can crack the thick shell of the iTunes ecosystem and the traditional record companies distribution network.

Read More

Data: Knowing How Your Customers Use Media

I can't say this enough, so I will say it again:  It's all about Data.

Another illustration: today the Pew Research Center released the results of a recent survey, stating that less than 10 percent of people are using social media for up-to-date news.  So what does this mean?

I think we can gleam a few points:

1) This shows that your customers are probably using Facebook and Twitter for other types of information.  Social media is a losing proposition and a waste of resources if it isn't used properly.  Know where your customers are looking before releasing any type of news.

2) Press releases and other types of media announcements should not be on social media as a primary method of dissemination.  Social media should be a part of the whole information release strategy.  As with any properly constructed strategic marketing, a variety of communication methods should be used.  Social media may be cheaper to use, but it's going to cost you real dollars through lost sales if you're not getting information out via the proper channels.

3) Social media's value is in it's ability to give marketer's a more direct, personal connection with their customers.  Press releases and product information don't build customer equity.  Personal, meaningful connections with products and brands build customer equity.  Social media gives us one of the best avenues ever to build equity with our customers.

As always, armed with the right data, our jobs as marketers becomes much easier.  Don't waste your company's time or money.  Arm yourself with the right data so you can use the tools available in the most effective manner.

Read More

Media Consumption In A Digital Age: It's One Big Experiment

In the past, there was a silver screen, a few broadcasters, and a lot of paper.  If you wanted to watch something, you sat in front of someone's television or a theater screen.  If you wanted to listen to music, it was on a stereo - home or portable.  If you wanted to read something, or take something with you, it was most likely printed on paper.  You were in your home, in a movie theater, picked up the mail, or you went to a store to purchase your entertainment.

A few large companies controlled the publishing and availability of the media you chose to consume.  Prices were pretty much the same everywhere you went.  Competition was non-existent.  That's the way it was.  Then this "thing" called the personal computer appeared.  Then the internet appeared.  Everything changed, and it still is.

Last year Time, Inc. hoped to take advantage of it's multiple consumption and distribution publishing model. Time Inc. was attempting to bundle "digital" media with a traditional print subscription under an "All Access" strategy - which would have eliminated print-only subscriptions in the process - and would have allowed Sports Illustrated to raise its price to $48 from $39. Sports Illustrated reversed course in January.  Said Steve Sachs, Executive VP of Consumer Marketing and Sales, "That price, we found, was higher than the market commanded.  Monica Ray, the Executive Vice President of Conde Nast, commented, "The whole industry has the opportunity to redefine what a subscription is."

What kind of subscriptions do consumers want?  Is a "subscription" model appropriate anymore?  How do I find out?  The only way you can find out is by collecting data.  Without data, you're making decisions in the dark, you are walking around blind.  Since the way consumers consume media is changing, we need to be collecting data and study how our customers are using our media products.  If we don't adapt, if we aren't willing to constantly evolve our model of media delivery, we will forever be stuck in our traditions, and more media institutions will perish.

There are no longer a few ways to consume media.  Now there are many publishers, many screens, and the vast majority of them are portable.  Oh ... there still is some paper too.  Because traditional publishing methods have changed drastically from decades of old, traditional media publishers are walking around blindfolded, feeling their way around a media consumption environment that they no longer control.  Today publishing in a digitally dominated ecosystem has become one big experiment, and understanding what will work for you is all about knowing your customer ... and that requires data.

Read More

Using Online Communities to Create Brand Awareness - Part 2

This is Part 2 of my thoughts on Using Online Communities to Build Brand Awareness.  Last time I discussed how online communities help you build credibility and general awareness about your products and brand.  This time I want to discuss how online communities help you create SEO-aware content, and how they can help you build customer satisfaction.

Many marketing directors don't realize that as you are building awareness through your community posts, you are also creating SEO-aware content.  All posts and comments are index-able.  Search engines such as Google are able to look through and "store" your posts from an online community.  Because these posts are on a website other than your own, Google gives this content more weight, since it considers content about you on other websites more relevant.  As a result, your brand name and product information move up in ranking within relevant search results. 

Google also looks for links back to your website.  Make sure to put the address of your website in your signature.  This insures that your website's address is always displayed with every post, and that it is indexed as many times as possible when a search engine crawls the online community's site.

As you post more searchable content, it becomes easier for existing customers to find information that may help them solve problems.  Online communities are a great way to get involved in the first steps of basic customer service issues.  You can use the posts of others as an opportunity to acknowledge issues with your product.  You can also show your willingness via the public domain to serve the customer and create a positive brand experience.  However, remember that people tend to be more vocal on the internet, because it's a more anonymous experience.  You must always write posts that are calm, clear, and emotion free.  Use positive language, but never "beat around the bush" when a clear acknowledgement of a problem is best.

Remember that today being a part of online communities is necessary when marketing digitally, because it gives you a direct opportunity to build credibility, build awareness, create SEO-aware content, and address customer service issues.

Read More

Using Online Communities To Create Brand Awareness - Part 1

We should always endeavor to connect with our customers.  Isn't that one of the great goals and mysteries of marketing and branding?  What is the best way to connect with our customers?  How should we convince them to purchase our products?  How can we spend AS LITTLE MONEY as possible doing this and still make a profit?

It seems that many small businesses, and even large ones, still have not discovered the online community "gold mine".  Being a part of online communities is necessary, because it gives you a direct opportunity to build credibility, build awareness, create SEO-aware content, and address customer service issues.

Online communities give you a direct way to connect with consumers and build credibility.  Online communities allow you to present yourself as a subject manner expert.  By answering consumer's questions and helping them solve their problems in a friendly, non-pressured manner, you present yourself as a credible and knowledgeable, even though you are somewhat biased towards your product as a solution.  With a good attitude, and a friendly, clear writing style, you can present your product and brand as the wise solution to their needs.

As you are helping community members meet their needs, you are constantly building awareness.  Your participation helps to show others their potential need for your product.  Also, your participation helps to inform others of the existence of your product who may not have known about you.  Online communities also provide you with a great opportunity to receive feedback about your product.  If you are an advertiser in that community, you can also build awareness by posting news releases about new models and product updates.

Next time we will discuss using online communities to create more SEO-aware content and help create positive brand experiences via customer service.

Read More

What Are You Doing To Create Awareness Today?

Did you do anything to market yourself today other than think about it?

Marketing doesn't happen by itself.  You have to do it.

People don't find out about you on their own.  They won't bring up Google and search for you unless they have a reason to do so.

So what are you doing today to create awareness?

If you need a jump start, here are some ideas that might be relevant to your customers:

1. Offer A Discount
Sometimes the easiest way to drive traffic to your website, or to retailer locations, is to offer a discount or a coupon.  However, remember that spending money can be an incredibly emotional thing.  The right price, or discount, can drive a person to spend money "easily" without any thought.  5%-10% off might not be the ticket.  Don't be afraid to explore 20%, even 30-40% off.  If you're concerned about your margins, make it a limited or exclusive offer to a select group of customers.  Once they are in the door, they tend to buy more.

2. Hold A Product Demo Event
People love to research products, and price-shop online.  But at the end of the day, a consumer that touches the product, tries it, and likes it, usually ends up buying it.  Consider putting on a demo event in a location that contains your primary customer demographic.

3. Ask For Product Testimonials Via Social Media
Social media makes it very easy to connect with your customers.  It can be a customer service haven and nightmare.  One of my favorite uses of social media is testimonials.  It's as easy as this:  Ask users of your product to submit positive experiences of your product: video is preferred, text and pictures are great as well.  Incentives are a must.  Offer discounts off of new product, or free accessories to those consumers whose testimonial you choose to post.  Post one a week for 13 weeks - the length of a typical television or radio ad buy.

4. Participate In Online Communities
This fourth option can take the most work, but it can reap some of the largest gains for building your brand's credibility.  It's as simple as joining relevant forums and blogs.  Put your name and company in your signature.  Make it clear who you are.  Offer advice and sensible solutions.  However, you cannot blatantly advertise your product in your posts.  It's best to offer sound advice that may or may not include any of your specific products.  Over time you will see a few benefits:
- Community members will see you as an expert
- Community members will begin to explore your website and your product
- All of your posts will be indexed by search engines (like Google) and it will increase the amount of searchable, relevant content about you online.

It's a good idea to put one of your best PR reps or customer service representatives in charge of online community participation.  Your Social Media Director is a great fit as well.  You can take this a step further by becoming an advertiser in that online community.  This allows you to blatantly post about your product and any specials you may be offering.

These four things are simple, yet highly effective ways to increase Brand Awareness for little cost other than labor and time.  If appropriate, and if used in a focused manner, they are a great way to connect with current and future customers, and can provide a great ROI for a little marketing budget expenditure.

Read More

Targeting Ads Via Smart TV's Will Alienate Consumers

Let me say that I love technology.  I love gadgets.  I wish I had the money to buy more gadgets and try them out.  I love iPads, and iPods, and TV's and game consoles.  I have a special affinity for the good old fashioned television.  I'm a picture snob.  The idea of a "smart tv" with services such as Hulu and Netflix built in are interesting to me.  I've also come to accept the fact that "free" TV comes at a cost: the advertisement. 

I love the "ad".  It's a great way to reach a targeted audience.  It's an effective marketing and branding tool when used appropriately.  But allowing manufacturers to create their own ad networks and present ads via "smart tv's" is just a really fast way to alienate both the buyers of TV's and the viewers of media content.

At CES on January 9th, Samsung announced that it would enable the delivery of ads to a TV user's "home screen", even in 3-D on so-equipped models.  In November 2011, LG made a similar announcement.  This isn't a new model.  TIVO has delivered ads in it's DVR software, and many MSO's such as Cox and Time Warner display ads or poll-type questions via set top box software as well.

As it stands now, the current model is mostly passive.  A user may see an ad on a part of a screen they are on.  It is not part of the content they are about to consume, and it is not a road block that they must endure before viewing content, like the Hulu model for free users.  However, this could easily turn into a model where a television user, through the TV's operating system software, is forced to view an ad before tuning a live channel or opening an "app".  This absolutely cannot happen.  If after spending hundreds, if not thousands of dollars on a television, I must be forced to view an ad to do anything on my set, you will immediately alienate me as a customer, and the ad sponsor may also lose brand credibility with me.  The potential consumer backlash could be considerable.

Television is a passive form of entertainment.  It should never be active.  It should never be difficult for a consumer to get to the content they want to consume.  If there are too many road blocks (ads), then they will give up and not view the content.  This could keep eye balls off of sets, and off of normal broadcast and cable content, reducing ratings and potentially lowering the inherent value of  advertisement delivery via television.

This development does nothing but attempt to give TV's manufacturers a slice of the ad revenue pie, and in the process hurt the advertising industry as a whole.

Read More

Be Purposeful Or Else You Will Be Ignored

On Tuesday, Facebook announced that it would begin adding "Sponsored Story" ads to users' news feeds in January.  This will not happen in mobile apps yet.  This announcement is another step in Facebook's plan to monetize it's business and make it a viable advertising platform. 

If you're an advertiser, this gives you an easier way to get in front of the eyeballs of millions of Facebook users.  If you're Facebook, you just earned yourself some more ad dollars and paid a few more bills.  If you're a Facebook user, you may have another reason to ignore Facebook today.  And that's the caution to throw into the wind:  "Sponsored Stories", if overused, will quickly be ignored, and will have little to no value for any advertiser.  In fact, if Facebook isn't careful, and if you aren't as a media buyer, "Sponsored Stories" could be a huge flop.

Remember that "reach" basically is the number of individuals you want to expose your message to through any type of media scheduled over a given period of time.  For focused groups of audiences, Social Media and other online advertising provide great reach.  However, frequency is where things can go wrong.  When you're visiting a website, such as a news outlet, you expect to see ads.  You're voluntarily allowing yourself to be exposed to them.  Even if advertisements appear, we tolerate them, because we're simply using the website to consume information in an impersonal matter.

Social Media isn't impersonal, it's personal.  Frequency can quickly die off with Social Media, because when ads invade our personal "space" online, we change our usage patterns; quickly visiting a services like Facebook less, or even stopping altogether.  Once that happens, you've lost that consumer, potentially alienating them from your brand (as an advertiser), and possibly losing another revenue generating user. 

That's the slippery slope.  As an advertiser, you need to make sure not to abuse Social Media advertising.  It's users may be more receptive to your messages, but if you over "communicate" to them, too frequently, and without specific value or purpose in your message, they will quickly ignore you.  Once they ignore you, your Brand Awareness measures and credibility may start to decline as well.

Facebook needs to quickly decide how much advertising they really want to force their users to view.  If they continue to add more "ads" to people's feeds, Facebook may quickly lose users, and one of the "pot of golds" of internet advertising may cease to be.

Read More

Saying Apple Won The Mobile Flash War Is Misleading

Remember the headlines in November?  Ones like those in this CNET article saying Apple won the mobile Flash war.  Sources at Adobe were quoted as saying that "We will no longer adapt Flash Player for mobile devices to new browser, OS version or device configurations." (source CNET UK).  So Steve Jobs won.  Flash really is unnecessary on mobile devices.  Actually, it is very necessary.

Adobe made the right move, enabling a successful development platform (Actionscript) to exist in an "app" consumer model within the mobile space via Adobe AIR.  Let's remember what Flash is: a development environment for delivering rich, interactive content to users.  This has traditionally been done via the Flash plugin, allowing web browsers to decode and display this content. However desktop and laptop PC's have more CPU horsepower and screen real estate available for processing Flash content and Actionscript code.  Mobile devices, with their smaller screens, and slower processors, are not ideal vehicles for delivering Flash-based content.

Adobe, FINALLY, recognized this.

So Adobe took a step back, surveyed the situation, and realized what they have: a viable, established development platform.  This development platform not only delivers games and entertainment, but it enables advertisers to create dynamic ads and apps, allowing them to connect with consumers in new ways that traditional advertising does not allow.

That's why the mobile play is so important.  Traditional advertising methods don't work in a mobile environment.  In February of this year, Comscore reported smartphone usage was up 60% year over year (Business Insider).  If you want to get your costumer's attention, it's no longer via a television or a regular PC screen.  In order to win mind share, you have to get consumers in their pockets, so that they will open up their pocketbooks.

Flash/Actionsctipt development via Adobe AIR packaging makes sense. It allows Adobe to continue to sell software.  It allows Adobe to stay relevant with developers. It allows Adobe to be a key player in the mobile advertising realm.  It just makes sense.

Read More

It's about the content, not the algorithm

SEO. Search Engine Optimization.  For the past few years, no other term (other than Social Media) has owned the mindshare of marketers and business owners when it comes to the web.  It's almost a foregone assumption: if I build a website, I must perform SEO.  If I own a website, I must perform SEO.

The next big assumption is that performing SEO means either hiring an expensive "SEO Company", or getting a "SEO For Dummies" book and doing it yourself.  What exactly are you doing when you are "SEO'ing"?  Altering "alt" tags, meta data, headers, tagging images, keyword selection, link-backs...it's almost as mind-boggling as trying to guess how many letters there are in a can of alphabet soup.  Why are we putting ourselves through this insanity?  It's because we desparately want to be at the top of Google's listings.  We want to meet, beat, and even fool Google's algorithm at it's own game. 

It's time to stop the insanity.  Sure, having as much of your content indexable as possible is worthwhile.  Sure, you want to have good keyword selection and contextual page titles.  But lets get one thing clear.  No matter the algorithm, if you don't have relevant content, and others don't think you're content is relevant, Google isn't going to care either.

Google cares the most about relevant content.  If your content is actually about what you claim your website or webpage is addressing, then your content is relevant, or contextual.  If you title your page "Dogs", but you present information about cats, then it is not relevant.  Google and it's genius engineers have figured out how to "crawl" your website, examine your content, and rate it's relevancy.  It grades everything on your page that it can search, or "index.

Not only must your content be relevant, but it must be updated frequently.  Google will index your site on a set schedule once it "finds" you for the first time.  How often you update your content, or create new content, will determine how often Google "decides" to visit your site.  If you create a site, and never update it, then Google will eventually "decide" to visit your site more infrequently, and as a result, it will lower you in relevant search results.  But if you continually update your site, and continue to create relevant content, Google will raise you in it's search results.  Old and stale = forgotten and unimportant.  Fresh and exciting = relevant and important.

Even if you write relevant content, and keep it fresh, unless others also think it is relevant, then Google will not raise you up the search ranking results.  How do others make you relevant?  Link backs.  The more people, in contextual situations, link back to you, then your content is relevant.  What is a contextual situation?  Link farms are NOT contextual situations.  In fact, Google has clamped down on this practice; recently altering its algorithms to remove link farms from the equation.  So many people were "playing" the system with link farms and dummy websites that Google re-worked it's code to severely discount the influence of link farms and dummy websites.

What Google did was increase the relevancy of a website, with content relevant to yours, linking back to you.  For example, a blog post talking about dog sweaters, mentioning your comments about them, and linking back to your site, is relevant.  A series of forum posts on a public community forum site about dog sweaters, with links back to you in those posts, are relevant.  A series of social media posts on Facebook or Twitter, mentioning content about dog sweaters and linking back to your site, are relevant.

Google cares about content that others care about, and if they care about you, then Google cares about you.  So go ahead and optimize those page headers.  Make your site's content match your keywords.  Make as much of your website able to be indexed as possible.  But if your content isn't relevant, and if others don't care about your content, then Google won't either.

Read More

Another Ad Network = More Fragmentation

On Wednesday Yahoo released it's "Living Ad", interactive video ad format for advertisers.  This new ad format works within an ad network, that is centered around Yahoo's Livestand publication app.  Livestand, along with it's ad network, enters an already saturated ad "market" occupied by the likes of Flipboard, Zite, AOL's Editions, and Pulse.  Yahoo is pushing advertisting packages to buyers, some of which are said to run upwards of $500,000.

According to Yahoo, Livestand features a magazine-style layout.  It will launch with some content from third-party publications.  Those publishers will share their ad revenue with Yahoo.  The details of these revenue sharing arrangements are not yet known. These publishers can also re-sell ad packages on the plarform.  I can only deduce that Yahoo get's a cut of that revenue as well. Diane McGarvey at Scientific American, which is offering some content on the Livestand, states Yahoo will keep about 70 percent of revenue on ads sold to appear inline with Scientific American content.
Living Ad, along with Livestand, is one of many initiatives to attempting to make Yahoo a relevant player in mobile advertising.  Mobile advertising is projected to net around $1 billion this year in the U.S. and up to $1.2 billion in 2012, according to eMarketer. Yahoo is positioning itself to receive as large a portion of this pie of revenue as possible.

The mobile ad space is already over-saturated.  Frankly, none of the ad formats and networks bring anything new to the table.  Nothing currently compells a consumer to do anything after viewing these ads compared with any other form of advertising medium.  We don't need another ad network.  We don't need another "method" to get an ad to a consumer.  What we need is a new type of ad, a new way to interact with a product, that might actually compel a consumer to buy.

Advertisers, and content networks, need to bring new ideas to the table.  The internet and mobile phone networks bring whole new possibilities to advertising via interactive ads.  An interactive ad would allow a consumer to configure products, explore them, walk around them, try a focused "demo" of it.  After they have played with it, or configured it to their hearts content, they could be connected with a vendor to purchase that product within a few clicks.  This gives the consumer a quick way to satisfy their emotional desire to buy the product.

However, most online ads don't do anything other than present a picture, an animation, a call to action phrase, and link to a normal website.  There's no point to showing a traditional ad online or on a smart phone if there's nothing new about it's experience.  None.

Yahoo's Living Ad is trying to do this.  However, most advertisers don't seem to know how to create an ad "experience" that really compels consumer interest.  We need to stop telling

If advertisting is going to survive, and make money, the "ad" as we know it needs to evolve along with the technology available to deliver it.  With the growing popularity of mobile devices that are connected to mobile data networks, there is a new opportunity to truly try something new.  Who is going to lead the way?

Read More

Blogging Effectively

Sage Lewis at the SageRock Digital Marketing Blog wrote that people don't blog as much as they use other social media because, "I think it’s because they see blogging as a big thing." Translation: Blogging is hard.  Blogging is not "hard".  People don't blog, because they are unsure what to do with it.  They don't know how to use it effectively.

Like any use of media, blogging starts with a plan.  Planning helps you set goals, build discipline, and write with purpose.

Goals help you have a purpose.  Without goals, you're blog, or any other type of marketing, is ineffective.  Goals help you focus.  All of your posts should lead towards one common goal, one common claim or idea.  For example, what if you created the most comfortable seat cushion in the world?  What if your goal was to sell one million by the end of the year?  Then all of your posts should be focused on convincing someone of the virtues of properly padded buttocks...which can be achieved with your amazing seat cushion.  Your posts could feature customer stories, or the results of studies about padded versus un-padded seats.  Each post focuses on one reason that someone should buy your seat cushion, which helps you reach one million unit sales.

Regular blogging also helps you develop the discipline you need to reach your goals.  Without discipline, it's impossible to reach a long term goal. Jim Whittaker said, "You can never conquer the mountain.  You can only conquer yourself."  The mountain is the sales goal.  Climbing the mountain means defeating the army of doubt, laziness, and busyness.  Doubt tells you that you will never sell enough of your product, and that no one will read your blog.  Laziness prevents you from spending the time to plan what you are going to write, when you are going to write it, writing it, and editing it.  Busyness lets you make excuses, allowing life's events to constantly get in the way of your online marketing plan.  

Setting goals and practicing discipline with your blogging frees you up to write with a purpose.  If you're not writing with a purpose, your blog becomes a set of random, rambling posts. Start by creating a list of all of the things you want to say that relate to your main goal.  Next, create a short outline for each item on your list.  Spend time each week developing and writing about each item on your list.  Eventually it will become easy, and you will develop a weekly writing routine.  Another benefit to this weekly writing plan is that it will build up content on your blog over time.  That content can be indexed by search engines such as Google.  Eventually you will have a large mass of indexed, searchable content.  Google also grades your blog higher if you're posting relevant content more frequently.  A stale, rarely updated blog will almost never appear on Google search results.  If you're also participating in online forums and other online communities, make sure you are linking back to your blog in your signature.  This helps build a "web" of links going back to your blog, and over time it can improve your search rankings, since Google gives your site a higher ranking when others link to you.

Create a plan, set a goal, practice discipline, and write with a purpose.  You just might find that the skills you develop writing a blog will end up permeating other parts of your life as well.

Read More