Time spent online up 24.3%

WOW – that is a big number on an already big media:Jay Meattle – Compete Online Nice to know spending is keeping up – see post below:   

Word-of-Mouth Ad Spending Up 35.9%

couple of charts on that here

Word-of-Mouth Ad Spending Up 35.9% – TVWeek – News

Interesting, but most of the WOM spending is on strategy, with much less on advertising (from PQ Media)

TO’B

You talk, they hear on Web

Interesting article from Eric Benderoff at the Chicago Tribune

You talk, they hear on Web

I know that companies are listening, because that is the business we’re in at MotiveQuest.

We gather up blog, forum and newsgroup conversations about a given topic and analyze them to understand the underlying human motivations and drivers, as well as the cultural and competitive dynamic. This is used to help our clients with new product development, brand positioning, marketing & communication and issue management.

One thing for sure. We and our clients are almost always surprised by something. We start with a blank sheet of paper and follow the data (consumer conversations). This often leads to unexpected insight and strategic recommendations because most companies do not understand consumers nearly as well as they think they do. (Neither do we, but we are really good at listening, understanding and insight!)

Here is an example from our food data set. And I can tell you that this order is different from what major soft drink marketers think it is.

Health Topics in Soft-Drink Conversations:

TO’B

Marketing 101: Emotional Attachment

Interesting article today in the WSJ’s Biz Tech blog:

Building an Emotional Attachment to Business Software

Yes, it’s true. Even for business software – if you can make an emotional connection with the user they will like it better. Even your employees. (If you don’t believe it, try changing your sales management software and see what happens.)

TO’B

Target & Drillteam Media Busted!

Just read about this over at Andy Sernovitz’s Blog:

Target & Drillteam Media busted for stealth word of mouth

When I first got started in this business around 5 years ago, I had two concerns. First, that there would not be enough conversations out there. Boy was I wrong on that one!

My second concern was that there was too much spam and too many flame wars out there. That one turned out to be not quite true, but there is a kernel of truth in there.

The kernel of truth is this. Conversations between people (whether online or off) are just that – conversations between people. They are not conversations between people and corporations, or people and brands. They are people to people. Otherwise they are not conversations.

Now this Target/Drillteam initiative (can you call it that?) is evidence of my real concern. In all of our haste to get “into the conversation” with WOM marketing we (industry) are just going to trash it all. If you try to control or spam the conversation as they did, you ruin it for everyone.

It’s as if I’m in line at Potbelly asking my buddy what kind of sandwich to get and an employee dressed like a customer butts in and starts shouting at me to buy the most expensive sandwich. Or a Subway employee starts shouting at me about Subway. Yuck.

Thanks for Andy and WOMMA for taking a leadership position on ethics in social media. We need it.

TO’B

Grilled & Smoked Turkey

OK, in the spirit of Word of Mouth, I am going to share my Thanksgiving Turkey secrets.

This year we had family in for Thanksgiving which made us responsible for dinner. Throwing caution to the wind, I decided to try not one, but two new (to me) methods of cooking the turkeys. (This is a somewhat risky strategy because as you know the turkey is the linchpin of Thankgiving dinner – so I was more than a little nervous.

I grilled one bird on the Weber, and smoked the other on the Traeger.

Drumroll please . . . They came out great. We ate right on time – 4:00 PM and both birds were very well cooked. The smoked turkey on the Traeger took about 5.5 hours. The turkey on the Weber only took 2.75 hours.

I cooked both to an internal temperature (instant read thermometer) of 170 degrees and then took them off. Preparation was simple. Two 15 lb fresh organic turkeys (from the local food co-op) brought to room temperature and then dressed with a simple rub of olive oil, salt, pepper and finely chopped fresh sage, rosemary and thyme. I chopped up some apples, drenched them in the rub and put them in the cavities – just for flavor. (No stuffing.)

For cooking, I ran the Traeger on high for about 45 minutes and then turned it down to medium for about the next 4 hours. I then ran it on high for about 30 minutes to get up to 170 degrees. No turning, no basting, etc. On the Weber, I just followed their instructions from the website. Turkey in the middle with drip pan underneath. About 75 coals in two piles (on either side of the turkey) then add 8 briquettes per side per hour. That was it.

I was pretty surprised that they came out as well as they did – and will definitely do it again. They tasted great and there was no messy turkey pan to clean!

TO’B

Has the Green Worm Turned?

Makes me wonder where the whole environmental movement is going when the NYT starts to make fun of it . . .

Actually, I think it is a healthy thing when it goes from being almost a religion to something we can discuss just like anything else. Now that is mainstream!

Jolly and Green, With an Agenda – New York Times

Cool Is . . .

Take a look at the word associations with the concept of “COOL” in the cellphone category over the last two years. Used to be form factor, now it is what the phone lets me do. I want my online world in my pocket thank you very much:

If you’re marketing to a core concept – better pay attention to what your customers think it means.

More over here: MotiveQuest – Cool Is . . .

Reading through a new post on Rick Clancy’s blog I noticed a particular paragraph:

But the real stars of the show will be a variety of new Sony technologies and products. I can’t divulge them quite yet, but I can tell you that they focus around such themes as “creativity,” “freedom and mobility,” and, of course, all things “high definition.” Be on the lookout for new heights in HD resolution, sleek new forms of video entertainment, a one-of-a-kind personal audio experience, and new wireless “solutions” for in-home entertainment.

Sony’s Long and Winding Road to CES

TO’B

3.5 Billion Conversations a Day

And to think, when we started MotiveQuest almost 5 years ago one of my biggest concerns was that there wouldn’t be enough conversation! Money Quote:

“there are a projected 3.5 billion brand-related conversations per day in the U.S., with nearly 80% of consumers trusting recommendations from family, friends and “influential” persons over all other forms of advertising and marketing“

Center for Media Research – Daily Brief

As I said below -  Who Are These People?  ignore them at your peril.

TO’B

Web Analytics 2.0

I came across this graphic the other day on Connie Bensen’s Blog and wanted to use it.

Well, this led me down a Social Media Measurement meme highway started by Geoff Livingston

and I ended up getting directly in touch with Avinash Kaushik who first presented this at a Google social media conference. Anyway, enough about provenance – here it is:

This is brilliant. What Avinash is pointing out is that if you can listen to the voice of the customer (conversations on web boards, forums, newsgroups, blogs) there is rich insight available about competitive dynamics and human motivations and drivers.

We use this insight to help our clients insert the voice of the customer into their processes including brand positioning, communication, issue management and product development.

Thanks to Avinash for sharing.

TO’B

Rethink Web Analytics: Introducing Web Analytics 2.0 » Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik > Web Analytics Blog