Do You Have a Widget Strategy?

OK, this is a bit of a rant, but this morning I actually heard a consultant say:

“and we helped XXX client develop their widget strategy”

Don’t even get me going on the definition of strategy,  but suffice it to say that unless you are in the business of developing and selling widgets, it is just about impossible to have a widget strategy.

In the context of marketing, widgets might be a tactical element of a campaign, but they could hardly be strategy.

TO’B

Consumer Centric Understanding

Great post by Gary Bembridge over at Unleashed on Marketing – reviews a presentation by Simon Thompson who is the marketing head for lastminute.com.

One of the key points is that the “new world” of marketing requires a customer centric understanding.  Customers will get information and make purchase decisions the way they want – and if you don’t understand it – you will be left out of the loop.  Marketers need to understand the underlying customer motivations, drivers and language if they hope to connect with them.

lastminute.com: what one marketer learnt about marketing by moving there!

What is Consumer Generated Media – CGM?

CGM is a term being used in the social media analysis/brand monitoring industry to include everything put on the internet by consumers. I have to disagree. There is consumer generated media on the internet – like this story below, and YouTube videos, and Blogs and pictures.

Yes, there is a whole lot of CGM out there (even I have some) but everything out there is not CGM. When mining consumer conversations for our work, most of the material comes from forums and newsgroups. I do not consider this consumer generated media. I consider them online conversations – and calling these conversations media is wrong.

This matters because the real value of these online conversations (for observers) is to develop a deeper understanding of consumer motivations, behavior and drivers. It isn’t media, it is people talking to teach other – enabled by the web.

Heinz Can’t Get Enough Consumer-Generated Ketchup Ads – 09/17/2007

ROI needs drive agency deals ??????

Not to be a cynic here, but is this something new?

“As clients increasingly demand proof of ROI on their marketing investments, agencies are scrambling to beef up services in search marketing, direct and customer relationship management. Many are meeting this need by buying specialist shops.”

Clients ROI needs drive agency deals :: BtoB Magazine

Seems to me that there is a land rush for digital agencies because that is were all the GROWTH in the advertising business will be concentrated over the next 10 years.  If you are one of the big six and underrepresented in digital – you will definitely lag your peers.

Peers Listen When Online Gamers Talk Cars

No surprise here.  Online communities are complex social organizations and participants form real connections.   If I am a participant in a community of people I trust – then I might be happy to ask them for recommendations outside of our original communal purpose.  (I will ask my gaming buddies – online – about cars.)

I have seen this MANY times in the newsgroups and forums I participate in.

“Ziff Davis and market research firm ConStat commissioned Surveynetwork.com to interview over 660 respondents age 18+ in mid-July–with over half (53%) of the answers coming from the 18-34 demographic. Just over a third (34%) of the gamers said they gave advice about which dealership to buy a car from, as well as how much to pay–and some 64% said they preferred to buy models that they or someone they know had owned and liked.”

MediaPost Publications – Study: Peers Listen When Online Gamers Talk Cars – 09/10/2007

YouTube Phenom Marie Digby – WOM Success or Burning Bridges

She’s not the first one, and certainly won’t be the last, but how does this successful manipulation of the whole WOM chain of communication feel to those who believed in her?  Seems like a few successes like this one quickly use up the core value of WOM (honesty) pretty quickly.  Burning  Bridges anyone?

Download This: YouTube Phenom Has a Big Secret – WSJ.com

“Ms. Digby’s simple, homemade music videos of her performing popular songs have been viewed more than 2.3 million times on YouTube. Her acoustic-guitar rendition of the R&B hit “Umbrella” has been featured on MTV’s program “The Hills” and is played regularly on radio stations in Los Angeles, Sacramento and Portland, Ore. Capping the frenzy, a press release last week from Walt Disney Co.’s Hollywood Records label declared: “Breakthrough YouTube Phenomenon Marié Digby Signs With Hollywood Records.”

What the release failed to mention is that Hollywood Records signed Ms. Digby in 2005, 18 months before she became a YouTube phenomenon. Hollywood Records helped devise her Internet strategy, consulted with her on the type of songs she chose to post, and distributed a high-quality studio recording of “Umbrella” to iTunes and radio stations.”