Our World: an avicom weblog
Recent News and Updates • Special Events
Super Bowl Splurge
posted by McKenna @ January 20th, 2009
When I saw this headline after I Googled “Super Bowl Spending,” I thought it was current. Whoops. Looks like 2009 isn’t the first year that the economy has affected the Super Bowl.
Wait, what’s that? The economy might not drag down consumer spending (at least for electronics, which represents a big chunk of spending around the big game) or Super Bowl advertising?
Ad prices are higher than ever — $3 million for a 30-second TV spot. Ticket prices range from $1,800 to over $5K for one ticket.
Huh?!
Maybe all those people who foreclosed on their homes have extra cash to spend on a big-screen TVs or tickets in the nosebleed section of Raymond James Stadium. Maybe advertisers think this is their way of helping to stimulate the economy. At least GM isn’t making its situation worse.
Now I wonder how much more (or less) these advertisers are paying their agencies to create and produce ads for the Cards-Steelers game. Have they chopped creative budgets to adjust for the higher placement prices? If so, will this affect the quality of the ads this year? Enquiring minds want to know.
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Social Media
Is there such a thing as TOO viral?
posted by Jason Fleck @ January 16th, 2009
Well, apparently Carl’s Jr. thinks so. I, however, do not and here’s why.
As the saying goes, “any publicity is good publicity.” Carl’s Jr. released an online coupon to 276 lucky contestants to receive a free burger. This coupon was then passed around online through HUNDREDS of message boards and bargain-hunting websites until Carl’s Jr. had to shut down the promotion from too large a response. Finally the story ended up on Wired.
That’s WIRED.com people - A HUGE News site and magazine that covers technology, culture, business and politics. And it’s Google PR (page rank) is 9/10.
The reason Carl’s Jr. ended the promotion was because they were afraid to run out of burgers. And my response: SO? How many of those coming in with coupons for a free burger purchased a drink and fries? So what if they ended up giving out more free burgers than they had originally intended - even though I’m sure meat is the most expensive product to give away for free…
To capture the amount of exposure they received would have cost them millions in advertising. If they would have ran with the idea, it would have been a great way to introduce new customers to a product they probably wouldn’t have tried before. I mean if the burgers sucked, why would anyone want to copy the coupon?
The problem with their situation is they should have anticipated the ‘viralness’ (see I can make up words) of their offer. Who’s going to want a free burger? Answer: everyone. In the future, they’ll have to tailor their campaigns to fit their goals.
Even though they discontinued the promotion, they still received great exposure. Good for them. Now how is this measured? Did this accidental viral campaign increase their sales or customer count? Only time will tell, but I guarantee it didn’t hurt and those numbers are definitely measurable.
In our current economic climate, this is the kind of advertising businesses need to focus on. Let your customers advertise for you for FREE. Maybe you’re not giving away free burgers, but is there an incentive you can offer to your clients or potential clients? I bet there is.
So what do you think? Is there such a thing as TOO viral?
The social media tools available are cost-effective and a great way to reach out to your audience. Let us empower you to use these tools and hype your brand.
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Recent News and Updates
It’s not you, it’s me
posted by McKenna @ January 15th, 2009
I know, I know – I’ve heard it all before. You have a great service. You’re a fantastic company. You have amazing products. You win awards and influence your industry. You are really nice to work with. You do great things with great people for fantastic results. I know all that.
But it’s not all about You.
It’s all about Me. The consumer, that is.
It’s tempting to tell customers about all of your company’s great assets. After all, you have a great story to tell. But if you want to get people talking about your products and services – and who doesn’t want some positive chatter about them? – you really need to get over yourself.
A few nights ago, I heard a maddening interview with GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz. It’s actually kind of shocking that Lutz’s handlers – or whichever PR people aren’t currently embroiled in crisis control – let this interview happen.
I think it’s fair to say that Lutz still believes it’s all about GM. In fact, it seems fair to say that Lutz also believes it’s all about him and how he can’t fly on the corporate jet anymore. (I’m crying inside for him, too.)
It’s clear that GM is fighting a losing battle right now, and Lutz’s inability to make it about the customer is digging him even deeper.
So what’s the solution to something like this? How does a business like GM change? And how are you going to avoid GM’s fate this year?
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Social Media
Even my mom has a Facebook account
posted by Jason Fleck @ January 14th, 2009
Earlier last week, my mother - who I love dearly - signed up for a Facebook account. I found out - not by a phone call, but through that automated email from Facebook (that we all love…) stating she had added me as a friend.
Being intrigued, but against my better judgment, I accepted her friend request and navigated over to her profile page. She had already added all my other siblings along with her old college roommate she hasn’t talked to in the past thirty years!
Honestly, I was surprised to see her on Facebook, but is it really that strange? Social Media is becoming a larger part of our everyday lives. It’s not just those in their 20s or 30s - the baby boomer generation is becoming more technologically savvy too and it’s time we - as a culture - realize that. They’re starting blogs and hosting podcasts. They’re surfing through the archives at YouTube and submitting their own videos. They’re now interacting together through ways other than a phone call.
These people, just like my mom, are your customers, employees and competitors. They’ve embraced the fact that social media exists and it’s now a part of their daily lives. When are you going to put your commercials in front of these people on YouTube or alert them of a new product or event on Facebook? The answer is now. These tools greatly increase your brands exposure and we can show you how it’s done.
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Social Media
Tweetbacks: The future of blogging
posted by Jason Fleck @ January 13th, 2009
Blogging hasn’t changed much since it’s inception. Someone writes a post then readers comment on that post. Pretty simple. Tiered comments and buttons for social bookmarking have surfaced, but ultimately, blogging has been unchanged for the past ten years - until now.
Yesterday, Dan Zarrella (@danzarrella) released his new WordPress Plugin: TweetSuite. TweetSuite includes a variety of features and widgets (you can click the link above to see the entire list of features) with TweetBacks being the most important.
TweetBacks allows others to tweet or retweet your blog post. When someone does this, their tweet (picture and all) is then added below your post - comment style - and is also accompanied by a retweet this button. TweetSuite is an efficient way to increase exposure to your blog. With Twitter on the rise, TweetSuite will be a must for bloggers in 2009.
Stay tuned. I’ll let you know how I like it once it’s installed!
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Social Media
The Good (Internet) Samaritan
posted by McKenna @ January 12th, 2009
A recent Tweet from a frustrated mother whose 3-year-old wouldn’t sleep got me thinking: How does the Good Samaritan concept apply to the Internet?
This particular Tweeter, who goes by the name Thordora, got the cops called on her. Fortunately, there wasn’t much of a story beyond her Tweet – her daughter was safe and sound in her bed. But the story has sparked renewed interest in other stories like it, especially the sad tale of Abraham Briggs.
This brings up the question of anonymity, right to privacy and all that fun stuff when using the Web. But for many people, those concepts are hoity-toity ideas that have no bearing when a child’s (or anyone’s) life might be on the line.
A lot of people – especially mothers – have taken Thordora to task for writing that Tweet. One blogger on ParentDish said “she got what as coming to her.” She continues:
“There is such a thing as social responsibility over the Internet. People use the web to create a community. As with a real community, those in a virtual simulation care for and are concerned about all the members, even if they’ve never met. They’re also just as vigilant about protecting that community.”
So when do we use social media for the social good? Is that even important? If you had read this Tweet from Thordora, what would you have done?
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Trends
A recession-proof business: The holy grail
posted by McKenna @ January 6th, 2009
Over the holidays, the big topic of discussion was the economy. I come from a long line of entrepreneurs (I am the first person in three generations to not work for myself), and my circle of friends is heavy on the self-employed side. I expected a lot of worry and wringing of hands over cookies and cocktails.
I was wrong.
Most of my friends and family say their deep client base will help them weather this recession. And – surprisingly – many said they are focusing now more than ever on marketing their services to qualified customers.
In fact, one acquaintance said his graphic design firm unfailingly improves during recessions. He’s owned his business for nearly 30 years and has weathered several deep recessions, so I’m pretty sure it’s not a fluke.
He said that when layoffs happen in the marketing departments of his corporate clients, they still need that marketing work completed. The work doesn’t simply disappear. It just gets shuffled around until they find a more economical way to finish it – and sometimes that means calling an outside vendor like my friend’s business.
And there’s always marketing work to be done. Some say that tough economic times are the best times to put the pedal to the marketing metal. Committing yourself to marketing your business successfully – with a strong strategy and targeted goals – in this economy can reap great rewards.
As Yoda says: “There’s no try – only do!”
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AgencyThink
May the foresight be with you
posted by Mad Mags @ January 5th, 2009
Recently, while working on a list of “cool things I want to buy for me,” I happened to find a few Star Wars gems certain to top my lineup.
Of course, after further reading, I realized these beauties are not for sale, and are actually concepts that had been tabled. I know. How was this possible? I wanted to order at least two Han Solo carbonite fridges, and the Tauntaun suit would have served as my go-to first-date outfit certain to weed out the unworthy in seconds.
Anyway, I shared the rejected Star Wars items with a few of my advertising friends, and everyone (Star Wars fans and non-Star Wars fans included) found at least one item they were interested in purchasing. It made all of us wonder just why the items were rejected.
After a group pow-wow, we decided that the reason must have boiled down to one thing - timing. Unlike 1999, when these items were proposed, this year’s holiday season would have embraced these quirky items. I’m relatively certain if the Death Star grill was available last November, someone would have been nicked by a lightsaber in the rush to get one on Black Friday.
The rejected Star Wars items made us all realize that whether we’re talking products or slogans or platforms, it is definitely worth revisiting ideas that didn’t make the cut the first time around. We’ve begun to keep better files and to revisit ideas before we concept, just to make sure one of our seeds hasn’t ripened when we weren’t looking.
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Social Media
Top 5 Must Have Blogging Tools
posted by Jason Fleck @ January 5th, 2009
People ask me all the time what programs or services I use when it comes to blogging. So, here are my top 5 favs (which are in no particular order).
5.) WordPress — When starting a blog, you need to choose a platform that’s customizable enough to meet your needs yet robust enough to stand up to the constant changes of the internet. WordPress works like a charm. Everything from its slew of features to it’s easy-to-use interface makes choosing WordPress a no-brainer. I’ve been using it for the past four years and still love it.
4.) Google Reader — Now that your blog is online, you must start posting content. Starting your own directory of blogs is a great way to start. I read probably close to 100 blogs a day and I find my best inspiration comes from what I read. Reading keeps your brain working at full capacity and always gives you new content to write. Google Reader makes reading your favorite blogs a breeze. No longer do you have to load individual web sites. Just add every RSS feed you want to follow into your Google Reader account and Google takes care of the rest!
3.) ScribeFire — This program allows you to write blog posts without actually logging into your blog site. It runs as a toolbar in your browser and creates a new window within your browser when you venture onto your website. Pretty freakin’ cool if you ask me. The only way to feel its full awesomeness is to try it out. Oh - and as a bonus you can advertise through them or earn a little extra revenue by allowing others to advertise on your blog.
2.) Twitter — Now that you’re posting content on a regular basis — ahem, and you are posting regularly, right? - I’m sure you’re beginning to wonder: - where are your readers? Since your blog is fairly new, you’re probably not receiving a lot of search engine traffic and that large number of page impressions you’ve noticed is probably from either yourself or your close friends. Getting an audience quickly is where Twitter reigns supreme. Start following people on Twitter who have similar interests to you and soon you’ll realize a lot of those people will follow you back. Use Twitter to update your followers on your latest blog posts and if you have memorable content, those followers will retweet your blog post to their followers and so on creating an exponential growth of visitors to your site.
1.) Google Analytics — The tracking service your web host provides is — at best - alright. You can typically get statistics like page impressions and unique visitors, but not much past that. Google Analytics takes statistic tracking where it belongs. It’s by far the best site tracking program I’ve found to date. It tracks all your visitors, breaks them down into geographic locations, tells you what time of day they visited, which pages were visited, where they came from, if their visit resulted in a conversion, and so on. The list continues and the best part of this service is that it’s FREE.
Are there any others that should of made the list or do you disagree with any of my choices? Let me know by commenting below.
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Online Marketing • Social Media
Web 3.0?
posted by Jason Fleck @ December 29th, 2008
Read Write Web (RWW) posted earlier today that ZigTag (a somewhat intelligent social bookmarking service) is now live to the public. ZigTag knows the meanings behind your tags. In other words, if you tag something NY it knows it’s the same as New York, New_York, or New+York.
For those of you just catching up, a tag is a word or group of words that allows you to quickly identify content. Tags are now a part of Web 2.0 which allows users to quickly siphon through a large amount of information to find exactly what he or she is looking for.
Towards the end of their article, RWW posed the question:
Is this really Web 3.0?
I don’t think so. Web 3.0 is supposed to be all about the intelligent web. Dictionary.com defines intelligence as:
A capacity for learning, reasoning, understanding, and similar forms of mental activity; aptitude in grasping truths, relationships, facts, meanings, etc.
RWW suggested that Web 3.0 could quite possibly be a system that knows what we would tag something and would actually tag it for us. As soon people start talking about computers thinking on their own, it makes me think of “The Terminator” and artificial intelligence. We’re definitely not there yet. But it gets me thinking - why does there need to be such a drastic change from Web 2.0 to 3.0? Will the next shift be a quantum leap or a glacial shift? Will it be Terminator, or self identifying tags?
Web 2.0, summed up, was all about social media. While some of the greatest minds online are saying Web 2.0 has already come and gone, the larger question is: are we looking at Web 3.0 or are we in some later release of Web 2.0 - say Web 2.200.1?
Whatever the case may be, in the near future we’ll see social media continue to be integrated within all aspects of our online lives in everything from searching to buying. And, whenever it does come, social media will still be the foundation of Web 3.0 - which is why you should be building your online community (ie: like Google) now if you haven’t already.
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