Perspectives on social media and branding as they find their footing in context

Webisode “Infotainment”: Can it Boost Your (B2B) Brand Profitability?

21 Thursday Aug 2014

Posted by French On Brand in Alignment, Branding, Social Media and Branding

Tags

brand, brand marketing, brand metrics, brand positioning, branding, branding ROI, marketing strategy, positioning, social media, track ROI, webisode, what is brand strategy?

A creatively relevant story about people’s lives can lead to stronger brand relationships…even in B2B.

Over the past decade, content marketing has become the staple best practice for strengthening brand relationships. Blogs (like this one), white paper marketing, book authorship, branded documentaries, and one of the most intriguing and creative forms—branded webisodes—provide today’s marketer with an expanded palette of options to deepen and broaden customer relationships. The use of Webisodes—part of a trend called branded entertainment—is growing because marketers are compelled to find new methods to reach consumers in an era when traditional media are losing personal engagement time to the Internet. Webisode formats can range from a previews/trailers; a promotional series, part of a collection of shorts, or conversely, segments of a long form piece such as a TV series.

In any of the above formats, effective webisodes:

Use entertainment and video storytelling to engage stakeholders
Television and movies taught us that visual storytelling is the “killer app” for engagement. Done well, ironic humor and humanitarian appeal are especially effective approaches.
Emotionalize the brand
Emotion adds dimension more powerful and motivating than even logic to any relationship.
Relate to issues first
Focusing on issues or cause (social, life stage, cultural, moral, political, or other lightning rods) tap into people’s mind at a visceral level in contrast to sales approaches that trigger emotional barriers.
Promote buying v selling
When people “buy in” to a cause or an issue, selling isn’t needed to make a transaction.

Historic analogies

As my mom used to say, “Everything’s different but nothing has changed.” Blogs are really just reincarnations of the company newsletter with one big difference: WordPress and other digital blogging tools make it easier for anyone with a computer to be a publisher. White papers are still one of the best tools for thought leadership positioning. The difference here is digital creation and access. And webisodes are very much like early radio and TV serials, sponsored, owned, and produced by advertisers and their agencies instead of by producers and networks. The difference is the medium: broadcast versus the internet, the latter providing some game-changing advantages.

Media trending toward web video

It’s no longer news that web video is taking a bite out of TV viewership. Nielsen’s (television audience research) most recent study indicates that viewing by 18-24-year-olds dropped by a little more than 4-and-a-half hours per week. ^{http://bit.ly/1p7nVvc} That’s equivalent to roughly 40 minutes per day.

At the same time, YouTube now reports that:

YouTube reaches more US adults ages 18-34 than any single cable network
More than 1 billion unique users visit YouTube each month
Over 6 billion hours of video are watched each month on YouTube—that’s almost an hour for every person on Earth
100 hours of video are uploaded to YouTube every minute
YouTube is localized in 61 countries and across 61 languages

My purpose in citing these stats isn’t to diminish TV advertising. It’s still the 800-pound gorilla to beat. But rather, my point is to emphasize that webisode marketing done right—with focused objectives, cogent strategies, and the right metrics attached—can now create a serious competitive advantage with clear ROI. For many brands that either can’t afford TV time or don’t fit into the TV advertising model (such as B2B), webisodes can present a green field of opportunity.

Can webisodes deliver real business results?

Many media historians portray our current period as the “post-broadcast era,” implying that audiences are sharing more of their video consumption with the web and media other than broadcast. Not to say that web entertainment will replace broadcast or cable TV. That would be like doomsters of the 1940’s and ‘50s who presaged TV replacing radio. And though it probably won’t displace TV, web video does contribute to an ever-fragmenting, increasingly complex media landscape in which consumers have so much choice that traditional media-driven marketing it is neither practical nor effective. That’s why content-driven marketing provides a sorely needed solution. It creates valuable, targeted content to repurpose in as many media as possible.

On the flip side, in order to get views, web video needs to be supported with targeted search marketing, SEO techniques, social media, and traditional promotion. This support allows audiences to discover what’s important to them, in a compelling format, on demand—when they have a specific heightened need or interest. Webisodes fit this solution profile like a glove, versus dubiously relevant promotional content force fed as an inline component of entertainment programming (aka TV).

Early webisodes

On October 6, 2006, rapper Sean Combs (aka P. Diddy) debuted DiddyTV, sponsored by Burger King. Today, YouTube shows the first webisode garnering more than 993,000 views and 70,000 subscribers while building a social web brand community for a cultural niche. Not bad for an inexpensive webisode series. However, if you look deeper into the comments and thumbs down click counts, you might see a balanced story.

The following year, Mini Cooper launched Starsky & Hutch/Dukes of Hazzard webisode spoof “Hammer & Coop.” The effort, which centered around a six-episode web series, generated 1.5 million views and consumer interest that eventually translated into 800 vehicle sales (at least that’s the official report). But Mini didn’t just entertain visitors, it also presented a Mini web configuration tool to bring visitors closer to buying. The official report is: “Three hundred seven thousand unique visitors went directly to Hammerandcoop.com and spent an average of six minutes viewing the videos. Another 722,000 connected there through miniusa.com. Of the 722,000, 355,000 of them configured a Mini (by model, engine and extras); 22,000 people saved their configurations; and 2,400 of those sent them to dealers. Min reports that data represented about a 33% conversion rate that translated to about 800 vehicle sales.” ^{http://adage.com/article/madisonvine-case-study/initial-results-mini-s-hammer-coop-effort/116193/}

While I see a couple holes in the metrics strategy (from what I can tell, the 307,000 hammerandcoop.com visitors weren’t directly connected to configuring a car or the resulting sales funnel), this early example of webisode infotainment broke new ground for the medium. Bottom line: Mini Cooper sales were down 4% Q1 2007 YOY. However, US Mini Cooper annual sales hit their highest historic point to date in 2008, at 54,077 units. ^{http://www.goodcarbadcar.net/2011/01/mini-cooper-sales-figures.html} It gives pause for thought.

Webisodes for B2B

What about for business to business brands? Blendtec makes blending technology for home, manufacturing, and foodservice. They launched their webisode series “Will it Blend” (www.willitblend.com) in 2007, featuring its founder, Tom Dickson, in a wacky role as a lab technician attempting to grind up everything from cubic zirconium “diamonds” to iPhones in Blendtec brand blenders. YouTube shows more than 6.7 million views on the “diamond blend” show including more than 16,000 likes and only 2013 thumbs down.

AnotherB2B example is an animated production by Lawson, a provider of software and service solutions in the manufacturing, distribution, maintenance and service sector industries. This webisode provides a good competitive positioning tool, effectively promoting Lawson’s “Simpler is Better” brand. It’s no slouch for such a nichey industrial target at more than 89,000 views. I’d like to see a metrics bridge that connects these views to results in a shift in positioning, revenues, and/or margins.

Business-to-business brands can use content marketing—including webisodes—to exploit market niches with a fresh approach to engaging their customers, limited only by imagination and, of course, budget. Unlike broadcast TV, web presence is free, so the only cost in getting a series on the web is production, which can be managed incrementally with theme, creative development, and production values, which new technology has made dramatically more efficient.

But wait. TV has built-in audiences (that’s what you pay the stations and networks for). With webisodes, you’ll have to generate the audiences yourself (you knew there had to be a catch). This “detail” has been the primary barrier in the success of many web videos.

What’s the right objective for webisodes?

Social media and advertising can get pretty expensive in the quest to promote your webisodes for customer acquisition. So why not start by using them to improve the lifetime value of your current customers? One excellent use for webisodes is cross selling lines to existing customers. Webisodes can provide context (relevant issues and situations that uncover real needs) in dramatic, comedic, or simply interesting ways (how to, etc.). This leads the customer to buy into a larger brand context and a larger solution set. With effective funneling surrounding the webisodes, it’s possible to tightly track ROI on existing or past customers.

A proven ROI formula?

Despite a few days of exhaustive research on the web, I haven’t been able to identify any recent B2B webisode examples. Maybe that’s because there’s not yet a tried and true formula that links webisodes to ROI. GroPartners is now engaged with one of our clients in an effort to do just that. We’ll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, if you have any additional information on webisodes that you’d like to share on my blogpost, please leave a comment (link top of page). I’d love to post it.

LinkedIn Endorsements: Do they help or hurt your reputation?

17 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by French On Brand in Social Media and Branding

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

brand, branding, endorsement, LinkedIn, personal brand, personal branding, recommendation, social media

Do you think LinkedIn’s Endorsement feature is less credible
than real recommendations?

LinkedIn is one of the greatest networking tools in history. By and large, its networking, research, sharing, employment opportunities, security, thought leadership and other features have changed the way the world does business. But how many times have you endorsed someone on LinkedIn for skills you really weren’t familiar with? It’s ok. Most of us have done it (though we might not admit it). But what does that say about the value of the endorsement feature of LinkedIn?

It seems that when you accept an endorsement from anyone, the next time you login you’re greeted (or assaulted, depending on your perspective) by a large endorsement panel featuring profile blocks with the smiling faces of people you know. I’m sure you’ve been through this: You see one of your close business buds in the first group of endorsement blocks and you want to support him or her, so you click the Endorse button. But it doesn’t stop there. The endorsement panel continuously reloads, going through your entire contact network soliciting every possible endorsement for each contact until you just give up and run.

Does it look legit?

How does it look to legitimate employers or prospective business partners and clients when they see one person endorse you for every skill set listed? It can look like a love fest or reciprocal pay-off, but probably not an earned endorsement for highly developed skills, right? I don’t know about you, but I’ve rarely–if ever—tapped all of the skills of any single contact. So how could I legitimately endorse them all? The endorsement generator asks, “Does (fill in the name) know about (fill in the skill)? Even if the answer is yes, there’s a big difference between awareness and expertise.

In my opinion, the most credible endorsement blocks show a bell curve with the most endorsements in core skill areas and fewer in peripheral skills. Theoretically, the graphical layout of the endorsement section could be used as a credibility gauge for each of one’s skill sets. In reality, however, LinkedIn endorsements have turned into a popularity contest, spiraling out of control, diverting the original intent and undermining its own credibility. LinkedIn is classified as social media, but unlike Facebook “likes,” LinkedIn endorsements can build an erroneous profile of an individual that is less likely to be scrutinized in an open forum. Imagine if people were able to comment on the validity of the endorsements!

Credibility isn’t the only thing potentially undermined. Security can be at risk as well. Recently I experienced an incident where a virus caused a former client’s LinkedIn account to endorse my skills every day for two weeks! Creepy.

Remember real recommendations?

Remember the pre-endorsement days of LinkedIn, when there were real recommendations? People had to actually write an original statement of tribute and confidence. It may have been difficult to get people to devote the time and energy to provide recommendations, but that’s what gave them real value. Today’s endorsements are just too easy to click off, cheapening the currency of real, thoughtful recommendations. Why?

They have no QA process
They’re too easy to create and distribute
They’re not discerning
They are “suggested” by LinkedIn rather than “originated” by the contact

Maren Hogan on Recruiter.com wrote a good article on how to use endorsements to your best advantage (http://www.recruiter.com/i/6-ways-to-make-linkedin-endorsements-worthwhile/). She suggests the following ways to create value with LinkedIn endorsements.

Add strengths to your profile
Skip endorsements that don’t speak to your best strengths
Accept the LinkedIn endorsements only from people you know
Endorse selectively
Start using and providing ‘old fashioned’ recommendations

Do you feel LinkedIn’s endorsement tool is credible? Could it actually harm your reputation? Share your comments by clicking the link at the head of this post.

Bridging Strategy and Execution: Content is King

15 Wednesday Feb 2012

Posted by French On Brand in Branding, Messaging, Social Media and Branding

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

brand, brand brand focus, brand positioning, branding, content, content branding, content strategy, marketing branding, marketing strategy, operationalization, positioning

Today, content is king in branding. This is a long post but worth the read, with practical tips you can use today!

Mark Addicks, CMO at General Mills, predicts, “…many marketers will start with content as a way to engage their best customers and grow their business versus advertising.” This powerful statement carries with it some game-changing implications, and signals the realization by Corporate America that brand—the baneful black hole to bean counters everywhere—isn’t some fluffy little eccentricity.

Think about it. If brand is the relationship between two entities (corporations, products, people, etc.), based on focus, distinction and trust, then building that relationship requires more than self-indulgent glorification (aka “brand advertising”). Consumers and end users are more well-informed than ever before and they reward with consumption those who make their lives easier. They are not the lemmings of times past who were really glad they used Dial and wished everybody did. Or who got too wound up after drinking a pot of fully-leaded coffee, so they switched to SANKA and became a better person. No, today, we are a nation of jaded consumers searching for the truth under all that brand advertising.

We digital-age consumers do this with research and social media, mostly. In the epoch BW (before the web), research was hard work, and not often worth the consumer’s time. By contrast, today we can find out in 30 seconds how much a worker building iPads in China earns in a day ($17/day in a single facility employing more than 250,000 workers – one of the best jobs in China, reportedly). So, getting right down to “just the facts, ma’am,” has become the great global kneejerk reaction to seeking the skinny on a product before purchase.

The bottom line for branding? In my opinion, it’s actually good news. While brand advertising as we know it may fade in favor, it will be upstaged by a branded form of content that actually helps people become more productive. Much of this new branded content will be driven by processes such as message mapping.

Propel your brand with content that bridges strategy and execution resulting in transactions

Case in point: I’m shopping for a new boat propeller (the old boat prop looks like it went through a shredder). Most marinas are closed this time of year and I don’t want to travel to get one. But I don’t know what size it is, or any of the other technical stuff I should know before attempting to order one on the web. So, I consult Google for “how to size a boat prop.” The results return all kinds of help from places that sell props. I wasn’t yet searching to buy a prop, just to figure out what specs I need. So I clicked on a paid ad that led me to a landing page whose ad seemed to be aligned with what I wanted to know.

A site named prop.com hosted a very helpful landing page, explaining in readily understandable terms how to determine what size, pitch, and style of prop is needed for various applications. It also showed me how to optimize the boat’s power performance by selecting the right prop. It really seemed these guys knew their stuff.

Even though the page design wasn’t highly professional, the content was pretty well written and exactly what I was searching for. The content quickly built my confidence in the brand, which transferred my trust into a same-session transaction. Here’s why:

The content matched my search query far better than others (promise matched performance), whose links took me directly to transaction pages of their websites without any acknowledgement of my search for propeller info (promise/performance mismatch).
The content was complete yet brief, so I could get on with my transaction. It built an appetite for my transaction without overshooting or losing my interest (didn’t waste my time).
An easy-to-find link at the bottom of the prop.com landing page led me directly to the host brand site transaction page (very convenient access to get my prop now that I knew what to buy).

But just when I thought I’d won the ecommerce lotto (found exactly the information I needed, became educated enough to make a confident online purchase over $100, all in less than eight minutes), the entire process derailed. When I clicked on the link at the bottom of the page, the host-brand site loaded and – OMG – charts chock full of unfamiliar jargon and specifications bullied me into a psychological fetal position. No way could I begin to connect the knowledge they provided on their highly informative landing page with my needs. The result: no sale.

In a nutshell, although their content and search strategy was great and the landing page motivated me to visit their website – ready to spend – they fell woefully short at the point of sale. It was not easy to buy! Where was that helpful brand whose content wooed me to the point of transaction? Lost somewhere in transition, I guess.

Lesson? Content-driven digital presence has the potential to immediately and dramatically close the distance between brand building investments and ROI. That translates into excellence in bridging strategy and execution, the key to survival in this New Age of brand marketing.

So here are some useful tips for planning your brand content-to-transaction strategy:

Use a content-driven landing page with useful info and no selling between your search ad (or organic result) and your transaction site.
Be sure that your search result is relevant to the search term. This builds the first rung of trust.
Offer content that is well-written, brief and to the point, yet complete within the scope of the topic (don’t try this at home – consult a professional, and test it) — again … no selling.
Use Message Mapping to help you keep your content organized, prioritized, and consistently aligned in all communications (click here to find out more about Message Mapping).
Make it easy to buy, by placing a courtesy link to a transaction page that matches the topic of the landing page and makes it as easy as possible for the visitor to buy.

This is the bridge between strategy and execution that will pay off your content posts with a transaction.

How are you turning brand into money using content? Let me know! I love to share examples, good and bad. Post your comments and links here, in frenchonbrand.

Will social media “dumb us down,” or make us smarter?

03 Tuesday Aug 2010

Posted by French On Brand in Social Media and Branding

≈ 1 Comment

In 1990, as a grad student at Roosevelt University, I won the McGraw-Hill Award for a white paper I authored on the disruptive effect of digital publishing (then “Desktop Publishing”) on B2B marketing. At the time, I thought the paper was pretty good and the prize money really came in handy, but over the years, I appreciated more and more the wisdom of the committee that selected it; because the thesis relates to all disruptive technologies in marketing communications – past, present, and future. The last line of the paper stated, “The tools may change, but the craftsmen will remain the same.” Today, does this include social media as well?

In the early 90’s, Macintosh changed the landscape of marketing communications. Typesetters and film houses were dropping like flies and marketing managers were actually quoted as saying to their agencies, “We don’t need you anymore. We have a Mac and a secretary. We’re taking our work in-house.”

In retrospect, it sounds naïve to think that technology can completely replace talent. But look at what’s happening in social media today.

Before the dawn of social media, there was a concentration of publishers and news professionals who found, verified, analyzed, and reported news. It was a craft driven by rigorous training and innate talent, very much like the allied marcom/creative businesses. Millions of consumers trusted the facts, opinions, and analysis of these relatively few elite professionals.

Today, the tables are turned: everyone is a publisher. And the questions loom − who’s gonna read all this stuff, and how much is even worth reading?. Twitter. Blogs. Facebook. MySpace. LinkedIn. And what about all the distractions and loss of personal and professional productivity that result at work, home, and even in the middle of physical conversations?

Too many publishers, not enough readers

Royal Pingdom¹ reports that in 2009, there were 126,000,000 blogs posted on the Internet (as tracked by BlogPulse). Compare that to the world stock of original books published in all of history is estimated to be between 74 million books and 175 million books (you can read how this estimate was made at: http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/research/projects/how-much-info-2003/print.htm#books). Add to the blog population:

20 billion – Number of tweets on Twitter (since March, 2010 alone, 10 billion)
57% – Percentage of Twitter’s user base located in the United States
5.36 million – People following @aplusk (Ashton Kutcher)
5.45 million – People following Brittany Spears on Twitter
488 million – People on Facebook

Will it dumb us down?

With this volume of new, unqualified information being dumped into the Internet every day, what is the fate of the micropublisher and what impact will he/she will have on brand marketing? Will markets fragment into infinitely smaller pieces, giving one-to-one marketing a new definition? Will social media find its niche in customer service and consumer advocacy? Will we swing back closer to the old model in which we’d rather consume less quantity, higher quality information?

At the end of the day, the tools may change, but the craftsmen will most likely remain the same. How might this affect the way you use social media in business? Blog it here.

¹http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/01/22/internet-2009-in-numbers/