Thursday, November 13. 2008
For those of you who were unable to attend the Conference, here, as a markettiers4dc blog exlusive, are my 736 words. Enjoy!
Who’s in control?
To reassure brand guardians that they still have as much ability as before to influence the buying habits of their audiences, I wanted to refer to the words inscribed on the back of the book ‘The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy’ and remind you ‘Don’t Panic’. However, in a severe twist of irony, the place where I found out why those words were on the back of the book – which for the record, was partly because the device "looked insanely complicated" to operate, and partly to keep intergalactic travelers from, well, panicking - was in fact, Wikipedia(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_Panic_(Hitchhiker's_Guide_to_the_Galaxy), a website controlled by it’s users! So have I lost my argument already? Possibly not . . .
Now is the time for brands to win back control. Whilst our target audiences are more empowered than they have ever been, we still have the ability to influence what they watch if we embrace the new rules of engagement. In return, we will discover a highly responsive and welcoming viewer, whose mouse clicks could be interacting within our own content rather than away from it.
The online audience tend to want to be informed and kept up to date with latest news and gossip, be educated and taught about specific tasks or simply be entertained. If brands can provide touch points that tick at least one of these boxes, then there is a strong chance of engaging on a one-to-one basis with the viewer and strongly influencing their online habits.
One of the biggest opportunities for brands to influence the audience is through the use of video, the viewing of which now accounts for 15% of all our online time in the UK.(Comscore March 08) In fact, in June this year, 27.4 million UK Internet users watched over 3bn online videos.(Comscore 2008) Coupled with the fact that video increases purchase intention by nearly 50%, there’s strong evidence to show that video can engage an audience more effectively than static content.(Dynamic Logic 2007) The challenge, therefore, lies in providing video content that your customers are actively seeking out and want to engage with. This will enable you to create a meaningful dialogue with your potential customers, especially if it is viewed in an environment that they can trust.
A recent study identified three types of online video typologies.(Simply TV Work Research March 2008) The report revealed that viewers could watch either ‘Snippets’ (YouTube moments, 5 seconds to 5 minutes of user generated content shared in social networks that tend to be watched for entertainment and to kill time), ‘Catch-up’ (such as BBC’s iPlayer), and finally, ‘Boutique’ (needs based, task driven content that gets the full attention of the viewer as they have actively sort out the content). In the case of Boutique viewing, the content tends to be 2-5 minutes and professionally produced, and it is in this area that brands can take back the control and influence the audience. Once you have that captivated audience, you can engage with them to a level that will encourage them to carry out an action such as purchasing the products featured in the videos or opting in for more information.
One example of a brand that has achieved exactly that is Fashion retailer, Oli.co.uk. In this instance, HowTo.tv were tasked by the Otto UK Group to produce a series of videos featuring three of their Fusion range designers, Jasper Garvida, Jodie Kidd and PPQ. In each video, the designer talked through their new collection, and using HowTo.tv’s Interactive Direct Sales Tool(TM), viewers could click on featured clothes and accessories as they appeared on screen, and within one click, add them straight into their Oli shopping bag. Engagement rates (where users clicked on at least one item in the video) averaged 8.4% - a fantastic endorsement of how viewers wanted to interact with the videos. Whilst viewers felt they were in control, there is no doubt that Oli influenced their purchasing behavior.
So my message is ‘Don’t Panic’! Whilst users can control how, where and when they want to interact with our brand, as marketers, we still have the power to control the content, the message, and where we want to drive our audience. Just ensure you take into consideration how your audience want to engage with you and make them feel empowered in doing so.
Now, what else can the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy teach us? Oh yes, the answer to life, the universe and everything is 42 – discuss . . .
Thursday, May 29. 2008
Jack Flanagan’s fascinating article (Analyst Speak NMA 17.04.08) highlighted the growing popularity of online video viewing, (now the third most popular online activity in the UK behind search and retail and just ahead of social networking); however he omitted to consider the impact of this ‘online video invasion’ upon online marketing.
As he pointed out online video is already attracting impressive levels of engagement compared to other types of online activity; in the UK alone 28.7m people watched over 3 bn videos online, averaging five and a half hours per viewer for the month.
Shouldn’t brands be capitalising on this voracious appetite for online video by providing their own high quality content? Some pioneers are already producing their own TV quality editorial content and placing it on sites where their target audience is likely to be.
That approach is innovative since it is not intrusive, and does not seem like advertising to the consumer, which means that they are more receptive to the presented content which entertains, informs and instructs.
Tuesday, April 22. 2008
It's produced by the FT and the series is called 'Digital Business' which looks at the use and management of technology in business.
In the latest show - from April 16th - about nine and a half minutes in, FT Columnist Ade Mccormack talks about a 'new' concept called Hypermedia - where he describes the 'potential' to embed links into video for consumers to click through and purchase products.
Very interesting interview, but just to let you know Ade - markettiers4dc already offer this and you can see an example of how it works on HowTo.tv where their client, Screwfix, uses our Interactive Direct Sales Tool technology to drive sales by enabling viewers to click on products featured in their How To Choose and Fit a Shower show - roll your mouse over the video and try it out!
Thursday, March 27. 2008
Many apologies for the silence on our blog recently, but we thought we'd kick start things with an extract from our most recent issue of Onward - dont forget, the digital version of Onward is now online at www.Onward.tv with new video content.
POWER TO THE PEOPLE - Onward front page story
As our media has become more segmented and likewise our consumption of it, the task in reaching our end audience has become even more challenging. One of the key reasons for this is that the power of advocacy and influencer groups is shifting away from perhaps the traditional media owner and journalist to the new wave of ‘citizen journalist’ within new media environments.
In a recent survey*, we looked into how important online influencer groups have become when it comes to trust before making a purchasing decision and 70% of respondents said that a positive feature on an independent review website would be the biggest influence on them, compared to just 14% who said that reading a positive feature in a newspaper article would be.
With the phenomenal rise in the popularity of social networking, gaining advocacy from key influencers within these groups has become one of the biggest challenges for the communications industry. After all, it appears that users certainly don’t want to be blatantly advertised to in these environments. Just consider the backlash that Facebook received after the launch of their advertising platform at the back end of last year when more than 50,000 of their own users came together online to complain about it, forcing an apology from the company.
The issue of commercialising and generating revenue from social networks is something that is an ongoing challenge for their owners. However, what is clear from the perspective of the PR and Communications industry is that we cannot ignore the fact that many of our audiences are spending a large percentage of their time interacting with each other within them.
Thankfully for those who have invested in these environments, the producers of some sites are starting to find ways to deliver a better experience for the user whilst monetising their content. Just look at the success of Bebo’s online video series ‘Kate Modern’ that stars Ralf Little from TV’s Royal Family. As reported on Guardian.co.uk, the first series drew an audience that watched an average of 1.5m videos per week, with Bebo successfully bringing on brand sponsors. The sponsors products appeared in the show proving a better way for brands to reach their audience through targeted broadcast quality content. However, if the evidence suggests audience engagement through video content is successful, why stop at sponsoring someone else’s show?
The lack of Ofcom regulations online allows brands to produce their own broadcast content, which can then be seeded into social networks encouraging users to join branded groups, interacting with them, as well as opting-in for more information. Being able to deliver engaging broadcast content that a brand has total control over, to an audience that has chosen to view, is a very powerful tool to possess. If you then give viewers the opportunity to click on the products featured in the video itself to either gain more information, or even be one click from adding them into an e-commerce shopping basket, then you will very quickly deliver a highly effective direct marketing campaign.
Controlling your brand’s assets using broadcast has historically relied on the media owners hosting your content. Now brands can become the media owner themselves. Add to this the huge appetite for watching video online and the fact that, according to Dynamic Logic, video increases the propensity to purchase by nearly 50% - and then consider that you have the ability to tap into the online networks in a controlled manner through content, and it’s very clear that there are huge opportunities opening up.
These same tactics are also proving to be very effective in other parts of the communications mix. Brands can use networks to build panels of very vocal customers, happy to share their opinions on all manner of topics. For example, in our survey, we discovered that 50% of people would like to provide their opinions for food & drink products as part of an online panel. Imagine being able to communicate with these panel members using video and audio when researching them, turning a potentially dull and tedious task, into an entertaining one.
It's for these reasons that we’ve expanded our own Digital and Technical Services division, helping support the work we are now producing for these environments.
If you would like to find out more, please do get in touch with me, whether by phone, fax, letter, email, or even finding my profile on Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook…!
*survey carried out overnight 22/1/07 by Opinion Matters on Tickbox.net, 227 respondents
Sunday, November 4. 2007
As Official Podcasters to the IAB for their upcoming Engage 2007 conference this week, we were asked to submit a Digital Essay for the conference brochure. For those not going to the conference and therefore not taking away your own copy of the essay - here's a markettiers4dc blog exclusive. Enjoy!
With a large focus of this year’s conference centred on video, I wanted to use this opportunity to encourage brand owners to look inside their own organisations and question how well they have prepared for the onslaught of media convergence.
How many of the online plans of those brands represented in today’s audience include video? How many have thought about producing a podcast, or funding their own TV show for the web? When it comes to the communications teams’ delivery to the media, how many think to offer something more than a press release, realising they can talk directly to their audience themselves?
With almost everyone who accesses the web in the UK doing so via a broadband connection, the expectation of what we see online has been raised further than text and images, or a bit of Flash animation. Video is what we want now, and high production values with it.
An example of where this expectation to be able to see and hear from a brand direct is never more prevalent than in the area of crisis management. Take the two very different examples where online broadcast opportunities have been used well or handled poorly via the contrasting media positioning of Mattel and Northern Rock respectively.
In August, Mattel were forced to recall over 20m products globally due to safety concerns. As part of their communication strategy to avoid mass panic amongst their consumers they produced a video of their Chairman and CEO making an impassioned statement on behalf of the company. The video was available via their website to all territories globally and was picked up by news desks internationally. Their personalised approach was a success in reassuring people that all was in control and being handled with the customer’s best interests.
In comparison during the perceived collapse of Northern Rock there appeared to be little communication emanating from them aside from an interview on Radio 4 and a limited message posted on their website. Consequently their lack of information fuelled speculation and fears, leading to media hype and scenes of investors queuing to withdraw their money. There was no wide spread communication telling people not to panic, no human face, Northern Rock lost control of the situation, allowing the media to dictate the agenda. Questions pertaining to protecting investments and savings could have been pre-empted and the responses made accessible and available in various formats via their website, satisfying the requirements from the media and their customers. This is the age where people demand to have information when they want it, where they want it and through multiple devices.
Both these instances are examples of where consumers have gone to the Internet for assurances from the brands involved, and therefore it is those involved in the digital media space that have the opportunity to influence.
The IAB continue to show how budgets for online media increase year on year, but the key question is whether they are spent wisely? For example, do those teams who design pop-ups really think that by putting the close button far away on the other side of the webpage that we won’t go looking for it, cursing them as we do? Recent research by HowTo.tv revealed that not only are such online ads seen as intrusive, but they are also having a negative impact on brand perception.*
In the year since the last Engage conference, online advertising, whilst increasing in spend, has also come under fire due to some arguably lazy planning and buying strategies. The BBC’s Panorama programme earlier in the summer exposed a few guilty parties who didn’t stop to think where their run-of-site activity might appear on the likes of YouTube or Facebook, some of whom were allegedly made to pay the price by their clients by losing their accounts.
The findings of the research are quite concerning with 94% of web users saying they have experienced online advertising that is totally unrelated to the site they are visiting. Furthermore, 95% said they had had ads served on them that were not relevant to them or their interests and that 94% of people experience pop-up ads online that are of no interest to them. The research also pointed out the need for media owners to also be weary when chasing the increased online budgets as 50% of respondents said they had left a favourite website because of intrusive/annoying online ads and pop-ups.
Most important of all, however, is that online advertising that is involuntarily served on the viewer through pop-ups, moving screens, or non-existent segmentation through run-of-site purchasing irrelevant to content, has a negative impact on the brand. An incredible 95.2% of people said annoying and intrusive ads make them less likely to buy the brand and most significantly, 95% of people said that this type of online advertising makes them think unfavourably about a brand.
Online advertising has long been seen as the media to deliver highly-targeted results due to the ability to segment the audience and deliver less wastage. However, based on this research, planners and buyers need to take a long hard look at their digital strategies and remind themselves that ultimately; content is king in an online environment, and not the advert that appears over it. The marketing industry needs to change the way it approaches online and find better and more effective ways to engage with users, to their benefit, as opposed to taking a counter-productive shotgun approach by serving ads upon them.
This is where video driven content comes in to play, but not video content for the sake of it. For example, I am not suggesting we all simply move our adverting budgets into the pre-roll video advertising market. Goodness knows just how frustrating it is to see the same advert appear over and over before each news story on a video player on a national newspaper website, for example.
Those individuals at Engage 2007 who work in the digital media have the opportunity to help communicate brand character and contribute to enhancing and protecting brand reputation. As it is conclusively affecting the profit and loss of the brand it subsequently delivers a massive opportunity for them to have a higher presence in the Board Room and a greater slice of the budget for brand communications and online advertising.
The avalanche of new media, including user-generated content and convergence, with their exponential rate of growth, present constant opportunities to add value and enhance existing and new media communications techniques. Targeted messages are fully achievable as access to potential communities and audiences continue to grow.
With the fact that Ofcom regulations do not extend to the Internet, brands have the opportunity to relinquish editorial constraints enforced on them previously in other broadcast mediums, and the web is, after all, now a truly bona fide broadcast media. In this environment brands have a greater influence, with less reliance on the media owner, as long as they protect the editorial integrity of the medium. Furthermore as content, in the form of video, can now be repurposed and made available across multi platforms it can help to satisfy consumer’s on-demand culture - information and content when it is convenient to them, rather than forced on them.
* Opinion Matters, June 2007, sample 1,444 respondents
