Yaffe Tidbits

What You Need To Do In Mobile Marketing This Year

Part 1: Know your mobile customer

For most of us the 2012 resolutions look like this: lay off Hot Pockets, earn a ton of money and make a diligent effort to smile when your mother-in-law unexpectedly shows up on your doorstep for a visit. When it comes to resolutions for your business Mobile Marketing should be at the top of your list— especially if you’re playing catch up with competition. Last year was huge for mobile marketing and it’s getting even bigger. Technology innovations make it easy to shop, stay social, informed and entertained anywhere and anytime.  Smartphones drive our life on-the-go and with it present constant opportunities to advertise. Why wouldn’t you reach your customer through something they carry and interact with every waking (and sometimes sleeping) moment?

Watch the video below to see some amazing mobile stats

 

Know your mobile customer
Gen-Y facetweets, youblogs, and mysquares faster than you can log into your email, while Grandma is still figuring out the whole webcam thing. Each customer uses a smartphone to satisfy a NEED while being restricted or empowered by their aptitude for technology.  The game hasn’t changed, customers are still shopping, but they’re using mobile to simplify and enrich their experience.

Tracking mobile visitors
First step is to assess the situation. You might not know that people are accessing your website through mobile devices unless you have a way to track it. Meet your new best friend, Google Analytics. Study your traffic under the microscope and establish a baseline. What devices are your customers using? How does your marketing strategy affect traffic? Through analytics you will understand the current situation and pave way for future decisions.

 Identifying Mobile Segments
The wonderful thing about customers is that they can be grouped together into segments.  After you ninja your way through demographic/geo profiles think about the following.  

Psychographic and motivational segmentation will force you to step into the shoes of your customer and focus on their attitudes, goals and emotional features.
-Think about what your users seek through their mobile devices: entertainment, information, social or a bargain. For instance, customers seeking a bargain may not like mobile technology, but will use it anyway if there is a reward (like a coupon or a discount).
-Is the customer skating on the high tech edge or staying away from technology because it invades their privacy? For example: Social oriented high tech users would be more likely to check in on foursquare  at your store location, which presents a valuable opportunity to engage them.
-Is mobile a lifestyle choice or something they are forced to use? Gen Y vs Late adopters.
-In addition to insights you gather from this exercise, create a map to key customer touch points with your brand. Map out customer’s mobile shopping experience from interest about your product to purchasing decision. 
-Do they browse and compare prices on the phone before purchasing? What brought them to your website? Was it to find store locations, order online, get a deal or check in on foursquare? How did they find out about it? Through company’s e-letter, a chat with company rep, QR code or external advertising?

I leave you with many questions to answer and priorities to fulfill.  Moving forward in the Mobile Resolutions series, you’ll learn about mobile websites and implementing mobile advertising strategies.  In the meantime, share some of your mobile experiences in the comment section and give Grandma a call, she  still needs help.

Check back next week for part 2 of this series.

Dmitri Pivtorak, On the move, going mobile

The D Show Winners Make Good Ads of the Week

Last night I attended The D Show, Detroit's annual award show for excellence in advertising and marketing. I saw some great work being done here in the D and thought I'd share some of them here in our regular Ad of the Week feature. The best of show went to Chrysler's moving Super Bowl spot, "Born of Choir" featuring the Eminem song "Lose Yourself" and the imported from Detroit theme. We've already featured this spot in our Super Bowl recap, where we named it our favorite ad of the event. You can go to that post to see it. There were several previous AOTW recipients who also won last night.

So, here are some of my favorites of the night. They are not necessarily the best in category winners, just winners that I found outstanding. One of my favorites also won last year and I kind of forgot about it until it won again this year. It's the Del Taco Super Special show. A series of weird and wacky skit webisodes designed to appeal to the off kilter, all night taco crowd. Here's a couple webisodes.

 Del Taco Super Special Show, When Tacos Ruled The Earth

 

 Del Taco Super Special Show, Bean There, Done That

The next D Show winner that I'd like to share is a spot for Carhartt. It's a bunch of guys camping, when one of them gets attacked by a pack of wolves. But once the attack ends, the guy is left unharmed and one of the wolves is left without a tooth.

 Carhartt - Wolves

I saw a lot of great work, interestingly one of the best storytelling videos is one that one in the music category. It's a non-broadcast video for the US Navy about how an Indian born Muslim who was a Kuwaiti refugee from Operation Desert Storm became a Navy Chaplin. It's a compelling human story told well.

 US Navy - Chaplain Balbale

And finally, I'd like to share another winner in the non-broadcast video, it's part of the Ford Explorer Live series, featuring Nelly talking about the awesome sound system. It's a funny video with a douche bag director who keeps trying to add a lot of bells and whistles to the video and Nelly, who is trying to just have the video be a simple one with him showing you what great sound you can get in the Explorer. It's a fun bit that pokes fun at our side of the business. Enjoy

 Ford Explorer - Nelly 2011 Video

Well, that's just a taste of the great work here in the D that was honored last night at The D Show. What do you think? And if you went to the show, what were your favorites that I left out? And as always, if you have a suggestion for ad of the week, just leave it here in the comment section, email it to info@yaffe.com, send us a tweet @TheYaffeGroup or drop us a note on Facebook.

Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director - feeling a little D envy today.

Your Company Social Media Policy Needs To Be Part of Its Branding

Companies can't avoid it any longer. And even if your company isn't doing social media, you can bet some of its employees are. So, it is important that your company has a social media policy. But, it's not just about guiding employees, facilitating conversation with customers and protecting your company. Something you might not have thought about is how it helps shape your brand. You see, your social media policy needs to be as much a part of your branding as your marketing materials and the logo on your door.

I had a chat with our new media strategist, Jen Wright, yesterday about all the social media policy work we've been dong for clients and what we've learned. The branding issue was one of the things she keyed into. I recorded her part of the chat and edited together some of the more interesting tidbits. The video is inserted below.

 A Chat With Jen Wright About Social Media Policy

So, what do you think? We'd love to hear your thoughts on social media policies in general and their part in company branding.

Mike McClure, I'm company branding right now.

Fun Facts: Social Media Revolution 2011

Every so often someone puts together a fun, compelling video that shows off interesting facts about the new media age we're living in. You've probably seen some of them before. Today, one of the newest ones floated through my web world (meaning someone in the Houston office emailed the YouTube link to our meida director here in Detroit and she passed it on to the rest of us - yes, I still find things through email sometimes). I enjoyed it and thought I'd share it here - in case someone hadn't sent it to someone who posted it somewhere you could see it yet

It has some facts we've seen before, like "YouTube is the world's second largest search engine" and "if Facebook were a country it would be the 3rd largest." It also has new fun facts like "socail gamers will spend $6 billion on virtual goods by 2013 compared to only $2.million spent on real goods by movie goers." Fun stuff. Check it out.

 Social Media Revolution 2011

So, what did you think? Anything really surprise you? Hear anything interesting that's not in this video?

Mike McClure, Social Media Guy

 

Effective Marketing Tools & Methods That Yield the Best Returns

Thinking about your online business - of the various marketing tools and methods you use, which has yielded the best financial return?

In this article, I’m going to share my two favorite tools that I use in my business as a business and life coach for mom entrepreneurs.

My favorite marketing tool is Twitter. I get several leads a day directly from Twitter. That's why I'm so passionate about it. Let me expand a little on that, though.

In a teleseminar I hosted at MomBizCoach.com with Rhonda Hess, she explained how we should all focus on a blog as our centerpiece. Write in your authentic voice, share your thoughts, wisdom, opinions, photographs of your work or products, lessons learned from a situation or experience that is relevant to your target market, etc. and you'll start attracting readers who want to spend more time with you and ultimately purchase what you sell.

Then every time you post to your blog, you share it on twitter (and Facebook and LinkedIn, etc.) with a link back to your blog. By doing this, along with asking for and responding to comments to your blog posts, you are building relationships and increasing the "stickiness" of your blog.

I use Twitter as a vehicle to connect with people, to build relationships, and to deliver prospects back to my website and blog so they can learn more about what I do. Upon checking my blog statistics, the top referrer to my blog and website is almost always Twitter.

Twitter is, of course, a free tool, but it does cost me my time. As a mompreneur, time happens to be my most expensive and valuable asset. That said, I spend very little time on Twitter most days. I usually pop on and off for 1-5 minutes at a time several times a day. There are days I never log on to Twitter, and then there are times when the kids are in bed that I'll spend two hours on Twitter chatting with friends and potential clients. I also use several Twitter integration tools so that lots of what I tweet can occur automatically, saving me a lot of time.

As a return on my investment, I am currently getting a couple of warm leads each day from Twitter. Given my very limited work schedule of only 10 hours a week (client-facing time), this is more than enough to fill my pipeline.

My second favorite marketing tool is my BlogTalkRadio Show. I'm finding that people all over the world are hearing me on the internet and already feel related to me because of this. As a result, my prospects are ready to hire me before we ever speak in person.

People like to consume their information in different formats, so if you're not currently using audio or video as part of your marketing strategy, it would be worthwhile to consider adding these options. If you have no clue how you could integrate audio and video into an effective marketing strategy for your business, talk to a business coach or strategist to help get you started.

So what are your favorite marketing tools? Do you enjoy marketing or prefer to delegate it to someone else? Do you spend most of your marketing budget on traditional (print, radio, TV) methods or on Social Media Marketing?

Guest blog by Lara Galloway, Momprenuer & Mom Business Coach

6 Ways Mobile is Changing Our Lives

I saw some startling statistics on smartphone usage yesterday in a DiGiDAY article and it got me thinking about all the ways mobile is changing our lives. And how we, as marketers, must change our thinking. Here are just six of the ways mobile is changing our lives.

 

1. Everyone is Expected to Work Always. The DiGiDAY article cited research from ExactTarget. The first statistic they mentioned was that 28% of smartphone users use their phone to email constantly. I readily admit I'm one of those people. My work email is connected to my Blackberry and I check it whenever that little red light blinks at me. I stopped in the middle of writing this to check my email on my phone - rather than clicking over to outlook on my desktop I was using at the time.

A lot of people are like that. Which means we're always at least a little bit on - work-wise. And there is an expectation that when someone comes in the next morning that they had kept up on their emails before arriving. At least when they rolled out of bed, if not in an ongoing fashion. Like it or not, if you don't people who do will probably think less of you - even though they shouldn't. It changes your psyche someone to always be on. That's not even taking into account that now workmates can call you any time and probably get a hold of you. Does this always connectedness make someone more or less likely to react positively to an email offer from a brand they like? Do the time-honored best times of day to send a sales message via email shift now?

2. We're Willing to Share Private Information - Especially if it Means a Deal. According to the same research, over a quarter of the people had used a geo-location app (Foursquare, Gowalla, Facebook Places) to check in somewhere. Surprisingly, way more women (37% compared to only 21% male) were willing to reveal their location via their smartphone. And it turns out that many of them did so to receive a deal offered for their checkin. I know the first thing I see when I go to checkin on Foursquare is a bright orange bar across the top that says 25 Specials Nearby. Clicking on it shows me all the places close by that will give me a deal for checking in there and what the deal is. Think that may become significant for marketers as smartphone and tablet penetration rises?  I do.

3. We Plan Ahead Less & Carry Less Junk. Last weekend I was up in Charleviox, MI for a little family reunion. As we were in the local fudge shop, my sister and her husband were trying to decide if they should check on their hotel reservation. She turns to me and says,"you have a smartphone, can you look up the number for us?" They didn't have to worry about printing out the confirmation or carrying it around. I did a quick search, read off the number and my brother-in-law dialed it on his mobile phone.

This concept applies to shopping and going places to. If you're out and you decide you want to find a new lawn mower or go see a movie - you can spur of the moment. Just do a quick search for your nearest Home Depot or Movie theater. Or search lawn mower or movie deals. I heard a podcast recently where they were debating if you needed an entirely different search strategy for mobile than for computer usage. How can you pull in a customer on the go who can act on their whims?

4. We Comparison Shop While in the Store. Used to be, once you got someone into your store, the bulk of the work was done. They were not as likely to leave and shop around at other stores. Now they don't have to. They can use a bar code scanner app, scan in the item they're staring at in the store and do a search right then and there for a better price. If the ticket item is big enough ant there's a big enough difference in price - you've lost the sale. If you're the store, how do you engage the in-store customer to stay and buy? If you're the competition, how do you use this info to poach someone's customers?

5. We Have Access Where We Never Had it Before. Years ago, we created a series of Advercasts for a number of retail clients, that were basically an email campaign with a video and online catalog component. It got incredible results for the client in Chicago but didn't do nearly as well for one scattered throughout a much more rural area in the South. The problem was that much of their area outside of the city limits, especially in the foothills of the mountains, weren't wired for broadband yet. Even short videos took forever to load via dial-up. Today, besides better penetration of internet access, many people in those areas can now access the web via their mobile devices. Now, that client has a strong SMS (texting) campaign and can once again start using video. This means the power of online video can now be harnessed my more marketers in more areas. One other thing - more texting than talking takes place on these phones - don't rule out a good SMS campaign.

6. Our Friends Are Always With Us. Another statistic in the ExactTarget study said that 17% of users checked Facebook "constantly" on their smartphone, 35% checked it "several times a day." With all the apps connecting us to the social web on our phones, we're always connected to our circle of friends. We can ask them where they think we should go to dinner, see what bar they're at, post a picture of two outfits and ask which one we should buy... the possibilities are endless and are only going to increase as brands create apps to enhance the social sharing experience. Even search is starting to show us what our friends think in the results. Does that mean, not only do we have to cultivate relationships with our customers, but we have to do the same with their friends? How can you create great social experiences with your product that will positively impact your bottom line?

These are just a few ways mobile is changing our lives and marketing landscape. They raise as many questions as answers. But they also provide great opportunities for companies willing to grab them. What other ways is mobile changing your life? And how do you see this impacting your marketing plans?

Mike McClure, Always Connected, Always Working, Always Exploring.

Ad of the Week: Coke - 125th Anniversary Illumination

In last week's AOTW, we gave Pepsi their due for a fun Santa spot positioning their flagship brand with a Coke spokesperson. This week, we're giving the nod to Coca-Cola for their "Spectacular 3D 125th Anniversary Illumination" video/event. And if you look at the two back to back, you can see exactly where the two colas fall in their ongoing cola marketing war. Where Pepsi created a fun one-off ad. Coke celebrates 125 years with the kind of panache and solid branding they always exhibit.

The video below opens up with workers covering a large Coke corporate building with giant sheets on each side. When night falls, these sheets become 4 giant screens displaying moving graphics and images that are pure Coca-cola magic. This guerrilla marketing stunt is put into a video with emotive music and a mix of Coke iconic footage. Like everything they do, it has a lot of style, emotion and fits right in with their brand persona.

There's not a whole lot more to say, other than what Coke has said so often in their marketing, "Enjoy."

 Coke: Spectacular Coca-Cola 3D 125th Anniversary Illumination

If you'd like to make a suggestion for Ad of the Week, just drop us a line here in the comment section, Or on twitter. Or Facebook. Or via email to info@yaffe.com. However you like.

Mike McClure, Playing both sides of the cola wars

Ad of the Week: Google's Amazing Chrome Campaign

One thing you probably don't know about me is that, despite the goofball exterior, I'm actually an old softy. Like my dad, who was the one blubbering like a baby at my wedding, I tend to get fully emotionally invested in what is happening in the now. And yes, I've been know to get a little misty over a well-executed commercial from time to time. Which is why I bring this up - the Google Chrome ads are among those who tell great human stories that can tug at your emotions, in a good way.

Google has become masters at telling very moving human stories in very simple ways. Two years ago I choose their spot featuring a simple boy meets girl story completely through on-screen Google searches as the best spot in the Super Bowl that year. This Chrome campaign ups that spot times 100! Each ad in this series tell a story of deep connections and strong love. In one case it's the love of a new father for his daughter, in another it's love for teens struggling with tough issues and in another it's a strong love between a mega-pop star and her fans. In each case, it works very well.

The first spot features new father, Danial Lee, creating a story chronicling the first 5 or so years of his daughters life in a series of "love letters" created through various Chrome features. He emails her, posts pictures, post videos, maps their home all to create a story he can share with her when she gets older. We come along on this journey through bad times when she was very sick in the hospital and good times like becoming a big sister. All accompanied by thoughts on how her dad was feeling at the time. It's very touching and anyone who has had a child can completely connect with this story.

 Google Chrome - Dear Sophie

The second spot deals with the "It Gets Better" project, which helps teens who are bullied in school for being gay deal with the issues they're facing. High school is hard enough. Being gay and a teenager can multiply those problems and has resulted in problems with teen suicide. "It Gets Better" is a movement that started with one inspiring video and has blossomed into thousands of web videos - addressing teens facing these problems and letting them know it does get better, you just have to hang on and make it through these tough times. The spot uses cuts from a lot of these videos, offering encouragement from both people who have gone through it before and from celebrities - ranging from Lady Gaga to Woody from Toy Story. Like the other spot, it's a very touching and moving story - told simply through screens shots of using Google Chrome tools. Extra props to Google for taking on a subject many brands wouldn't touch and doing social good with it.

 Google Chrome - It Gets Better

The last spot is one we featured (for a different reason) in a previous post. It tells the story of a deep connection between mega pop star Lady Gaga and her devoted fans. The spot sprinkles in clips from fan videos - singing along with her song, getting made up for concerts and expressing their love of Gaga. That love is reciplicated by Lady Gaga as we see her online, connecting with her fans in very real and personal ways. It feels very genuine and again has a deep human and emotional tie to the viewer.

 Google Chrome - Lady Gaga

Bravo to Google for creating such great stories that touch us in ways we all can relate too. I have to admit watching all three in a row to work on this post was cause for a sniffle or two. This is by far my favorite campaign out there right now. What about you, does it move you as well? If not, what campaign does connect with you on a deeper level?

If you'd like to make a suggestion for Ad of the Week, just drop us a line here in the comment section, Or on twitter. Or Facebook. Or via email to info@yaffe.com. However you like.

Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director and Old Softy

 

Ad of the Week: Calgary's Camera Shop - Battle at F-Stop Ridge

Today's ad of the week is a testament that you don't have to have a huge budget to create quality content that both sells your brand and gets it noticed by going viral. This web video for a small Camera Shop in Calgary has over a million views in just the first couple weeks since being posted. But, more importantly, it is on target for selling the brand premise - that they take photography really seriously.

The video is set on a woodsy battlefield and is a shot by shot recreating of a typical battle scene from any war movie with each side shooting at each other. Except in this case, they are shooting at each other with cameras. The sound effects are a blending of camera noises and gun noises. It has a nice gritty feel. What makes it play well, is that it's shot with the seriousness of a real battle, even though all the various "weapons" are different types of camera equipment.

The Camera Shop employees shot and acted in the video themselves. It took them about four hours to shoot all the footage, using their own equipment. Then another seven hours were spent editing the footage and adding effects. Which goes to show you don't have to have giant budgets (although it never hurts!) to create successful videos, just a great concept and a bit of talent.

 Camera Shop - Battle at F-Stop Ridge

Editor's Note: as you can see in the comments section, the sound effects in the video are all camera shutter sounds, not blended with gun sounds as I had thought. Nice job, Camera Shop.

Thanks to Kathy in our accounting dept for sharing this spot from her fellow Canadians. If you'd like to make a suggestion for Ad of the Week, just drop us a line here in the comment section, Or on twitter. Or Facebook. Or via email to info@yaffe.com. However you like.

Mike McClure, Exec Creative Director and fan of movies

Did internet kill the video star?

Video killed the radio star in 1979. But did internet kill the video star in 2011? Take the Sarah Bareilles video “Uncharted” for example. For those who have not seen it, the video features clips of fans and even a few familiar faces singing along to the song in their webcams. Stars like Benjamin Folds of Ben Folds Five, Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland, Tegan & Sara and Mr. viral video himself, Keenan Cahill, make appearances.  

 

Instead of a mash-up of piano shots, happy b-roll and Sarah Bareilles close-ups, “Uncharted” takes on new media to create a successful, fun music video. Sarah pops up on the screen only a few times throughout the video, but it works. She has given others a chance to express their love of the song and, well, their webcams. “Uncharted” becomes something very much relatable because who doesn’t love to sing along and dance to their favorite songs?  

Another artist taking the idea of incorporating fan-made videos into a project is Lady Gaga. Just in time for her third album debut, Gaga's Google Chrome Commercial has hit the airwaves. I may be a little biased because I am such a huge fan, aka Little Monster, but the commercial really has a cool concept.

The Google Chrome slogan is “the web is what you make of it” and that is exactly what this piece shows. As Google has become the number one search engine, this commercial features Lady Gaga googling her fans to see what they have put on the web. This too is relatable, not only to fellow Gaga fans but to anyone who uses Google.

 

The moral of the story is, we the people of the internet, are becoming the focal point in artist materials. It is a cool, new take on video creation that could be a stepping stone to something awesomely innovative in the future. It's the nextevolution from brands asking customers to create content, like the Doritos Super Bowl commercial. So the internet didn’t necessarily kill the video star, the internet just shifted the stardom a little bit.

How do you like the “Uncharted” video and Gaga Google Chrome commercial and the use of fan-made videos?

Jessica Mosley, Little Monster