Posts Tagged ‘advertising’
Brand Blitz: Mediabrands Agencies Score Super Bowl XLVI Ads and Brands
Monday, February 6th, 2012Being a part of a team is something special. The New York Football Giants probably know a thing or two about that. We’re also fortunate to be a part of a great team within IPG Mediabrands – MAP (Mediabrands Audience Platform). This year, MAP agencies Ansible, Cadreon, Reprise Media, and SCG teamed up with MAGNAGLOBAL, the IPG Mediabrands’ global intelligence unit, and our friends at Simply Measured to watch the game within the Big Game – the ads.
This year’s Super Bowl was one of the most interactive yet, with Twitter saying that the final three minutes of the game saw 10,000 tweets per second (TPS). The highest TPS came after the Giants sealed their victory (12,223 TPS) and Madonna’s halftime show saw 8,000 TPS for a full five minutes. While those are great facts, we were more interested in how people were talking about brands.
We looked at on-air spend, buzz in social, and other advertising efforts (paid search and mobile) to pick some of the greatest (and worst) ads and brands from Super Bowl Sunday and put them all in infographic form, just for you:
Click the image to see larger sizes and to embed
Brands definitely brought their A-game this year with brands like H&M, GE, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Audi, Volkswagen, Kia, Chevrolet, Pepsi Max, Bud Light, Coca Cola, Doritos, and more joining the battle. NBC did a gigantic push for their own show, “The Voice” which included live performances from Cee Lo Green and Blake Shelton, as well as a commercial cameo from comedy maven Betty White.
Thanks to all the teams that worked hard throughout the night pulling, analyzing, and visualizing the heaps of data that it took to make this year’s scorecard happen! See you all next year!
Note: This report and infographic include references to brands which are clients of Mediabrands and the larger IPG family, including Hyundai/Kia – however, this is not meant to be an endorsement or advertisement and no compensation was made for their inclusion.
CES 2012: Part 2
Wednesday, January 18th, 2012
The CES show floor is incredibly daunting when you walk in and look at the sprawling maps with each section marked off. I made it my goal to see every single booth on the floor – and I did it. Here are a couple more trends that I saw during my time in Vegas:
AutoTech
The auto industry has plenty of their own industry shows, but that doesn’t stop top automakers from trekking to Vegas for CES. In-car auto technology was a big part of the show with Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Kia, and Ford showcasing how technology is powering the next generation of autos.
Kia’s new Uvo system, made by Microsoft (both clients of SCG/Mediabrands) was one of the coolest in-car systems I saw in Vegas. The new system pairs with smartphones to identify drivers, making the experience completely personal. For parents with new drivers, the system allows users to set up things like speed limits, curfews, and geo-fences that notify the car owner if/when these limitations are broken by the driver. That’s one piece of tech I definitely am glad didn’t exist when I was 16. The system also goes beyond the car and uses augmented reality to help drivers find their car once they’ve parked. No more wandering around aimlessly hitting your key fob in hopes of hearing your car honk.
SocialTV
There’s no doubt that people come to CES to see the next generation of televisions. However, this year wasn’t totally about screen size (although there were some huge ones) or crazy bells and whistles (there was seriously a TV that you could see through), but rather about how connected TVs could make users. Connected to content. Connected to their friends. Connected to just about anything.
Now, apps like Miso and GetGlue have brought a social aspect to TV and movies, but they require a user looking away from the screen to interact. While that’s not always a bad thing, the continued appification of televisions is bringing social interactions right to the set – and making them part of the experience.
Users can now Tweet or Facebook directly on their televisions while still watching content. They can join chats and discuss plots, characters, and developments in their favorite shows and movies. Look for this seamless integration to be a big part in network and motion picture companies’ push for social interaction around their titles in 2012 and beyond.
Social Everywhere (but No Connectivity)
I think one of the biggest fails of CES, besides the lack of available food/restrooms (which always happens), was the lack of connectivity in the exhibition halls. While yes, many companies aren’t really relying on me to pump their newest products out to the world, but rather a writer from Engadget who has guaranteed bandwidth, the space just wasn’t social friendly. QR codes were everywhere, but the content they accessed was nearly unobtainable in the conditions.
TMobile sponsored a contest (using Klout) to crown the king of social at CES. The only problem was, I’d guess most people actually being able to tweet about CES were not in Vegas, or had already left the show to go back to their rooms. Also, the screens showing content were kind of hard to find.
Weird Stuff
I’ve been to a fair number of trade shows in my day, but I have to say there was one thing I was really sad to see at CES in 2012… the continued use of “booth babes.” BBC did a piece on this which I think accurately depicts their use at the show. Notes the completely oblivious answer from the head of CES.
If you owned an iPad, iPod, iANYTHING, you could seriously spend the whole time looking solely at products made to connect to, hold, enhance, or otherwise augment your iANYTHING. These little weirdos were iPod speaker docks (iThink). I actually kind of like the ones that look like the ghosts from Pac Man.
Celebs were everywhere. Yes, some of them were there because they were launching a new headphone line (Luda/50), but others were obviously there just to get a check. Justin Beiber was there talking about robotics. Snooki was there, and unless she was talking about tanning beds, I’m going to guess she has no connection with the product she was there to support.
See Ya, Las Vegas
Overall, CES still is one of the greatest events I’ve ever been to. I’m not going to say that everything there relates to social – because it doesn’t. However, if we’re not keeping track of the consumers’ use of technology in accessing information, connecting with each other, and consuming media, then we’re missing the point. There’s so much more to marketing that happens outside the person-to-screen world that we often forget that there are opportunities in just about every aspect of daily life.
Check out our full gallery of SCG CES 2012 pics here.
Disclosure: Some photos and descriptions of products may reference clients of Spring Creek Group’s parent companies, Mediabrands and IPG. These are not meant as advertisements or endorsements and no compensation has been made to this blog or the author for their inclusion.
Apple + Ads: Must-Skip to Must-Touch
Thursday, June 10th, 2010
I’ll admit, I read a lot of magazines, but mostly only when I travel. The only magazine that gets sent to my apartment is actually in my roommate’s name and involves a small, furry, woodland creature and a very old man with way too many girlfriends. So, for me, a lover of WIRED when I’m on a plane, the fact that they were one of the first publications I cared about to release an iPad application was pretty huge. What I didn’t expect, though, was that instead of flipping past the ads like I did in my use-to-be-a-tree copy of the rag, I actually stopped and looked at the ads because (get this) they were actually engaging.
For the first time, rather than just telling you about a product, service, or idea, brands are able to bring you into the experience through clickable links, video, audio and animations.
Now, the iAds announcements of late don’t necessarily play into the experience of in-application advertising with the likes of The New York Times, WIRED, USA Today, etc., but Apple is quickly becoming a best friend to advertisers looking for a way to showcase their brands not only in traditional and non-traditional mediums, but in mediums where the experience is heightened to levels never before seen.
Developers will be able to create ad experiences in tandem that can work both in the iAd environment on the iPhone, and as integrated ads on the iPad in publications and applications, each delivering targeted info to publics that are more likely to be receptive to the message.
While I don’t have any numbers for advertising included in WIRED or the likes, you can bet that brands are paying top dollar for a chance to be part of the next wave in the field. Apple did, however, say they already have $60 million worth of advertising committed to their iAds platform for H2 FY10. That platform goes live July 1, 2010. The brands on board for the initial launch read like a who’s who of the big brands world: Nissan, Citi, Unilever, AT&T, Chanel, GE, Liberty Mutual, State Farm, Geico, Campbells, Sears, JC Penny, Target, Best Buy, Direct TV, TBS and Disney.
During that same portion of the WWDC keynote, Jobs also said that iAds are projected to account for 48% of all mobile display advertising in the second half of 2010. Add those numbers to the number of people taking more than a passing glance at the ads in publication applications and you’ve got a whole new ballgame. The recent news about Symbian users being the most-active ad clickers in the mobile space could easily read much differently a quarter from now.
To tide you over, until we get a snazzy photo carousel on the blog, check out these eye-catching pages from the latest edition of WIRED on the iPad:
Going Mobile 101
Wednesday, May 19th, 2010
It’s not enough to have great print or TV ads these days, hence the reason I have a job and am able to write this blog. It’s not even enough to have great print, TV, and social these days. In a time when everyone is walking around with a device in their pockets more powerful than the $4k Packard Bell (yes, you read that right) my dad brought home those many years ago, brands are scrambling to create an all-encompassing experience with users – a seamless brand agnostic of medium, screen size and location – and mobile is the last bit of that puzzle.
But, how do we go about creating a mobile strategy? What do we need to think about? Here are 10 steps to creating a mobile strategy that not only works for your brand, but that works for your customers/clients/and users.
01Know your targets
Paramount in any sort of marketing, but especially so in the world of mobile. Users are potential brand advocates and expect to be treated as such. Know the mobile habits of your targets and start there. Whether it’s online research, ethnographic research or good old fashioned observation, take the time to know your targets.
GigaOm recently posted a piece showing that Symbian users in the U.S. are 2.7 times more likely to click advertising on their mobile devices than Apple iPhone/iPod users. This simple fact not only is a bit of a blow to the recently-announced iAd platform, but it’s an important thing to think about when you’re looking at where to push your mobile ad buys.
Image courtesy of 02 Go local
While it will more-than-likely go the way of the buffalo, location based services (LBS) are an easy way for small and medium businesses to connect with regulars and create brand ambassadors through rewarding loyalty. Brands on the small-ish side have seen a great opportunity with LBS integration and promotion. Now, it’s easy to say “OMG, we should be on Foursquare because I saw all these articles and I know that’s what we need,” but truth is, it might not be. You need to first find out where your targets are and go there, not pick an LBS and hope they show up. Below are a few of my favorites:
Foursquare
Obviously this is the most widely-used location based service out there and brands are flocking to it trying to figure out exactly how they’ll use Foursquare for their brands. You couldn’t go anywhere at SXSW without hearing people talking about checking in, and this was in the town that birthed Gowalla. Brands like Tasti D-Lite, Lucky, and others are harnessing the herd power of Foursquare and quickly finding out best practices for the tool.
Download: iPhone – Android – BlackBerry
Whrrl
Seattle’s own LBS takes on the Foursquares and Gowallas of the world and does a pretty good job. Their focus on bringing connecting the virtual/mobile with the actual/physical is fairly interesting and their tips of nearby places make for a good night out. The experience is pretty fun and I feel like the tips and interactions within the actual UI are more useful than some other apps/services. Their only hurdle at this point is user base – it’s small (but growing).
Download: iPhone – Mobile Site
Gowalla
Austin’s own LBS tool found its way onto my phone when I was in town for SXSW, but I’m not going to lie, I stopped using it shortly after coming back to the PNW. It’s a fairly simple tool to use and worked well when I used it, I just don’t have that many friends using it.
Download: iPhone – Android – BlackBerry – Palm
Yelp
Probably one of the most “old school” of the LBS joints out there, Yelp is a great community filled with passionate users. If you’re able to harness the power of your loyal patrons/clients on this network, chances are you’ll do fairly well.
Download: iPhone – Android – BlackBerry – Palm
– Mobile Site
03Hedge your bets
The mobile world is still evolving (at the speed of light sometimes), so offering brand interaction points for users on multiple carriers, hardware lines, etc. means you’ll have an opportunity to grow user bases with a few options, not just one. If your user base is active in different areas of the mobile web, use testing and analytics to find the most-efficient ways of interacting with those fans and fully realize the ways they like to interact with your brand in those areas.
04Usability over message delivery
While the end game is always creating brand awareness, the mobile world isn’t one where constant bombardment with messaging is very welcome. While yes, some users expect to see a number of marketing messages a day from their mobile devices, they will respond better to great brand experiences with engaging content and excellent usability. It’s been said that content is king, and that’s definitely true in the mobile environment where you’re working with a pretty tiny space (when compared to other mediums). Bring your ‘A game’ in design and usability of your mobile properties and your users will reward you by taking that community to the next level.
05Sometimes there isn’t an app for that
Of course app developers and interactive agencies want to create a custom-built app for you – that’s their job. What most won’t tell you is that many times those applications aren’t necessarily the best way to reach your audiences, let alone keep them engaged. Bring your brand experience to their palms in all you do in the mobile space, don’t rely solely on a application.
06Actually have a strategy
I know this should’ve gone first, but I’m a big fan of keeping you on your toes. Creating a well-thought strategy for understanding and working for your communities in the mobile space means a better chance at success. Don’t build an app because it’s the hot thing to do or go around changing all your content for the mobile web until you’ve got a plan. Then, once you do…
07Let it run
The average time for a new mobile trend to catch on is between 3-6 months… and that’s talking about actual trends that have become “something.” Remember that putting your new mobile content out there doesn’t guarantee instant traction, regardless of the size of your existing social communities. Plan for success and manage for shortcomings in a time period that’s doable for your program, then take time to evaluate and move forwarded as needed.
08Extending, not creating
Ask yourself this with every piece of your mobile campaign “are we extending the brand?” If you’re not extending the brand, but trying to create something else through your mobile efforts, you’ll more-than-likely be sitting in a conference room some time down the road talking about why your mobile efforts fell flat. Using applications, mobile-driven campaigns and ongoing programs to extend existing brand image and community should be the goal.
09Keep innovating
The mobile world is like the wild wild West right now – wide open. What is hot today will be luke warm tomorrow, so keep a finger on the pulse of the mobile world. This makes sense, right? Sure, everyone wants to keep up with the mobile world so they can keep up with competitors – WRONG. Keep up with trends in use among your publics to see what’s next and move in that direction (even try to get out in front if you’ve got the resources).
10Don’t be afraid to fail
There’s nothing wrong with failing once in a while. Some of the best ideas have come after colossal failures and you can always remember that even the highest-paid major league baseball playings are getting paid millions of dollars to succeed only about 4 out of 10 times (a lot less if you’re talking about the Mariners). This rule doesn’t just pertain to mobile, but I’m willing to bet that there were a hell of a lot of failtures before there were monumental successes in the mobile world. Also, so I’m on a cool visuals kick today, check out this ode to failure at Portland-based Wieden + Kennedy.
In the end…
Mobile strategy is constantly changing and anyone tasked with running this area of ongoing marketing efforts has a heck of a job ahead of them, not to mention a lot of sleepless nights. As with any new/reimagined area of marketing and advertising, the mobile space offers near-endless opportunity heavily guarded by near-fruitless endeavors. The ability to track, know, and see what’s next is probably the best set of abilities any one person or group can have – and even these are changing.
Facebook’s Legitimacy Problems: Are You Who We Thought You Were?
Thursday, October 15th, 2009
A recent post outlined steps Facebook is taking in requiring page owners to prove their connections with the brands they represent on the ever-growing social networking site. What does this mean for agencies? What are the short-term and long-term impacts? How will this affect your brand? Let’s take a look.
Prove It
Facebook essentially is providing page owners three ways to verify that they in fact have rights to develop and maintain a brand page and they can be found here:
- Add a badge or Fan Box widget to your Website – This is simple, really and can be done by sending a bit of code to whoever is code monkeying your site. It also provides a great focal point for driving traffic to your Fan Page.
- Add an official e-mail address to your personal Facebook account that can be used to verify your affiliation with the brand (this can also be that of an authorized outside entity like PR, marketing, advertising agency, etc.) – This is easy if you’re a recognized agency, but a little harder if your roles are mostly behind the scenes.
- Add another admin who has a legit e-mail address – This is probably the easiest thing to do. Simply add your client contact to the admins of the page, giving you instant legitimacy.
The Agency
For agencies that are building and maintaining Fan Pages for brands in the Facebook environment, this could be a bit of a sticking point as they have to work out, with their client, the level of visibility they want to have as to who is actually doing the legwork. However, in most cases, a client contact is already (or should be) and admin of the page so they can not only lend their legitimate e-mail address, but also their watchful eye to the account.
The Short Term
In the short term, proving the authenticity of these pages is going to create a bit of extra work, but the short-term rewards greatly outweigh the time needed to get your stamp of approval (is there actually a stamp of approval?). Like with Twitter, brands have always been able to make a case for deleting unauthorized accounts based on copyright law, but now Facebook is taking that a step further and actually making it easier to drive out those pages which might be representing brands in a less-than-authentic fashion.
By simply claiming your brand pages and legitimizing them, you’re essentially eliminating those other pages and, in some cases, Facebook may fold those pages’ fans into your fan base, giving them a legitimate source of interaction on Facebook— and you a broader fan base— in one fell swoop.
The Long Term
Long term, this seems like a strategy by Facebook to not only cut down on clutter and misinformation within the Facebook environment, but also a move toward offering brands added benefits for operating within Facebook. Don’t be surprised if these Facebook Fan Pages start developing multiple levels of functionality and complexity based on dollars spent on Facebook Advertising and direct buys. The team at Facebook is smart enough to make a move when they see an opportunity like this.
Unanswered Questions
While this is still a new(ish) issue, Facebook needs to provide a bit more information around the topic of what this actually means for brands. Will verified pages show up higher in search results, regardless of fan base and searchability? What’s the lag time between reporting a brand page and action being taken to remove that page? What are the criteria for moving fans from a page that might not be verified to the verified Fan Page?
Hopefully we’ll have answers to those, as well as the mounting pile of questions that will undoubtedly come out of this shift.
SCG Co-Founder Clay McDaniel on Facebook Advertising
Wednesday, March 25th, 2009One of Spring Creek Group’s intrepid leaders, Clay McDaniel, has recently written a great article for MediaPost’s “Online Media Daily” section. For any of you out there looking to get your feet wet in the world of brand management and advertising on Facebook, this article serves as a great primer (and continuing resource) for you to rely on while you attempt to make the most out of the various resources and benefits that Facebook can provide you and your company.
Hey, we’d still recommend that you read the post even if we didn’t know Clay, so make sure you check it out.
Social Media Spending is Up
Wednesday, March 18th, 2009As things have progressively gone from bad to even more bad in regards to our country’s current ecomonic climate, more and more marketers have begun to take notice. Less value is being placed on the benefits of a high-powered advertising buy, and more emphasis and resources are being directed toward building lasting and effective relationships with one’s customers.
Forrester recently acknowledged this trend in a post that focused on social media’s ability to remain “recession resistant” in spite of the fact that most other current economic news and spending trends have been less than stellar. Included in that report is this following pie chart, which is a great representation of the post’s main point: 
These survey results, taken from the responses of 114 marketing professionals, help us confirm that more and more people are starting to grasp an idea that we’ve felt strongly about all along– the idea that social media is a great place to invest time and resources for a big impact at the bottom of the customer funnel, as it helps brands better connect with, understand, and engage their target customers for the long term.
Apparently, it’s becoming a pretty popular idea.
Associations
Monday, March 16th, 2009About Us
Our Team | Press | Philosophy | Ethics | Partners | Associations | Jobs
About Us
Thursday, February 19th, 2009About Us
Our Team | Press | Philosophy | Ethics | Partners | Associations | Jobs
Spring Creek Group is a rapidly growing Social Media Brand Analytics, Strategy, and Marketing Services Agency located in the Emerald City – Seattle Washington. We are comprised of passionate and experienced marketing professionals, and we employ subject matter experts in all of the major categories of the social media Web.
Spring Creek Group attends and speaks at a range of events. Find out more on our press page.
Clay McDaniel,
Managing Director and Founder
Clay brings more than 10 years experience in consumer product and services management, new product development, and technology marketing to the Spring Creek Group team.
Prior to co-founding Spring Creek Group, Clay was the Senior Director of Product Management for RealArcade, the rapidly-growing casual games consumer digital media business at RealNetworks, Inc. Clay joined RealNetworks after 2 years at Microsoft, where he helped launch Windows XP in 2001 and drove national retail and online marketing plans for the company’s flagship operating system software product. Before moving to Seattle in 2001, Clay worked as a Product Manager for enterprise “middleware” software pioneer Vitria Technology; as a Corporate Business Development lead at the Whitney Museum of American Art; and as a technology project Consultant for the retail and telecommunications sectors at Deloitte Consulting.
Clay holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and an AB in Economics from Princeton University.
Clay also speaks at a wide range of social media and marketing events. You can find out about them on our press page.
Our Team
Our team at Spring Creek Group consists of a growing group of Project Leads, Analytics & Measurement Leads, and Engagement Leads. Our titles don’t map to traditional marketing and advertising agencies, because our services and business model are quite a bit different than typical agencies. We are organized from the ground up to focus on our clients’ needs and driving brand insights and awareness in the social media channel.
SCG Was There: OMMA Social
Wednesday, January 28th, 2009Recently, some members of our Spring Creek Group team went down to San Francisco to mix and mingle with other like-minded social media pros, gain some insight into emerging social media trends, and learn more about what the future of this industry entails.
OMMA Social, a one day conference designed to help guide marketing and media professionals through the social media field, had an attendance of roughly 300 people. In a time when budgets tend to be tight, this impressive turnout shows the huge interest businesses and clients are taking in social media tools and new media channels.
The conference was emceed by Cathy Taylor from MediaPost, and included top name speakers in the online advertising and social media industry such as keynotes Angela Courtin, SVP Marketing, Entertainment & Content, MySpace and Chris Curtin, Vice President, Digital Strategy, Corporate Marketing, Hewlett-Packard Company.
