Super Bowl Ads – Effective or Not?

Posted by: Kirsten Taylor // February 1st, 2012

I’m not the only one who watches the Super Bowl just for the ads, and companies know it. At the Super Bowl this year, a 30-second spot is going to cost $3.5 million, and according to the Brand Keys Super Bowl Engagement Survey, about half of the ads will fail to engage customers, drive positive behavior or sales, or build the brand.

According to Media Life Magazine, companies with $3.5 million to spend on a 30-second spot probably have a high awareness to begin with, and are seeking innovative ways to achieve this awareness.

However, wthr.com warns that brand recollection still needs to be a priority. For example, last year’s Darth Vader commercial was highly discussed but because it sought to entertain, very few remember the brand. (Ahem, it was Volkswagen).

@KirstenETaylor

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Canadians Cynical of Advertising

Posted by: Liz Mortek // November 30th, 2011

According to a new poll by the Gandalf Group on behalf of the Canadian Advertising Standards Council, A whopping 89 percent of Canucks are “very likely” or “somewhat likely” to stop buying a product if advertising around it is untruthful.

The study noted that 57 percent of Canadians report having followed through on this promise. Conversely, according to the survey, only 36 percent of Americans claim to have stopped buying a product because of untruthful advertising.  So what can we have to learn from this?  If your company is thinking of expanding to Canada, consider telling the truth, EH?

@EMortek

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PR vs. Advertising

Posted by: Liz Mortek // November 14th, 2011

Any PR professional can tell you that they have struggled with trying to explain to their friends or family what it is exactly that they do.  We write articles, but are not the author, we organize interviews but are not on TV and as the Bad Pitch Blog points out, a common response to why we are doing this is “why don’t your clients just advertise in the publication because: PR and advertising are the same, right?” Wrong.

Many share these misconceptions because advertisements are familiar to them and PR is not.  As the article states, our friends and family definitely see that when a company wants people to know about a product or service they buy an ad in a magazine or piece together a TV commercial.

PR however paints a bigger picture of the product, service or issue at hand, feels more organic, and is about education.  Our job is to teach the media and the consumer about a differentiator they are not aware of. We communicate with editors and reporters and bloggers and podcasters to get them to tell our client’s story, provide knowledge so our target audience can make decisions without explicitly selling to them, versus the goal in classic advertising.

@EMortek

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RH Study: Are QR Codes Effective for Marketing?

Posted by: admin // October 24th, 2011

Russell Herder Research QR CodeQuick response (QR) codes – those black-and-white symbols one can scan with a smartphone – have become a ubiquitous marketing tool in the United States, appearing in a wide variety of traditional and digital media. To research the marketing impact and efficacy of QR codes, our team at Russell Herder surveyed consumers nationwide to understand their familiarity with these symbols, interest in scanning them and satisfaction with what they receive in return. While it’s clear there is potential for this technology, marketers could learn from what prospective buyers are saying.

Download our recent white paper, The QR Question, to read the results of this study, as well as considerations for more effectively deploying the device in communications outreach.

For more insight on this topic, see some of the coverage this study has received and articles where the research was cited:

Adotas
QR Codes Get Bigger and Bolder

Agency Spy
Friday Odds & Ends

Biz Report
Consumers getting little reward for QR Code use

Marketing Charts
See the charts.

Marketing Vox
QR Code-based Advertising May Be Getting Too Complex

Chances are a Consumers’ First Experience with a QR Code Will Not Be Good

MediaPost News
Is QR Worth the Trip? Consumers still unsure.

The Pulse Network
Pulse on Marketing interview with RH CEO Carol Russell

Response Magazine
Better Consumer Understanding Needed to Maximize QR Codes’ Effect

Retail Pro
Using QR codes in a meaningful way

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Offline Advertising Still Matters, A Lot

Posted by: Neil James // January 13th, 2011

It seems, as marketers, we spend more time than we should on the trivialities of online marketing, fighting to stay ahead of the curve. How exactly should a Tweet be composed? How can we incorporate Google ShinyNewTool into our marketing plan. But as Tac Anderson reminds us in an article for New Comm Biz, The Most Mind Blowing Internet Statistic, less than 30 percent of the world’s population is online, and 20 percent of the United States’ population does not access the Internet. Furthermore, according to Nielsen Three Screen Report in Q1 2010, TV viewership has never been higher and 96 percent of retail activity is still done in a store (thanks to the Ad Contrarian for aggregating the facts.) It’s important to remember that marketing mediums not based on pixels such as print, radio, television and guerilla still play a critical role in reaching consumers and combining multiple channels into a sum greater than its parts is a key component to extracting maximum ROI.

@NeilAndrewJames

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The Aging Social Media Landscape

Posted by: Mark Palony // December 22nd, 2010

If you’re a marketer who has stayed away from using social media because your target was born before 1970, it’s time to re-evaluate your decision.

According to a The Faces of Social Media, a recent study conducted by Knowledge Networks and MediaPost Communications, the use of social media grew by 22 percentage points from 2009 to 2010 for people 46-65 years old. Seventy-six percent of baby boomers now use Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, LinkedIn and the like compared to last year’s 54 percent. Simply put, the people in the most lucrative demographic are not just paying attention to what their kids – and grand kids – are doing, they are now actively participating.

If you are sitting on the sidelines, this new study should have you thinking seriously of getting into the game and exposing your brand to your market in a whole new environment. And if you’re looking for some quick-study resources that will help you get started, we are happy to provide several  Relevance Compass blog posts under Google, Facebook, and Digital Marketing to name just a few tags.

There is money, and lots of it, to be made using social media as a marketing vehicle. It’s time to jump in and claim your unfair share of the market.

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Price Will Bring Them In, But Will It Bring Them Back?

Posted by: Mark Palony // December 17th, 2010

Given the current state of the economy, there is a strong temptation to put your low, low price at the front of the advertising cart. After all, consumers are looking for a way to shave a few dollars off their spending and leading with price might seem the customer-friendly thing to do. But in the world of business trade-offs, emphasizing price might do more harm than good to your sales. A recent MarketingProfs article makes the case, offering five reasons price should not be the lead in your advertising story, regardless of economic circumstances.

The two most compelling arguments are embedded into a point about the danger posed to brand loyalty:

  1. New customers are not likely to become long-term customers, having bought only for the deal
  2. You may alienate established customers who’ve been buying at the not low, low price and risk the chance they will not do so again

Striking the proper balance of price versus benefit and customer acquisition versus retention is difficult in good times, exacerbated in bad, and, ultimately, necessary at all times. There is no correct, or static formula to achieve this balance. Rather, they are just two more considerations, continually revisited and revised as necessary.

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Ad Networks vs. Branded Content: Where Should Your Online Ads Be Placed?

Posted by: Neil James // April 26th, 2010

Dart-board

What can we learn about marketing from a story involving a college visit and a homeless man stationed at an on-ramp? More than you’d think, says Charlie Tillinghast in an article for Advertising Age, Want Your Online Ad to Perform? Try Buying Some Good Content. According to Tillinghast, many marketers find branded content sites and ad networks nearly indistinguishable platforms for deploying their online ads – a critical mistake. Tillinghast cites an Online Publishers Association study which states that ads on quality content sites had significantly greater effectiveness in driving purchase intent, brand awareness and other marketing metrics.

@NeilAndrewJames

Image Credit – SpaBusinessMD

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Key Elements of a Social Media Policy

Posted by: Neil James // August 11th, 2009

Should employees be encouraged to use social networking to enhance marketing outreach? Or will such activity impede productivity in an already tight economy? And what about reputational risk? These and other questions are clearly on the minds of every C-suite executive.

Recent research we undertook with our friends at Ethos Business Law found eight in ten businesses have concerns about the potential liabilities of social media. Yet, only one third have a policy in place to govern social media use, and just nine percent said they have conducted relevant employee training.

Instead of ignoring the need for responsible guidelines, organizations of all sizes should begin to define their strategy regarding social media, and most importantly, the rules for employee engagement. By doing so, management can take advantage of the benefits offered by these new communication channels while mitigating undue risk. But remember, social media is a far different animal than traditional technology. A company’s current policies on IT matters are usually not sufficient.

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Companies Remain Uncertain – And Do Little – About Potential Risks of Social Media

Posted by: Neil James // August 6th, 2009

Social media has become a fixture on communication agendas across the country, fueled by the fact that Americans’ spent 73 percent more time on such social networking sites in the past year alone. But according to a new survey, social media use is also generating its share of corporate heartburn.

Recent research we conducted along with Ethos Business Law confirms that confidence exists in social networking as viable communication outreach, but so do worries about the potential liabilities involved. Concerns regarding social media use were acknowledged by some eight in 10 businesses participating in the national study, which was conducted over the month of July. Fifty-one percent fear social media could be detrimental to employee productivity, while almost half (49%) assert that using social media could damage company reputation.

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