It is common practice in the business world to “test the waters” before embarking on an entirely new direction.  New products will be “soft launched” to determine if there is enough consumer interest to warrant wide scale distribution and advertising support. Companies invest heavily in research to be able to bring products and services to market that will be successful.

In the advertising arena, magazines often produce different cover pages for the same issue to see which attracts the best pick up rate. Brands will shift ad dollars between markets or media channels to see if there is any change in performance.  Creative messaging is tested before, during and after campaigns.  These are all sound business practices.  The one place however, a business should not dip its toe without being prepared to get completely wet, is the social media pool.

Consumers have been trained to expect instant gratification when it comes to the digital world.  Facebook and twitter create the expectation that the “voice” behind the hash tag or wall is active 365/24/7.  So if you are not prepared to manage the conversations in real time, you need to carefully evaluate how using these tactics will help your brand be successful.

You are inviting your consumer to engage in a conversation with you.  You need to have something to say, something that is relevant and will give them a reason to stay engaged.

So before you dive in it would be worth doing a bit of research on how not to use twitter along with some great tips on getting the most from your facebook page.

Apparently the majority of Canadians are still watching TV in ‘real time’ – i.e. during the originally scheduled broadcast.  The Bureau of Broadcast Measurement Canada (the Canadian TV ratings measurement bureau) reports that for the 2011/12 broadcast season to date, the level of playback (PVR usage) represents only 2% of the total viewing hours.  This is consistent across all key age groups (and also reflective of Atlantic Canada’s viewing patterns).  It’s good news for advertisers – viewers only have the ability to skip commercials while they are viewing television in playback mode on their PVR’s.

Are you surprised by this?  Why is playback so low when PVR usage is growing (albeit at a slow but steady rate)?

One very important reason is social media.  Remember my little anecdote about The Good Wife and how I wanted to chat about it with my friends?  I think that’s the key – people don’t want to be left out of the conversation.  Well, social media has provided us with a forum to share our thoughts, jokes, critiques, etc. on our favourite shows.  In Deloitte’s predictions for 2012, they expect the majority of television viewing to continue to take place in real time.  They cited social media as having taken online discussion and commentary on programs beyond the living room and into the global community.

There are companies in the U.S. who rank programs that are the most ‘social’ – i.e. are sparking the most conversations across the social media stratosphere.  One such company, Trendrr, partnered up with Advertising Age to come up with the top social TV non-event programs of Fall 2011.  The number one network show in the U.S. was X Factor and the number one cable show was WWE Raw (!).  The same company also trended the top event programs of 2011 – guess what topped the chart?  A few hints: Princes, fascinators, Pippa…

A similar company has emerged in Canada called SeeVibes – currently they are only measuring French programming but will take on English programming in the near future.  In a recent analysis on social media and TV, SeeVibes found that Twitter is the most oft used social network for real-time TV, while Facebook is more often used to continue the conversation after the program is over.

Television networks recognize that social media is keeping them relevant and are taking advantage by inviting people to engage with their programming – during last year’s federal election, viewers were invited to tweet through the evening and those tweets showed up on our screen.  American Idol and The Voice also make use of social media.  Communications companies are making it even easier for us to socialize while watching TV – Bell Aliant (disclosure: a client of ours), just introduced a new Facebook app for its FibreOp TV customers – using a remote control, customers can access Facebook right on their TV screen.

What does all of this mean for advertisers? At the very least, it means that we should follow the social TV trends and be sure to incorporate those programs that are consistently coming up in the top 10 social program rankings.  They may not always have the largest audiences but you can be sure they have the most engaged audiences.  From a message standpoint, perhaps including a trigger or incentive within your message to encourage social discussion or tailoring your message to the content.

What shows do you watch in real time?  What shows do you like to chat about most with your friends?  Are they one and the same?

Well, there are a number of reasons.  For one: talent fees. Companies airing their commercial do not want to pay the extra fees to have it air across the border.  Second, Canadian Networks pay for the rights to air the Super Bowl and make their money on the ads. The CRTC (Canadian Radio-Television and Telecommunications Commission) requires that “upon request by a Canadian broadcaster, the cable or satellite provider must switch from the American signal to the Canadian feed so that the Canadian commercials are visible and the broadcasters’ rights deals are upheld” [Source: crtc.gc.ca].  Finally, we live in a bilingual country, so all packaging needs to be in French and English (even when shown on commercials). This is another added cost that advertisers do not want to bear.  Even though a 30-second spot on Canadian television is a lot less than a 30- second spot on American television: $3 million vs. $130,000, advertisers do not want to pay the extra production to have it air in Canada.

Fortunately for us there is this thing called the Internet, so we can watch all Super Bowl ads regardless of where we live.

Catch the full line-up of the 2012 Super Bowl commercials here.

How do they compare to the Best Of from 2011?

It was personal because our own excellent woman (Donna Alteen) was receiving an award that recognizes her courage, vision and compassion.   At an age when most 20-something’s were just starting their careers, Donna was starting her own business.  Not because she wanted to get rich.  But because she had the vision to see an opportunity gap in our market and she wanted to be able to contribute to her community on her terms.

But perhaps more importantly, it was inspiring.  There was a young woman who stood alone at the podium and shared her life story with hundreds of strangers.  Imagine the courage that would require for any one of us.  Homeless as a teenager after years of personal struggles and unimaginable challenges, this young women was able to realize her true potential because Phoenix Youth exists.  It is the courage of people like her and the compassion of others like Phoenix Youth that reminded me that each person is unique and has the potential to be amazing.

Thank-you Halifax Cornwallis Progress Club and Phoenix Youth for reminding me what is important in life.

A video wall was installed in a NYC subway station tunnel during the NYC Marathon.  The wall housed a countdown and challenged passerby’s to race against a video of marathoner and Olympic athlete Ryan Hall that appears as though he’s running through the station for 60 feet.

The experience was then filmed and the mini-documentary was posted on YouTube resulting in an impressive 519,000 views to date.  It was an instant hit with race fans and news media.

So why do I think this installation is smart?

Location – Why try to take the ‘build it and they will come’ approach when there are plenty of places where people mass organically…like the NYC Subway.

Context – It has to make sense and be positioned for maximum association. In the ASICS example the installation occurred during the NYC marathon and the activity mirrored the objective; fitness (and selling shoes, of course).

Impact – This one’s pretty self-explanatory.  Build it big, make it wow and render it interesting. ASICS’ installation combined sheer size, interaction, exercise and art in one fell swoop.

Participation to the Max – Can you answer the question – why would someone bother?  In our ever busier lives it takes something really fun or clever to sway the crowd.  ASICS made it fun; after all subway riders have to walk down that hall anyway, why not dare to challenge Ryan Hall?  And the engagement continued off site and online; the video became a pretty great little piece of social video marketing.

On a final note not one person was able to beat Hall to the finish line 60 feet away.  And Hall himself showed up in person to race himself.

This is a very volatile survey with most markets seeing shake ups in the top 3-4 stations despite no new formats or stations.  There is good news and bad news for most station owners, with gains in some markets offset by losses in others.

Big winner in Halifax is LIVE 105 which held its own in the very competitive Adults 25-54 demo and gained nicely against its core target of 18-34. Despite most Halifax stations losing ground, due primarily to a decrease in overall hours tuned, Q104, C100 and KOOL FM remain the top 3 stations.  Q104 is the clear market leader, after years of 2 guys and a gal, their testosterone filled morning show has found its groove.

Moncton gets rocked as perennial market leader C103 continues to slide allowing K945 to make huge gains. With the rest of the market seeing losses, only time will tell if this is an anomaly, or a true increase in listeners for K945.

Fredericton’s FRED FM must be pleased with second place at the expense of The Fox, whose rock format takes a tumble.  But like Moncton, Fredericton is a market that will need to be watched to see if The Fox’s audience has truly moved on or just taking a break.  Unfortunately as Fredericton is only surveyed each fall, this will be a long wait.

St. John’s continues to mix it up with all stations except OZFM seeing gains, but rankings shift around.  The top 4 stations are all close in audience numbers, which means a deeper station list to get good reach and frequency.

In Charlottetown, Newcap’s decision not to be surveyed in spring 2011 allowed them some latitude when the MBS stations lost audience and Newcap sold on fall 2010 numbers.  However, this approach may have backfired as both Newcap stations see losses and former market leader KRock tumbles to third place. Big winner in Charlottetown are the MBS stations.

Local radio remains a solid channel for Atlantic advertisers, it offers news and information, especially important as we head into the winter season and need to know when the snow is going to fly.  Because of the shifts in tuning it is important to have a good station mix to ensure any audience movement is minimized during your campaign.

Source: Fall 2011 BBM, Adults 2554, All Week AQH (000)

QR codes, or 2D barcodes, offer consumers a way to interact with a brand at the click of a mouse, no wait… at the click of a picture; with your Smartphone, of course…

How many people are actually scanning you might ask?  7.8% of Atlantic Canadians scanned a QR code in the past month, most scanning from a printed magazine or product packaging [source: comScore Sept 2011].  According to Search Advertising Research, 4% of magazine readers in the US who saw a QR code in a magazine took a picture [source: GfK MRI].

If you had 100,000 readers of a magazine and 4% clicked on your ad, you have a captive audience of 4,000 highly engaged and interested consumers. So you better do a darn good job of engaging or providing “value add”. I mean these are 4,000 people who are looking to interact with your brand and if the experience falls flat you’ve wasted their time and an opportunity to engage. When you consider other types of engagement campaigns that marketers spend thousands of dollars on in the hope of capturing attention, you can never guarantee interest. But with QR codes you have that opportunity. If I’m clicking, I’m interested – what an opportunity for advertisers and sales people alike!

Some clever executions?

As an inventive way of getting yourself noticed for free in the world of Google, some businesses are applying a larger than life version of their QR code to the top of their building – then when they are Google mapped, perspective clientele can interact with the brand!

I’m also a huge fan of the “designer QR code” – let’s spice up those big ugly bar codes a bit. For the launch of a True Blood season they used a unique take on a 2D code:

And my personal fave? A recent campaign executed by the publishers at Glamour Magazine, I believe points us into the future direction of QR codes.  Glamour is offering print advertisers a way to extend brand experience beyond the printed page. In the September issue new social “snaptags” were offered to advertisers looking for ways to generate more “likes” on Facebook. The program allowed participating advertisers to use the “social snaptags” on their in-magazine ads.

The app was developed and facilitated by Glamour and provided the advertiser, TRESemme, with a simple, low cost means of entry into the world of hyper linking/QR codes. The codes were activated by over 100,000 readers or 4.2% of the issues paid circulation. 50,814 Facebook “likes” were generated, proving readers were engaged with the print to mobile experience. Glamour’s next step for the codes will be to offer ecommerce, creating a print experience one snap away from purchase ability.

Some advertisers believe QR codes to be a fleeting fad, but I think that hyperlinks are here to stay – if more publishers take a page out of Glamour’s book and provide a means to advertisers to extend their offering into multiple channels they are bringing incremental value to a seemingly one dimensional experience.  The key lies in the experience beyond the click and how the advertiser provides a value to the consumer for taking part.

I’m going to end with one last execution –what do YOU think of QR codes on tombstones as a memorial to the deceased?

I welcome any comments or feedback. In addition, if you’re looking for Atlantic Canadian or Canadian mobile research stats – feel free to reach out.

What makes Toms shoes stand apart (besides being insanely comfortable) is their approach to cause marketing; for every pair of shoes purchased they donate a new pair of shoes to a child in need.  This strong tie between brand and cause has been hugely successful for Toms.  How do I know?  Mari-Beth and I visited every Tom’s retailer (no exaggeration) in Vancouver and San Francisco and the pair she wanted was sold out in each and very one of them!  Don’t worry, I’ve already been declared husband of the year for my exceptional patience during this shopping extravaganza.

Of course for every good example there is a bad one.  The Pepsi Refresh Project is an initiative to award $20 million in grants to individuals, business and non-profits that promote a new idea that has a positive impact on their community.  On the surface this is a great idea; it shows that Pepsi is socially conscious and engaged to make positive change in areas that matter to consumers.  While this is an awesome philanthropic undertaking, as a cause marketing campaign, it fails.

Experts say that in order for a cause marketing campaign to be successful there must be a connection between the brand and the cause.  For Toms shoes it’s very easy to see this.  They sell shoes; they give away shoes to people who need them.  For Pepsi this connection is not as strong, but I can see a case being made that the connection is still significant.  Pepsi is refreshing and they are looking for new refreshing ideas to improve communities.   Where Toms shines and Pepsi misses the mark is a direct connection with a third entity; the consumer.

Pepsi left out a two key questions when planning their cause marketing strategy:

• How does a Pepsi purchase impact the cause?
• How does the cause impact the consumer’s decision to purchase Pepsi?

Conversely, by tying the donation directly to the purchase, Toms has empowered the consumer.  When someone buys a pair of Toms shoes, they know that their purchase decision has made a direct positive impact to a child in need.  That’s a powerful feeling to leave with your customers and a major incentive to purchase Toms over another brand.

Toms and Pepsi are perfect illustrations of how understanding consumer psychology is imperative to the success of any marketing or advertising initiative. Rather than assuming who your audience is, conducting an in-depth consumer profile will ensure your advertising campaign is properly targeted and resonates with people who buy your product.

And to help make life easier, developers are churning out apps at a fantastic pace.  The most recent count has over a quarter of a million Android apps, 400,000 iPhone apps and over 90,000 for the iPad.

There is an app for everything these days.  If you want to keep an eye on your kid as they hang out in the mall – “there’s an app for that”.  Locating entertainment, finding a job, banking; pretty much everything and anything has an app attached to it. But how much is too much?  Just because an app gets downloaded does not mean it gets used. In a recent eMarketer.com survey, only a handful of apps were used regularly by the majority of tablet & Smartphone users.

Apps are designed to make life easier, and who doesn’t want their brand to be seen as helping their customers. However, app development is not an inexpensive proposition, and chances are if you have thought about it, so has someone else.  The opportunities to create the next “Angry Birds” app are few and far between.  So before putting out a call for an app developer, marketers should undertake a search of what is currently out there and look for opportunities to work with existing platforms.

Not all apps are created equal, so make sure that the application has relevance to your customers and is built on a sound business case.  Some of the sillier apps I have come across recently include:

• An app to turn your phone into a baby monitor which will call a pre determined phone number – not your mobile obviously, because your mobile is now sitting beside the crib – hopefully no one else is trying to reach you while the baby is sleeping.
• An app encouraging folks to open up their bathrooms to complete strangers for profit.  The “CLOO” app is designed to create a network of like minded folk who are willing to allow their “friends” access to their bathroom for a small fee.  Seriously?  Why not just leave your door unlocked all day long, put a sign on the lawn and sit back and wait to be robbed, or worse.
• An app that turns your iPhone into a knife and plays the theme from Psycho – Apple pulled this one days after it was released because of a series of teen stabbings that occurred in the UK.

So make sure you do due diligence, think about your brand, your objectives and most of all, how to create a helpful/entertaining and relevant experience for your consumer.  And just maybe “there’s an app for that”.