With the UEFA European Football Championship just around the corner (it takes place from the 8th of June to the 1st of July 2012 in Poland and the Ukraine), it is very interesting to take a look at the marketing strategies of the leading brands in the sports equipment industry.
I recently read a very interesting article in FORTUNE magazine (yes, the traditional printed version) about "Nike’s new marketing mojo". The article reports about a top secret division at Nike's headquarters that has been created with one ultimate goal in mind: to engineer a revolution in marketing. And this revolution takes one of the "world's greatest marketers" that has always had a massive presence in traditional media channels like print and TV, to a new and very online focused marketing approach.
As discussed in class, companies are shifting larger stakes of their marketing budget into online marketing. In this regard it is noteworthy that Nike has cut back its spending on TV and print advertising in the U.S. by 40% in three years, even with its total marketing budget reaching a record high of 2.4 billion USD in 2011. In 2010 the company spent almost 800 million USD on nontraditional advertising (including SEM, SEO and social media), a number believed to grow in 2011.
With a series of newly introduced products – like the performance-tracking wristband called "FuelBand" – that enhance the sports experience through collecting and providing the user with data on his workouts, the world's largest sports company (sales reached 21 billion USD in 2011) has access to a vast amount of data about its users, enabling the company to interact with its consumers through personalized websites and mobile apps more closely than ever before. The company is replacing its one size fits all traditional advertising campaigns with a "repertoire of interactive elements that let Nike communicate directly with its consumers". At recent global events like the 2010 Football World Cup the firm debuted its legendary ads not on TV but launched the films on Facebook and other websites, generating a viral effect with global impact.
The already mentioned "FuelBand" is another good example for Nike's new approach: While I have not seen any traditional commercials about the new "FuelBand" yet, Nike's efforts in the digital world made me watch this short-film that was inspired by the product's claim "Make it count". The film instantly went viral on Facebook and already has more than 5 million views on Youtube. What a great way to introduce a product and generate buzz about this new Apple-style gadget.
From my point of view, it makes a lot of sense for Nike to focus on the digital channels because it gives one of the biggest consumer brands a personal touch again. To be able to interact with a brand on a customized level will be one of the most important parts of future marketing plans.
Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts
Sunday, May 6, 2012
Companies quit blogging. How about targeting Millennials?
Recently I have read an article in USA
Today “More companies quit blogging, go with Facebook instead”[1].
The article revealed that more and more companies tend to quit using blogs as
one of their marketing tools at the favor of traditional social media sites
such as Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr.
As indicated in the research of the
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth[2] the
number of top companies being involved in blogging activities dropped from 50%
in 2010 to 37% in 2011. The study further reveals that only 23% of Fortune 500
companies kept up with a blogging in 2011. On the contrary, this number was steadily
rising in previous years. 2011 was, thereby, the first year when the figure
remained flat. The reasons why blogging does not seem to appeal as a useful
marketing tool to businesses include dropping consumers’ interest in blogging
at a favor of social media sites.
The Pew Research Center[3] revealed
in their study that in 2010 the percentage of adults between 18 and 33
(Millennials!) interested in blogging dropped by 2 points in comparison to
2008. OkCupid, for instance, whose blog has been graded as one of the 25 top
ones by Times magazine[4] stopped
updating its content in April 2011. Thus, companies tend to shift from blogging
towards social media sites as they believe they can reach more customers there.
For instance, a spokesperson of Bank of America, T.J. Crawford stated that they
stopped using blogs as marketing tools since they preferred to focus on their social
media strategies as the company “(…) want to be where our [Bank of America]
customers are”. Customers are reached faster there and more data on them is
obtained.
Companies have a tendency to fail making
blogs attractive to consumers as, as indicated by Lou Hoffman, CEO of the
Hoffmann Agency, and information displayed there tends to be dull as they
attempt to use blogs for informative purposes rather to create a band
community. Such an approach is a missed opportunity for some companies who
could use blogging for (1) generating leads or (1) creating more brand loyal
consumers especially from the Millennial Generation.
Millennial Generation, called by Nick
Shore[5] in his 2012 MTV study “Generation Innovation”,
are people born between 1980s and 2000s. Born with the presence of the
Internet, these are creators, entrepreneurs and innovators that have a deep
desire to connect with their fellows through forums, festivals, happenings,
co-working spaces and others to fulfill their relatively strong need of
belonging and sharing ideas. They are tech-savvy and impatient. In the
interview, Shore mentioned that they “have a lot of emotional heft”. The way to
market them is to create messages which are “meaningful, quick and shiny”[6].
Indeed, social media addresses all these aspects. Since the Millennials are
aging, they are likely to get jobs with higher disposable income which makes
them more affluent and more valuable to businesses as they can spend more on
their goods[7]. With
Millennials of being a part of a group, blogs pose opportunity for marketers.
This is as blogging could further feed these consumers with emotional data
(emotional marketing, so e.g. anything related to causes) to create a brand
community which they would value and become loyal to. This, however, could be
of a benefit if the content of such blogs would be indeed meaningful and shiny
to them.
References:
[1] Yu, R., 2012. More companies quit blogging, go with Facebook
instead. USA Today. Available at: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/story/2012-04-19/corporate-blogging/54419982/1
[Accessed on May 5, 2012]
[2] University of
Massachusetts Dartmouth, 2012. Latest news. Available at: http://content.usatoday.com/topics/topic/University+of+Massachusetts+Dartmouth
[Accessed on May 5, 2012]
[3] Keeter, S., Taylor, P., 2010. Millennials: A
portrait of Generation Next. Paw Research
Centre. Available at: http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/files/2010/10/millennials-confident-connected-open-to-change.pdf
[Accessed on May 5, 2012]
[4] McCracken, H., 2011.
The Best Blogs of 2011. Time. Available
at: http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2075431_2075447_2075478,00.html
[Accessed on May 6, 2012]
[5] Katz, J., 2012.
Exclusive Interview with MTV Insights on Generation Innovation with Nick Shore,
Future Trends LinkedIn Group. Post
from April 24, 2012. Full interview available at: http://megamashup.tumblr.com/post/21713959127/exclusive-interview-generation-innovation-with?utm_source=LI&utm_medium=NMM&utm_content=BL&utm_campaign=MMMFT04242012
[Accessed on April 24, 2012]
[6] Millennial Marketing,
2012. To engage Millennials, Be Meaningful, Quick and Shiny. Available at: http://millennialmarketing.com/
[Accessed on May 5, 2012]
[7] Brand Amplitude LLC,
2012. Look Who’s A Millennial Now. Marketing
to Millennials. Available at: http://www.brandamplitude.com/blog/item/look-who-s-a-millennial-now?category_id=18
[Accessed on May 5, 2012]
Friday, April 27, 2012
The Ongoing Debate of Quality versus Quantity
"Don't be the one to allow your clients to confuse "community" with social media. Marketers too often mistake tweets, follows or pins about their brand as validation that they are building a community." Anthony Del Monte (Ad Age)
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| Source: Istock, 2012 |
I recall this being raised quite a few times in our lectures by Mary Lou Roberts, and it rings so true. We need to remind ourselves, "it is not about me" ... "it is about you (our customer)". Measuring how engaged we are with our customers needs to be paramount.
Read the article by Anthony Del Monte (Ad Age) Click Here This article outlines this much more succinctly then I.
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There are some good measuring tools I've come across including HubSpot's Marketing Grade.
Has anyone found any other tools they'd recommend?
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