Return on Marketing Divestment: When Is It Time to Let Go?

Marketers today need to prove ROI. But, too many focus only on the “return,” without paying close enough attention to where these returns originated, the “investment.” That’s unfortunate, because murky marketing spend is no longer acceptable –and even worse, it’s now a recipe for disaster. These days, a sound strategy is essential. Marketers must use technology and analytics to consistently track performance, identify the most profitable channels and optimize the marketing mix to drive revenue.

After all, there is no one-size-fits-all approach. What works for B2B may not apply in the same way to B2C. Likewise, there will be differences between industries. And, even within the same company, channel optimization is likely to change over time. We’re going to have to stay on our toes, ready to evaluate, execute and evolve.

Recent study results prove my point. Lauren Freedman and the e-tailing group asked 110 retailers how they are likely to allocate their 2012 digital marketing budget. The retailers identified paid search (30 percent), email (18 percent) and SEO/natural search (11 percent) as their top priorities, but they also indicated they would shift these allocations in response to changing dynamics in today’s marketing landscape. In fact, survey respondents said they would tweak SEO, social, email and behavioral marketing the most.

Shifting budget to targeted communications across the most cost-effective channels is smart strategy, and companies are testing the waters on new approaches. Earlier this year, The Grocer published its Top 100 advertisers report showing that Coca-Cola cut ad spend by 6.6 percent in 2010 and invested more in social media. This fall, Anheuser-Busch InBev beefed up its efforts to engage with Bud Light customers across social media platforms, too.

Am I suggesting that the shift toward social marketing is inevitable?

The Five Words That Make Marketers’ Brains Hurt

The marketing industry is in the midst of transformational change –both internally and externally –and at times, it may seem like it’s impossible to keep pace. Take a minute to clear your head. Here are five words I know give CMOs headaches, along with my advice to help ease the pain.

1. Big Data

Large data sets – aka, “big data” –are here to stay. As McKinsey explains in its report from earlier this year, each second of high-definition video generates more than 2,000 times as many bytes as required to store a single page of text. Video is only one example. Intelligent chips, tags, text, Tweets … they all leave digital information trails about how we communicate, what is important and how we are interacting with our world. “In a digitized world, consumers going about their day –communicating, browsing, buying, sharing, searching –create their own enormous trails of data,” the report says.

Getting your arms around all that information is a challenge, but once you do, it’s incredibly empowering. Because of the data generated by today’s digital strategies, marketers now can apply the same scientific discipline and metrics to marketing that are applied to all other areas of business. Marketers can automate, analyze and measure marketing processes to ensure maximum business value. Clearly, marketing isn’t just art; it’s science, too. And there’s no doubt that going forward, harnessing and mastering big data will lead to competitive advantage and growth.

2. Integration

Channels have multiplied, and consumers now can access more touchpoints with your brand than ever before. But, don’t let all these new possibilities overwhelm you.

Are Corporations Giving Up on Social Media?

Terms like “blogging,” “tweeting” and “liking” are continuing to gain traction in the lexicon of the marketing industry –or so it seems. New research from the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth shows that the use of blogs, Twitter and Facebook among the Fortune 500 actually leveled off in 2011, and the results have me wondering: Are the nation’s largest companies giving up on social media?

The study, which focused on public-facing social media use of the F500, found that adoption of blogs, Twitter and Facebook in 2011 appears to have plateaued, with no significant change in the past year.

Here is just a small sampling of the findings:

Blogs. About one-quarter (23 percent) of the 2011 F500 have corporate public-facing blogs with a post in the past 12 months. That’s up from when UMass-Dartmouth first studied corporate blog use in 2008. Back then, only 16 percent of F500 companies had blogs. But, blog adoption rates among F500 companies have been relatively flat ever since, with 22 percent in 2009, and 23 percent in 2010.

Twitter. Well more than half (62 percent) of the 2011 F500 have corporate Twitter accounts with a tweet in the past thirty days –but that’s only an increase of 2 percent from last year. Interestingly, all the top ten companies in the 2011 F500 are tweeting. And, overall, about half (49 percent) of the Twitter accounts belong to the top 200 companies on the list; about one-third (34 percent) belong to those ranked in the bottom 200.

Facebook. Fifty-eight percent of the 2011 F500 have Facebook pages. Last year, the researchers from UMass-Dartmouth found 56 percent were on Facebook. As with Twitter, about half (48 percent) of the Facebook accounts belong to the top 200 companies on the list, while 35 percent belong to those ranked in the bottom 200.

It’s also worth noting that this year’s research discovered that 31 percent of the 2011 F500 still have neither a Twitter account nor a Facebook presence, at all.

What’s going on?

Finding Common Ground Between the MLB Fan Cave, the McRib and Patagonia’s Buy Less Initiative

I’ll admit it. It’s not often that I mention Major League Baseball (MLB), McDonald’s and Patagonia in the same sentence .  .  . or even in the same paragraph, for that matter.

But this fall, I’ve really been struck with how each organization in this unlikely trio is scoring big from a marketing perspective. Each one, in its own way, has mastered the art (and science!) of market segmentation and customer engagement.

The MLB Fan Cave

Located at the corner of 4th and Broadway in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village, the MLB Fan Cave has been home to baseball fan Mike O’Hara and his Wing-man Ryan Wagner for every day of the entire 2011 MLB season. The two were tasked with using the Fan Cave to watch all 2,430 regular season games (plus all post-season games) while chronicling their experiences and sharing their viewpoints through Facebook, Twitter, a blog, custom videos and regular appearances on MLB Network.

As we discussed at the Aprimo blog last week, the results have been quite impressive. According to ESPN, this first-of-its-kind immersive fan experience helped MLB connect with a younger audience. (The average Fan Cave fan is 28 years old; the average die-hard MLB fan is 45). In addition, the MLB Fan Cave has generated:

Getting Social and Making Offers – At a Conference, in Real Time

Consumers today are bombarded with marketing messages, and they’re  tuning most of them out. (I know I am!) So, it’s becoming increasingly important to make sure your offer is relevant. It has to engage. It has to deliver value. As always, one of the best ways to do that is to present the right buyer with the right offer at the right time. But, that task, too, is quickly becoming more challenging than ever before.

How do you identify the right buyers? Can you possibly create right offers for each one? Now that there are so many channels to consider, where do you find your right buyers? What role does social media play? How can you know when it’s the right time for them to buy?

For marketers, the questions continue to multiply, and these days, your answers can mean the difference between a successful campaign and one that’s simply ignored as part of the fire hose of digital data.

Fortunately, new integrated digital marketing solutions can help you design a campaign that resonates with today’s empowered consumers. We’re learning that combining analytics, social media and IMM software creates more impact and a better customer experience overall –because that customer experience is informed by insightful data.

At Aprimo, we borrowed the name from one Teradata coined in 2010: The Socialization of Data. And, earlier this month, we put some of our theories to the test . . . in real time at an event with  nearly 4,000 attendees . . .  Really!

Here’s what we did:

How Tags Are Revolutionizing Digital Marketing

The excitement surrounding intelligent 1:1 marketing continues to grow.

Ever since my posts here last month (see The Next Big Thing for Marketing and The Role of NFC, QR Codes and Microsoft Tags in Intelligent 1:1 Marketing), my inbox has been flooded with positive feedback and questions from colleagues wanting more information.

As a result, I’m more convinced than ever that marketers are ready to take digital marketing tactics to the next level.  We’re ready to combine the digital and physical worlds so we can present customers with better, more relevant (more “intelligent”) offers on a 1:1 basis.

Of course, one of the first steps in any transition like this is to start gathering knowledge. Marketers need to educate themselves about this updated approach.

I have a great suggestion to help you begin that process: Take the time to listen to Scan It Baby! How and Why Tags Are Revolutionizing Digital Marketing, a free webinar that aired last week.

The hour-long presentation features Paul Cunnington, Director of TAG Product Management, Startup Business Group, Microsoft Corporation and Dave Motheral, Director ISV Alliances at Aprimo, and it is jam-packed with information, use cases, business impacts, best practices –all centered around using mobile tagging to create richer customer experiences.

Here are just a few nuggets from the webinar that I found particularly informative:

The Five Key Traits of Empowered CMOs

Marketers are beginning to adapt to the realities of today’s empowered customer. Armed with high-tech mobile devices and backed by legions in their social networks, there’s no doubt that consumers now can flex their buying muscle in new ways. They can gather product information, read reviews, comparison shop, solicit opinions, ask for customer service and eventually, buy –all whenever and wherever they choose to do so.

But, what’s happening at the other end of the purchasing spectrum? Aren’t today’s CMOs more empowered than ever before, too? Or, don’t they at least have the potential to be more empowered than ever before –if they choose to rise to the challenge?

According to the dictionary, the word “empowered” means invested with power, control or official authority. Clearly, buying behaviors have changed forevermore, and consumers control the marketplace in new and exciting ways. In many respects, marketers are still playing catch-up, still learning to tame the latest channels so they can be used to better connect with our target audiences, still finding their place in the C-suite, still maturing into key corporate decision makers.

Will there come a time when CMOs also feel as empowered as their customers?

Here’s how I see it. Today’s CMOs will feel empowered as strategic thought leaders when they fully accept the challenges going forward and realize that new authority goes hand-in-hand with new responsibility. For example, for me, the empowered CMO:

The Role of NFC, QR Codes and Microsoft Tags in Intelligent 1:1 Marketing

Marketers typically define the word “trigger” as some kind of measurable change in customer behavior or a specific action, event or dialogue that influences a customer response.

When discussing intelligent 1:1 marketing, however, triggers take on a completely new dimension. Let me explain . . .

Last week, I introduced you to this formula for intelligent 1:1 marketing:

Intelligent 1:1 Marketing = Mobile Devices + Triggers + Social Media + Point of Sale Data

In this context, trigger refers to a physical prompt that:

•     Opts your customer into the sales experience at that moment in that location
•     Gives you location-based data on your customer so you can drive new deals

In other words, the trigger functions to integrate mobile, social and local. For now, marketers should be thinking about two broad categories of intelligent 1:1 marketing triggers:

•     Near-field communication (NFC)
•     QR codes, Microsoft Tags

As Google demonstrated earlier this week with the launch of Google Wallet, NFC has enormous potential.  (See this Ars Technica article for a re-cap.) Not only will marketers benefit from the “closed loop” NFC can provide; consumers will benefit, too. As Google explains on its website, eventually Google Wallet will be able to conveniently store and sync payment cards, loyalty cards, gift cards, receipts, boarding passes, tickets . . . even your keys.

The full promise of NFC won’t be realized for several years, though. It will take time for NFC to be widely adopted by the public and for the technology to be installed in consumer mobile devices. Also, retailers will have to implement NFC readers at all points of sale.

So, at least for now, it makes sense for most marketers to turn their attention to triggers such as QR codes and Microsoft Tags.

Please, don’t let yourself get stuck in a rut, believing that QR codes and Microsoft Tags are nothing more than hi-tech links to a company URL. (That kind of thinking is so Web 1.0!)  Remember, the key innovation here is that triggers like QR codes and Microsoft Tags can now be attached to loyalty management systems, offer management strategies, data warehouse systems, etc.

The Next Big Thing for Marketing

It’s time to put the full power of technology behind a marketing concept that’s as old as commerce itself.

For eons, merchants have benefited from focusing on customer preferences. Even for early traders, it was clear that remembering details about your customers’ likes and dislikes enhances transactions and builds customer loyalty.

About fifteen years ago, marketers started using the term “one-to-one marketing” (or 1:1 marketing) to describe a CRM strategy that emphasized this kind of highly personalized interaction.

Then even more recently, technology and social media platforms added digital dimensions to 1:1 marketing tactics. Marketers started tracking customer behavior and engaging with their customers and prospects online in increasingly personalized ways.

But now, it’s time to ratchet it up and update the concept once again.

As I see it, the next big thing in our industry is going to be intelligent 1:1 marketing.

Here’s how it breaks down for me.

Going forward, it won’t be enough to know that a certain customer bought a shirt from your store last month or that they “liked” your brand’s Facebook page last week. Going forward, marketers will need to combine and analyze these data points plus others, from a variety of different resources, in real time.

Sure, you’ll still want to know about that past purchase, the more recent social media engagement, etc.  –but you’ll also need to integrate that data with even more information. Perhaps most important of all, you’ll want to know when that customer is in your store, considering a purchase. Then, you’ll be able to put all that CRM data to work. (Does your customer want another shirt like the one she bought last month –according to warehouse records, there are plenty more left in stock. Does she know that slacks to match are now on sale? Etc.)

Think of intelligent 1:1 marketing as a strategy defined by this simple formula:

Can Bud Light Score With Its 2011 NFL Season Multi-Platform Campaign?

When the NFL 2011 season kicks off this Thursday night, football fans will be tuning in to watch the last two defending Super Bowl champions, the New Orleans Saints and Green Bay Packers, battle it out at Lambeau Field.

But, if you’re a savvy marketer, you may also want to tune in to see what’s happening with the league’s new beer sponsor: Bud Light.

At an estimated cost of $50 million a year for six years, the coveted “official and exclusive” beer sponsorship gives Anheuser-Busch InBev several significant benefits. As noted in a press release, Anheuser-Busch can use the NFL shield and other logos in Bud Light advertising and retail displays. Plus, it can use select NFL footage in promotions.

I’m curious to see how Anheuser-Busch combines all these elements to deliver what I’m anticipating will be an intriguing case study in multi-platform, integrated campaign management.

AdAge says Anheuser-Busch has several ideas in the works, ranging from tv spots and innovative store displays to new packaging and a 60-city Bud Light Fan Camp designed to challenge consumers to compete in traditional and non-traditional football skill tests (the winners earn a trip to the Pro Bowl).