Clouds Aren't Just for Web 2.0

Can we treat old dogs new tricks?

The use of clouds to display information isn't just for tags and search terms. They are a useful metaphor for any repeated data. Typically a cloud represents the relative number of times a term is repeated by changing the size of the font -- think search or tagging. They become even more interesting when the color is used to measure another metric.

Here's an example of using clouds for lead generation based on TV.

The font size measures the frequency of airing spots and the red indicates the lead volume for that spot.

We can quickly see that the distribution of ads in the media plan is relatively flat (all similar sizes) but certain programs generate better lead flow.

The New Sticky Note

Where is text marketing valuable?

It seems that an under-appreciated value of text messaging from a marketing perspective is the ability to provide the consumer with a sticky note. Texting becomes the analog to jotting things down. Too often I see billboards with a long URL that I never remember or I'm in places where doing something else is not going to happen (like being in a theatre) and need a means to capture information.

The use of a short code to retrieve a reminder (phone number, URL, event, location) is an interesting approach.

I Don't Know Much

Why is there so much to learn?

I spend part of the rainy weekend catching up on newsletters, articles, and other general reading in the areas where I'm supposed to know a thing or two. Usually reading one or two emails a day gives me a glimpse into what others are thinking.

But running through 200+ in one sitting left me a) breathless, b) curious, and c) just a little dejected. There is simply too much going on at break-neck speed to ever hope to be 'on top of it'. Maybe this is why blogging, newsletters, feeds and other forms of communicating are becoming so much more important.

Now, to figure out the wheat and chaff.

Yahoo Widgets

Where's the beef?

Yahoo Widgets is a collection of functionality that are smaller than applications (applets??) and bigger than a snippet. There are thousands of them, kind of like tribbles, and I played around with the pretty little doodads over the weekend. On the one hand there are some very clever and elegant tools out there but as of today I don't see the killer application.

Not to mention installing them changed the behavior of my computer -- definitely not cool.

Worth checking out and following.

Innovation on Gilligan's Island

Why did the Professor and Gilligan succeed?

In a recent article Michael Megalli uses the analogy of Gilligan's Island to show the balance required between marketing and engineering to create innovative solutions.

The struggle to leverage both process and gut-feel is not just an issue with individuals but rather one of corporate culture since organizations take on the persona of their leaders. The risky part of all of this is that both points of view, while valid in certain times, are internal and lack the focus of understanding precisely what the customer needs done.

Who made a better customer: Mary Ann, Ginger or the Howells?

The referenced Booz, Allen, Hamilton report on global innovation can be found here.

Viral Marketing

Do viruses have sensibility (or branding rules)?

The debate over what makes a campaign interesting often ends up on those topics that restrict its spreading, not those that might accelerate it. For a campaign to sustain momentum the number of people reached in each succeeding generation must exceed the number who drop out.

In consumer packaged goods we might be concerned about repeat rate where successful products often have 'only' 40-50% of year-one buyers repeating the second year. Significant marketing effort is spent to both prime the pump with new buyers as well as limit the decay function.

Viruses kill their hosts. As a marketer I'm more interesting in keeping my customers alive and giving them the ability to leverage the message.

PowerPoints:
1. Marketing campaigns must be seen as beneficial by the host.
2. The message must reflect the host's point of view and reinforce their image among friends.
3. Control is a four letter word.

Lost in Transposition

Why don't these numbers add up?

The recent issue of Revenue Magazine has an article on fund raising for presidential elections. A number of the stats come from the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet. www.ipdi.org.


One slightly confusing table in both sources is the breakdown of online vs. offline donations, by amount, by age group. So, we have three sources of information but only two are shown in the chart.





Were 87% of the <$100 donors under 35? Nope.
Did 87% of the 18-34 crowd give <$100. Nope.

Of those who gave less than $100 and were between 18 and 34, 87% donated online.




The communication of information on the web has about 2.0 seconds to register. This example takes to long to register and runs the risk of being misquoted.

Aggitation 2.0

Where do I find what others are thinking?

There's an interesting collection of blogs on the impact of participation on what it means to be in the 'media' arena. The Media 2.0 Workgroup highlights general commentary as well as specific aspects like PR/Marketing, Tools, Content, Social Media, and Analytics.

They're looking for additional insight.

Marketing Defined

Should 'testing' be part of the vocabulary?

Marketing Experiments' recent article on email copy and the book "Selling Blue Elephants" both loosely define marketing as testing.

Marketing's creative mandate to change the status quo has always involved experimenting and sometimes even taking a flier but more recently that concept needs to be backed up with a show me the money attitude.

The article covers a variety issues around email copy ranging from format to natural vs. artificial offers.

For those with a market research background, the book covers the use of 'conjoint analysis' as a discipline for concept testing. Basically, let technology do all the heavy lifting around which combinations of ideas to test and how they perform together. There are lots of examples across all kinds of industries and marketing issues; like magazine layout, package design and politics. Although the term "RDE" (Rule Developing Experimentation) didn't quite sit well with me.

Spreading the News: Evangelism

What's worth reading?

While John Mayer might be "Waiting on the world to change" Guy Kawasaki writes on "How to change the world." Nice set of interviews and 10 questions with .... series.

"Statistics aren't inherently helpful"

Quick, is 10,000 good or bad?

As always the answer depends on the context. In the book "Made to Stick" Chip and Dan Heath make this point several times using a variety of examples like movie popcorn.

Usually I'd consider these fighting words, but they are in fact very true. Without providing both context and scale people can't understand a number or statistic. Successful communication of quantitative information depends on relating with the audience in their terms.

Ways to improve understanding:
What was it then and what is it now? "before the ...." or "in the age of ....."
How does it compare to a common task? "faster than a speeding bullet"
What does it mean in everyday terms? "more fat content than 3 hamburgers"

PowerPoints:
1. Never report numbers without their context.
2. Put data on a scale the audience relates two; usually personal and human.
3. Keep it Simple and Jargon Free

Using Key Words to Build Barriers

How do you turn a competitive field into silos?

Utah is still at the "forefront" of Internet legislation by creating yet another repository of protected things within the state's borders that need to be checked. This time it focuses on keywords, you know those terms used to link consumer searches with relevant offers, even comparative ones.

It seems that the legislature thinks giving consumers choice is a bad thing. It's unclear who can register terms but local companies like Overstock and 1-800-Contacts are in the mix. From the article:

"...if you type Overstock.com into Google's search engine, you will get sponsored links to SmartBargains.com, Buy.com and webspawner.com. Under the new law, Overstock could sue the search engine and the competitor if such ads show up in Utah-based Internet searches. "

For a legal review see Eric Goldman's comments.

If this prevails, are tags next?

News Coverage

Why are we so isolated?

In a post on "Notes from the Digital Frontier" Naomi discusses how news differs around the world. Well, it really just differs in the US.

I lived in England in the mid-90s and was just as shocked as Naomi appears to be today. So, while a lot of digital, content, 'death of distance' has occurred since 1995 it appears that the ratings chase for marketing dollars and bragging rights still rules the decision process on what to air.

What a shame.

The Importance of "Why"

Do we always need to know why?

Today's 'optimost' newsletter compares multi-variate testing first to American Idol and then NCAA 'March Madness'. It argues that the second comparison is more appropriate because of transparency and the wealth of information available about why Florida won its second straight national championship. American Idol is shrouded in mystery, although DialIdol and others make it more interesting.

From a testing perspective, March Madness is clearly champion-challenger or A/B testing. Two teams play, winner advances.

When it comes to peoples' tastes, prediction is difficult at best. In a study by Columbia University on teen downloading it was harder to predict the 'success' of a new song when the people could see the download rankings. Seems that there are a lot of interactions and some sort of gestalt that make books, movies, bands, etc. successful. Marketing is about leveraging and building momentum, not necessarily decomposing things into a billion parts.

Testing, and I highly recommend it, is not quite the same as measuring success. It is about improvement and validating decisions (assumptions.)

There are times when 'why' is important and there are times when it isn't.

The Ad Generation

What exactly is brand advertising?

Alexis Lloyd produced an interesting tool for generating ads --- he took real corporate slogans, mixed them up and added an image from Flickr to create imaginative ads that look, feel, and seem to be real. The project illustrates

'how the language of advertising is both deeply meaningful, in that it represents real cultural values and desires, and yet utterly meaningless in that these ideas have no relationship to the products being sold. '

The ad generator is interesting way to spark thinking, particularly about linking values with products.

Below the Belt

It is sad when blogging comes down to threats and personally offensive posts.

Kathy Sierra of "Creating Passionate Users" discusses the impact of personal attacks.

It hurts us all.

Marginal Returns of Perfection

What to do when some says 'ideally'?

Like an upside-down car, the costs of many items on a wish list out-weigh their value. In short, they turtle. There is a strong temptation to deliver on ideals, particularly when stated by senior executives. The result is often over-budget and under-whelming.

Ideals are rarely thought through enough to be thought of as requirements. They are just that - "A conception of something in its absolute perfection."

The features in the ideal category are often not worth the development effort to deliver. It takes a strong constitution and a fair bit of politics to convince people of this.

Understanding Search

Where can I find how people find my site?

Hittail is a tool for understanding search traffic put together by the folks at Conner Communications. It is elegant in its simplicity -- it takes search strings, parses them into key words, ranks them into the head and tail, and then makes suggestions about how to improve traffic to a site.

It's a hosted site and all that is required is placing a snippet of code on a site. Free for small sites, reasonable for the rest of the world.

Very useful indeed.

Effect of Brand Name on Lead Flow

When is a good thing too much?

Licensing brand names can be good for business; but it can also be bad -- particularly in pay-per-click models. A popular brand like 'American Idol' can work wonders on impressions and clicks but if the lead funnel isn't shaped just right one ends up with a very low conversion rate. The result: extremely high cost-per-sales that risk eroding any or all margin.

Tuning lead flow for brands that attract interest is quite different than generating leads for either targeted, niche or new brands. It turns out you don't want to buy the brand name, you want to buy what the product provides and use the name as leverage. Yes, you get fewer clicks but the guys in finance like the numbers better.

Remember: the product benefit is what ultimately sells.

Marketing 101

At the sound byte level, content and advertising are the same.