customers; loyalty, return, growth

Can you fill in the blanks?  Hints: It’s representative of a coveted demographic.  It integrates music, entertainment and has “cache”.   OK, “iPhone” and “he advertised on Pandora.”  In this case “he” is Planet Honda – tastemaker dealership in midtown Manhattan.  As reported in the NYTimes online, he left (media spending on) terrestrial radio years ago because he felt it cast too wide and expensive a demographic net.

But attracted by Pandora’s ZIP-code targeting, he spent $10,000 to advertise on the service in January.  IPhone traffic to his Web site — which he attributes to the ads — more than quadrupled, Mr. Feinstein said, and so he increased his spending to $15,000, then $20,000.

“A light bulb went off,” he said at Pandora’s party, holding a glass of wine. “We don’t need to buy five radio stations. We can buy one.” This has been a common complaint from media buyers for decades; buying radio – all about how deep, reach/frequency etc. high CPM etc.

Then there’s the Chevy Sonic that launched without any traditional media at all.  The “let’s do this” digital campaign  that dynamically used music, apps, games, entertainment, video and events  resulted in one of Chevy’s (GM’s) most successful launches ever.  

So you may ask “why?”  In part, the shift in budget is due to a more effective, efficient buy:  ”At the end of the day, the client budget isn’t growing; in some cases it’s shrinking,” said Dave Marsey, a senior vice president at Digitas, part of the Publicis Groupe. “You’re seeing dollars move from out of terrestrial and into more accountable, targetable channels.”

In a hotly competitive automotive business that is eliminating traditional media at every turn; a business that is selling more and more vehicles to consumers who have not test driven or stepped foot inside a dealership prior to purchase;  whose consumers visit multiple websites and research their vehicle digitally – other advertisers will do well to take note to this media buying trend!    For a “chuckle” – read the NYTimes article’s last line on how a  traditional media “seller” responds.    Guess “traditional media” did not hear that fat lady sing…on Pandora.

“100% of ticket sales benefit local music education“   or “100% of donations to support events” – with  no salaries.  No paid board members or directors.   That’s what I like to hear.  You too?   It’s great to support our favs.   The call to action here – get your company (more) involved, your brand (more) involved and you – have (more) fun!  

Enjoy my favs!

Starbucks 17th Annual Hot Java Cool Jazz  show to once again delight Seattle-area jazz fans, as the region’s top young musicians come together for a special show at the Paramount Theatre. Proceeds from the night’s performances benefit the music programs of the participating schools. Since 1995, Starbucks Hot Java Cool Jazz has raised more than $250,000 for participating schools’ music programs.   And Irish Week - by non-profit Irish Club of Seattle entirely with volunteers – actually it’s about a month long featuring, to mention a few events:  Irish Soda Bread Contest held at TS McHughs Irish Pub & Restaurant, Irish Week Proclamation lunch at FX McRory’s kicking off the activities with past notables such as Guinness heir (he was super popular), the Mayors of Seattle’s sister city Galway, ever present Mayor, Seattle’s Finest SPD Asst. Chief Paul McDonagh and the Irish community!  There’s  Irish music at almost every event by locals such as Uilleann Piper Tom Quinn, Irish Dancers Baile Glas  and the Irish Film Festival (this year extending with a  Sept 2012 Festival date!).  Sports with the St. Patrick’s Day Dash and the  Seattle Gaels Kick-Off with their very own March Mayhem.  Fundraiser upon fundraiser.

So what’s a brand to do?  Matching funds, donate volunteer workforce, ticket sales, co-brand, the usual sponsor, fuel through social media, through email marketing.   You know, you do it best; be creative! 

So we’re wrapping up First Quarter 2012, economy is looking brighter, summer’s coming – let’s put the pedal to the metal and fuel those local events this year.  There’s always time – they always need our help!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!  Cheers!

Start-up is monetizing?  No? Say it’s not so!  They’ll ruin it for the others!   Well according to Josh Davis LLSocial that’s exactly what this “en fuego” social net is up to.   Here’s a summary FAQ and read on for where’s the $ and the benefit for business (fasten your seatbelt).  Pinterestis a “virtual pinboard to organize and share the things you love.”  It’s about images/video – sharing organizing and liking.   There are categories – many – so if you collect and/or are an enthusiast (recipes, baking, cars, wedding, shoes, etc. etc.) you simply “pin” organize and share the “things” you love.   For more about it go to pinterest.comand /or see Josh’s explanation. How are they monetizing?   Affiliates payment.   Tagging the links, the click-thrus are paying big according to Josh.

Pinterest  makes the connection – the “silver bullet” that Broadcast advertising has been trying to obtain – connecting broadcast with interactive since the web was born.  Product Placement > Buy it instantly.   Check out these numbers from Josh:

Pinterest is now driving more traffic to the Real Simple web site than Facebook . (Link)

Warbly Parker, the hip but inexpensive eye glass retailer, reports that 11% of their social traffic is coming from Pinterest. 18% from Twitter. (Link)

What’s more – it will be a goldmine in terms of marketing trove:    Qualitative, quantitative bonanza.  Audience segmentation and corresponding research.   Conversions not just “clicks.”    Beyond the affiliate cash flow  that Josh speaks of:  it will be a meteoric rise with “legs” for ad business.   Request an invitation from Pinterest.

Target in social media, in email marketing – these are among the greatest influencers and the greatest opportunity to engage customers.   Both social and email close the loop for a transaction.  So a super New Year’s resolution for your customer and your digital marketing is to target.  Consider this:

Social Media leaders Twitter, Facebook, Linked-In and Google+ all offer audience segmentation to a finite degree.

Landing pages are not just for websites!   Create a social media landing page in Tiwtter and Facebook:

http://developers.facebook.com and http://business.twitter.com

Then use vendors such as Exact Target for email and social that offer an integrated “HUB” that can allow highly targeted deployments in Social and Email Marketing.

  .  To further audience segmentation, you may find it useful for multiple social accounts for different brands and targets to keep the relevancy.  The email drives traffic, however you need a robust tool to schedule and manage the multiple social accounts with multiple administrators.  Try CoTweet.

This is a New Year’s resolution that will be easy to keep – when you see your ROI sky rocket, customer retention improve and brand loyalty increase.  Cheers and all the best to you in 2012!

So the holidays were good to you, right?  Company is doing better?  To finish up the year or start off 2012 strong – take a visit to Charity Navigator – what Kiplinger’s claims to be numero uno on their list of charity review websites:

So if your company provides employees the “perk” of a volunteer outing, or looking for a partner in cause marketing in 2012  – or you just want to “give back” on a personal level – Charity Navigator is described by Kiplinger as “ rates more than 5,000 charities, making it the first and best stop for would-be donors”.  Visit Charity Navigator.

First, it’s all about adding video, photos and integrating this.  It’s about navigation, aggregation and really “on the fly“.   The is a reason why Twitter is fastest moving Social Media  Network (see my previous post).   Twitter is happening now.  The search capabilities on subjects, conversation and what’s happening is lightening fast current.  

You can look at how Marketing Vox describes the Twitter Let’s Fly or this is how Twitter describes it:

Home:  this icon is where all the “tweets” reside – those who the user follows reside in this area.

Connect: to start a conversation.It’s the place to see who has followed or mentioned you, retweeted or favorited one of your Tweets.

Discover (aka hashtag): Discover lets you tap into a stream of useful and entertaining information, customized just for you.  Basically to find out what’s happening use that hashtag!

Me Tab (aka profile):  The new profile section puts you and your interests front and center. Others can Tweet directly to you and view your lists, favorites, followers, photos and more. The Me tab is also where you can stay current on your direct message conversations.

Speak Up Button (yup that’s where you tweet): Click on the new Tweet button and instantly send your message out to the world.

So what’s really cool is for Android and i-Phone these changes are continued into the Twitter app.   It’s all about integrating photos, video and other content that makes the world go ’round.     

In my opinion, this is the killer app for 2012.