SOCIAL MEDIA: 136.38 Reasons To Love Your Likes.
ShareTuesday, July 27th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Smart marketers invest in social media — specifically, the development of communities of passionate followers — for a lot of reasons intrinsic to the success of their brands. Engagement. Involvement. Reward. Satisfaction. Loyalty. Referral. And while there’s obviously great value in this type of customer relationship, putting a price tag on a social media “fan” has proven donkey-tail elusive. Until now.
According to an extensive study by the research firm Syncapse of more than 4,000 Facebook followers of 20 national brands — including Coca-Cola, Nike, Blackberry, Nokia, Victoria’s Secret, Starbucks and McDonald’s — the average “fan” is worth $136.38 to its brand. How so? Let us count the ways:
1. Brand followers will on average spend 33% to 250% more annually than non-fans.
2. Brand followers are 28% more loyal than non-fans.
3. Brand followers are 41% more likely to recommend and refer than non-fans.
NOISE has championed social media since almost day one — and embraced its potential with the development of Vwallah! Social Media and QwickClick Online Videos. And while each brand’s fan value may of course vary, knowing you can always default to research and multiply your legions by $136.38 per person should be welcome news to innovative marketing directors — as well as nay-saying bean counters.
SOURCE: NOISE, Syncapse, Gigaom
MARKETING: Experience and Satisfaction vs. Nickels and Dimes — What Would You Choose?
ShareSunday, July 25th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Great brands rock because they succeed at providing exceptional customer experiences and satisfaction. Great brands also rock because they succeed at convincing customers that the value provided is greater than the price charged. But what happens to that brand when it “nickels and dimes” its satisfied customers to almost laughable extremes? And what would you choose to do — abandon the brand, or accept the pocket-change-mentality surcharging?
Case in point: AirTran Airways.
You may disagree with me (and you probably will), but I love AirTran. They satisfy my business travel schedule with more non-stop flights. Their fares are low. Their online reservations process is a breeze. Their online ticketing process the same. Their fleets are new and clean. Their flight attendants are generally very positive. And heck (depending on whether you think it’s a plus or a minus), they were the first to market with in-flight internet.
But here’s the nickel and dime rub, and it’s moved beyond luggage. In my experience, there exists not one seat on any AirTran flight that doesn’t come with a surcharge. Front, rear, aisle, window, middle, exit row, within sniffing distance of the lavatories, it doesn’t matter — now that you’ve booked your flight, you get to pay again to sit down. And last I checked, sitting down is mandatory on U.S. air travel.
I applaud AirTran’s ability to get away with this and still not really irritate me. It speaks volumes for their brand’s overall positive experience, satisfaction and price-value relationship. That’s a goal every brand should strive to achieve regardless of pricing structure. But what would you choose — to reward the exceptional brand that is all about money (so to speak), or abandon ship?
SOURCE: NOISE, John Sprecher
CREATIVE: Whatever It’s Worth.
ShareMonday, May 17th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
As we’ve written here before, NOISE North hosts a garbage can in our conference room, a shiny receptacle that stands as our symbol of the value of award-winning advertising, interactive, social media, public relations or any other brand communications — without results.
So last week, when NOISE South had the great pleasure to share with a number of our outstanding clients the exciting news that four of our creative efforts this past year were judged worthy of “Regional” Addy Awards — three more than any other agency in Southwest Florida, and hot on the heels of our local 19-Addy-awards 2010 performance, which included two Best of Show Awards and a Judges Choice Award thrown in for good measure — we announced the news with a low-key memo simply entitled: “For whatever it’s worth.”
For the most part, the reactions of our clients were what you might expect. Excitement. Praise. Hearty congratulations. Then, we received a note from a client leader whom we’d describe as the “toughest sell” of this award-winning group. To paraphrase his message: “What’s it worth? I believe it translated into positive sales for us.”
We wrote the words “for whatever it’s worth” because even today, given the delicate state of the economy and the incredibly high value of every marketing dollar that you will spend, there are still many marketers who fail to understand that the better the message in, the better the reaction out — unlike the all-too-common very opposite of this that we see all too often in advertising today, which is: garbage in, garbage out.
So to our clients, congratulations on your award-winning work. We’re extremely pleased you see the value in them, in the truest business sense of the word.
SOURCE: NOISE
E-MARKETING: How to Keep Yours E-ffective.
ShareWednesday, May 12th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
There’s a growing uneasiness among some marketing “experts” that the halcyon days of e-marketing are in the rear view mirror. They fear that we’re tuning out due to the daily onslaught of e-solicitations, welcome or not, that find their way into our in-boxes. They opine that we’re turning instead to more social brand interaction alternatives, particularly Facebook “like” pages, for our communications.
While we at NOISE don’t disagree with those sentiments, we’re also clearly in the camp of the majority of marketers profiled in MarketingSherpa’s 2010 “Email Marketing Benchmark Report” who — by a three-to-one margin — remain convinced that the effectiveness of e-marketing continues to increase, rather than decrease.
However, we’d add a number of asterisks to our e-marketing cheerleading, which include:
* Your Message Better Be Branded. You spend a lot of money and energy to build your brand. So empower the architects of that brand — be they agency or in-house — to build your e-marketing campaigns, too. It doesn’t cost exponentially more to have a fully-integrated, cohesively-branded e-campaign. And the results in opens and clicks will far outweigh the production cost.
* Your Message Better Be Valuable. We’re not just talking about value-driven offers here. We’re talking about value-driven content of all kinds. The point is, whatever the editorial agenda of your e-campaign, make sure it provides the kind of interest value that will compel your consumers to open it, engage with it and act on it.
* Your Message Better Be Motivating. Obvious point? Perhaps. But the most effective e-marketing is the kind that provides multiple points of interaction for the consumer — a discount here, a value-added there, an opportunity to win here, an opportunity to share there.
Done right, e-marketing remains highly effective. Done wrong, e-marketing is a waste of money. How are you doing yours?
SOURCE: NOISE, MarketingSherpa
MOBILE: Where the Web Is Headed.
ShareWednesday, April 21st, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Four years from now, where will the majority of us hop online?
If Morgan Stanley analysts are correct, more users will access the Internet in 2015 via mobile devices than our computers.
Impossible, you say? Or at the very least, hard to imagine? Not really, when you consider the widespread acceptance and exponential growth of smart phones; the proliferation of faster 3G mobile service, combined with affordable pricing; and the rapid rollout of innovative and exciting new mobile applications, technologies and uses.
From its introduction in June, 2007 via the iPhone and iTouch, mobile web in less than three years has become the standard for anywhere and anytime access to friends, games, video, entertainment, shopping, sharing, mapping, research, wireless home appliances and much more tomorrow. In fact, the average iPhone user today spends less than half of his or her on-device time making phone calls!
As the landscape changes for web marketers, the challenges will be many. But so are the opportunities. So charge up your smart phone now.
SOURCE: Morgan Stanley, Mashable, NOISE
SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook Goes Sally Field-Like.
ShareMonday, March 29th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Clearly, one of Facebook’s most brilliant strategic moves in its amazingly brief (only since 2004) yet consistently brilliant corporate history was the decision less than two years ago to move its social media model into full-blown business tilt, with the introduction of the “Fan” page with its ubiquitous “Become a Fan” button and lexicon.
In that time, innovative marketers everywhere have jumped on the Fan bandwagon, grabbing and retaining thousands of passionate, vocal consumers who are engaged with their brand, hardly shy about sharing it with others, and motivated to visit their favorite websites and up the value (perceived or real) of social media marketing.
But now, along has come a radical new marketing initiative that Facebook is betting brands — or at the very least, Sally Field — will like, really like. It’s new nomenclature and a new option for consumers to “like” a brand instead of “fanning” it. According to Facebook, people are more than 200 percent more likely to click “Like” than “Become a Fan” (which effectively rested in peace on Monday, April 19, 2010).
One month into the changeover, the early returns suggest that once again, Facebook has chosen wisely. To date, more than 10 million new users have joined the FB ranks, and more than 10,000 brands have adopted the “Like” button.
If you’re an innovative social media marketer, stay ahead of the changes ahead and how you can, like, use them to your advantage.
SOURCE: NOISE, Mashable, MediaMemo
PUBLIC RELATIONS: Toyota or Tiger?
ShareWednesday, February 24th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
As public relations case studies go, Toyota and Tiger are clearly two of the more interesting train wrecks to come along in some time.
Toyota, of course, is mired in staggering damage control — including a nine-million-vehicle recall, a mass media mea culpa ad campaign, and testimony (coming later the very day we write this) by the corporation’s chief executive officer (and founder’s grandson) in front of a United States House of Representatives investigative committee. Gazillions of dollars of losses, lawsuits and lost consumer confidence are surely to follow.
And Tiger? Whatever your opinion of the public’s ownership of the private matters of a private citizen, the golf icon’s well-orchestrated chat up was almost an OJesque moment in America — with millions of us breaking away from what we should’ve been doing to get in front of a television or online stream, and millions more in endorsement potentially on the line.
Clearly, these are public relations fiascos of classic (and unfortunately in one case, apparently deadly) proportion. And while PR strategists inside their brands and around the world plot (should that be plod?) the best way out of these messes — or simply entertain debate, as NOISE was invited to opine by a media resource recently — these constants, as we see them, remain:
1. If you make a mistake, admit to it honestly.
2. If you make a mistake, admit to it immediately.
3. If you make a mistake, admit to it sincerely.
SOURCE: NOISE
Web Development: Going From Click A to Click Z.
ShareWednesday, February 24th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
If one of your major initiatives this marketing year is launching a new web brand, NOISE Inter.Active would like to share our “NOISE 5.0 Process” that can help ensure your success:
NOISE 1.0: Begin at the End. The first question you need to ask is: what must my new web brand accomplish? Are we an experience and transaction site? An information and engagement site? An engagement and lead generation site? All of this? All of something else? Define your desired user experience and end results, and you’ve defined your goals.
NOISE 2.0: Set Your Site. The shortest distance between two points is a straight line; the same can be said for clicks. At NOISE Inter.Active, this is simply called the Site Architecture — a multi-leveled, content-, technology- and marketing-interface-specific flow chart of your site’s superstructure, and search engine optimization strategies and tactics.
NOISE 3.0: Bells and Whistles. What new, exciting, effective, engaging marketing and social media elements should be integrated into your site to help optimize your website, enhance customer engagement, generate the desired response and foster customer loyalty? Make sure to include this creative discussion as part of “NOISE 2.0″ above.
NOISE 4.0: Brand New, Brand True. For more and more businesses, your web brand is your front door. Make sure that every consumer walking through that front door is greeted with a smile and a welcome that reflects your brand and the many other consistently integrated elements of your brand campaign — while directing them to the next door they want to access.
NOISE 5.0: Kick the Tires. When your site is close to launch and ready for beta testing, invite a focus group of likely consumers in for a couple of hours of tire kicking. Watch as they leisurely and easily steer through your site, or careen out of control and crash into the bushes. How they intuitively interact and engage with your new web brand is the true measure of how successfully you’ve navigated Click A to Click Z.
SOURCE: NOISE Inter.Active
DIGITAL: If You App It, They Will Come.
ShareTuesday, February 23rd, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Just a couple of months ago, Apple announced that its App Store (the “largest application store in the world”) surpassed 100,000 apps available for free or purchase — and that, since launch, consumers have embraced the technology by downloading more than two billion apps to their iPhone or iPod.
With more than 20 categories currently represented in the App Store — including business, travel, health, news, sports and reference — it’s clear that the app game has moved beyond simply games.
At NOISE, we’re in development with three unique app projects for clients. And while we can’t divulge these secrets, here are a few things to consider, when considering whether an app is appropriate and useful for your consumers, and potentially even profitable for your organization:
1. Do you possess multiple offerings of experiences, services or products? Ideally, an app integrates your brand into one attractive, enjoyable, cool, easy-to-use, hand-held interaction for mobile audiences.
2. Are your experiences, products or services enhanced by providing your audience mobile access to them? That may seem obvious, but the point is: apps aren’t for everyone. Think about how your audience interacts and transacts with you, and whether there exists or would exist a demand for mobile technology.
3. Is there an audience beyond your core audience? Marketers in tourism, travel, health care, retail and other industries can often attract consumers beyond their core audiences through apps that provide (duh!) a useful, valuable service that doesn’t currently exist.
There are 100,000 apps out there already, but there’s still a lot of territory to be marked, marketed to and profited from. Get on it. Now. And if you need a hand, pick up your cell to click, call or text us.
SOURCE: NOISE
SOCIAL MEDIA: Facebook Ages Gracefully.
ShareTuesday, February 23rd, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Facebook is just for kids.
If you’re a marketer who continues to have this impression about social media and, specifically, Facebook — well, you just haven’t been paying attention recently. And shame on you.
Over the past 12 months, Facebook’s total U.S. audience has grown approximately 145%, to 115 million members or so — or more than one out of every three persons. That’s remarkable.
But for marketers seeking to target adults 25-54 years old, the numbers are even more overwhelming and exciting. Growth in Facebook’s audience within this demographic has increased 300% by another 37 million “friends,” to represent almost half of all Facebook users. And lest you jest that the 55-years-plus group is too weak of sight to view the monitor, or too arthritic of hand to peck at a keyboard, this demographic showed the greatest Facebook membership growth in 2009 — over 900%, totaling almost 10 million older adult members.
Still think Facebook is just for kids? Still think Facebook isn’t for you and your marketing success?
SOURCE: NOISE, istrategylabs
VWALLAH!: This Stuff Works.
ShareMonday, November 23rd, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
What’s your opinion of social media? Are you an evangelist? A believer? A doubter? A nay-sayer? What if I told you that done strategically, creatively and professionally, social media can:
- Extend and Elevate Your Brand
- Create Brand Ambassadors of Your Loyal Consumers, and Create New Converts From Referred Consumers
- Help Mold and Improve Your Brand Via Dialogue and Feedback
- Be Measured, Quantified and ROIed
- Serve as an Outstanding Market Research or New Product or Service Development Resource
- Drive Traffic to Your Website (Sometimes Becoming a Top-Ranked Referral Source)
- Help SEO and SEM Your Website
- Help You Build Databases of Loyal Users
- Help You Better Understand Consumer Keyword Preferences, Making Your Online Marketing More Effective and Efficient
- Create a Community of Users Loyal To Your Brand Who Share Your Story Through Thoughts, Images, Even Videos
- Create Sales
- Create Profits
Done strategically, creatively and professionally, social media possesses the exciting potential to become a vital branding, marketing and sales tool for virtually any company or organization. It’s true. This stuff works.
Introducing Vwallah!, the exciting new social media marketing service from NOISE that’s rocking the worlds of innovative marketers across the United States in travel, tourism, destination, health care, retail, real estate, special needs and other industries.
These clients will tell you. It’s true. Done strategically, creatively and professionally, Vwallah! — this stuff works!
Interested in learning what’s up our sleeve? Contact Vwallah! Social Media Guru Alex Fernandez at 239.395.9555 or email him today at alexf@make-noise.com.
SOURCE: NOISE
SOCIAL MEDIA: What Can Indiana Jones Teach You?
ShareMonday, November 23rd, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
I was recently watching an “Indiana Jones” installment and found myself wrapping my head around one of Indy’s one-liners, about a half hour into the movie: “If you wanna be a good archaeologist, you’ve gotta get out of the library!” In my many conversations with clients and associates about social media marketing, it seems this quote would serve most people well.
You see, the number one question I’m asked in my position as Social Media Guru for Vwallah! is this: where do you learn this stuff? And the answer is: not just in the library.
If you truly want to learn how to leverage social media marketing, it takes real-world time. Social media has so many unspoken rules and so much informal etiquette, you need to learn how to do things the right way. Many business owners and marketing executives simply don’t have time for this. That’s one reason, I believe, why our new social media division has, in less than nine months, added significant clients across the country.
Second, limit your research and reading. There are millions of white papers and tutorials out there that attempt to encapsulate all of social media in a few paragraphs. You have likely read a couple. They have promising titles like, “10 Social Media Tools You Must Use” and “How to Measure ROI in Social Media,” and many of them offer helpful information. But who’s got the time? And by the time you’re done reading — because social media changes almost daily — the knowledge is outdated.
Finally, much like Indy stated, get out and start exploring! The best way to learn how social media works, is to get your hands dirty. It takes time, but if you don’t want to hire a social media services firm like Vwallah!, you’ll have to learn by doing. Jump in and play around with the different features on Facebook. Start tweeting on Twitter. Create a Linkedin account and join discussions. There are new social media websites created every day — each week, explore one that you haven’t tried out yet. And keep an eye out for what you perceive as “good” and “bad” uses of social media in the mean time.
Remember to treat social media like you treat anything else that is social:
- Explore and connect with new people and new communities.
- Interact and share with others, and then listen back to what they share with you.
- Work towards establishing relationships, and nurture those relationships over time.
SOURCE: NOISE (Alex Fernandez)
MARKETING: How To Factor Your E-Marketing Budget.
ShareSunday, November 22nd, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
If you’re a smart marketer (and you are, because you’re reading Trendspottings), you’ve no doubt produced highly targeted, professionally executed and customer-centric E-marketing campaigns this year — and you’ve witnessed the benefits of The Almighty E-Mail to deliver outstanding clickthrough results and cost efficiencies for you.
So looking ahead to a wildly successful 2010 as we at NOISE are for our clients, how are you divvying up next year’s marketing spend?
Being the smart marketer that you are, you’re already budgeting more for E-marketing and social media — the only two marketing tactics to increase budget share in 2009. And to help you factor your E-marketing budget, NOISE presents this useful trending from MarketingSherpa that highlights the significant increase in E-marketing spend, across eight industries. (Note: simply click on the image to enlarge.)
Where will your 2010 E-marketing campaigns propell you? Hopefully, to greater success. And should you need a little propellent, well, rocket fuel is available here.
SOURCE: MarketingSherpa, NOISE
LEADERSHIP: What’s On Your Chalkboard?
ShareSunday, November 22nd, 2009 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
At NOISE, we have a chalkboard near our front entrance to inform or remind employees each day of the week’s top goals. While client priorities change on a daily (or sometimes hourly) basis, our company’s core goals have remained the same over the past six months. They are:
1. Be exceptional!
2. Innovate!
3. Touch five new prospects a week!
I haven’t altered those goals recently for obvious reasons. And I’m very gratified to say, I believe those goals have helped us achieve this year, smack in the middle of one of the most economically challenging times in our country’s history, perhaps the most impressive record of creative excellence, new comprehensive services introductions (QwickClick VideoTours, Vwallah! Social Media, NOISE Inter.Active) and big name client acquisition in our 23 years in business.
Clearly, the lesson here isn’t that you write words on a chalkboard and you find success. The lesson is more, I believe, about how managers and leaders articulate — not just to their employees, but to themselves. In our case, we looked in the mirror and resolved to make a top-down corporate commitment to reach for the sky, even if the sky is full of dark clouds; we resolved to demand and expect only the brightest and best of employees, no excuses, within an environment that nurtures, molds, recognizes and rewards those efforts; and we resolved to make management accountable to its employees for growth (because actions do speak louder). Oh, and one more thing: we kept the faith.
I hope this doesn’t come across as self-serving. It’s not meant to be, because it’s a lesson we were gratified to have learned ourselves. And I’m sure if we stay open to it, we’ll learn more with every day.
How about your company? What words would you write on your chalkboard for success?
SOURCE: NOISE
CREATIVE: True Talent is Never Risk Taking.
ShareWednesday, September 30th, 2009 | Uncategorized | No Comments
I think the profound economic challenges that we’ve all struggled through the past 18 months have created something of a “circle the wagons” mentality among most marketing professionals. That’s not a criticism. It’s sound strategy, common sense and frankly human nature to minimize risk taking when there’s little or no margin for error.
At the same time, it’s times like these that create “seize the moment” opportunities for the confident or courageous among us to do something bold — something that not only creates attention, but creates action.
Case in point is Pocahontas Fauss, a photographer in Southwest Florida aggressively seeking to launch her company (Red Daisy Photography) and expand her professional portfolio. Specializing in people (children and families) and personality (fun), Ms. Fauss approached NOISE client Friday’s Child with a win-win, value-added offer.
Now in robust economic times, Red Daisy Photography may not have made the offer — or the client may not have taken the risk on a “new” talent, opting instead to hire a shooter with more pages on her resume. But Ms. Fauss’s portfolio showed a great eye and, because money is an object today, Friday’s Child decided to bet on talent.
The result? A win-win delivered. For Friday’s Child, a fashion shoot of exceptional talent, skill, composition, creativity, quality and professionalism. For Red Daisy Photography, well-earned praise, promotion and publicity — as well as a ringing endorsement to hire her.
Lesson? In creative work, or any work really, you’re never taking a risk when you bet on true talent. True talent always shines.
SOURCE: NOISE
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