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CREATIVE: Proving That Those Who Can, Do.
Saturday, June 30th, 2012 | Uncategorized | No Comments
When you claim to be one of the top art, film and music educational institutions in the world, you better practice what you preach — and Full Sail University in Florida has consistently done that across 30 years, turning out stellar graduates and award-winning projects across media, entertainment, the arts and more.
So when Full Sail recently released its totally integrated, awesomely innovative new YouTube channel, well, you expected something that would wow you. And wow it is.
The Full Sail YouTube channel is the first we’ve seen that fully (and sweetly) integrates animation and motion graphics in its delivery. With each page load, a different student appears against a nondescript background, to open and hold up a blank piece of black paper — the creative canvas upon which the Full Sail story will literally unfold. From there, a brief video story engages and excites you to the Full Sail experience, dissolving to a montage of clickthrough opportunities, complete with the aforementioned student’s hands that, while still holding the canvas, move up and down with your cursor.
It’s work like this that clearly convinces you that Full Sail University’s got what it takes and delivers on its promise — proving once again two adages true: actions speak louder than words and yes, those who can do.
SOURCE: NOISE
INTERACTIVE: Tumblr Reaches 120 Million People – That’s a Lot of Eyeballs.
Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 | Uncategorized | No Comments
[Via Social Times]
Does your company have a blog? A blog is a great way to let your customers know about anything new or fun happening with your business. Not sure a blog would work on your website? Tumblr is a great alternative.
This microblogging social network now has over 120 million users with more than 15 BILLION page views each month. Get some of those eyes on your content!
Read the full article here.
ANALYTICS: Why “Time On Site” May Be Past Its Time.
Tuesday, October 4th, 2011 | Uncategorized | No Comments
For as long as we’ve been able to say “Google Analytics,” one of the key metrics in measuring a web brand’s ability to engage its visitors is “time on site.” The theory was (and generally, correctly) that the longer your average time on site, the more you were engaging consumers.
Well, a new study by Summus Limited makes a pretty strong case for the fact that “time on site” may fast becoming a fact of the past. The reason? The rise of mobile devices.
According to the research, mobile users access the web and apps far differently than via laptops. Rather than settling in for a leisurely online experience, mobile users tend to visit websites or brand apps approximately 12 times a day — but generally in increments of five minutes or less.
Not only does this fact alone reduce time on site average, a slow-loading mobile website — or even a cumbersome brand app — can cause impatient or hurried visitors to bail, and bail fast. And a bad user experience is one not likely to be repeated.
What should we take away from this? First, when analyzing your analytics, measure any time on site data with mobile device usage before determining any trends. Second, make darn sure your mobile website or mobile app is as fast loading, intuitively obvious and user friendly as possible. And third, continue to follow Trnedspottings for more great insights like this, every month.
SOURCE: SmartBrief, NOISE
WEB: Where the Grass Is Still Greener.
Sunday, October 2nd, 2011 | Uncategorized | No Comments
If you’re an online marketer, it’s easy to become enamored of social media’s exciting landscape — its seemingly endless ability to engage consumers, stimulate action and influence or even transact sales. But here’s a reminder that despite appearances, the grass of profitable online sales remains far greener on the web side of your digital neighborhood.
How much greener? Among organizations offering both web- and social-based sales channels, according to a recent study by technology marketer Demandbase in partnership with online network Focus, websites remain a whopping 700% more powerful in generating inquiries and actuating income than alternative social platforms.
What should that mean to you? Well, NOISE would suggest that should mean you remain about seven times more focused on the success of your website, making certain it’s:
• Spot-on branded;
• Strategic, intuitive, obvious, simple and fast;
• Enjoyable and rewarding;
• Interactively engaging with video, imagery, social networking, sharing and more;
• Incredibly search engine optimized;
• An awesome user experience that consumers will want to return to and repeat, again and again.
For most marketers, social media isn’t a highly profitable alternative to web-based sales — at least, not yet. So embrace it — like digital marketing, e-marketing and your other effective strategies and tactics — as another seed to help your web sales grow.
SOURCE: ZDNet, NOISE
CREATIVE: You’ve Got Talent You’re Not Even Aware Of.
Saturday, October 1st, 2011 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Next time you’re gearing up for a campaign that requires a human element, NOISE creative offers up this suggestion: before you (or your agency) contact a bunch of professional modeling agencies to sift through endless head shots, comps and portfolios — stop and, instead, look around. You’ll find some outstanding talent among your employees and your consumers.
Amazing? Yes. True? Yes. Easy? Well, there’s the rub.
While the thought of working with real people scares many a hearty marketer’s heart — or sounds exceedingly boring to those of you who can’t imagine an interesting face around your place — the fact is that fascinating, compelling, engaging and attractive people types are literally all around you. You simply (alright, not so simply) need to know what to look for when you look into someone’s eyes, and that’s where your agency and their talents should come in.
We were reminded of this lesson recently at a two-day, run and gun photo shoot for a NOISE client. By the end of our assignment, we had compiled a portfolio of quality, variety and style any talent agency would drool over. Plus, our client didn’t have to pay a dime in talent fees.
Lesson: don’t be afraid of turning to real people for a campaign that requires real people. More often than many marketers assume, they’re perfect for the part.
SOURCE: NOISE
SOCIAL MEDIA: Measuring ROI Requires More Than One Yardstick.
Friday, September 30th, 2011 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Maybe it’s just us, but it seems the relationship between social media and return on investment is a particularly hot topic. Here at NOISE, we can’t seem to make it through the day (or through a conference) without an e-mail, a blog or a seminar proclaiming that it owns the definitive bottom line on how to arrive at SM’s bottom line.
News alert: there is no one way or best way to measure social media ROI. The way we see it and practice it for NOISE Social’s many clients, which is the way you should see it and practice is, is that you measure social media’s return simply against what you’re asking it to do. And as you know, social media is no one-trick pony.
So, drum roll please, as NOISE reveals the top ten ways we apply (and measure) social media return on investment:
1. Brand Ambassadorship Development: Defined by the numbers of legitimate, involved social community followers you attract.
2. Consumer Engagement: Defined by the involvement and participation of your community’s followers in your brand via interactions.
3. Brand Passion: Defined by how often and how passionately your followers recommend your brand, and share it with or refer it to others.
4. Databuilding: Defined by hard counts of actual e-data consumers your social media efforts add to your overall marketing machine.
5. Market Research: You can use social media to learn a lot about a lot of things, both consumer-based and marketing-specific; if so, what’s the level of involvement and quality of data?
6. E-commerce: Are you transacting sales within your social media platforms? If so, measure your inquiries, conversion rates, transactions and profits.
7. Secondary Sales: Social media can generate sales by driving consumers to secondary transaction points (like a reservations page, or a shopping cart). Measure your efforts vis-a-vis referrals to your sites, as well as transactions.
8. Public Relations: Done effectively and creatively, social media can create a whole bunch of ancillary buzz via public relations. Are your social media efforts being acquired and publicized by other media outlets, creating value-added buzz for you?
9. Web Traffic: Social media should generally have an end-goal, and for most brands, that end-goal should be to drive consumers to your web brand to further engage, interact and transact with you. Look at your analytics.
10. Dollar Signs. In the end, social media can specifically and emphatically deliver sales. Don’t believe us? Try creating a social-media-only sales offer, package or campaign.
Bottom line? There is no one, best way to measure social media. But social media’s bottom line can clearly be measured by how you apply strategies and tactics — and if done correctly, its impact on your branding, marketing and sales efforts can be powerful and positive.
SOURCE: NOISE
SOCIAL MEDIA: Why Google+ Just Might = Success.
Monday, August 1st, 2011 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Although Google+ has put a temporary moratorium on branded accounts for business, odds are it won’t be long before the new social media upstart opens the door to all of us impatient marketers who, like Black Friday shoppers at midnight, are lining up outside. Are you one of them? If not, you should be. Here’s why:
Google+ and YouTube = Success. The integration of these Google products means a far more pandemic viral potential for branded video marketing. Plus with Google Hangout (its multi-user free video chat), brands will be able to interact with consumers real-time.
Google+ and Latitude = Success. With Google’s geo-tracking product (Latitude), it’ll be easier than ever for people to check into a location and have that information immediately shared with their “circles” of friends — enabling brands to easily execute loyalty marketing and rewarding programs.
Google+ and Translate = Success. Are you a brand with an international audience? With Google’s Translate product, multi-lingual communications to your brand page will automatically re-render in your default language — and vice versa. A simple advantage like this could literally open up new worlds to marketers.
Google+ and Sites = Success. While Facebook remains relatively limited in its ability to enable marketers to truly brand pages, Google’s Sites product is far more flexible in design, content and functionality — another plus for Google+.
Google+ and Adwords = Success. Added bones: Google’s paid search marketing program will bring far more contextual, demographic and analytic sophistication to social PPC campaigns — bringing all of us more clarity on the value of social media marketing.
Within the first month of its “launch,” Google+ has been attracted more than 15 million users, not to mention Facebook’s attention. The question now is: will Google+ be the next social media phenomenon? Only time will tell — but if you’re an innovative marketer that in any way engages a social media community, the time is now to prepare for the opportunity that Google+ is about to open to you.
SOURCE: Memeburn, NOISE
DIGITAL: Make Your Brand Music to Their Ears.
Saturday, July 30th, 2011 | Uncategorized | No Comments
What does your brand sound like? Does it rock? Is it a little jazzy? Is it classic, or sophisticated, or chilled out? If your brand’s consumer experience happens to include a little attitude or style, then you’re in luck because now — your brand can, in fact, have its very own sound.
The new place to find it is online at Turntable, which purports to be a new online social community where like-eared friends can gather to listen to, vote on and chat up music that’s available for play free from Turntable.fm’s extensive and impressive online library, or via personal library upload. And while Turntable currently remains in beta testing and is accessible only by invitation, more than 400,000 members (according to AppData) have already hopped on the dance floor.
What’s most interesting to us at NOISE is AdAge Digital’s report that a number of brands have already staked their claims and names to their very own, free music lounges — including Pepsi, Groupon, Gawker, New York Times Digital and Bravo. And in full disclosure, so has NOISE — with our own NOISE Blues lounge, as well as branded lounges for most of our clients.
Where will it all go? We’re not quite sure and odds are, Turntable isn’t either. But one thing is for sure — brands are beginning to mark their territory. So if you’re a brand with a personality and a passionate following, you might want to tune in, so to speak, build your playlist and give your brand loyalists (and their ears) another reason to enjoy their relationship with you.
SOURCE: AdAge Digital, AppData, NOISE
SOCIAL MEDIA: Four Facebook Dos and Don’ts: Are You Doing Any of Them?
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011 | Uncategorized | No Comments
Experienced social media marketers already know this (we think) — but here are words from the wise, if you’re a brand that’s new to Facebook (or have been led to the promised land by less than seasoned hands):
1. Don’t Establish Multiple Pages For Your Brand. It amazes the experts at Hubspot who authored this report, as well as all of us at NOISE>Social, to see the number of brands that seem unable to control the number of Facebook pages that bear their name. The very first and best way to mark your territory is to correctly launch your brand’s page — then claim its vanity URL (www.Facebook.com/YourBrand) — once you reach 25 followers.
2. Create the Correct Facebook Page. This seems one of those pieces of advice that should come with “duh” attached to it — but again, NOISE>Social and Hubspot see waaaaayyyyyy too many brands creating profiles, rather than pages. Profiles are for people, pages are for business. Profiles (like people) acquire friends, pages acquire likes. The ways of communicating with your community, and measuring your success, are vastly superior when you do it the right way (pages) versus the “duh” way (profiles).
3. Don’t Turn Off Wall Posts. It amazes Hubspot, and NOISE, when brands jump into social media to connect with their consumers in two-way dialogue (the definition of the medium) — yet slit the consumer’s throat by not allowing commentary on their Facebook pages, viewable to the public. If your brand is so afraid of your consumer’s opinion that you won’t give it voice, you’re in poop too deep for social media to dig you out.
4. Start a Conversation and Keep It Going. About as equally stupid as not giving your consumers a voice, is not giving voice to your consumers. If your business is going to participate in social media, participate! Or fail.
Odds are, if your a Trendy Trendspotter, you’re not making any of these gross mistakes. But feel free to pass them along to others less fortunate you know.
SOURCE: SmartBrief, Hubspot, NOISE
E-MARKETING: In Defense of the Lowly Ol’ E-Mail.
Tuesday, November 9th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
The KISS principle. At NOISE, we believe there’s still a lot to be gained — even in today’s complex, multi-channeled communications world — by keeping it simple, stupid. And we can prove it.
Take e-marketing. Over the course of any given year, NOISE creates, produces, delivers and measures (in-house) more than one million e-blasts for our clients. And the outstanding performance of these highly branded campaigns — which annually deliver clickthroughs exceeding 400% of industry average — demonstrates why we’re passionate advocates of creative, engaging, visually- and verbally-motivating html-based messaging.
So imagine our antler dance when testing of simple, text-only campaigns rocked those numbers — generating clickthroughs almost 800% greater than industry average, as well as numerous social community mentions and referrals seldom seen by traditional campaigns.
Now, there’s a strategy to text-only campaigns that (as a service to our clients) we won’t reveal here. But suffice it to say there’s strong evidence that as sophisticated and studied as e-marketing has become, there’s still a time and a place — even today — for selectively pulling out the KISS principle.
Ask your marketing partner. Or even better, ask us.
SOURCE: NOISE
MANAGEMENT: Good, Fast, Smart — Pick Three.
Saturday, November 6th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
As a business leader, it’s incumbent on each of us to grow our knowledge base every day. Failing to do so — in today’s exponentially-evolving world that seems to morph every minute — we lose. But as we all know, there simply aren’t enough free minutes in our 14-hour days to stay attuned to every development in management, branding, marketing, sales, user experience, customer satisfaction, advertising, social media, public relations or the countless other contributors to our professional and personal success.
That’s why, if you don’t already, you should know about SmartBrief.
In my opinion and experience, SmartBrief is one of the efficient, relevant, useful and beneficial information resources I consume each day. SmartBrief culls and compiles content from across the internet — then provides it, free of charge, to my in-box in an attractive, easy-to-scan newsletter format that allows me to very quickly identify items of interest. Most importantly, SmartBrief allows its members (again, free of charge) to opt in to to daily newsletters devoted to more than 100 industries and 10 management-marketing best practices.
Good. Fast. Smart. And yup, even cheap.
LEADERSHIP: When Your Quarterback Becomes Your Coach.
Saturday, August 28th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
This isn’t the first time I’ve written how Brett Favre can teach us lessons about business. It might be the last. Or it might not. In the spirit of the star, I’m undecided at this point.
But what we are decidedly opinionated on is the latest case study that Favre, coach Brad Childress and the Minnesota Vikings organization is, by their example, sharing for our business benefit.
The study is ultimately about leadership within an organization — and what happens to that organization’s goals, values, heart, soul, morale and self-respect — when a win-at-all-cost, ends-justifies-the-means mentality is not only allowed, but encouraged.
We all know Favre’s latest dance relative to football, training camp and money. We’ve seen it before and only a fool wouldn’t see it coming again. But perhaps that’s what the Vikings organization is — for unlike probably most other NFL franchises, it has allowed its spoiled star to dictate his terms. Terms that trump team. Terms that trump coach. Terms that usurp leadership’s authority and, in my opinion, ultimately render Brad Childress (for all intents and purposes) impotent when push may come to shove. And it will. It always does.
Perhaps like your business, my business — advertising — has a few Brett Favres. These are your sales or creative rainmakers who will try to parlay client acquisition or award winning successes into their pound of organizational flesh — demands for more money, sweeter perks and an implicit (or explicit) attitude that says: screw the rest of you, the rules don’t apply to me.
Faced with this hostage situation, the question every organization must ultimately ask itself is: sure they make us money, but are we gonna let ‘em get away with that? And if we do, what will it do to the rest of our team, our managers and our ultimate goal?
The Brett Favre case study won’t be decided until the end of the 2010 season. It should be interesting to follow, for football fans and business leaders alike.
SOURCE: NOISE
E-MARKETING: How Do Your Clicks Add Up?
Saturday, August 28th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments
While there’s growing evidence that the effectiveness of e-marketing is somewhat giving way to other means of interactive consumer dialogue — specifically social media and mobile marketing — the well-targeted, spot-on-messaged e-campaign remains a powerful, efficient, effective marketing and sales tactic.
And while studying open rates is all well and good, it’s clickthroughs to your websites, micosites or special offers that count. So how do your clickthroughs add up against national averages?
While there are statistics and sources aplenty, one e-marketing performance resource NOISE looks to is Bronto. Delivering approximately one billion targeted emails each day for its clients (utilizing in-house lists), Bronto data on deliveries, opens and clicks should by sheer size be considered “benchmark.” And bonus for marketers, Bronto breaks its data down into 15 major industries.
Here’s a snapshot from today:
• Travel & Hospitality: Open 25.4%, Clickthrough 3.7%
• HealthCare: Open 38.0%, Clickthrough 3.7%
• Real Estate: Open 17.4%, Clickthrough 5.0%
• Entertainment: Open 36.6%, Clickthrough 30.5%
• Retail: Open 19.8%, Clickthrough 3.9%
At NOISE, we’re proud to report that among more than one million e-mail messages we authored for our clients last year, our opens kept pace with national average — while our clickthroughs delivered 450% greater return than the national average. That’s good for us. But outstanding for our clients.
How do your clicks add up?
SOURCE: NOISE, Bronto
SOCIAL MEDIA: 136.38 Reasons To Love Your Likes.
Tuesday, 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?
Sunday, July 25th, 2010 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment
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
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