You may have seen recent commentary, reporting and personal stories about adopting infants from China. Most of these stories seem to be cast in negative terms: false documents, babies for sale and shady origins of these adopted or soon-to-be-adopted babies.
But what’s the reason there are so many Chinese adoptions taking place? Futurist David Houle investigates how government policies can change the course of history. Read here: David Houle on Oprah.com.
What do most marketers need when they want to attract, acquire and engage customers and potential accounts for their business? Consistently sharing information about their products or services can keep existing customers and the potential ones informed, thus creating a unique brand awareness which can result in increased sales and customer loyalty. In order to do this, you need to create and share informative and valuable content about products and services via different media.
This form of marketing is often referred to as Content Marketing, which is defined as “words and data to create unambiguous content that support meaningful, interactive experiences”, is now evolving as a new discipline. In addition to all your traditional marketing techniques, this form of marketing uses content to achieve higher sales through profitable actions from the customer and prospect sides.
What it takes, is an effective content strategy. Content development, delivery and administration are the three major points that need to be kept in mind when you define content strategy for any marketing plan. Rachel Lovinger explains more about content marketing in her article, Content Strategy – The Philosophy of Data.Read the rest of this entry »
The four major networks are slowly seeing advertisers pay for prime-time spots again after the drop off from 2009. According to Advertising Age, they should net approximately $8.26 billion by the end of this year. That is still below the levels of the last decade, especially in the middle. Fox, on the strength of programming like American Idol and News Channel Personalities such as Glenn Beck, is projected at nearly $2 billion, up 22% from 2008. This could fuel a bidding war between television executives and media buyers. Executives may increase the prices of upfront fees to recoup lost revenue. Media buyers will then turn their budgets into emerging avenues like cross-platform advertising and digital. It’s also possible that traditional television revenue is slowly losing its status as the benchmark of profit.
The advent of DVR has also given more power to the consumer in terms of content viewing. In the old days, a favorite television show would have families organize their lives around it, since it aired at a distinct day and time slot. Back in the day, we had to eat before Family Ties, A Different World, The Cosby Show, Sanford, and so forth. Seinfeld would have had no chance to succeed in today’s environment since it didn’t hit a ratings stride until the fourth season. Networks don’t have that level of time or patience anymore. It’s a microcosm of our flat lifestyle in general, but even more absolute in the television industry. The executives are in for a fight that they may not win.
The 1980s are a decade that live in the halls of opulence, pomp, and sociopolitical conservatism. Reebok had the courage to develop hightop aerobic shoes. Michael Jackson still looked like a black man. Gordon Gekko gave us the tagline, “Greed is Good, ” then hired Alex P. Keaton. It’s perfect that the most memorable marketing campaign of that decade centered around an iconic brand, Coca-Cola.
In 1987, Coca-Cola switched their sugar base from cane to high fructose corn syrup and dubbed it “New Coke”. They used the jangled movements of Max Headroom as the strategic backbone, and as this article from Advertising Age explains, it blew up in management’s face. The obvious lesson learned is that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. It applies to general life experience and marketers, especially when dealing with a formidable brand. Within a month, Coke management reverted back to the original recipe.
Bill Cosby even gave a word about New Coke, with those garish sweaters.
Ford was caught in the deluge of Detroit’s auto industry back in 2008, but since then has quietly restructured their operations and invested in smaller vehicles for the European marketplace. Vice President of Global Marketing Jim Farley talks about how the company plans to promote their vehicles in the future, starting with the 2011 Ford Fiesta. He seems to get the idea of soliciting customer feedback in today’s age.
Eyjafjallajokull (pronounced EY [as in they]-yah-fyah-lah-YOH-kuul) has twisted tongues, airlines, scientists, and lives this past week. According to Ad Age, an estimated 102,000 flights were canceled in and out of Europe due to the volcano’s eruption. A lot of firms are losing serious currency. Some of them, especially in the airline, hotel and food-service industries, are using the disaster to create goodwill. At JFK’s Terminal Four on the Fourth Floor, Saveria USA runs thirteen shops. They donated water and refreshments on Sunday through Tuesday when many flights were cancelled. They also donated clothing. ”This isn’t about business anymore; this is about helping your fellow man,” says John Barry, retail operations manager for Saveria. British Airways not only disbursed food vouchers, but also covered hotel accommodations for all of its passengers. In my personal experience, I received one food voucher after pestering customer service after late delivery of luggage from an unnamed American airline. The value covered the price of a Big Mac by itself. Pathetic. The European Union clearly sets a higher benchmark for their industry. Port Authority, with their draconian reputation for customer service, even stepped up with The Red Cross to provide cots and blankets followed by assorted human goods.
The actions of these specific organizations show that in times of disaster and tragedy, campaign strategies and metrics go out the window. Brand equity can grow for life when marketers deliver quality assistance efficiently and in need. Goodwill is the first brick that needs to be laid for a business to sustain excellence. Customers have infinite choices through various streams in today’s age. These firms will be rewarded for their service.
David Houle has been a contributor to Oprah.com over the last two months, discussing the future of this wild universe. This time, he tackles the future of education in America. Women are getting educated and entering prominent management roles slowly and surely. Men are getting less educated and leaving management roles slowly and surely. The country is also going through voluminous transformations in key industries. How does this affect the future of gender relations? Gender roles? Nuclear family structure, eradicated after the feminist revolution of the 1960s and 70s, is shifting again into uncomfortable roles. David Houle speaks about it here:
In an announcement that surprised, if not shocked, most of the public, Conan O’Brien announced today that he will be hosting a new late-night show on TBS.
When news of his exit from NBC hit in January, fans bombarded the internet with support for O’Brien (aka Team Coco). The question asked by many was, If all of these people love Conan so much, why weren’t they watching his show on NBC? That question remains to be answered.
TBS is banking on these passionate fans tuning in nightly to watch Conan on their network. With a name like O’Brien’s, TBS can expect to also pull in advertisers who want to be associated with him.
TBS, however, has a long way to go with their online offerings to truly reach many of O’Brien’s fans. Currently, fans cannot watch TBS’ Lopez Tonight episodes online, but can merely see a brief clip from the monologue. Conan’s fans will want to watch, comment, and share his episodes online and TBS will miss a huge opportunity if they do not improve their online viewing experience.
Since the mobile industry took off in the 1990s, Europeans and Asians led the market share in terms of consumption and technology. Today’s metrics are telling a different story. At the annual CTIA International Wireless 2010 meeting, executives stated these key figures, courtesy of Moconews.net:
—The U.S. has 117 million 3G subscribers, or 18 percent of the world’s 3G subs and more than any other country in the world.
—When looking at the fastest 3G networks, the U.S. has 33 percent of the world’s advanced customers.
—The U.S. only has 7 percent of the world’s subscribers, and yet, one out of five 3G subscribers being added today are in the U.S., according to Morgan Stanley.
—In the last five years, WiFi hotspots tripled, and the U.S. has twice as many than the next closest country, or roughly 70,000
The importance of all this progress has forced mobile corporations to update their network platforms with new technology. Samsung just rolled out a new phone with LTE technology at the conference. Sprint also will introduce the HTC EVO 4G this summer, based on Google’s Android platform. LTE technology is the next evolutionary path on GSM. Its objective is to provide an extremely high performance radio-access technology that offers full vehicular speed mobility and that can readily coexist with HSPA and earlier networks. These developments are far from clear at the moment, but exciting for mobile and interactive marketers.
Adobe rolled out a video for CTIA this year. Here it is.
Many in the tech business have been following the story between Google and China for some time now, with Google threatening to close their business after cyber-attacks in school and other institutions. The Wall Street Journal has done thorough coverage on the saga since the start of this year. Google and China, however, have been at odds over censorship issues since the search engine giant opened its Chinese headquarters in 2005. China’s history of human rights abuse and socialist government policies conflict with the basic ethos of free market capitalism. Therefore, cyberspace industries such as interactive marketing cannot maximize their potential. Although nothing has been decided yet, the possible effects are bubbling to the surface.
Like others, the Chinese people were smitten with Google from the beginning. Academic circles depend on Google for research initiatives like Google Reader, Scholar, and Translate. A withdrawal would devastate academics and complicate scholastic relations. The loss of Google would also reinforce the notion of abandonment in relations with the outside world. Google has made a solid effort to develop market share. One guy planted roses in front of Google’s Beijing headquarters. It’s only a specific action, but Google’s presence in China is far from inconsequential, as some believe.
In China, Google has a formidable foe in Baidu, the state-operated search engine. Baidu controls roughly 64% of market share, while Google registers in at approximately 28%. Google’s presence has forced Baidu to make adjustments to their search strategy, such as limiting their mixing of ads with search results. They have also created an underground virtual private network, where users pay a small fee to jump the “Great Firewall” and access the uncensored web.
“Google and China were an interesting and in some ways unlikely pair from the start,” notes Blueliner CEO, Arman Rousta, “I think that this will hurt Google more than China, because as innovative as Google has been, if anyone has the capability of knocking it off, it will be some company out of China – Baidu or another. Financially, Google will be the loser in my view. For the Chinese people, they lose a good opportunity to easily access uncensored search results; it’s just a matter of time though, whether via Google or otherwise, before people find ways around government filters. We see the same conflicts in Iran and elsewhere; and I think that governments will have to compromise more and more over time, as technology and people get more sophisticated.”
Officials on both sides have sniped away at each other, effecting political dialogue. Chinese officials feel that the U.S. government is using Google as an instrument to manipulate trade and economic relations. The U.S. government would like to see China relinquish internet restrictions, which would allow other competitors such as Microsoft to enter the market. Google has posted an early April date for withdrawal. Who will blink first?
Currently, negotiations stand still.
George Gillis, an analyst, gives his thoughts on Bloomberg Television:
From a Search Marketing agency perspective, whether it’s Google, Yahoo, Baidu or the next upstart, Blueliner’s job and perspective remains unchanged. It is incumbent upon global interactive agencies to “go glocal” as they say, and learn the nuances of how people search and interact with the web in various countries and languages. For clients that want into China, of course Google having been there makes it more familiar territory, in terms of understanding SEO algorithms. It’s hard to believe, given the scale of these two super powers (Google vs. China) that there won’t be a Round 2, where both sides come back to the table to at least give it another shot.
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