Search on…Google?

Google advertising?  Heresy!

Didn’t they build their brand and business without any advertising?

Not really.

Actually Google has been advertising for years.  Mostly online and in the trade press.  And in sponsorships.  More and more in consumer media, including TV, as they’ve pushed further into such as mobile phones.

The Superbowl buy was really quite brilliant in many ways.  First of all, it got people like me blogging about it, so it grabs far, far more attention than if they ran this on Chuck or The Daily Show. In that sense it will be like the Apple 1984 spot which people still talk about.

With so many other advertisers opting out of the game this year (where was Pepsi?), Google probably got a great price for the media.  Well, relatively speaking since even a cheap Superbowl spot is a hell of a lot of media dollars.

The ad itself shows that you don’t need to spend a kazillion dollars on production to create a tv spot.  And the ad itself tells a story — no points of differentiation, no claims of superiority.

I expect to see more of this from Google.  And I expect that their CSR efforts will be elevated, too.  It must be a shock for them to be under the scrutiny of EU regulators.  They are now a grown up company.

The sociology of Facebook

There’s been a complaint lately in my household.  Facebook has gone ahead with yet another ‘improvement’.   It is now “simplified” which seems to be an acknowledgement that the last “improvement” was not such a great improvement.  At the same time, it is just as rigid and impossible to individualize as the previous versions.

There is an interesting article about Facebook in the current issue of the NYRB.  You can link to it here.  The writer, Charles Johnson, discusses many aspects of Facebook and its success — including the elitist beginnings at Harvard that still give the site a certain cache.

In Facebook he sees a company that can begin to take on Google in the online advertising world, assuming that the Facebook Connect feature is widely adopted.

Facebook Connect, if it becomes widely used across the Internet, would enable Facebook to sell ads not just on its own pages but elsewhere as well. Google makes its largest profits through “search advertising,” where a query for “insurance” will result in ads for companies such as Geico or Allstate. But Google has never been as successful at “display advertising,” the name for the ads that show up beside everything online—from party photos to news stories—where it’s not clear what, if anything, users want to buy. Facebook, with much more precise information about its members, will likely be able to sell far more effective display advertising than Google. Whether members will be disturbed by this expansion of targeted ads—a person who lists her religion as “Jewish” may see Jewish-themed advertising not just in Commentary magazine but on every Web site she visits—and whether ever more targeted advertising will turn members off the site—does listing a love for the Marquis de Sade mean you want ads for leather?—remains to be seen.

Is this the advertisers dream, the civil libertarian’s nightmare or both — or neither?  The more fundamental question is what happens when the economics fail?  Facebook is marginally profitable.  Twitter is not profitable at all.

In the World of Facebook – The New York Review of Books

Mobilicity brand launched

I am delighted to share that the new Mobilicity brand was introduced in Toronto yesterday.

You can learn a lot more about it at www.mobilicity.ca

Mobilicity.ca

CMO study update

Another finding from our new CMO study.

The economic turmoil and cut-backs in marketing last year are showing up as a significant decrease in the strength of marketing communications and brand.  There has been a jump in the number of marketers who are making rebuilding their brand image a priority for 2010.

There has been no change in number of marketers who are looking for breakthrough methods to replace the traditional brand positioning.  That is because the majority of marketers surveyed view the traditional brand positioning approach as losing effectiveness.

Next week we expect to release a trend report comparing 2010 to 2009 data, showing how marketers are changing and adapting to evolving market needs.

Wm Shakespeare on branding

The roots of Narrative Branding go back to the rich theatrical tradition of Elizabethan England.  I quote one example from Shakespeare’s famous play, “Branding, As You Like It”

All the market’s a stage,
And all the brands and sub-brands merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one brand in its time plays many parts…

Not sound familiar?  There was a conspiracy a few hundred years ago when several English professors “edited” the play and eliminated all references to branding.

By the way, the cosmetics company Avon had a long term sponsorship deal with Shakespeare.  That is why he was known as “The Bard of Avon”…

How meeting JD Salinger didn’t change my life

And what, exactly, is it that J.D. Salinger has to do with marketing communications?

Well, if you’ll remember, the opening line of “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” began, “There were Ninety-seven New York advertising men in the hotel, and, the way they were monopolizing the long-distance lines…”

The death of JD Salinger earlier this week effected me profoundly.

I had met Salinger during a pivotal time in my life.  I had just finished my MFA in creative writing from Columbia University and found a wonderful job at the archaic literary agency, Harold Ober Associates.

That was in 1985, when Harold Ober was run by the grande dame , the elegant Miss Dorothy Olding.  The agency was a relic already, more like the Old Curiosity Shop than a modern literary agency.  There were still dictaphones, a telex machine, carbon paper everywhere and not a photocopier in sight.

It was that April, April 12th, to be more specific, when I had the opportunity to meet J.D. Salinger himself.  And the end of that story has something to do with me joining in with those New York advertising men who monopolize phone lines.

For the full story, well, that is something that you and I will have to discuss at lunch or over a drink some day.

You may be gone, Jerry, but your spirit is still with us.

PS — Yes, that is his real signature.

Trends in marketing, Part 2

Some more insight from our new CMO study into marketing tools and techniques.  We surveyed 130 CMOs and marketing decision makers about marketing methods, tools and techniques.  In this post and some earlier posts I have been sharing topline findings from the research.

I compare marketing last year to a deep freeze.  Budgets were frozen, projects were frozen, innovation was frozen.  Last year pretty much everyone was focused on retrenchment.  They need to justify marketing spend with quantifiable ROI, cutting out costs, re-organizing the marketing functions.

Our study shows that marketing is clearly thawing.  But it isn’t even.  Some companies have moved forward to take advantage of the situation.  And others are still in a deep freeze.  We are now seeing 2 distinct segments of marketers.  [A special acknowledgement to Frank Woei of Bellwether Interactive for uncovering this].

One segment is the “Evolvers”.  This group is maximizing the situation by seizing new opportunities.  They are prioritizing evolving their marketing to match evolving business strategies, and preparing for the economic upturn by improving their brand image and reputation.

The other segment is the “Re-organizers”  This group is still frozen in place. They are analyzing and re-evaluating everything, seeking that measurable ROI and cutting marketing costs everywhere possible.

In past recessions we have seen that some companies have a great resilience and come out relatively stronger than going into the recession.  We are now seeing evidence that the pattern is repeating in this recession.  Hyundai and Apple immediately come to mind as winners emerging in a changed marketplace.

Philip Kotler on rethinking marketing

I had a bit of insomnia last night (which is very useful when working on global projects with the need to stay in constant touch with people in The Netherlands, Israel or Korea) and came across an April 2009 presentation made by Professor Philip Kotler on “Rethinking Marketing to Compete in the Interlinked Economy”

In his presentation Philip Kotler proposes Narrative Branding a one methodology to replace brand positioning.  As the world moves beyond the single-minded 30 second TV ad, brand positioning loses effectiveness.  Kotler presents Narrative Branding as the way to reach multiple audiences and to make most effective use of all forms of media.

Here are a couple of slides from the presentation:

Phil Kotler on Reinventing Marketing

PKotler on Reinventing Marketing

Phil Kotler on Narrative Branding

While I wasn’t at this presentation, I have read interviews in which Philip Kotler also discusses Brand Journalism, pioneered by Larry Light (CMO of McDonald’s) and Joan Kiddon as a similar approach to Narrative Branding.

You can get the whole presentation from slideshare.

Marketing trends for 2010

The marketing landscape is shifting.

The big news is the growing importance of corporate social responsibility to improve brand image. That has jumped 13% points from 19% to 32% in 2010.  While it is not a top 3 trend, it has not been stopped by last year’s economic pressures.

The growth of social media is now the #1 most important marketing trend for 2010.

That is up +6% from last year and replaces last year’s “shifting from traditional media to digital media” as the most important trend.

More to follow as we dig deeper into the data and find knowledge.

Again, thanks to Frank Woei at Bellwether Interactive for their great work fielding this study (bellwetherinteractive.com).

Major shift in CMO priorities for 2010

As I promised in early posts, the new data from our annual CMO study will be put online here before we issue our formal report.

This year the study was fielded by the good folks at Bellwether Interactive, led by Frank Woei. Last year the study was fielded by Forrester (formerly Jupiter Research).  The study is among CMOs and other marketing decision makers at corporations with revenues of $250 million or more (about 70% are over $1 billion in revenues).

The headline:

A major shift in CMO priorities for 2010.  Marketers are re-engaging with customers.  The focus on cost-cutting and ROI has given way to brand building — or rather, rebuilding after a year of neglect.

Top 3 priorities for 2010:

#1. Evolving our brand as our company’s business strategy evolves

#2. Preparing for an economic upturn

#3. Refreshing our brand’s image

Compare this to the Top 3 priorities for 2009:

#1. Achieving measurable ROI on marketing efforts

#2. Developing marketing programs that integrate online and traditional media

#3. (Tie) “Translating the customer experience across different touchpoints”  and “Cutting marketing budgets without cutting performance”

This is a very positive sign for marketing in particular, for companies that believe in marketing and for the overall economy in general.  Marketing plays a vital role in stimulating demand.  Without demand, the economy will stagnate.