Mike Morrow is Marketing Communications Manager for SRDS, where he's worked since 2002. Mike's a storyteller who loves making digital stuff. Mike lives north of Chicago with his wife and two young children.
A technology and Mac enthusiast, Mike enjoys cooking, reading, collecting t-shirts, and making lists. When it comes to baseball, Mike prefers the Chicago White Sox.
Last night, our technology partners on the Local Market Audience Analyst (LMAA) rolled out updated consumer demographics data for 2012, meaning LMAA now includes the latest data available for high-level consumer demographics research.
In addition, there are two new Experian Simmons profiles in LMAA:
And two deleted profiles:
If you're unfamiliar with LMAA, some of our friends at San Diego State University put together a nice video overview here. You can also learn more at SRDS.com.
Enjoy!
One thing that came up repeatedly at this year's DMA Conference in Las Vegas was: How do you optimize your direct marketing content across media channels?
The three themes of the conference – big data, customer engagement, and marketing accountability – all point to integrating channels as direct marketing's new frontier. Specifically, it's about how to make social media dance to your overall branding identity.
So far, nobody is dominating in the multi-channel direct marketing game, so the field is wide open for innovation. Blue Cross Blue Shield is one company that has been able to turned its weakness into a winner by combining phone sales with mobile search. Instead of creating a killer app or mobile website, BCBS built in click-to-call functionality, so that mobile users could contact their customer service center directly from the SERP.
Another leader exploiting the strengths of different channels for an integrated campaign is Coach. They whipped up a buzz on Facebook for a new look-book, so the print campaign came with a built-in audience ready to buy.
There's an old saw that goes “Marketing makes plans while sales makes money.” That's what marketing accountability is going to change through big data's insights on consumer behavior. The DMA expects sales from direct marketing to grow at about 5 percent this year, and most of that will be the result of cross-channel marketing.
One way to foster tighter integration of your campaigns is to start with the customer and work backwards, according to Shar Van-Boskirk, an analyst at Forrester Research. She suggests that patterns in your customer data will point the way to your next logical step.
“Organizationally align people who are responding to different channels into the same database. Integrate a loyalty program with an outbound email program and online booking engine, for example. Instead of thinking of them as three separate groups with three separate goals going after the same customers, try to nurture the customer in a holistic way.”
As you develop your integrated campaign, don't forget that we are here to help no matter what medium your message demands. Whether you need sources, selects, costs and other valuable information to help you find and evaluate lists and refine your list strategy (using the SRDS direct marketing database) or are looking for ways to integrate your message across digital or local media, SRDS can help.
What about you—what have you heard or learned about at this year's DMA?
Have you heard the buzz words big data and customer engagement this year? I'd be surprised if you haven't. Both are essential tools for direct marketers, but big data has the potential to create a whole new industry.
Big data (the concept) can mean different things depending on how you want to use it. Generally, it refers to the vast deposits of consumer information generated by a wide array of online interactions. Data is collected constantly by social networks, transactions, supply chains, surveys, sensors, and other technologies. The result of this constant stream of information is what we refer to as "big data," and is a new gold rush with many searching for ways to mine it.
In many ways, the web is only now fulfilling its promise of in-depth customer data and demographic targeting that businesses have been looking for over the past 20 years. It's hard to believe, but just six years ago there was no Facebook. Ten years ago we were looking at the shrapnel of a dot-com bubble and wondering if the web would ever be profitable.
The arrival of big data has changed the game again.
The age of segmentation is over and the age of personalization is here. Consumers no longer respond to ads targeted for the 35-50 married suburban segment. They expect ads relevant to their individual, immediate needs and their rapidly changing lifestyles. Direct marketers, using the power of big data from social, mobile, and local sites, can now deliver that kind of pinpoint targeting on a massive scale.
Judith Hurwitz, from emerging technology research firm Hurwitz & Associates, summed it up best. Small businesses are no longer looking at database reports of last years sales figures. Big data now allows them to:
“make use of all the information relevant to the business—sales data, chatter on social networking sites, information from partners and suppliers, as well as publicly available data. Understanding all this information can mean the difference between anticipating an issue before it can derail sales and explaining why you missed your sales target.”
As processing speeds increase, storage gets cheaper, and the broadband pipe gets wider, marketers will be able to identify global trends fast enough to get on board (and even predict) consumer behavior with assurance.
That's going to be big.
Perhaps you’ve heard about the recent changes to Google Ad Planner or have gone to the site and suddenly couldn’t bring in any info. In short, Ad Planner is gone. The replacement, Google Content Network Planner, is just as narrowly defined as it sounds–Google content only. This means that Google is no longer a destination for high-level planning info on websites that accept online advertising regardless of network affiliation.
The changes (that took effect September 5) mean that media planners can no longer use Ad Planner to research sites across the web for information like digital ad networks, traffic, demographics, and related bounce sites. Also, even if a site is part of the Google Display Network, some of the demographics are simply not there now; data like household income, education, and keywords searched. The data may not have been exceptionally accurate, but the tool provided useful information, especially for smaller businesses.
Why did they do it? Google would only state: “We are constantly evaluating our products to make sure we are focusing our efforts on tools that create the most value for our customers.” Value is the key word in that sentence, but not value for customers.
Twitter and Facebook have been buzzing with disapproval, if not outright shock. Horia Neagu, known also as SEOWolf, posted, “Google's Ad Planner tool gets a facelift... and becomes useless…Given these changes, the tool will become ridiculously useless as of September 5th.”
Zoltan Peresztegi commented on Search Engine Watch, “How much is this in line with their mission statement? (As a reminder: ‘Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.’)
So is anyone who used Ad Planner to run media comparisons or gather vital info on sites out of luck?
No! The SRDS digital database to the rescue! Of course, we collect every bit of data we can, about every media brand we can, including websites. The SRDS digital database is a natural replacement for the previous incarnation of Ad Planner, and includes over 25,000 consumer, b-to-b, and local sites (and over 130 online networks...not just Google).
Site profiles include audience metrics from leading research companies like Kantar Media Compete, Nielsen Netview, and Healthcare Market Intelligence. And if a site is in Google Ad Planner, we still link to that profile as well.
So even though Ad Planner as we knew it is gone, for media planners and buyers, interactive advertising research is actually easier than ever.
Cool news from some our Kantar Media colleagues this week, as DoubleVerify, the pioneer in online media verification and viewability metrics, and Kantar Media Compete, the leading provider of digital insights to global brands, are launching an integrated solution that is the first to combine
Ad VRF can provide comparable metrics to traditional media including Gross RatingPoints (GRP) and Target Rating Points (TRP). We have brought the ability to gain insights into the online advertising market to a completely new level of accuracy and scope, allowing more granular audience profile data, as well as behavioral segments.
Recently, our friends at Deutsch LA sponsored a week-long course on "digital" to set a common groundwork of literacy for the entire agency, with the premise:
There are no true experts in digital.The pace of technological change is just too fast. We're all learning. In order to keep pace, you need to research and explore new corners of the web every day. The trouble is we all have deadlines. I don't care where you work. And they can easily take over so much so that it can be challenging to stay up on emerging trends and potential creative opportunities.
As a digital marketer for the world's greatest media search engine, I found Deutsch LA's Digital 101 initiative and the statement above to be both inspiring and a bit terrifying. If some of the great digital advertising minds of our industry are challenged to keep up, how can we?
Fortunately, Bud Caddell eloquently summarized what was covered in a post that I intend to study and return to often, "More Than a Few Words on Digital Marketing."
I encourage you to do the same!
The drumbeats of Local! Local! Local! seem to keep getting louder, although they also seem to be more and more difficult to distinguish from the competing cries of Digital! Digital! Digital!
As Mark Ailsworth points out in a post for iMedia Connection,
According to U.S. Census data, 75 percent of consumer spending occurs within 15 miles of the average American’s front door, meaning 50 percent of the nation’s GDP is dependent on consumers buying locally.
Increasingly, of course, local and digital campaigns share objectives, audiences, and resources. More than half of total retail sales in the U.S. are influenced by the Web.
Ailsworth points out some of the factors advertisers should consider as more of their local advertising dollars shift away from "traditional" local marketing channels and move into digital and internet advertising.
What about from the planning side? How can planners help clients to best integrate their local and digital budgets?
If you've ever tried to convince a creative-focused client just how important a strategic and well-thought-out media plan can be, or for that matter tried to explain to your parents what you do for a living, you might want to grab a copy of Millward Brown's latest POV piece: "The Overlooked Power of Media: Enhancing the Memorability of Communications" (that's a PDF link).
A bit basic for an experienced media pro, it is nonetheless a good introduction to the idea that different media strategies can be effective for different groups. I particularly liked author James Galpin's assertion that the right media choices deliver "not only messages, but memorability."
That's one to hang on the computer monitor.
Galpin makes a case for options beyond broadcast media, reminding us that "TV can be less cost-efficient than more targeted media like cinema, magazines, and online." Good ammunition if a small local client comes to you wanting to buy space during the Super Bowl.
Quoting the paper at length:
Therefore, advertisers need to go beyond the question of just how much to spend. All GRPs are not created equal; smart media decisions can significantly enhance memorability and enable marketers to get the most out of their communications investments.
How about you: what's your go-to explanation for the importance of media planning?
Over at Business 2 Community, Eric Wittlake has a post aimed at helping address the challenges of marketers trying to reach business-to-business audiences. He offers "Six Free Ways to Find the Best B2B Advertising Opportunities." In short, they include:
It's a pretty good list, especially if you are heavily constrained by budget to the point of only using free resources.
Of course, sometimes you get what you pay for, and what you don't invest in dollars will cost you double in time. That's where SRDS comes in, with our Business Publication Media database.
While it isn't free, it is the single best place online to find the entire universe of business publication advertising options, including print journals, websites and direct marketing lists.
No detective work required:
In fact, the detailed media listings on SRDS.com also include most of the same information Wittlake mentions, including Google Ad Planner Profiles (plus audience metrics from Kantar Media Compete), links to media kits, and third-party or publisher research.
Here's a video showing the Business Publication Media database in action.
If you like what you see, learn more here.
What about you? How do you find B2B advertising options?
If you're even a little bit interested in consumer magazine advertising and consumer demographics, you should make sure you take some time to explore MPA's Magazine Media Factbook.
Billed by MPA as a "comprehensive guide of magazine media facts for advertisers, advertising agencies, media planners and consumer magazine marketers," it's full of great tidbits on the value of magazine media to include in your client presentations.
Here are some of the takeaways I found most intriguing.
Magazines readers appear more highly engaged while they read, as a consequence of the medium itself. When consumers read magazines, they are much less likely to engage in other media. For instance, only 21% watch television while reading a magazine.
Have you checked out the factbook?
Did any of the statistics surprise you? What will you show your clients?
I don't suppose too many of us got into the media and advertising business because we're the most normal people in the crowd. A March 2012 study, commissioned by Heat and conducted by iThink, confirms that suspicion: we're not normal.
In fact, particularly when it comes to social media and social media marketing, it appears we're just plain weird.
Remember how important Facebook seemed to that one brand strategy?
And we all agree that Twitter is an excellent platform for brand messaging, right?
What about all the content marketing we're so excited about?
I'll save any commentary on office-party behavior for the comments, but you can view these results and more in the infographic below.
(via)
As Thompson points out, consumers spend more time with Internet and mobile media than print, but print publications still get vastly more ad dollars.
So what's happening here?
Are the advertising dollars lagging behind consumer behavior? Does the level of engagement vary between media that drastically (I'm always doing something else on my phone, but when I read a newspaper I am highly engaged)? Is mobile advertising significantly undervalued?
What's your takeaway?
Some early speculation I've seen on Twitter points to the announcement as further evidence of the commoditization of online display advertising.
Quoted in the New York Times Media Decoder blog, Microsoft Advertising corporate VP Rik van der Kooi states:
“This deal is about better matching of supply and demand of inventory in the marketplace. Publishers are concerned that their sites don’t generate the maximum yields of fair value. Advertisers complain about it being too hard to reach their maximum audiences across the right sites."
What do you think? What does this deal mean for digital agencies and their clients?
(Full disclosure: SRDS is part of Kantar Media, which is a WPP company)
It's the eleventh hour. You need fresh media ideas for the new client as soon as possible, preferably yesterday.
What do you do? Keep calm and use SRDS.
It's that easy, but sometimes you need a little reminder. That's why we're giving away a free "Keep Calm and Use SRDS" magnet to the next 100 email subscribers to this blog.
All you have to do is sign-up here.
We'll get in touch with you for your mailing address, you'll get some fun cube flair, and you'll never miss any SRDS tips or media news from the SRDS blog.
Sounds like a no-brainer to me. Sign up here.
I love reading Tumblr blogs for the more casual and irreverent glimpses they give into "old school" media organizations like Newsweek or NPR.
Today, a colleague showed me what may be my favorite single-topic Tumblr yet, and I'm guessing you'll find it fun too:
whathappensinmediaplanning.tumblr.com/
Full of humorous and sometimes NSFW animated gifs, "What Happens in Media Planning" offers rare insight into the inner workings of our minds.
A good Friday diversion...check it out and let us know if you see any familiar reactions.
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