Alternative marketing thinking

Two interesting stories that have started a lot of buzz this week. Esther Dyson’s op-ed piece in Wall Street Journal on new thinking about online ads and how this could change the pecking order of many online companies.

He writes: “While the big news in the online world focuses on Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, a more profound revolution is taking place on the online social networks: The discussion about privacy is changing as users take control over their own online data.

The current online-advertising model will become less effective, even as it gets increasingly sophisticated. New players are emer-ging to devalue the spaces that the ad giants are currently fighting over. Companies like NebuAd, Project Rialto (Funded by Alcatel & Lucent), Phorm, Frontporch and Adzilla are pitching tools directly to Internet service providers, that will enable them to track users and show them relevant ads”.

One of the key predictions in Esther Dyson piece is the involvement of uses in the whole thing. A good example of which he feels is travel site Dopplr, where users get together “and list their trips, and see how they intersect with their friends’ itineraries. “Oh, we’ll both be in London April 4? Let’s get together!” Or, “Juan and Alice will be in town next Tuesday. Let’s hold a dinner!” You can imagine or visit equivalent approaches for books (a hypothetical Amazon 2.0, new and more persona-lized), clothes (Glam.com and Stardoll.com), and even money management”

“So what’s the business model? I’ll “friend” British Airways, which will say, “We see you’re going to Moscow next month. Why not fly through London and we’ll give you 10,000 extra miles?” I’m no longer in a bucket of frequent travelers, my privacy protected. I’m an individual with specific travel plans, which I intentionally make visible to preferred vendors. British Airways, of course, will pay Dopplr a handsome sponsorship fee to be eligible to be my “friend”

If friending is what Dyson is talking about Umair Haque is writing in HBR blogs about the need for brands to do less to become relevant.

One of the examples he quotes is of Nike, who are beginning to rethink communications as a set of services that listen to and benefit consumers, instead of impose costs on them.

Like this story in NY Times “…Behind the shift is a fundamental change in Nike’s view of the role of advertising. No longer are ads primarily meant to grab a person’s attention while they’re trying to do something else - like reading an article. Nike executives say that much of the company’s future advertising spending will take the form of services for consumers, like workout advice, online communities and local sports competitions.”

Haique sums up by saying that “Like Google, the Nike guys have come to the conclusion that new sources of advantage must be built on finding ways to invest in consumers – on communications that benefit consumers, not impose costs on them. In turn, these new modes of communication will let Nike talk less – and listen more”

In a recent revelation, Compeer talks about how the demand for financial advice has fallen to great depths in the last four years. In a survey conducted for 2000 people in 2003 and in 2007 again, it is revealed that while 28% regarded their bank as their main financial advisor earlier, only 4% feel the same way now in 2007. A far lesser number of people have financial advisors at all, from 69% in 2003 to 47% in 2007. With absolutely no dearth of information, people are turning to online price comparison websites and even friends and family through social networks. And with the banks commoditizing most of its products and services, it will be no surprise to see these numbers dip further. More on this here.

Gesture based interactions bring the next level of engagement to messages and ideas. Wave your hand at a screen and play around. Watch demo here. Also of interest Adobe’s interactive billboard installation. New stuff from Adidas.

Forrester’s Shar Van Boskirk talks about her recent experience with an airline, with whom she has a platinum relationship. And how employees at the front line need to understand that building loyalty is all about experience and not on all the points she makes flying around, most of which she may never use. Read more.

Think user generated content is still only the domain of a relatively small few? Well, a new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project finds that the next generation at least is switched on and producing content. According to the study, 59% of all American teenagers engage in at least one form of online content creation. Of those 35% of all teen girls blog, compared with 20% of online boys, and 54% of girls post photos online compared with 40% of online boys. Boys however like their video, with 19% of boys posting video online vs. 10% of girls. Read More.

In a competitive market, Danske Bank in Sweden employs a unique tactic to rise above its peers – focus on advice, rather than transaction. With 65% of consumers now making transactions through the internet, the bank also sees them coming over to the bank for some face to face financial advice. Danske Bank offers a local flavor in its branches, paving the path to immense personalization so that the consumer feels special. This initiative includes resizing branches to be more boutique-like, investing in property away from prime locations to give its consumers ample parking and lots more. Read more.

Chase has been working with Facebook to attract students to their credit cards. Speaking to New York Times, Sangeeta Prasad, who oversees branding for Chase Card Services said “We felt Facebook would be a good partner for us, since they had such strong credibility in the students’ world, we felt, you know, financial institutions lacked credibility. Students don’t see credit-card issuers or
financial institutions in general as meeting their needs.” Thus the company started offering a new card it called Chase +1, primarily by way of a “sponsored” Facebook group. The +1 program was largely devised by Noise Marketing, a company that specializes in reaching young adults with nontraditional branding tactics. Making Facebook central to a college-focused effort had obvious advantages. “Everyone talks about the fragmentation of the media,” observes Noah Kerner, the C.E.O. of Noise Marketing. “Yet there’s never been such a concentration of people from one segment in one place before.” When we looked up this morning, there were over 35,000 people in this Facebook group. The home page of the group sports a daily trivia game and banner ads for the card. Users get karma points on the site that gives out freebies like video games. Application to the group however are restricted to college students. You will need a Facebook account to access the homepage. Here is a story on the program from New York Times.

Dave Duffield, the man who founded PeopleSoft lived by the spirit of the products his company (now sold to Oracle) made. Software that helped companies mange their workforce. No wonder then that during Dave’s days at the company, PeopleSoft was constantly voted one of the best companies to work for. Talking to 1 to 1 blog, Dave reveals some of the secrets that made PeopleSoft the model for how to build an employee culture that fosters information sharing and camradrie. He maintains the importance of letting employees’ voices be heard, in empowering workers, which he believes can greatly impact an organization if structured correctly. One example of how he achieved this was by holding a show and tell on Thursday afternoons. From developers to human resources folks, employees show off what they’ve been working on. The process, he learnt, not only fosters collaboration and information sharing, but it builds employees’ self esteem as well. Read the short post on the 1 to 1 blog. And a long, older story in FastCompany.

In keeping with their heritage of being a true blue internet play, PayPal has become one of the first financial institutions to start a corporate blog. And the blog, now just a few posts old, has an interesting lineup of writers, starting with Rajeev Dutta, the President of PayPal. His post sums up all that the blog wants to be “to have a conversation with the millions of customers and partners that use PayPal every day.” Further on “We hope this will help you to get to know our employees, the initiatives within our company, and provide a forum for discussion on e-commerce and payments. Most importantly, we want your feedback. If you like our point of view, let us know. And if you don’t, please tell us why.” Finextra, has a review of the blog and has some nice things to say about the company’s approach. The posts are nicely pitched, says Paul Penrose, with a breezy, informal tone that gives a friendly ‘we’re here to help’ gloss to the corporate brand. The Finextra analyst sums up PayPal’s attempt and where old-school financial institutions are on this front “Somehow, I can’t imagine the top brass of the old school banks ever appearing so approachable online. PayPal has comprehensively outpaced the traditional banking establishment in the online payments space, is it about to do the same in the blogosphere? Here’s an example of their approach, in this post on Pishing, a scam that PayPal has been a victim of. Rather than brush it under the carpet with some legalese, they are blogging it openly. The comment under the post is worth a read.

If the recent eMarketer study on the effects of customer ratings on their websites is anything to go by, banks should be looking seriously to let users leave testimonials or user reviews on their sites. The study shows that over half of online retailers in the United Kingdom, the United States and Europe said their overall conversion rates had gone up in the past year. Over three-quarters said their site traffic had increased. And average order values rose for 42% of the responding online retailers. The survey conducted by E-consultancy and Bazaarvoice found that 28% of online sellers were using customer ratings and reviews. More than half said they were considering it. More than half of all online sellers considered user-generated content either extremely important or very important to company strategy over the next year. A majority of online sellers thought a major benefit of such reviews was to increase conversions, while 73% thought improved customer retention and loyalty were major benefits. Nearly six in 10 thought the fact that customer reviews improved search engine optimization was a major benefit. More at eMarketer.