Centers of Excellence: Social Media

Collaborative Economy – It’s not a Trend, It’s Movement Changing the Retail World

Posted by Marybeth in Consumer Insights, CRM/Customer Intelligence, Digital Marketing, PMA Events, Shopper Marketing/Retail, Social Media on May 1st, 2013

There is a new market opportunity on the rise that has retailers and brands rethinking their business models. It’s called “Collaborative Economy,” a term used to describe “an economic model that leverages communities or crowds to rent, share, swap, barter, trade, or sell access to products or services.” (http://www.collaborative
economycoalition.org/
what-is-the-collaborative-economy/)
Ever heard of eBay? AirBnB? Zip Car? Those are some of the Collaborative Economy pioneers changing the retail world as we know it.

Why is this something all major retailers need to get on board with? According to Jeremiah Owyang’s research, an Industry Analyst at Altimeter group, 200+ startups who have amassed millions of users and over $2 billion of funding from VC’s, are facilitating this trend in retail. Consumers are finding new ways to reuse and renew products and services. This essentially cuts the retailer out of the entire transaction and instead makes room for those businesses that are enabling this sharing. Jeremiah has divided this type of market into three distinct categories below:

The Three Categories of Collaborative Economy Markets
(http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2013/02/24/the-master-list-of-the-collaborative-economy-rent-and-trade-everything/)

Market Type	Description	Examples
First Collaborative Market	Manufactures and business owners that are now offering products for rent or barter	BMW and Toyota have made motions to offer cars from their lot for rent –beyond selling them.
Second Collaborative Market	Often denoted as the “Used or Second Hand” market a consumer may offer to rent or lease of used products or remnant services.	Lyft allows for any consumer to act like a taxi, and pick up members of the service. Craigslist and eBay (disclosure: client) empowers the selling of used products, worldwide
Third Collaborative Market	Barter, gifting, or non-currancy exchanges of used products or remnant services.	Toyswap allows parents to exchange toys with other parents, rather than purchase products that their kids will outgrow. Giftflow encourages users to ask for what they need, then to help others in the future, paying it forward

Your consumers are becoming the retailers. It is a movement that will be fueled by cost-saving opportunities to the consumer and a sustainable impact on the environment. This is where retail is headed and many brands are already starting to get on board. Below is a list of brands Jeremiah has identified as already implementing programs to consider the Collaborative consumer:

Collaborative Economy: List of Brands and Corporations
(Jeremiah Owyang http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2013/02/26/collaborative-economy-brand-edition/)

BMW Drive NOW Premium Car Sharing by BMW i, Mini, and Sixt
Volkswagen Quicar Car Share by VW (Hanover)
Peugeot Mu Mobiliy Services Rentals
Daimler Car2Go Sponteneity on Wheels
RelayRides Uses OnStar technology
Toyota Rent a Car: Offers a wide range of cars to be rented, at dealer, Feb 2013
Barclays Cycle Hire: Barclays, a Financial Services firm offers Bike Share (2010?)
Radiohead gifts media, asking consumers to pay what they want, (2007) hat tip Nico Ibieta
Dodge Dart Registry: Crowdfund your next car
Ford now was crowd sharing in Germany (submitted by Ford’s Scott Monty)
Walmart considers having customers ship their own products (Submitted by Joe Chernov)
Google rents Chromebooks for $30 (Submitted by Ned Boyajian)

Jeremiah Owyang will be presenting about his research on Collaborative Economy at the Digital Omni-Channel Shopper Marketing Summit, June 11-13 in San Francisco. He quotes,
“The Collaborative Economy is an unstoppable trend that brands must not avoid. Consumers will act like retailers as they trade, rent, and borrow your products from each other –bypassing brands.”
Jeremiah plans to give his audience advice on
“How to take advantage of this movement and profit from it –not be disrupted from it.”

His speech will give a market interview, based on primary research, and forecast the future trends. Most importantly, it will break down the specific opportunities for brands and give pragmatic advice on what to do to avoid being disrupted.

Interested in learning more about Collaborative Economy & shopper technology? Join Jeremiah Owyang from Altimeter, Microsoft, Google, Cisco, and more as they release the latest research and recommendations on reaching your shopper at the Digital Omni-Channel Shopper Marketing Summit.

Click here to register now or learn more about the conference

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GUEST POST: Best practices for running contests on Facebook

Posted by Marybeth in Digital Marketing, Marketing Law, Social Media on October 12th, 2012

Article written by: Donna Declemente

Click here to see Donna’s full blog

The heart of social promotions today are contests which are a great way to increase engagement from followers and fans while building brand awareness. Running contests specifically on Facebook in which you invite participants to submit a photo or video is a surefire way to get your fans to share their submission with friends and family especially if it includes a voting phase.

However managing a successful contest on Facebook requires that you use an application that works with Facebook’s API and that you follow their Promotional Guidelines. Our company offers several of what you would call “off-the-shelf” Facebook applications that we customize for clients which are both cost effective and can be produced quickly.

Contests also need to have Official Rules that should be posted in the app and accessible prior to anyone submitting or voting. We have created a social media contest package that combines our Facebook application offering with our contest legal expertise that includes a set of official rules. This package has enabled many of our customers to run these types of social promotions very successfully and cost-efficiently.

We have been receiving many inquires from both existing and prospective new clients that want to run contests on Facebook since it provides an opportunity to reach a broader audience through the voting process. The apps we use make voting simple since users can easily invite people to view their submission and then just click on a vote button. These apps help prevent abuse by enabling a one vote per-person per day option.

Many clients now want to open the contest up to a public voting and have the submission with the most votes win. The issue with this is that you may end up with a winner whose submission really wasn’t the best quality, didn’t follow the eligibility requirements or one that really doesn’t depict the brand well. What we suggest instead is to include a judging element to help ensure that the grand prize goes to a submission that clearly follows the rules and does not make the promotion totally a popularity contest.

Another request we have recently been receiving is from those wanting to run a “Global” contest. There really isn’t a global or international contest. Each country has it’s own rules and regulations, especially as it relates to taxes on prizes and privacy laws. The eligibility requirements of what country residents can participate from needs to be stated in the rules. Most of our contests are U.S. and Canada based and require a person to be 18 or older (in some cases 21).

The app we use allows you to determine which countries you want to allow access. We recently ran a photo contest for Alitalia on Facebook for their U.S. fans only. Since they have an International Facebook page we posted a message through the app that any user from outside the U.S. would only see and therefore not have access to the contest. This not only limits non-eligible people from entering, but also from voting. We recently had another contest in which a person initially entered which showed his Facebook profile from Mexico and then he submitted again using his bother’s profile which was from California. However, the email address he submitted in the entry form was from Mexico, therefore he was not eligible.

The Contest app also provides the option to moderate the submissions which allows the contest manager to disqualify or approve each submission before it appears in the app gallery. If you choose the option that they go live you can always go back and disqualify the submission if the content was inappropriate or clearly didn’t follow the rules. You would be surprised of what some people will submit.

Voting fraud is also becoming more and more of an issue. New technologies are being developed that attempt to abuse the system such as automatic bots and creation of multiple email address. Running reports that show the IP addresses of where the votes came can help determine if any of these were used. There are also other instances in which people don’t intend to break the rules but simply do not follow them correctly.

This recent New York Times article is about contest voting fraud in which they mention the use of voter forums also known as vote swapping or exchange sites. About.com has an online contest forum that members can go to and invite other members to vote for them. This article sites a contest that disqualified a potential winner because they were made aware that he was a member of this forum. While it’s not illegal to run these online forums, if you have Official Rules that state that the sponsor reserves the right to disqualify any entrant that they determine may violate the Official Rules then the courts should uphold any dispute. That however doesn’t stop it from becoming a negative PR issue.

There are a number of other important criteria that are not included in this post regarding contests and Facebook applications. Please feel free to contact me if you’d like more information as well as share your experience if you have any with running contests. Contest popularity is certainly not decreasing.

————————————————————————————————————–

The PMA Marketing Law Conference will be covering the do’s and don’ts of sweepstakes on social media. Donna and other Marketing Experts will be onsite to listen to the latest regulatory rules on how to run online campaigns. Don’t miss the opportunity to talk with the experts about best practices and what to look out for when formulating your next promotion.

See full agenda here: http://www.pmalink.org/?law2012agenda

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Jump Out of the Box – Literally

Posted by Marybeth in Consumer Insights, Digital Marketing, Experiential Marketing, Mobile/Wireless, Social Media on October 3rd, 2012

I have so many different feelings about web advertisements. As a consumer, I find them intrusive and quite annoying at times. Such as when they burst into song as soon as you visit a web page, announcing to the entire office you are surfing the web. Or when they take over your screen and you find yourself shouting “NO I DIDN’T WANT TO CLICK THERE!!!” But, as a marketer my eyes gleam with the targeting opportunities I have to get my brand in front of my EXACT audience, down to the type of sandwich they like for lunch. So alas, I am torn between my pre-opinioned self vs. the opportunity they present.

I am not writing this post to tell you about the best way to go about running your online ads – we’ll save that for another post. Rather, I want to share some samples of “out-of-the-box” web ads to spark some innovative thinking for your brands. I found these all great examples of how to not only target your ads in front of your customers, but how to make them enjoy it rather than shun it. I encourage you not only to see these and think how you can creatively use these for you own web experience, but think further than that. How can you optimize interactive ads for mobile?

Make sure you check out an incredibly innovative French company who made a print ad transfer into mobile listed at the bottom of this post.

Example One:

THE APPLE NY TIMES TAKE OVER

I particularly like how the ads interact all over this page. Not only do they refer to the research ad about themselves, but then the two guys on the left that suddenly jump in are a total surprise. All around – great campaign.

Example Two:

The BATTLEFIELD BAD COMPANY VIDEO GAME

http://www.grupowprojects.com/ea/bfbc/tandembeach/tandembeach.html

Here is another example of ads interacting. There is no way you can’t pay attention to this when you go to the website it’s hosted on and it’s humorous as well. Really well done and if you were a video-playing male, I am sure you would have this game marked off as “AWESOMMEEE” in your head.

Example Three:

ORBIT MIST

http://bannerblog.com.au/2009/09/orbit_mist_wettest_gum.php

I enjoy how this ad takes you by surprise by interacting with an ad you would otherwise glaze over. It’s similar to the Battlefield ad but quite effective in catching your eye.

Example Four:

MADDEN TAKEOVER

This ad almost tricks you by making you feel as though they are running through elements on the page. The user doesn’t even see the space as ad space when they first come to the page. This is creative and probably more cost-effective since creative is all in one space and not coordinating with other elements on the page.

Example Five

FRENCH COMPANY BRINGS PRINT AD TO LIFE WITH MOBILE PHONE:

Okay, this was just so cool I had to include it. Talk about bridging the gap between print in digital! It’s assumptive that everyone will have an iPhone but not outlandish by any means. I really liked the interactive ability here. The only thing they could work on is creating less leg work for the user. They were expected to put in the website in order for the ad to work. But, as technology stands today – pretty cutting edge!

(To see many more awesome examples, check out this site: http://bannerblog.com.au/2009/08/nhs_magic.php)

Written by Marybeth Petescia, Manager of Marketing Communications, PMA

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How Did They Know I Needed a New Pair of Boots?

Posted by Marybeth in Digital Marketing, PMA Events, Social Media on September 13th, 2012

It’s coming –we all know it (and I don’t mean winter for all you Game of Thrones fans whose heads went there). Marketers of all kinds know that yet another new wave of strategy is coming. Day by day our consumers get smarter at choosing what types of marketing they want to see and are willing to listen to. They choose when and how you can reach them, and they decide if you’re information is worth keeping on their channels. Today, everything is all about ‘opt-in’ and listening to what the consumer is saying…literally.

Have you ever gone on Facebook and seen an ad on the side that says something along the lines of “Need new shoes? 25% off Boots at DSW” And you think to yourself, “why yes, I was just saying to someone that I needed a new pair. How did they know?!?” It’s because they literally KNOW. Consumer actions are tracked the minute you begin using any social site. Whether it is Facebook, Pinterest, or even purchasing items on Amazon, these digital actions are being tracked.

When asked what the #1 trend every innovator should have their eye on, Beth-Ann Eason , Sr. Vice President of Conde Nast said,

“Personalization. Data is being mined in important ways to be able to streamline the shopping experience for consumers. Just as the universal recipe box put the consumer first by taking down the barriers between content publishers, the data about an individual’s preferences will be able to be married to their personal preference to help them save money, time and learn about new items with increased efficacy. “

And that folks is how you crack the opt-in code. If consumers are controlling what they want to hear, then give them EXACTLY what they are saying they want to hear! Simple? …Not really.

How do you go about doing that? What strategies work? Like I said, our consumers are very smart, they won’t like or appreciate you trying to pull a trick on them. So how do you actually provide information that interests them?

Beth-Ann will be speaking at the Digital Shopper Marketing Summit next week in Stamford CT. She will go over how Conde Nast has been working with Zip List to achieve their own personal shopper experience. Alongside her session, we have a full schedule of case-studies from companies such as Amazon, Harris Teeter, Hasbro, 7-Eleven, Kimberly-Clark, and so on.

I’ll be first in the crowd with my hand raised as these leaders reveal their findings. The best part is, I’ll be surrounded by even more brand marketers all representing different shopper goals. It will be my mission to network with as many of them as I can while I am there thanks to another great tidbit of advice from Beth-Ann when asked how to make the most of the conference:

“Seek out brands with whom you don’t frequently interact or communicate. They will offer a fresh perspective, insight and solutions that are unlikely to already be on your radar. Ask how digital has changed their personal planning and shopping habits, it will become a mini-focus group helping you identify trends.”

Words of wisdom.

Please join us for the Digital Shopper Marketing Summit to learn how to become a “smarter marketer” in this evolving landscape. Don’t miss leading the next wave of innovation, we all know how quickly those strategies move.

If you have not yet registered, make sure you do so here: https://pmalink.site-ym.com/events/attendees.asp?id=221207

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Written by Marybeth Petescia, Manager of Marketing Communications, PMA

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Social Media in the Legal Spotlight

Posted by Toni Mione in Behavioral Advertising, Marketing Law, Mobile/Wireless, Social Media on June 22nd, 2011

In addition to the privacy dispute over Facebook’s new facial recognition feature, several class action lawsuits (in California, New York, and most recently, Illinois) have been filed against Facebook during the last few months for using minors’ names, likenesses, preferences, and activity on the site. The plaintiffs claim that Facebook has been releasing this information to advertisers for them to direct their ads to specific demographics, and using the collected information to place in “social ads” by the social media site itself.

Other recent social media litigation includes several class actions filed against both Twitter and MySpace in federal district court, alleging violations of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) because of confirmation texts sent by the social media sites after users chose to “opt out.” Click the links above to view the complaints.

Social media and related legal issues will be covered in depth during several sessions at the 33rd Annual PMA Marketing Law Conference, November 15-16, 2011 in Chicago. Discussing the internal issues in developing and carrying out corporate social policies will be Melissa Landau Steinman, Partner, Venable LLP; Sarah LaVoi, Corporate Counsel, Marketing-Intellectual Property, McDonald’s Corporation; and other speakers to be named. In a second session, Ken Florin (Partner, Loeb & Loeb LLP), Christopher McCleary (Associate General Counsel, VISA), and other panelists will explore the external aspects of social media, including the current legal, regulatory, and intellectual property challenges. Continue to check the PMA website for updates to the conference agenda and details on registration.

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Marketing Law News Updates

Posted by Toni Mione in Advertising, Behavioral Advertising, Marketing Law, Social Media on June 16th, 2011

www.fda.gov

FDA Announces New Labeling Regulations for Sunscreen

On June 14, the FDA announced that after evaluating study data, it has developed new testing and labeling requirements for sunscreen products, “so that manufacturers can modernize their product information and consumers can be well-informed on which products offer the greatest benefit.”

The new guidelines illustrate an effort by the FDA and the Obama administration in the fight against high rates of skin cancer in the U.S., as well as an attempt to combat false advertising claims being made by sunscreen manufacturers. For details on the new labeling regulations, take a look at the FDA’s press release.

Privacy Organizations File Complaint Against Facebook for New Facial Recognition Feature

www.facebook.com

On June 10, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) and several other privacy organizations filed a complaint with the FTC about Facebook’s new facial recognition technology that allows for the automated “tagging” of Facebook users in photos. EPIC alleges that the service is unfair and deceptive, particularly because the feature went into effect without asking the permission of users first, and should be something users can “opt-in” to instead. Additionally, EPIC argues, third parties like advertisers and app developers may be able to access the personal information and “biometric identifiers” without users’ permission. See EPIC’s news release here.

Facebook contends that since the facial recognition tagging technology rolled out in December, millions of people have used the feature with few complaints. In addition, Facebook emphasizes that the feature can easily be disabled through a user’s privacy settings.

These issues, and related topics, including social media, behavioral advertising and health claims in advertising, will all be covered in depth at the 33rd Annual PMA Marketing Law Conference, November 15-16, 2011 in Chicago. Click here for more details.

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February Webinars: Branded Content, Social Media Compliance, Sponsorships, Shopper Marketing

Posted by Rob Fields in branded content, Experiential Marketing, location-based, Shopper Marketing/Retail, Social Media on February 7th, 2011

We have an information-filled month for you. Sign up for these upcoming Webinars and learn while you lunch!

February 10

Branded Content on the Digital Frontier. Davis & Gilbert LLP’s Jim Johnston, Esq. explores the challenges and opportunities on the horizon for agencies and marketers who are creating and distributing branded content. Sign up here.

February 15

NEW TOOLS OF THE TRADE: Social Media Compliance — Challenges and Opportunities. Tom Chernaik, CEO of CMP.LY, will show you how to ensure that your brand is being responsible, open and transparent in its digital marketing. Check out the new tools and requirements available to document and report on compliance and measure social media influencer campaign-specific Return On Investment (ROI). Sign up here.

February 17

PMA Member Webinar: Get The Most Out of Your PMA Membership. Join PMA’s VP of Membership Dave Wallace as he shows you the best ways to put PMA to work for you. This is a FREE Webinar and is open to all! Sign up here.

February 22

Accelerate ROI with Experientially-Activated Sponsorships & Social Media. IMI Consulting’s Dan Hunter and Tim Bishop will share some market-proven principles and case studies to drive the effectiveness, efficiency and ROI of three activation tactics: Sponsorship, experiential marketing, and social media. Sign up here

February 24

NEW TOOLS OF THE TRADE: Bridging the In-Home/In-Store Engagement Gap. Join Pelago’s John Kim (makers of geo-location tool Whrrl) and USA Weekend’s Laura Hendricks show you how to integrated location-based tools into your shopper marketing plans to build loyalty and increase sales activation. Sign up here.

CMP.LY, Dan Hunter, Dave Wallace, Davis & Gilbert LLP, IMI Consulting, Jim Johnston, John Kim, Laura Hendricks, Pelago, Tim Bishop, Tom Chernaik, USA Weekend, Whrrl

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Product Recommendations Are Trusted, (But Less Via Social Media)

Posted by Tim Bishop in Consumer Insights, Endorsements & Testimonials, Experiential Marketing, Social Media on January 13th, 2011

People often connote “experiential” with only live events—well, you can be sure digital and social media can expose consumers to significant “virtual” brand experiences as well. Some questions that we’ve heard from marketers surrounding social media are: How can it be best leveraged for my brand? Is it really as low-cost as everyone says it is? Why do I have to spend so much time maintaining my social network relationships? Does it work to increase word of mouth? The list goes on an on.

As part a committment by IMI International to deliver compelling insights on the most important new areas in marketing, IMI International has been considering how social media is changing the media landscape, how it can be measured for ROI and what you can do to help your brand succeed.

Of the list of questions further above, this post will focus on the final question, does social media work to increase word of mouth around my brand? And, more specifically, how do product recommendations change in terms of likelihood of being acted upon as a result of the medium in which they are received?

Recent studies by IMI International indicate that there is a clear difference between youths aged 13 to 24 and adults over 25 years of age. Across the spectrum, the results are clear that product recommendations are less likely to be followed up on as a result of being sent through social media. This is attributed to the pure volume of messages innundating consumers on a daily basis and also speaks to the amount of unsolicited marketing information that is regularly received. For adults who pass on recommendations to others, social media is simply not as credible as it is for youths and adults are more likely to trust and act on information received in person and over the phone.

For digital natives – youths under 25 – however, the fact that social media is so much more ubiquitous in terms of daily communication tools, makes the medium less likely to be an impediment to acting on product recommendations. Versus in person or over the phone, youths are much more likely to accept recommendations, especially from friends and family. Where recommendations are made by mere aquaintances, the level of reponse drops considerably, regardless of how the information was received.

So what is a marketer to do? It’s clear that youths are still open to receiving and acting on product recommendations but they must be relevant, contextual, valuable and personalized, especially when sent over social media. The days of spamming are over, and never really got off the ground for adults, while youths under 25 are still open to hearing and acting on those product recommendations that resonate for them and their friends.

For more information, please visit IMI International’s website for more experiential and social media topics.

Consumer Insights, Experiential, IMI International, Product Recommendations, social media, WOM, Youth

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