Tag Archives: Marketing and Advertising

March 19, 2014 · 9:48 am

Data, Data Everywhere (Part 1)

Today’s rant is one of those about a couple of discordant pieces of information that found me this morning.  Maybe I read too many things and I get confused – it happens.  On the other hand, the two articles I’m going to cite are fairly typical of some thinking that’s floating around in digital media and marketing.  I’ll deal with the first one today and the second one tomorrow since I’m not big on 1,000 word posts . Let’s see what you think.

Both these pieces came from MediaPost – one from a marketing newsletter and one from an agency newsletter.  Let’s start with the latter.  In an article entitled “Digital Is The Least Accountable Of Media,” the head of the ANA  is reported as having claimed that

Digital media, once thought to be the most accountable media turned out to be the least accountable, with viewability levels, according to some studies, hovering around just 50%. That’s got to change or advertisers will pull dollars off the table…the industry has to improve media measurement significantly. Marketers obviously need and want to buy digital media, but the return on investment has been hugely disappointing.

There is that nasty term – “viewability”- again.  It means that some ads on web pages are on parts of the page that aren’t seen (scrolled down to) and yet since they are served when the page is served they’re counted as having been displayed.  I’ve added a couple of articles on the topic below.  I have issues with digital being singled out for that since no one takes people leaving the room to go to the bathroom into their TV commercial ratings nor people turning down the volume for radio measurement.  Frankly, given that digital is the only medium of which I’m aware that doesn’t use sampling when gauging audiences I’m not sure why it’s held to a different standard.  Sure, digital has other issues (traffic fraud being the worst) but data isn’t one of them.

Which leads to the second article about that data and a new study about how it affects the top people in marketing which I’ll cover tomorrow.  Let’s just say there doesn’t seem to be a demand to get more data from digital.  Stay tuned.

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March 10, 2014 · 9:08 am

Calling Customers Stupid Is…

I love it when some company makes my life a little easier and provides the fodder for a post here on the screed. This time it was a car dealer here in town that provided that for us today.

You callin' me stupid?

You callin’ me stupid?

If you’ll look over at the graphic you’ll see what was in my email yesterday.  This was just the graphic part of the email – there was quite a bit of copy that dug the hole a little deeper.  It read:

Drop by our dealership any time during our regular service hours, even without an appointment, and we’ll adjust your vehicle’s clock for you — free of charge. While you’re here, make sure your vehicle weathered the winter and is ready for warm-weather excursions, with an optional multi-point inspection (please call for availability). Don’t waste any more time; visit our dealership and let us help you prepare for the days ahead. We look forward to serving you!

In other words, you’re too dumb to know how to change the clock on the car we sold you.  Let’s put aside the fact that the real purpose of bringing you in is that “multi-point inspection” which may or may not be free.  If you’re going to reach out to your customer base, shouldn’t the  basis of that offer be something of real value to the customer?  Maybe the email should have been instructions on how to change the clock over to daylight savings with an offer to do it for the customer if they’ll bring the car in?  That is providing value – this is an obvious ploy to get people to the service department.  Giving the instructions lets the customer solve the problem (to the extent there really is a problem) in a matter of a few minutes.  This way means the customer needs to take the time to go to the dealer and wait for a service person – a longer process.  The first solution helps the customer; the second is designed to help you.

If we’re going to be helpful to our customers, we should do so in a way that’s customer focused.  My immediate response here is that they think I’m stupid and calling customers stupid is…well…dumb!  Of course, these guys are pretty dumb themselves.  I sold the car they want me to bring in (back to them so they’re very aware) years ago.  They’ve obviously not updated their customer mailing list into “past” and “current” owners in quite some time (I sold the car seven years ago).  Who’s calling whom stupid now?

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February 19, 2014 · 11:13 am

Native Speakers

Think back to when you first learned English.  If English is your first language you probably can’t remember learning the rudiments of it.

english language

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Oh sure – when you got to school you learned to improve your grammar and spelling, but you could already speak the language pretty well.  You think in English too.  You’re a native speaker.

Compare that with any other languages you might speak.  I speak a few and it took me a long time to learn them.  OK, maybe not to learn a bunch of words and basic grammar, but a long time to learn which version of a word was appropriate and to develop an accent that sounded more natural for the language.  The hardest part is getting to the point where you can think in the language so you’re not constantly translating, in my case, from English.

Think about communicating with a non-native English speaker in English:  you can hear the unsure vocabulary and the accented speech.  Now think about your business.  Odds are if you’re using digital channels for communication, you’re not a native speaker.  You probably are translating many of the marketing or other business lessons you’ve learned into digital.  As with other languages, you might be speaking with an accent or using the wrong word.  In fact, unless you’re under the age of 15 or so you’re not what some folks call “digital native.”  That notion is having some big impacts and many more are on the way.

One example is the Google Chromebook.  These inexpensive computers are making their way into schools and kids are learning to live with cloud-based software.  No hard drives, no program updates, no ongoing software expense.  If you’re Microsoft that’s a killer.  There are other things digital natives do that are changing things over time.  Cord-cutting is one we’ve discussed quite often.  Traditional TV is based on programming and counter-programming to draw in the biggest number of eyeballs all at once so you can sell advertising against broad demographic targets.  What happens when the cord is cut and people are their own programmers?  They’re very comfortable doing this – how has the language they’re speaking changed your business?  How has the technology of programmatic media buying and advanced behavioral targeting changed the need to aggregate those broad demographics?  If you’re trying to get women 18-49 and the market demand is for people who have looked at a mommy-blog in the last week, aren’t you speaking a different language?

The point is this: digital natives speak technology just as you speak English.  They grew up with it and don’t know a world that existed before it.  If your business model isn’t taking that into account or if you’re not becoming fluent in that language, you’re heading for failure.  Maybe you need a great translator but do not assume that this is the equivalent of going to a place on vacation where they speak enough English for you to slide by for a little while.  The digital natives are restless – have you learned enough of their language to address them in an understandable manner?

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