When Pepsi ran ads on Yahoo for a sweepstakes promotion tied to the release of Star Wars, the company discovered that consumers exposed to the interactive ads were more likely to purchase 12- or 24-packs of Diet Pepsi than those who never saw those online ads.

Remarkable news!? I know.

Yet, internet study shows average commercial related click-through rate is 0.01% (Cherecwich 2009).

Which is even more remarkable. And a missed opportunity!

Missing key word here is; stimulus. If a stimulus has unique features that distinguish it from the rest of the visual field, it can be considered distinctive (Phillips and Lee 2005). Distinctive advertising elements draw attention, and viewers recall ads with distinctive features better.

Star Wars is distinctive. But the yield Pepsi is claiming derived from another distinction; Interactivity.

Distinctiveness theory precedes the Internet – all the way to our times with sticks and stones.

Thousands of years ago moving objects jumped queue in our brains to determine imminent levels of threat and danger. Quickly and efficiently as possible.

Many moons it went okay. Until we discovered organization.

Organization gave us more controlled environments and threat began to slide into evaluation.

And so, common knowledge and information were chopped into bits and pieces for better memory. Creating need for specialized people like tool makers, hunters, farmers, medicine men, men of faith, leaders, politics, discovery, science, etcetera, etcetera.

Arriving at the reality of today, internet technology is just a better knife;-)

We are so used to chopping things up we don’t even notice. Now, we call that same principle of moving objects; mobility and transport, as threat and danger have evolved in a variety of entertainments and comfort.  

Daily we put those conquests on display in the exotic cars we design, the spectacular games we play, the heroes we admire, the Good-over-Evil stories we invent (or the other way around), the rollercoaster rides we build, the global challenges we meet – or in short;

The media we make.

It comes to us in vast amounts. And the more we gain in online technology, the more diversity will change its gears, as we all see something different.

Anyone who Twitters considers those gears already to be in full swing. But you don’t need to be in high pursue, at top speed.

All the Pepsi info tells you is: attract and engage is better than to chase and convince.

For instance; Whether they buy from you. Or work for you. People want to be relieved from their stress and concerns on greed, environmental issues, irresponsible consumership – towards relationships of transparency.

The internet connects that fear and hope together. Like money and stimulus.

So, start with a simple conversation. And fuel interactivity, preferably one that’s open to suggestions. One Person = One Broadcaster.

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The Kelsey Group stated that total global online advertising expenditures are projected to grow from $45 billion (2007) to $147 billion in 2012.

If this prediction holds ground remains to be seen. But at the end of the day people are past the levels of threat and are at the levels of control.  Every brand is trying to form a relationship with the consumer as quickly and deeply as possible. 

The potential for interactivity on the Internet is unconceivable as it differentiates much from traditional media:

Interactivity enables consumers to participate in the persuasion process by controlling advertising messages (Song and Zinkhan 2008).

It also gives users control in a mediated environment by allowing them to select the content, timing, and communication act (Li, Daugherty, and Biocca 2002).

When users have active control over their Internet experience, they expect to engage in two-way communication (Cho and Leckenby 1999; McMillan 2000).

Potency of interactivity

In 2002 Liu and Shrum propose a three-dimensional construct of interactivity:

1.    User-Machine; Computers, tools & devices, games, applications, interfaces – For service and entertainment purposes.

2.    User-User; Learning, teaching, informing, blogging, instant messaging, conversations – Networks of shared views, interests and talents. Focus from user practices to social practices. Expectations of future interactivity. Community commitment, not company commitment.

3.    User-Message; Online advertising, marketing, pr, communication – A shift of transactions becoming ongoing communication.

All 3 combined

With all 3 interactivities combined we juggle our daily lives in the fast lane, but a potential barrier to the effectiveness is the volume to which people are exposed.

People use to limit their exposure by engaging in selective perceptions, by which they processed a limited number of (commercial) signals and ignore others.

But ‘ignoring others’ has not proven to be the internet’s most strongest point. These days, customers CAN get satisfaction: if not from you, than from your China competitor.

So, the real question is: customer behavior has evolved. Have you?

The days of Corporate speak and the royal “WE” are gone. Modern brands are intriguing entities.

Give your customers a reason to come back even when they’re not buying. They talk more cravingly on the internet about things they still desire than things already acquired – As in more people dreaming of success than having it.  

Social media will help you interact with your existing and most interested customers – they’ll spread the word to for you.

Facts of human loyalty:

• 75-to-80% don’t trust ‘mainstream’ advertising – If the majority of potential customers call you pathological a liar, you need to ask them; Why? Interactivity provides an opportunity.

• 81% trust word of mouth advocacy – Not every Ipod or Iphone buyer is a brand prophet for Apple, but be sure they intrigue those who ‘The mass’ talks to for information. – If not, ‘The mass’ Googles, a search engine that prefers news related subjects and blogging. As that’s the content most frequently refreshed and viewed, and therefore most relevant to their users. – Apple understands this and went from computer distributor (Imac), to content distributor (Ipod/Itunes), to media distributor (Iphone).

• 56% trust editorial media – A while ago Nike was being accused of financing sweatshops. Chaining young children to a life at an assembly line. Rumor spread and after appropriate actions were taken media trumpeted the glory of social consumerism. Few months later journalist went back, only to discover many of the  ‘liberated’  souls had ended up in prostitution. – Objectivity can have its facts wrong. As people live in the moral now. Interactivity opens all channels to those emotions not to the causes – Be ready to deliver transparency. As in nothing to fear. Not because your closet is clean, but your coporate conscience.

Social media is a way of thinking about relationships, not just a marketing campaign. But, remember this is not an experiment. It’s for all the marbles..

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By B.L. Ochman

What does it take to damage a brand with a hate campaign? That depends on whether the brand is listening, reacting in real-time, and has a community of its own in social media.

While fear of “the haters” damaging the brand is probably the Number One factor keeping many companies out of social media, it’s the companies that are involved in social media that are most likely to survive a brand attack.

As Starbucks has demonstrated in the past week, the reasonable majority of the online community recognizes brand hijackers and calms, or simply ignores, a brewing storm.

Pro-union counterpunch
In an effort to stave off competition and re-gain ground lost in the downturn, Starbucks recently touted its coffee and its corporate values in a multi-million dollar, multi-media campaign. The launch, including a Twitter contest, was quickly met with a Stop Starbucks campaign claiming that the coffee giant is anti-union, among other things. While several blogs reported that rebels hijacked Starbucks campaign, that doesn’t seem to be the end effect.

Stop Starbucks video accusing the company of harassing workers who want to unionize has 59,000 views on YouTube as of today and a Stop Starbucks‘ petition to Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz had amassed 14,589 signatures.

Starbucks walks the social media walk
Starbucks has 195,509 followers on Twitter. Stop Starbucks has 344. Since the Stop Starbucks campaign started they’ve gained barely 300 followers on Twitter. In the same time period Starbucks added more than nearly 10,000.

Today Starbucks even has a social media director, and a vast community who love Starbuck’s famous burnt bean coffee. In the past week, the majority of Starbucks social media followers defended the company or simply ignored the critics. “There will always be disgruntled ex-employees who criticize any company,” was an oft-expressed opinion.

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(Full article holds more case details and provides comments form Starbuck’s Media CEO.)

NEW YORK (AdAge.com)

Failed attempts to out-Google Google only add to its mystique. So many wannabe Google slayers have come and gone over the years that it’s now something of a curse to say out loud that your new search engine wants to beat Google.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s CEO, doesn’t seem to believe in the curse. Ballmer makes plain his desire to crush Google—in interviews, he sometimes can’t bring himself to even say his rival’s name, referring to Google only as “the market leader.”

Microsoft has used attack ads to go after Apple, and now it has Google in its sights.

The software giant is set to launch an $80 million to $100 million campaign for Bing (Bing.com), the new search engine it hopes will help grab a bigger slice of the online ad market.

That’s a big campaign — big compared with consumer-product launches ($50 million is considered a sizable budget for a national rollout) and very big when you consider that Google spent about $25 million on all its advertising last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence, with about $11.6 million of that focused on recruiting. Microsoft, by comparison, spent $361 million. Certainly Google has never faced an ad assault of anything like this magnitude.

JWT has been tapped for the push, which will include online, TV, print and radio. Another sign of the campaign’s size: At a time when most agencies are laying people off, JWT added creatives on the Microsoft business last week.

Biggest challenges

People with knowledge of the planned push said the ads won’t go after Google, or Yahoo for that matter, by name. Instead, they’ll focus on planting the idea that today’s search engines don’t work as well as consumers previously thought by asking them whether search (aka Google) really solves their problems. That, Microsoft is hoping, will give consumers a reason to consider switching search engines, which, of course, is one of Bing’s biggest challenges.

“If you grab the average user off the street and ask them, ‘Does search suck?’ I think they’d say no. They don’t know what else can be done,” said Shashi Seth, a former Google executive who is now chief revenue officer at Cooliris. “They think search does a pretty good job, and if you could prove otherwise with a product that’s differentiated, people will sit up and take notice.”

‘Better mousetrap 

“I don’t think they can win this game with a better mousetrap,” said Allen Adamson, managing director of Landor Associates, New York. “They have to compete with Google on a brand front — there’s no other way to skin this but go head on against the Google brand.”

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Additional Topic:

Decision Engine -VS- Search Engine / Google’s War is on!

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The first significant research on the usage of social media in corporations, shows that podcasting and social media are central technologies at the fastest growing companies in America, the Inc 500. 

So, former president of CBS News, Andrew Heyward, might have hit a nail on the head when he stated that “Every company is a media company today”. 

The research suggests that companies using social media technologies are growing faster than conservative companies, like the Fortune 500.

Blaming only Social Media for this success is still too big of a leap on unmapped territory. Fully knowing the phenomena keeps drawing in more and more attention. Even with a negative approach. As Burger King brilliantly showed with their january ‘09 Angry Whopper campaign. (Burger King offered you a free Whopper if you de-friended 10 people. )

Research Highlights:

• Four out of five companies in the Inc 500 rate social media technology as important or very important;
• 21% of the companies are podcasting and 39% blogging;
• The number of companies blogging and podcasting has doubled in the last year;
• The Inc. 500 are adopting new media technologies much quicker than Fortune 500 companies.

Source: Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research. ( FREE Executive Summary in PDF here.)

THE PHASE OF HYPE WILL NEVER BE OVER

Besides an impact far beyond Burger King’s traditional reach, the campaign also proved; with communities, the phase of hype will never be over. Today, worldwide companies like Coca-Cola and Seagate (computer harddrives) have flocked to Facebook as well as Twitter, and want every customer/visitor to become either a fan or a friend.

Now, I hear you ask: ” Do people really want to interact with a piece of hardware? A sugar bottle of bubbles? Or a tube of toothpaste for that matter? ” 

Quickly answered? 

No, they won’t. Not yet.

Intelligently answered?

Coca-Cola has become more of a message company than a beverage company- beverages are just the vehicles.

This development in brand attribution signals interactive relationships with objects and subjective ideas are not long away. Technology tends to humanize when modern days get modern - morphing products and services into characters and personalities.

A simple example is; the internet.

Today it is so much more than just a connection, by which it all got started. It can be good. It can be evil. Trustworthy. Or be judged. And be judged you will. Whether one likes it or not.

People have always talked about your solutions- you usually just didn’t know about it. Social Media is no longer about sharing embarrassing middle or high school photo’s. It’s about creating a whole new level of influence. And not only on ‘Where, What , How to buy?’ but also on how your products and ideas are being developed.

An unpleasant idea? I know.

But for that they trade you something rare and in demand; ‘access to the community’. In other words, contact with your true believers.

And if first contact bared any fruits both ways, the next step in ‘access to’ will be a mild form of loyalty. Like people do when they regularly start to date. After that lies the heart of it all, where ‘the community’ allows you to build a mutual relationship.

This is how Social Media works. Communities around ideas and interests who unlock their potential in controlled steps. Giving away only what is valuable (attention) if something returns. Starting with a conversation.

Tips on Social Media:

• 62% of search engine users don’t look past first page results. Social Media drives content. Fresh content improves traffic to your regular website. Improved traffic and content makes it desirable for Google and Yahoo to put you on top. Making updates and consistent contributions essential. – Social Media comes with a high natural frequency of communicating. That’s the beauty of it. Every day you can deliver a message about who you are and why you are doing it. Down side is, you need to keep it interesting. Entertaining. Like a fortune teller who sees the same client over and over again. Therefore, favor the flavor, once a week could be enough for your business while Amazon.com does it every day.

• Start with the goal, not the tool. People want to learn your intensions not the tools you build them a house with. Transparency sells, and generates new leads for your ideas tomorrow. So, priority must be, explaining why you there, instead of exploiting the reason. – Which, in all fairness are the numbers Youtube or Twitter could bring. First the goal, then the tool. – It’s not the popularity of the tool that is being judged here. It’s you and your reasons to jump on board. People have waited centuries for this kind of power, they will not allow you to infiltrate. Social Media is self cleansing.  

• Not push or pull. But share and contribute.- Social Media/Marketing lets you monitor, contribute and participate in conversations. Single gain efforts simply will not do.- Only pull information from a community and you’re considered a thief. Only push information and you’re considered a commercial hog who only partners with his banker. So, news worthy information must become a priority within all layers of your organization. An all-round awareness to what kind of subjects might interest the outside world is necessary. Most commonly Product Development & Innovation are to top that list. In that case, be open to input as well as output. Share timely and contribute (update) regularly. Your snowball will not roll if you haven’t climbed their mountain first.

• Multimedia opportunities – reach more through less. Sales reportedly rose by 650% and took Blendtec from local to global brand following the viral campaign ‘Will it Blend?’. A series of 75 Youtube videos, with 18 mln views, banking on $800 smoothie makers by a carefully planned approach. – Such cases aren’t even rare in our digital age. Everybody likes the rags to riches for a dollar and a dime. Heck, for some it is even a dream. That’s why your business faces such stiff competition. In a week someone sets up a competitive e-shop. And two days later your Chinese colleagues are also online to seek more direct revenue channels, instead of remaining contracted manufacturers. So, reach more through less? Yes! But not with less attention to detail. Your identity will be weight on a gold scale. Come prepared. And stay informed. 

• Build true relationships with key audiences. – In showbiz they used to say; FAKE IT, TILL YOU MAKE IT. Then a new generation of ‘talent’ shows like Big Brother and Idols were launched. Mobile voting became a matter of national security and multimedia rose to the opportunity. Self made videos started flooding the internet oozing regular people’s authenticity – and suddenly ‘FAKING IT’ will not fly anymore. Same goes for companies. Target key audiences and influence the influencers all you want but accept there is a limit to your authority. This means, you don’t have to fake it. They simply don’t want you to. Instead talk about what kind of solutions you bring to the table. Build true relationships with key audiences and leave your ‘showbiz’ at the door. (If it’s not part of your marketing.)

• Increase Search Engine Optimization (Page ranking on Google).

(Sources: New York Times, EdelmanSpeak-up.com)

Bonus:

OPEN BRANDS – HOW TWITTER IS PUSHING RADICAL TRANSPARENCY

35+ Corporate examples of Social Media in action

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