Advertising/Media

Marketers buying time during the Super Bowl broadcast face challenges in determining the return on investment of their spots. They’ll face even more challenges if their websites aren’t designed to handle resulting surges in traffic… and Yottaa.com, a website optimization firm, is betting they aren’t.

Yottaa has released its predictions for the five sites most likely to either crash entirely or slow down considerably during the big game. They are, in order of likelihood: more

There are various modalities and senses of urgencies that flow through the upper echelons of executives at major corporations. Most of these individuals realize there is a time to grab market share as well as a time to plan a strong counter defense to against any and all plausible business, nuclear scenarios. Sometimes they’ve got to get into the boardroom and realize that the strategical direction that they are taking their company is concretely and 100% absolutely even more vital than the sugar coated, feel-good marketing messages that they continue to beam out into the ethos for all of the letdown customers to hear. Thus, drawing an even bigger divide in customer’s thought space re: the brand and what it really is vs. what they’re getting told it is. more

Doug Garnett, CEO/founder of direct response television agency Atomic Direct , has come out with a new book “Building Brand with Direct Response Television” that tries to inform readers of the medium’s overall effectiveness and evolution from its former stereotypes of “yell and sell.”

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Three new videos from the Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA) seek to inform consumers to the use, value and control of banner ads. There is good intent behind these spots: Consumers should have the value of behavior-based ads demonstrated, and they should be alerted that there are ways to control the ads they are shown.

Unfortunately the script, sound effects and visuals combine to create three of the most unwatchable ads ever produced. The ads, which were generated for the DAA (a coalition of several advertising groups, including the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the Direct Marketing Association, the Interactive Bureau and a handful of others) were produced pro bono by MRM Salt Lake City. They’re almost worth the price.

The spots use retro ’50s style art and graphics, which serve only to draw attention to the images and away from the message. The scripts go for stunningly unfunny wacky humor, and in the process overshadow the messages the ads are trying to convey. The text graphics pop, pulse, spin and otherwise manage the neat trick of distracting from themselves. more

Here is my annual list of what to expect in the coming year as it relates to marketing:

1.) Mobile is here and will grow. Make sure you think about its impact on your marketing when you do your 12-18 month planning. Customers and prospects are expecting you to accessible at their fingertips.

2.) Look for more integration of traditional media into social campaigns. While social is good at helping build credibility and dialog, it’s not the greatest at converting those conversations into business. Enter mail, email, face-to-face selling and telemarketing.

3.) B2B marketing will begin its long overdue transition into more measurable marketing. The days of trade shows, space ads and some direct mail only will be a thing of the past for those B2B firms that want to gain market share. Enter social media, more

Below were my 2011 marketing predictions. Let’s journey together and see if my crystal ball needs cleaning:

I can’t really claim these are anticipated, but here they are, my 2011 predictions advertising/marketing/communication specific to the New Year. For the record, my last few years’ predictions have been accurate. Use or dismiss this prose at your discretion.

Prediction #1: Video will play a keener role in website conversions, and marketing as a whole. It’s already happening and with YouTube the second most popular search engine (that’s right, only Google is bigger), it just makes sense. Zappos and other sites already know this, so test video on your site(s) and watch conversions skyrocket. As such, SEO/SEM will play a critical role in marketing effectiveness next year.



Video is being added to every new website that we now build and is being incorporated into old sites as well. YouTube continues to grow, so I would say this was spot-on. How often do you view video content on websites compared to one year ago?

Prediction #2: Consumer and Business purchasing decision-makers are changing their buying patterns because of advances in technology and the ubiquity of information that can be had on Google, YouTube, Yahoo, Bing, Rock Melt and the like. Thus, those who understand data – specifically how that data relates to transactional occurrences by each KEY target market segment – will rule the day. This applies to both customer and prospect segments. We have trained buyers to this fact: know intuitively who I am, what I am seeking and make it as easy as possible for me to do/continue to do business with you. Those companies that don’t understand this will be watching their bottom lines evaporate.

The web is blurring the lines between B2B and B2C marketing. Relevancy is the key to making me want to buy from you. Agree?

Prediction #3: Larger companies will hire more reputation mangers to make sure they can react swiftly to the chatter – specifically the negative chatter – that is so easy to post and even easier to go viral in 2011 and beyond. It’s a trend that will continue to grow and customers/prospects gain more powerful customer relation options thanks to the the web. more