SO MO LO - The Confluence Of Social, Mobile & Local Marketing

Smart data for smart marketers. It’s not just semantics.

Much has been made about how marketers can be smarter, more targeted and more relevant in their online marketing efforts.  True enough – the volume and precision of data has given marketers vast opportunities to collect and manage data across all web interactions – from web sites, email campaigns, SMS and MMS campaigns, Mobile Web, smart phone apps and display banners.  Transaction data integrated with behavioral data is rapidly turning into a strategic asset.  Delivering ultra-targeted messages across these interactions, all coordinated and synchronized, monetizes the data asset in new and exciting ways.

 

But just when marketers think they’ve got data-driven marketing figured out, another important trend threatens to make today’s sophisticated data management and analysis techniques look antiquated.  And for good reason.  It turns out that the context in which the data exists – the time, the place, the circumstances, the macro and micro-events, the geographic tags, the relationship between each of these pieces of the context - is about to redefine data-driven marketing. 

 

Welcome to the Semantic Web.  A Web that seems to anticipate your needs, responds in real time to who you are and what you’re doing, adapts to changing conditions and guides you effortlessly on your journey to find the right product to meet your every need. 

 

Consider the following example to illustrate the potential of the Semantic Web.  The recent Google TV announcement highlighted several of their partners, including Sony showing off a slick new Blue-ray High Definition TV.  At roughly the same time, a comparison shopping site notices a spike in consumer traffic for “Sony High Definition TV” search terms, clearly an indication of the halo effect from the announcement.  Under normal circumstances, marketers would capture this search data as an indication of product interest.  Yesterday’s smart marketers would use this data to retarget a display ad on an ad network for High Def TV offers and promotions.  What once seem advanced is now the price of entry in the Semantic Web.

 

Today’s smart marketer, one who understands the power of contextual data, would capture the other contextual data (i.e. the Google TV announcement) around this initial search behavior.  The smart marketer would use this contextual data to alter the creative and copy.  So rather than a banner with copy that announces “Cool Sony HDTV’s available with free shipping”, the smart marketer who understands the Semantic Web would display a banner that highlights personalized emotional and rational benefits.  This smart ad would probably read “Sony.  The leader in bringing the Internet to high-definition TV.”  Subtle, effective, personalized, relevant…all because the Semantic Web gave the marketer more context to the search term.

 

This new data world places additional burden on technology solutions.  Vendors with a proven ability to gather and organize data in real-time will be in high demand.  Vendors who provide real-time decisioning and campaign management systems that can act on this data as soon as it becomes available will be the winners in the Semantic Web.  But perhaps the biggest need from technology providers is in the area of data transformation, associating context with data quickly, intelligently and efficiently.

 

This will be done through systems that extract data and the context of the data in one swift motion, storing the entire data set and quickly associating other data to the individual pieces of the context.  Data mining tools that discover these associations will be central to this process, and those mining tools that learn and adapt to changing conditions will be even more essential.

 

The need for marketers and their technology partners to solve data challenges is higher than ever.  For those marketers who have yet to deploy a data strategy that manages the data that exists across their ecosystem, this strategy needs to be developed and implemented with urgency.  You’re about to fall further behind.  For those smart marketers who have a solid data strategy and have already integrated behavioral and transaction data from all touchpoints into a single view of the customer, and who use this data to drive messaging decisions across channels, you’re got a solid foundation upon which to build. 

 

The Semantic Web is the new frontier for data-driven marketing.

Brand Management in the Online World

The online advertising world is making a comeback - in a big way.  Recent signs point to the resurgence of online marketing, with the IAB reporting healthy sequential gains in online ad spending.  Not coincidentally, the explosion and maturation of technologies and platforms to manage and serve ultra-targeted display ads is giving marketers plenty of ways to innovate.  A brand impression that was once thought to solely lead to aided and unaided awareness is now closer than ever to generating a response and generating sales.

 

But the question remains.  Can brands be built and managed online, even without an offline complement?  That’s a big question marketers are facing today as traditional media continues to fragment and subscriptions plummet for magazines and newspapers.  The reality for marketers is this - if you don’t have adequate resources for a big-time TV campaign complete with a production budget that delivers memorable creative, it’s time to look seriously at what you can do by shifting the majority of your spend online.

 

Today, marketers can turn to a whole host of solution providers to reach their target audience in ways that have finally matured and reached scale.  Looking to find an audience that resembles your best customer?  Done.  How about those who search for keywords that match your brand, product assortment or other keywords that perform well?  This too is possible at scale.

 

You can even use ad serving platforms to connect the proper benefits of your brand with unique audiences, displaying the brand benefit that resonates most with individual consumers.  Imagine highlighting a certain brand benefit to one consumer one moment and another brand benefit to a separate consumer the next moment – and these various creative treatments are displayed in the same ad unit that was purchased on the sports section of nytimes.com.  Gone are the days when targeting was accomplished by content relevancy…now we’re buying people, not content. 

 

An added benefit is we’re now able to vary spend so that bidding is based on the potential lifetime value of the consumer.  We may even choose to suppress the display of the ad since a consumer is deemed to be undesirable, despite the fact that the media property where we’ve purchased inventory would suggest otherwise.  This redefines Return on Advertising Spend (ROAS) and delivers yields that were once elusive.

 

In addition to the dramatic improvements in display advertising, we have another platform that’s notable to brand marketers - social media.  Finding and cultivating relationships with your best customers enables marketers to create brand advocates.  With a ready-made platform of nearly 500 million members on Facebook and millions of Twitter conversations occurring daily, these brand advocates can do the hard work for you and spread your brand story to their social graph. Finding and motivating 1,000 of your best customers to tell their friends delivers at least 100,000 impressions that are not only targeted – they’re the highest quality impressions on the planet because the message is endorsed by someone they know and trust.

 

The role of public relations in brand building and management is also being redefined by the Internet.  Monitoring social conversations, finding those influencers in your industry and encouraging these influencers to carry your brand message is at the heart of social media.  Injecting your brand in relevant conversations (through techniques like Promoted Tweets) is yet another effective way to target your message to groups.

 

The last platform that is shaping brand building using digital media is the runaway growth of the mobile channel.  Location aware mobile devices close the last mile, enabling merchants, retailers, manufacturers and brands of all stripes to serve brand messages that are both targeted and laden with response triggers.  Mobile marketing is where the fusion of brand and direct response is happening.

 

Which speaks to the biggest benefit of online brand building.  It’s infinitely measurable.  John Wanamaker’s quote about not knowing which half of advertising was ineffective is a thing of the past.  Not only do we know which dollar is ineffective, we use this knowledge to change the next dollar spent so that it becomes more effective.

 

While I realize some brands cannot (and should not) immediately suspend their offline brand building activities, they should – they must – develop online marketing expertise.  They need to integrate these capabilities with their existing strategies.  They need to experiment, letting the data dictate their actions.  They need to double down on the winners.

 

Only then will we know with any certainty the extent to which a brand can be managed through online channels.

Hyper Local Marketing – Don’t Forget The Merchant

It’s hard to overlook the buzz surrounding local marketing.  Recent attention placed on “flash deals”, “group buying”, “social commerce” and similar descriptors scratch the surface on the enormous opportunity that’s finally been cracked after many failed attempts from traditional players.

 

The demise of Yellow Pages and local advertising using traditional media is quickly being replaced by the big guys dialing up their local merchant services along with upstarts who focus exclusively on local marketing.  Notably, Google and Facebook are unveiling new offerings designed to help merchants manage their online presence, create awareness and drive traffic to their store.  Meanwhile, established online local content aggregators like Yelp are taking note of new services like Gowalla and Foursquare who are masters at social networking.  Then you have the recent emergence of local group buying platforms, led by Groupon and their eye-popping $1.3B valuation, who offer yet another way for consumers and local merchants to connect.

 

All of these players, and many others involved in local marketing, are exploiting the GPS capabilities of  smart phones and their elegant connection with social platforms to enable their services and spread the word, acting like an accelerant.  Hyper local is actually becoming a term used to describe the potential of this booming category.

 

Nobody is immune from the influence of local marketing…service and product merchants at the local, regional and national level are looking to super charge their marketing efforts with a local touch.  Any why not?  Location location location is not limited to describing the virtues of residential real estate.  It’s the last mile between brand awareness and ringing the cash register.

 

But what we’re seeing now is the tip of the iceberg.  It’s not unrealistic to expect a massive local ecosystem in which many service providers are interconnected.  You’ll have product inventory enabled by real-time platforms like Milo and Krillion allowing real-time shopping via mobile devices and comparison shopping engines that drive traffic to retailers.  You’ll begin to see local efforts down to the neighborhood, a particularly useful need in densely populated urban areas.  You’ll see data sharing between services that are more complementary – or more likely consolidation between firms like Foursquare and Groupon, providing their customers with an enhanced user experience - a complete closed loop between generating foot traffic, checking-in, and sharing experiences with your social graph complete with pictures of the meal you’re about to enjoy courtesy of a $30 Groupon.  And you’ll see all these services follow you on your travels for work or play.  Local will be defined not by where you live but by where you are at that moment.

 

With all this buzz, there’s bound to be bumps along the way - and we’re beginning to  see evidence of a few problems.

 

We all know that merchants have perishable inventory.   Whether defined by few products in a particular SKU, the number of tables and the configuration of these tables, physical space, or any number of limitations that inhibit their ability to easily digest spikes in demand.  On the other hand, they’re looking for innovative ways to drive foot traffic to their store so they can turn their inventory over, cover fixed expenses quickly and make good money managing their variable expenses.

 

These seemingly opposing forces are constantly being managed by merchants.  A restaurateur worth their salt doesn’t need more people showing up on Saturday night with coupon for 30% off an entrée – but that same discount on a Wednesday at 5:00 is a different story.  A mani/pedi shop owner could do without Saturday afternoon discount customers who crowd out the bridal party getting ready for the wedding.  Getting these customers to come for their manicure on Tuesday’s at noon, however, does wonders for their bottom line.

 

With the explosion of local marketing options, merchants are presented with multiple ways to manage this vexing business problem – balancing limited supply with increases in demand that they can reasonably and profitably fulfill.  The options are increasing…the differences are blurring - Which decal is on the front of the door?  Which platform do I use to distribute offers and other marketing messages?  If I go with multiple platforms at the same time, what can I expect and how do I prepare for spikes in demand?  If I go with a single platform, will I get what I expect or will it be a waste of time?  What’s my backup plan if the offer is a hit, goes viral and overwhelms my staff?

 

There are no easy answers here.  And these are important questions to confront for anyone involved in local marketing efforts.  Sophisticated merchant management capabilities are one pathway to positive customer experiences, long term merchant relationships and increased merchant participation.  Tools that allow merchants to become an integral part of the process of creating, executing, monitoring and analyzing marketing programs will become essential.  Of course, some merchants don’t care to get involved in the details.  That’s OK…servicing these merchants with account teams while giving other merchants self-service capabilities will be a competitive weapon in the quest for market share.

 

Providers of platforms and technologies for local marketing should quickly realize that the merchant holds significant power in the local marketing ecosystem.  Care should be taken when developing brand value propositions and building marketing strategies that overly bias consumers and demand.  Because without managing supply, consumer experiences will suffer and defections will increase.

 

Supply meeting demand is the essence of a vibrant marketplace.  Massive opportunities await those companies who get this and make it part of their DNA.