Saturday, April 29, 2006

Experiential Marketing: Microsoft Case Study


For every one that looks to poo-poo MSN--first hand knowledge of how they seamlessly and studiously executed a brilliant on-site marketing campaign (at NY Auto Show---an event that had a captive audience of 1 million+ )--here's the news flash: 200 other brand marketers had the same opportunity, but were so dysfunctional--they snoozed and MSN scored.

1. Through an alliance with the show's ticketing system vendor (WalkUp Systems) MSN Autos secured the front door at the Jacob Javits Center and had the exclusive right to place use 'human billboards'..ostensibly serving as Show Ambassords at every entrance way...and the ability to interact with the 1million+ as they were standing on line to purchase tickets.

2. Once having this strategically incomparable physical placement, they leveraged the opportunity by age-old favorite of handing out premiums with a prize element--in this case...'collectible key chains' with MSN Autos and NY Auto Show logo--driving recipients to a special website where they could enter to win a Ford Mustang.

3. Complementing the greeting and key chains, MSN Autos 'wrapped" the ticketing kiosks with billboard signage and ran a montage of MSN Autos video spots (15-second spots ran 4x every 5 minutes) on the ticketing platforms' 9ft video screens---a trifecta approach ensuring high recall and participation in the promotion.

4. Bottom Line Results: 60% of the visitors polled on exit had immediate recall i.e. "who the ambassadors at front door were representing"---and at last count, 50% of the 100,000 key chains distributed have submitted their sweepstakes entry ticket to a special web site.

5. Cost--1/2 price of one (1) 30-second commercial on SNL..

Okay, not everyone has 50k to leverage a 10-day live event with a demographically-targeted audience...but I can count off 20 companies that do have that kind of budget, (duh...Yahoo! and AOL auto divisions, but their heads are so far up their butts trying to justify the impact of highway billboards and low recall tv commercials...they just ain't getting it...yet....

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

Product Launch Case Study: OnLine/OnPhone

You love the net, but you embrace real-live customer interaction..your brand name isn't famous yet and you can't afford to advertise on TV.

To get the word out, this marketer put 75% of his budget into off-peak radio ads and 25% into paid search ads with Google and Yahoo.

Every single ad had to pay for itself in incoming converted sales. "We go for direct ROI measurement -- always." Brand building would be a side benefit. Click on to see the full story! Combines innovative thinking with common business sense.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Marketing Metrics --Using a Dashboard

Great article to help you determine if you need an oil change, or if you need to fill up your tank..Its about creating a dashboard...what too many people automatically interpret as a software application...but it can simply be a "thought process"..read the whole article!

What Is a Marketing Dashboard?

oes your company suffer from any of these symptoms?


  • Marketing is not seen as having a direct impact on the organization's financial performance.
  • Functional silos within marketing seem to be operating independently and fighting for budget dollars and attention.
  • With the swarm of marketing initiatives, no one is clear on which ones are really contributing the most to the bottom line.
  • Marketing budgets are set on what was spent in the past year, not on what was achieved in the prior 12 months or on new company goals.
  • Finance isn't buying into the ability of the marketing mix model to link brand attributes to revenue or profits.

If so, you might want to think about how a marketing dashboard can help build marketing's alignment with organizational goals and increase marketing's accountability to enhancing the bottom line. A good dashboard reflects what's going on in marketing, what resources are deployed, to what end, and what ROI is expected for each initiative.

Saturday, April 22, 2006

$5 million idea in three sentences

Business Week tripped over this blog posting and republished it in the May 1 edition. They have no idea out prescient they are.....but I'm betting my own $$ that MSN Autos takes notice and forges a deal with NY Auto Show, to be a follow-on to the sponsorship deal that yours truly put into place for this week's 2006 NY International Auto Show... (see www.newyorkautoshowwalkup.com for details of the deal)

NOTABLE POST

Even without considering the cost of an auto-show stand or the expense of going to one, the Internet is 175% more efficient... If the organizers of the New York International Auto Show could suck a buck from every one of the Web heads who check in on their vapid display of automobiles-in-aspic, they'd make enough money to pay for post-traumatic show disorder therapy -- for everyone!"


Whats In Store...

A must read for any media buyer or consumer brand marketer..but it only makes sense for those that know how to do basic math....

Today's article: Where do ad agencies stand with at-retail media?

If April's AdAge article has told us anything about how ad agencies feel about in-store marketing, it's that many firms have not given it the respect it deserves. And if the responses to the original article (including the letter from POPAI President/CEO Dick Blatt) tell us anything else, it's that people in the retail marketing industry are working to remedy the problem. While it's unlikely that one little article will derail the in-store marketing movement (in both static and digital forms), it still seems like the big agencies have done very little to establish their position one way or the other. Sure, all of the big conglomerates have agencies that focus exclusively on below-the-line tactics (including in-store, direct mail, data mining, etc.), but there's no clear powerhouse in the industry as of yet. This is especially surprising given that some of the biggest advertisers in the world, like P&G and Unilever, have conducted extensive surveys on the effectiveness of in-store marketing and stated that they will be spending more marketing dollars on in-store media, while research firms like Arbitron have found that shoppers are receptive to at-retail media. And the trend isn't just limited to the US. Just the other day, one Canadian newspaper noticed that while "TV advertising showed the slowest growth, increasing just 1 per cent, according to Nielsen... spending on out-of-home advertising grew by 14 per cent....

Friday, April 21, 2006

Inventive Ways to Use Place-Based Media

Great update from industry pro Kim Gordon!.

When was the last time you left home and were in a truly advertisement-free environment? Think about it. Now advertising messages go anywhere and everywhere people do. Go to almost any U.S. beach and you'll be greeted with a plane towing an ad banner. You may even be exposed to "beach sand impressions," which are ad messages imprinted into the sand and regenerated overnight. How about a ball game? Every conceivable stadium surface is covered with advertising, from signage to food snack packs, and some stadiums even have video screens built directly into the seat backs. Feel like going for a bike ride surrounded by nature? You may find your local biking trails are named after businesses, thanks to the new availability of naming rights for everything from nature trails to neighborhood swimming pools.

The industry calls this alternative out-of-home or placed-based media, and it's a bonanza for small businesses because there's literally something for everyone. While there are virtually limitless places to put your ads, here are just a few ideas to get you thinking: