Skype should be wary of Oovoo.com and the marketing implications

Posted on March 9, 2010 by markkolier

I’ve been using www.Skype.com for a few years now and it’s not only easy to use but very useful and FREE, (at least for all web based calls and when I call friends who live overseas I delight in not paying ro those calls just like everyone else).   Skype also has video functionality so users can view their conversations in real time.   That functionality works pretty well although it is decidedly impacted by individual internet transmission speed.  I still am unsure as to the how the revenue model actually works for Skype.   However, I have noticed more and more SPAM on Skype in recent months – an occupational hazard perhaps.   But the fact that it is free makes it difficult to complain about.

Admittedly, I don’t often use a webcam for communication but am thinking of making that more of a regular activity.   www.Oovoo.com is a less well known platform with some very interesting features not found on Skype.   In truth I first came upon it when I noticed my 16 year old daughter having a six-way on line video conference communication with her friends.   Forget for a moment that they see each other at school all day and why they’d want to watch each other on screen is a bit beyond my understanding but that’s the Cro-Magnon Dad in me.  Oovoo offers what is essentially a web conference to six different participants at a time.   More people can be included but then it converts to a pay model.

Oovoo.com also is a free platform, although like Skype one can upgrade to a pay model in order to receive more features and functionality.   Where Skype tries to take the offer down the path of offering web to land line phone calls (for a price), Oovoo is headed more in the direction of free real-time web conferencing.   www.citrix.com (gotomypc.com and gotomeeting.com are their properties) and www.Webex.com beware as well. 

The marketing implications of how Oovoo could be used are significant.   For example forums can be put together in real time for things like real estate where residents and potential buyers could view and discuss in real time what it’s like to live in a particular place – schools, services, neighborhoods.    Rather than obtain all their intelligence from a real estate agent.   And the opportunity to hold product focus groups are quite a bit different when viewed AND heard.  

At home, or mobile web conferencing for many people is vastly underutilized but I believe that trend is changing and changing fast.  True we don’t always want whomever to see what we look like when talking on the phone and I have one associate who prides himself on being shot from the chest-up in his nice shirt while wearing a pair of basketball shorts that nobody sees.   Unless of course, he’s asked to stand up. 

Check out Oovoo.com and let me know what you think.   They are #2 but like Avis I believe they are trying harder.

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A new website is not a marketing strategy

Posted on March 5, 2010 by markkolier

It happens more often than one would have imagined.  A prospect or friend who knows what our agency does will tell me that they either need a redesign of their old website or even develop their company’s first website.   And can we help them?   

While the answer is unequivocally yes – we CAN help, what has really happened is the opening of a dialog on their entire marketing effort.   This is frequently much more than the prospect or friend has bargained for.  Yet we feel we are doing a disservice to anyone by simply nodding and saying ‘Sure we’ll do a website for you’, without knowing much (or enough) about their business, its focus and challenges.   

Keep in mind that in order for our agency to do a really good job on a website, a substantial amount of intelligence has to be gained in order to understand the objective and create an interesting, cool, and highly intuitive website.   Smaller businesses frequently have more budget restrictions than larger ones and that’s no surprise.  But whether the business is small or large, having a website is important but it may not be the most important marketing activity their business needs to move forward.  

Our digital and direct marketing agency is not looking to compete with the GoDaddy.com website model.    If inexpensive is what the mission is, then sites like GoDaddy (there are others) can provide template solutions that enable the user to plug in content (photos, text, links) and get a web presence all with hosting for $ 1,000 or less.   True you will not benefit from our agency’s (or any agency’s) years of experience in usability and creative design, but if spending as little money as possible is needed, then do the work yourself and you will have a web ‘presence’. 

What those template solutions will also not do is ask you questions about the business and its direction.   We have had clients ask us about creating a new website and ended up not only doing that and we end up helping their business market its services in many other ways.   Other times we may not revamp the website as a primary strategy. 

One of our team members likened an inquiry about a new website is often a marketing cry for help.   I think that is true in many cases.  What we can uncover during our discovery process in developing a new or updating and old website is at times surprising to everyone – client and agency.   Once we get to that point the real work can begin and what results is a better engagement and better result for the client. 

We’re in business to give our clients all that they ask for and more.  Sometimes that can be more than they want or even need.  But the questions always have to be asked to determine what we feel is the best marketing path for the client.  It might be a new website and then again it might not. 

Do you think I am off base here?

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A recommendation for Amazon.com’s recommendation system

Posted on March 2, 2010 by markkolier

 

When Amazon.com came out with their recommendation system a number of years ago (strangely this was difficult to find out for certain) I along with many people thought that it was a very cool thing.  Often imitated and seldom duplicated it remains one of the hallmarks of the entire Amazon platform. 

Netflix had a ‘contest’ begun in 2008 with a prize of $ 1,000,000 to replace their movie recommendation system – it was so successful that they are repeating again this year and the money paid out is far less than they would have spend to develop an internal replacement.   For what it is worth I feel that Netflix exhibited crowdsourcing as well as it can be done.  (You can read Jeff Howe’s book if you want to learn more).

Any recommendation system is based on the ‘wisdom’ of the crowd.  But Amazon’s system is getting a little long in the tooth.  I realize that any recommendation system is only as effective as the data it has to leverage.   I don’t give Amazon all that much but every search, every purchase everything I do on their site is tracked and segmented – or at least I expect that it is. 

So why (you might ask) I am questioning Amazon’s recommendation system now?  Well for one thing I searched on an SAT course for my then high school aged son in 2005.  For some reason Amazon continually recommends that I might be interested in purchasing the 2010 version (they also asked that about 2006/7/8 and 9). Since I will assume Amazon is not implying that my son is still trying to excel on the SAT (or that he is an idiot), I postulated that maybe they know at present I have a daughter who is a high school junior.  I checked my profile and nowhere do I mention my daughter (or anyone else family or friends).   Amazon may be good but they’re not that good. 

I also get recommendation for Japanese anime which I bought a book or two more than five years ago but have never purchased a like product since.   Also included in my current recommendations – a Slinky (?), Jimi Hendrix – Valleys of Neptune, (ok I get that since I have bought music like that over the years), and a bunch of books on Direct Marketing – which is totally appropriate even if I have no personal interest in those recommendations. 

What Amazon has failed to ask me is to fill out (I never have) my profile.  If I were them I would even incent me to do so – think of all the MUCH more relevant recommendations they could make if that had some better intelligence.   I would not have to be offered all that much – maybe free shipping on my next order?  I’m not an Amazon Prime member and don’t buy enough to be one.   But with more relevant recommendations I can almost guarantee that I’d buy more and so would other people. 

I have always been a fan of Amazon.com and remain so but they are missing a big opportunity.  If you have had similar or different experiences please share them as I’d love to read them.

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Olympic advertising will have to change with the times

Posted on February 26, 2010 by markkolier

John Skipper of ESPN is both a neighbor of mine as well (he was also my son’s 4th grade basketball coach over a decade ago) as the Executive VP for content.   In an article in yesterday’s NY Times http://nyti.ms/ciWFqt he discussed the idea that should ESPN be awarded the 2014 winter and 2016 summer games (which they plan to bid on) they would discontinue the tape-delay template. 

I agree completely with him.   Let this be the last Olympics where I have to be cajoled into hanging in there under the banner of ’17 minutes until Lindsey Vonn’.  Or ‘Apolo Ohno in 22 minutes’.  This while they show a taped cross country ski race for which we already know the result.  

NBC has offered live coverage on MSNBC (hockey in particular) and CNBC to name two alternate stations.   In fact I watched the women’s gold medal game last night live.  But NBC rarely if ever suggests that you go to MSNBC or CNBC to watch an event live.  As if they are somehow going to scoop their own coverage.  Yes I realize that non-cable subscribers may not have that access but – too bad for them if that’s the case.  

And as I was watching the hockey game last night with my wife and 16 year old daughter (the Canadian goaltender nearly stood on her head in pitching a shutout vs. a very determined and capable American squad), I marveled – (well maybe I was just impressed) at the continuous action and NO commercial breaks during the period.  The game was fast paced and took less than 2 hours to complete.  It was an enjoyable experience and although disappointed the Americans did not win I was happy for the Canadians who have a world of pressure to deliver gold in what should be but is not their national sport (lacrosse!). 

If you watch soccer on TV (and the 2010 World cup in South Africa is coming up fast in June) you notice that there are not commercial breaks either.  The action is continuous but what they do is place rotating ads on the screen in the corner.  Why doesn’t MSNBC do the same thing during the Olympic hockey coverage?   Viewers are fairly accustomed to this now and we do understand that broadcast rights are expensive. I sincerely doubt most people would begrudge rotating on screen ads if done unobtrusively, particularly if we exchange that model for one that has us going to commercial breaks at seemingly every stoppage of play as it is in the NHL TV coverage. 

How could MSNBC miss this opportunity?

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Geo-fencing is one way 2010 can be the year of mobile

Posted on February 23, 2010 by markkolier

Two articles today one in the NY Times and the other in the Wall Street Journal cover location based mobile advertising. 

Using a tactic called Geo-Fencing a company called Placecast (http://www.placecast.net) has a platform of ‘location-triggered’ mobile marketing solutions.   They ‘fence’ areas in cities and if you walk inside the fenced area and have signed up to receive messages from a marketer (in the case of the NY Times article the retailer The North Face is used as an example) the marketer by the use of the platform can text message offers, events and promotions.  Visit http://nyti.ms/a5xLoR  for the NY Times article. 

The Wall Street Journal article also covers the combining of social media and marketing.  Using a variety of platforms retailers can offer one-day promotions and offers.   Visit http://bit.ly/9a1MKx for the Wall Street Journal article. 

A 2008 start-up called FourSquare (www.foursquare.com) is a free application that allows participants to ‘check-in’ via a mobile application to essentially let their friends know where they are and in addition to racking up ‘points’ with individual retailers they also can be rewarded for frequenting eating and drinking establishments – even becoming ‘mayor’ if they go there enough. 

I will readily admit that I don’t personally see the value in alerting my friends to where I am at any given moment.  But I don’t live in the city and have not for some time.  And when I was living in New York I was often surprised to run into people I knew at places and on the streets – not necessarily something one would think in a city of 8 million people.  

For me I also don’t see myself signing up with retailers/merchants to receive offers from them when I step inside their geo-fence.  But then again I’m a buyer not a shopper.  And I personally am not so brand-driven but understand that I am in minority there. 

Yet in terms of overall marketing strategy and engagement I think all these location based services are interesting, relevant and will shake out such that a few will emerge as regular every day parts of people’s lives – first primarily in cities but it will evolve beyond that as well to include people outside of cities. 

2010 may not end up being the year of mobile but that ‘year’ is getting closer and maybe it does not make sense to anoint a year at all.  After all why would we really care about which year is the year of mobile anyway?

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Email platforms – Constant Contact vs. Proprietary email programs

Posted on February 19, 2010 by markkolier

Email remains a relevant and workable platform when communicating with customers and interested prospects.  I continue to feel that email as a customer acquisition tool is a difficult road at best. 

Our agency helps craft email messages for our clients.   The method of distribution comes up frequently.  The leading commercial email provider is Constant Contact (CC).  There are others like Strongmail, Goodmail, Silverpop and many more.  CC is a solid platform that is relatively inexpensive with somewhat limited functionality.   But it’s cheap.  Did I mention that?   When we recommend email distribution (and we have our own proprietary platform) we sometimes recommend NOT using our own solution.  This has mostly to do with individual client budget limitations. 

If you are sending 500 emails, or even 2,500 a platform like Constant Contact offers a simple interface, a few templates and a decent reporting system.   Once you step up to higher quantities it makes more sense to consider a platform that has more features, better reporting and unlimited graphical opportunities.  

Most of the commercial email platforms like CC have their own ‘advertisement’ at the bottom of the email.  If you are a corporation connecting with your clients and prospects that’s not necessarily the most professional look and feel.  And once you are sending out thousands of email at a time the expense factor levels out and a proprietary system can actually be less expensive as the numbers get larger. 

And what about substantially expanded creative capability?    Our www.YourCover.com product had used CC for years and we were frustrated by the limitations set forth by the platform itself.  We simply could not maintain our brand image using the CC interface.  And as our email list has grown the cost savings has become less evident.   So we are moving over to our own platform (finally) since our list is both large enough and we cannot put up with the graphic limitations of CC. 

Why a proprietary system over one out of the can? It’s all about integration.   The ability to send emails, surveys, Purls, direct to landing pages and even print on demand off of one engine makes our lives (and our client’s lives) so much easier AND so much better in terms of reporting and metrics.  And last time I checked making things easier and better was still important.

Or at least I think so.

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The narrow window of Twitter

Posted on February 16, 2010 by markkolier

I’ve been reading a lot about the ‘future’ of twitter.  Yet is more in the context of ‘will it last’ than ‘what it will be?’  Our agency’s clients are eager and interested to know how we see Twitter and what we might recommend for their brand.  If you want to have the experience of going on twitter do it now folks as I am not convinced it will be around for the long haul – at least not in the present form.  If you are wondering if Twitter is a legitimate business platform my overall feeling is, save your money folks. 

I was a relatively early adopter of Twitter so I could see how people would use this ‘new cool’ social networking tool.  I started in 2008 and to this day only ‘tweet’ what I hope my followers will find to be amusing and of interest.   While I have put up 350+ tweets over the 20+ months, there are a number of people that have posted more than 10,000 tweets.   What they do other than tweet is a mystery to me.

One disconnect I have is that in order for me to check on what one of the 1,000 Twitterers (or Twitterati as they somehow like to be called) that I follow are doing, I have to go to that person’s profile or put them in my ‘favorites’ on TweetDeck or another platform.  If I tried to view the tweet stream in real time or even periodically there are SO many tweets that things can get buried very quickly.  Not exactly ideal for engagement. 

A recent article in Brandweek asked the question is Twitter the Next Second Life.  

www.brandweek.com/bw/content_display/news-and-features/direct/e3i2a2383a07ad64ff8a8e8473f0cd169a1?pn=1

To me it seems that Twitter is a good platform for smaller brands looking for a one-to-one connection with a narrow audience.  Some would argue that it is more than a connection perhaps even a conversation but I don’t see it that way.  If you are interested in exclusive offers from an exclusive merchant or provider then Twitter can be a lifeline direct to the consumer. 

Twitter can be a worthwhile tool for monitoring the conversation about your brand and we do recommend that to our clients.  But with seemingly more than 90% of the conversations between like minded individuals Twitter is more about preaching to the choir than anything else.   Without a sound revenue model, and with the cacophony of the Twitter cocktail party at nearly deafening levels, I suspect that eventually people may just stop listening altogether. 

Agree or disagree?

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Lindsey Vonn’s 15 minutes are now

Posted on February 12, 2010 by markkolier

The Winter Olympics are here.  Finally?  After all it’s been less than a week since the Super Bowl and this is the time of the sports year where there is VERY little going on.   This weekend is the NBA All-star game.  Ho-hum.    And the NHL will be over shadowed by Olympic Hockey.  NCAA basketball is still weeks away from March Madness. 

NBC Universal paid $ 820 million for the right to televise the 2010 winter games.  In 2006 NBC paid $ 613 million.  I cannot think of another valuation that has increased that much (+33%) since 2006.  All this and NBC has reported they will lose money on the 2010 winter games. 

So who stands to benefit most from the games in the U.S.?   My prediction is World Cup skiing champion Lindsey Vonn.   Fresh off her appearance in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue (May Lou Retton and even Nancy Kerrigan never had that opportunity), Mrs. (yes that is her married name) Vonn will become the most covered up yet over-exposed participant (American or not) at the games.   Check the ‘photo shoot’ NBC has posted on its winter Olympic website – http://www.nbcolympics.com/photos/galleryid=261208.html#lindsey+vonn+magazine+fashion+shoot

Just yesterday there was concern that a shin injury might preclude Lindsey’s participation in the Olympics altogether.  Yet somehow miraculously she took a ski run and declared herself fit and ready for the games.   She averred that she hoped to win ANY medal at the games but if she fails to bring home gold of any kind it will be seen as a monumental failure.  As the reigning World Cup champion (something that simply does not occur for American skiers regardless of gender) the pre-games hype is hardly unwarranted. 

Unfortunately since ski races take place during the daylight hours many people will not be able to view Lindsey’s exploits in the comfort of their living room.   A ski run takes 2 minutes or so and I am sure people will be watching at work or wherever – once the event has taken place – but not live. 

Vonn is planning to race in no less than five events.  NBC and the U.S. Olympic committee have hitched its wagon to Lindsey’s rising star.   No other American athlete is even close on the radar screen.   Be prepared to be tired of all the ‘up close and personal’ and background on the life of Lindsey Vonn.  Remember the Michael Phelps love-fest a couple of years ago?    Kind of makes me tired of it before it even starts (and yes I will be rooting for her despite all that).

Your fifteen minutes are here Lindsey.  A lifetime of living off them awaits you.  What will you do with them?

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User Generated Super Bowl ads are cool and not threatening to marketing agencies

Posted on February 9, 2010 by markkolier

Much has been discussed the past few days related to the Doritos ads presented during the Super Bowl telecast this past Sunday.  Like them or not (I liked the Samurai one and the other not so much), there have been articles written on how Ad Agencies should ‘fear’ user generated ads as the beginning of the end for marketing agencies. 

Stuart Elliott in this morning’s NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/09/business/media/09adco.html?ref=business postulates that ‘modern-day “Mad Men”’ should take pause since the two Doritos spots were among the most-watched among all the spots.

The article went on to note that in two separate surveys among users of Twitter (never thought of Twitter as a focus group myself), Doritos finished first.  It did not mention whether or not the Twitterers were already Doritos aficionados. 

But should we really be surprised that amateur ads performed well enough to be even included in the same conversations with ads produced by giants like Goodby, BBDO, and others?   Not at all in my view.  In particular Doritos is a fairly straightforward value proposition.    The ads are fun, irreverent and aimed at the target audience of chip loving Americans.  The 24 year old creator of the “Underdog” spot won $ 600,000 for his second place finish.   How exactly is that so different from paying a Madison Avenue agency to come up with a strategy and execution? 

The real success of the campaign should not be solely measured by how audiences liked or did not like a Super Bowl ad.  Everyone seems to like to flog the GoDaddy ads but they talk about them constantly and can you remember which company is the former leader in internet domain name registrations and SSL’s?   GoDaddy owns that space now – with their cheesy ads and all (Doritos is a bit cheesier to be sure as am I). 

How many more people will try and enjoy Doritos as a result of the Super Bowl ads?   I hope Frito-Lay will have some metric for figuring that out.  But I don’t hold out much hope. 

And today the chickens truly come home to roost as Denny’s is amidst it’s 8 hour free Grand Slam breakfast offer that was promoted by those chickens during the Super Bowl.   Last year 2 million people went to Denny’s to have their free breakfast.  I bet they will do even more free breakfasts this year. 

More importantly I expect Denny’s to collect email addresses of all free breakfast redeemers.  That offers a real opportunity to both engage and make offers to potential customers (remember they are not customers until they actually spend some $$).  

Wish there was a Denny’s close enough for me to find out for myself. 

Let me know if you went to Denny’s and what you thought.

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Being Toyota means you finally have to say you are sorry

Posted on February 5, 2010 by markkolier

Just this morning Akio Toyoda the grandson of Toyota’s founder FINALLY spoke his first words regarding the Toyota debacle that has unfolded over the past two weeks.   The world’s largest carmaker took personal responsibility for the problems.  He went on to say “I believe what is happening now is a very big problem.  We are in a crisis”.   Really? 

The Japanese are not noted for their capacity to apologize.  Particularly in contrast to Americans where saying you are sorry is tantamount to getting a second if not 9th chance to rebuild your reputation. 

In his press conference Mr. Toyoda went on to mention that “ I came out here today because I would not want our customers to spend the weekend wondering whether their cars are safe”    NEWS FLASH Mr. Toyoda – I drove past a Prius driver this morning going about 20 MPH in the right lane and he appeared petrified.   It’s not as if 99.9% of Toyota drivers have a garage full of other cars to drive (wonder if Jay Leno has one?  The U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood earlier this week basically told Toyota drivers to not drive their cars. But what are their alternatives? 

It will not be an easy task for Toyota to market its way out of this situation.   All over the news and internet are photos of horribly destroyed vehicles that accelerated to frightening speeds and crashed into trees and buildings.  Those images may be indelibly etched into the minds of the car-buying American (and international) public.  

Earlier this week Toyota reported that it was going to give Toyota dealers $ 7,500 to $ 75,000 to help them market vehicles as Americans have virtually halted their purchases of Toyotas.  Sales were down 22% week over week last week and that percentage is sure to skyrocket when this week’s figures are released.  

My family is in the market for a used vehicle for our 16 year old daughter.   While I imagine there are some pretty attractive deals on used Toyotas there is zero chance that we will seriously look at one at this point in time and perhaps for a very long time.   Toyota’s reaction to this series of problems was slow if not glacial.   They knew about the problem, ignored the problem and now will pay for the problem for a very long time.   Americans are a very forgiving people but I am not sure if they are willing to forgive and forget. 

Ford had a good week last week in reporting gains in sales and profits – this was before the Toyota news came out.  Ford had a better week this week.  Even GM had a much better week this week.  It’s not always what you do – it’s what you don’t do that can take a giant to its knees.    

Would you consider buying a Toyota if the deal was almost too good to be true?

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