Updates from March, 2012

  • Nat 12:00 am on March 1, 2012 Permalink  

    Facebook Timeline for Brands 

    We’ve known for a little while that Facebook would be moving Brand Pages to the new Timeline format and today they launched a preview for page administrators. The change will happen automatically for brands on March 30th, so we wasted no time in diving in and checking it out. Here’s a quick glance at what Brand Managers need to know about the changes.

    1. Cover Photo replaces Profile Image
    The Cover Photo is the biggest visual branding opportunity in the new format and a great image here can really set the tone for a brand presence. Previously, brands were limited to a maximum 200×600 pixel image in the upper left-hand corner. The new cover photo is 850 pixels wide and dominates the initial view of the page.

    ben and jerry's cover photo

    Ben & Jerry’s dedicated their Cover Photo to their famous Holstein Cows.

    It is important to note that Facebook has added restrictions to how this image may be used, prohibiting coupons, purchase information, calls to action and contact information. They seem to be encouraging brands’ better angels and it will be interesting to see how well this policy is adhered to.

    2. Tabs are now Boxes
    In their previous major design revision, Facebook “Tabs” were replaced with links and icons along the left-hand navigation and much confusion was created. We continued to call them Tabs even though the design metaphor no longer fit, so it is with some relief that this content is now added to the top navigation and can be promoted with large graphical boxes.

    Starbucks is handling the new boxes elegantly.

    Brands can display four boxes in this space and Photos is the only content piece that is fixed in place. Boxes can be anything from your “Like” counter, a map, various apps or custom pages. Additional boxes (up to 12 in total) are displayed in a dropdown menu.

    3. Custom Pages canvas is bigger
    Custom Pages (AKA Page Tabs) now have 810 pixels of width to play in, up from the 520px allowed in the previous design. The Custom Pages will reside in a nearly blank canvas, free from the Facebook user interface elements that crowded out the old pages. This is a huge opportunity to create rich sub-pages inside your Facebook presence.

    The size difference can be seen here, where Dove has an old Custom Page sitting inside the new canvas.

    4. No more default landing page
    In the previous design, brands could create “Like Us” pages and designate them as the default landing page for visitors who had not yet liked the brand. This tactic has been the basis for like-building campaigns that sometimes required visitors to like a brand before receiving special content (a practice known as Like-gating). This capability is now removed, making Timeline the only default view.

    I’m not sure if this spells the end of Like-gating as we know it, but it certainly looks like brands are going to lose a favored Like-building tactic. Interestingly, Facebook also prohibits referencing “user interface elements, such as Like or Share” in the new Cover Photo. With these two policy shifts in place it will be interesting to see what Facebook has in mind for the future of Like-building for brands.

    5. The Timeline
    Images are bigger and (potentially) more engaging. Posts can be customized by widening them, pinning them to the top of the page or (as before) deleting them entirely. A well-curated Timeline is going to be a great opportunity to communicate a brand’s personality.

    I like the visual consistency of the content on Ben & Jerry’s Timeline.

    6. Messages
    Visitors can now contact a brand privately using a prominently placed Message feature. It will be very interesting to see how users embrace this new private communications channel inside Facebook, which has until now been a strictly public forum for brands. Social Media Managers everywhere will be adding this to their to-do list.

    This is just a quick overview of the new features and overall we are very excited about what they mean for customization and brand engagement. If you have any opinions or questions you would like to share, head on over to our new timeline and let’s continue the discussion.

     

  • Jim 5:17 pm on February 27, 2012 Permalink  

    What does Digital America look like? 

    Remember when we used to rank cities by how “wired” they were? (Austin was high, Biloxi was low.)

    Remember when our media plans excluded digital messaging and social networking for people over fifty?

    Remember when we thought online video viewers were overwhelmingly young, white men?

    The face of Digital America is changing. And while the growth of the Internet is hardly newsworthy, there are a few surprises in a recent study from Nielsen and NM Incite. Here are five nuggets regarding digital and social media usage that might cause you to reconsider your views of online behavior.

    • 54% of visitors to social network sites and blogs are women.
    • Women outnumber men (53% to 47%) among online video viewers.
    • Men are more likely to own tablets than women (53% vs. 47%).
    • 274 million Americans have daily access to the Internet—at home, at work or at a third place. However, 100 million Americans (a third of the country) do not have access to broadband.
    • Whites make up 61% of smartphone owners. The next largest group of smartphone owners are Hispanics  at 17%.

    One thing is certain: adoption of new technologies is a dynamic process and the digital demography will surely be different a year from today. Stay tuned.

     

  • Jim 5:52 pm on January 10, 2012 Permalink  

    Put a code on it 

    qr code

    If you watch the uneven but occasionally hilarious IFC cable series Portlandia, you are familiar with Put A Bird On It: a design movement that enhances objects by adding a bird.

    Marketers have their own version of this fad: Put a QR Code on it.

    These chunky barcodes are showing up on everything from billboards to, alas, urinals. I recently saw a QR Code on a website which accessed (wait for it) another website.

    In theory it’s a great idea. When scanned, a QR Code provides additional content that enhances the host message. A print ad can turn into a full- motion product demo. A real estate flyer can offer a guided tour of a home. A concert poster stapled to a telephone pole can unleash a music video.

    Unfortunately, the public doesn’t share the marketing community’s enthusiasm for QR Codes. According to a recent Forrester Research survey only 5% of Americans with smart phones actually scanned a QR Code during a recent three-month survey period. Those that did tended to be young, affluent and male.

    Does this mean that QR Codes won’t ever be a viable marketing tool? Not at all. But as with any emerging technology, it requires patience and best practices. Here’s how our agency is using QR Codes for maximum effect.

    Get real
    While it’s easy to slap a code on virtually any medium, be realistic. Are consumers inclined to chase a city bus down the street to scan a code on a transit ad for a casino? Probably not. On the other hand, QR Codes make sense at the point of sale, in print advertising and mobile couponing.

    Make the experience worthwhile
    Consumers who take the trouble to whip out a smart phone and scan a code should be rewarded for their efforts. Make sure the content is more than a pointless rehash of the host message.

    Integrate
    Don’t use the technology for technology’s sake. Make sure the scanned message advances your overall brand story.

    Be Patient
    Don’t expect miraculous results from a QR Code effort. The percentage of those who scan the code will be low. The technology relies on third-party apps that can be clunky to use. But smart phone penetration will continue to increase and the QR Code user experience get better with built-in readers.

    By applying common sense (and some uncommon creativity), there’s no reason why you shouldn’t put a code on it.
    QR Code

     

  • Chris 5:08 pm on September 30, 2011 Permalink  

    Rising up against declining CTRs 

    Over the last couple of years, industry studies have reported a general decrease in average click-through rates (CTR) for online display. This trend was recently highlighted in a Google study looking at CTRs across 2010. The favorability of online display is starting to be questioned given steady declining CTRs and other stats flowing from user studies that find something like 16% of online users account for 80% of all clicks.

    It shouldn’t be a shock to us as marketers (who are consumers ourselves after all) that CTRs are declining. As continually barraged as we are with advertising messages furiously competing for every last nanosecond of our attention, it makes sense that users who are interacting with content they have voluntarily sought-out might not be so ready to be redirected to your site just because you have been gracious enough to place an ad on the page they are viewing. It just doesn’t work that way and we need to rise above the dependence on the click as the only measurement by which we judge campaigns success.

    The focus should move from driving the click to maximizing the impression. We make a lot of impressions in online display, but what is the true quality of those impressions? Not very high if we tell incomplete stories that rely on the click to resolve the narrative. Instead, we should focus on succinct, engaging storytelling in-banner that fully communicates within the unit.
    At C+F (shameless plug) we call this “short-fuse messaging”. The focus should be on strong, yet pithy, complete messages. If your message gets truncated because the user decided not to bless you with the scarce click, then you have not communicated effectively. If the user does click—great and we love that—but it shouldn’t be mandatory to complete the communication, nor the be-all end-all in measurement of success.

    The trick then is to engage in a relevant and meaningful way, maximize the impression and then create paths back to your destination for users to engage with what you have to offer. Paid Search can help. Strong SEO is table stakes. And of course, including online display along with other media in an integrated campaign helps reinforce and drive traffic.
    Site side metrics are still important and driving people to your site to engage them remains key. However, relying solely on an ad click to facilitate this customer experience is dangerous and impractical.

    It presents a challenge to our industry. Account Management must deliver clear strategy for concise storytelling. Creatives must be able to communicate impactful, relevant and complete messages inside ad units. And of course media needs to continue to run communication against a targeted audience in the most relevant environments. We still must learn and optimize continually.

    However, we must evolve the use of online display if we are to continue to recommend this media in our campaigns and ensure we use this medium the best way for the greatest impact on our audiences. If we stay tied to the click, our favorability with our clients will inevitably go by the way of user CTR.

     

  • Shawn 10:19 pm on September 14, 2011 Permalink  

    Nerding out on responsive design – part 1 

    For the past two months I’ve been relearning my craft. Building an experience that uses multiple canvases and watching in awe as our strategy & development team turned the corner from complicated to simple. Seeing content unlock itself from its previous constraints was as fulfilling as it was challenging. Two months of gut checking and over-collaborating. It reminded me that done is better than perfect.

    Responsive design is a web design technique for developing digital experiences that respond by detecting screen width and delivering an optimized design for the user’s device, whether it’s a Droid, iPad or a 40″ TV. While it’s not a silver bullet, it does provide a strategic platform for creating the best possible experience for the end user. As consumers engage with the web via multiple devices and platforms the need for brands to make their communications empathetic to whatever device the consumer is using becomes more important than ever.

    responsive design

    Below is a pullquote from one of the founders of this technique, Ethan Marcotte:

    Fluid grids, flexible images, and media queries are the three technical ingredients for responsive web design, but it also requires a different way of thinking. Rather than quarantining our content into disparate, device-specific experiences, we can use media queries to progressively enhance our work within different viewing contexts. That’s not to say there isn’t a business case for separate sites geared toward specific devices; for example, if the user goals for your mobile site are more limited in scope than its desktop equivalent, then serving different content to each might be the best approach.
    But that kind of design thinking doesn’t need to be our default. Now more than ever, we’re designing work meant to be viewed along a gradient of different experiences. Responsive web design offers us a way forward, finally allowing us to “design for the ebb and flow of things.”

    From this technique C+F has built a new functionality that solves for one of the biggest issues surrounding responsive design, which is the content capability for each device. Responsive design as it is usually practiced today uses flexible images to scale to mobile and tablet viewing, while this is better than pinching and zooming your way around a desktop-focused site, it doesn’t take into account that bandwidth speed varies widely depending on context. 3G and 4G download speeds apply constraints to the user experience. Waiting for content to download that was initially prepared to be viewed at a larger resolution and higher bandwidth isn’t optimal. A more empathetic solution is to create and deliver content and images that are optimized for the capability of the device. C+F does this by using a responsive content management system which essentially stores one large base image and creates smaller optimized images on the fly for multiple devices. This has two huge benefits—it creates easy and efficient site management for the brand, and creates an empathetic experience for the end consumer.

    C+F sees this technique as a great new tool in our belt for creating optimal user experiences in a world that’s increasingly mobile, social, and on demand. Learn more about our experience design approach and drop us a line if you’d like to nerd out on an upcoming project.

     

  • Nat 6:15 pm on August 26, 2011 Permalink  

    One-third of Facebook users could be missing your message. 

    This piece from ReadWriteWeb on Facebook usage by platform really got my attention. It links through to Facebook’s statistics page, which shares the following mobile data points.

    • • There are more than 250 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
    • • People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users.
    • • There are more than 200 mobile operators in 60 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products

    These stats underscore the need for brands to take a write once/publish everywhere approach to web content. If we use Facebook as a bellwether, 33% of the potential audience is consuming content on mobile. If marketers want to meet this opportunity, they will need a cross-platform content strategy that delivers users to a responsive, empathetically-designed web presence. We will be writing more on responsive design in the coming weeks.

     

  • Nat 4:49 pm on March 25, 2011 Permalink  

    Notes from SXSWi 

    Last year South by Southwest Interactive outgrew the music festival that spawned it, and this year expanded to 11 “campuses” spread throughout downtown Austin. It has rapidly evolved into the biggest event of its kind. Some old-time conference-goers grouse about the increasing crowds, expanding footprint and incursion of big brands into their hallowed ground. I was a SXSW newbie this year and wouldn’t be able to tell you if the conference has jumped the shark. I was simply excited at the concentration of smart people all discussing the issues I am most interested in. Here are some of the themes I picked up over five days.

    Serendipity
    Lots of people are concerned about the loss of serendipity in our lives now that we have the ability to get exactly what we want whenever we want it. Referral engines like those behind Netflix and Apple’s iTunes Genius mine our preferences and figure out exactly what we are going to want next. Search engines are seeking to capture as much of our data as they can in order to better refine searches based on our preferences, proclivities and current state of mind. With all this computational power figuring things out for us, are we losing the opportunity to stumble upon random new things? Is it possible to change our perspective when outside news and views come in a pre-selected feed? This concept of serendipity is occupying computer scientists as well as marketers and came up repeatedly through the weekend.

    Content vs. Journalism
    There seem to be two poles when it comes to the current failing state of the newspaper business model. On one side are people who worry that failure on the business side threatens the future of original, sourced, fact-checked journalism. On the other side you see a bit more ambivalence. Builders of ad-blocking and text-parsing apps blame online publishers for creating layouts that are unfriendly to readers. They provide tools to strip out the ads and links that form the basis of the publishers’ business model. Though this seems vampiric, you can hardly blame them. One anecdotal review of an LA Times article page found that just 12% of the page was dedicated to the article itself. Of the rest of the page, 12% was ads, 8% was core navigation and 68% was cross-links and noisy junk dedicated to driving additional page views. The current system isn’t working very well for publishers, their readers or their advertisers. Better page layouts and stronger advertising are needed in online publishing, and soon.

    A Third Era
    Someone has yet to come up with a dumb name like Web 3.0, but it is clear that the surge of smartphone adoption combined with the potential of location services has brought us to a third era of creative potential on the web. In one speaker’s formulation, creativity in Web 1.0 was characterized by the swoosh logo and a clever domain name, in Web 2.0 it was rounded corners and dropped vowels. Today’s great creative web work is going to be all about giving people the ability to do stuff. It is less about aesthetics and more about granting wishes. Having a smartphone in hand gives a person a powerful form of extra-sensory perception. Brands that can find a way to tap into that power are going to win.

    Free Tacos
    Free tacos were huge at SXSWi. Whether it was a branded taco truck or a company using social media to direct their fans to a taco-fueled promotion, tacos are very hot right now.

     

  • Nat 12:06 am on January 22, 2011 Permalink  

    The Cloud is just another name for the Internet 

    The information superhighway is littered with dumb new names for the Internet. Cyberspace, hyperspace, the internets, a series of tubes. As if it wasn’t already confusing enough, along comes “The Cloud”.

    Just as Web 2.0 was an unnecessary name for the technology that survived the dot com bust, “The Cloud” is a confusing new way of describing the boring old Internet. The term Cloud Computing came about to describe Web-dependent applications and storage. It really only has meaning in opposition to desktop or local applications—Google Docs vs. Microsoft Office, a remote virtual host vs. a local server. Fact is, if you were already doing it on the Web you were doing it in The Cloud. Uploading Facebook photos? The Cloud. Using Hotmail? The Cloud.

    Rebranding the Internet as The Cloud is just plain silly and is bound to confuse the less technical consumer. So why do it? Suppose you are late to the game and nervous that your competitors already own the Internet. You might be tempted to come up with a fancy new object that you can own for yourself. To the Cloud!

     

  • Nat 6:49 pm on December 9, 2010 Permalink  

    Either you’re part of the conversation or you’re not. 

    “The reality is that social media are where the national conversation is taking place today—and either you’re part of that conversation or you’re not.” – Brian J. Dunn, CEO of Best Buy

    I like Brian Dunn’s sober analysis of social media’s role in business. Today, social is simply a fact of life for marketers—full of tough challenges and potential rewards. It’s a space where the right customer experience can build lasting brand loyalty, but the wrong approach will be met with the sound of crickets, or worse, a pitchfork-wielding mob.

    A recent survey of small business owners reveals some restlessness with social media as a marketing vehicle. Respondents were asked to rate the effectiveness of their social presence in generating site traffic. A minority of 29% declared satisfaction. While the survey is limited in scope, I think it reflects the challenges many marketers face as they create their own approach to social media. In their efforts, they’ve probably discovered a couple of things:

    1. If you treat social as a direct marketing vehicle, you’ll probably get a traditional DM response rate (that is to say, very low). Fact is, most consumers who “like” brands don’t believe they’ve given permission to be marketed to.
    2. Liking, friending and following create weak-tie relationships that don’t easily convert to increased commerce.

    While there’s no formula for success in social media marketing, here are a few attributes of a successful effort.

    • The ability to create value from weak-tie relationships. The ease of use of social media increases participation, but not necessarily dedication or loyalty. You can’t ask too much or push too hard.
    • Good content is the message. Remember, your Facebook fan did not opt in to the relationship out of a love of marketing messages. They simply like you. Offer them news or product support and lay off the crass “monetization” plays.
    • Fits a business purpose. If you concede the first two points, your social media effort will probably not be about new customer acquisition. That’s ok. Start by listening, then concentrate on adding value to your current customer base. Cultivate them, bring them back, most of all, create positive experiences that motivate people to say nice things about you.

    The social web has amplified the power of word-of-mouth and has changed the consumer’s decision-making model for good. A marketer’s traditional efforts to gain top-of-mind consideration can crash on the rocks of negative internet feedback or can be amplified by happy consumer advocates.

    However you go about building your social media presence, make it responsive and relevant and direct it toward creating the positive word-of-mouth that drives business in the digital age and any other age.

     

  • Shawn 10:36 pm on November 22, 2010 Permalink  

    “I got an app for that, holmes” 

    While enjoying one of my guilty pleasures, Sons of Anarchy on FX, I heard the above line and it seemed like a good lead-in to this post. There’s been a lot of debate lately about mobile sites vs native apps. No surprise that Apple has done a majority of the heavy lifting when it comes to driving what can be expected in the mobile experience—and it’s a given that they played a major role in the acceleration of this marketplace.

    But today there more options than ever in the smartphone market, and watching adoption of Android OS surpass the iPhone so quickly is proof that there will continue to be a growing abundance of competitors in the marketplace. From Palm, Windows 7, and RIM phones to the introduction of new tablets, we’ll be guaranteed a hardware/platform rush in the future. Each running their own “app store” with their own development specs and few shared technologies.

    This is one of the first things I discuss with my clients when developing a communications strategy involving the mobile space. Native applications have their obvious benefits, and are many times the right direction to go. Examples are:

    • Gaming and experiences that require the accelerometer or camera*
    • Doesn’t require an internet connection
    • Needs complex animations
    • Needs “app store” placement
    • Needs to cache more information than a web-based solution could

    More often than not, I suggest they take a step back and ask themselves where and how does their brand fit into their consumer’s pocket. Will it find itself competing with a plethora of brand agnostic solutions? Does it make the benefit of their brand easier for the customer to realize?

    Most importantly I ask, “and then what?”

    You’ve set out to create a brand experience that will go wherever your customer goes, but what will motivate them to use it after that first download or visit?

    Many times we end up talking about developing a mobile web solution, creating a platform that can flex and scale to fit all the smartphone / tablet solutions. Where you can write once to be read anywhere. One that you can quickly refine and add functionality to keep consumers using the product, one that you can measure and use to refine future strategies. One that will allow you to cost effectively optimize how that brand of yours will fit into your consumer’s pocket. One that will inform the jump to a more robust “native app” platform when it’s ready to be realized. And that is a crucial step as your placement within the app stores will be determined on user rankings and download volume. It’ll help you win the popularity contest that is the app marketplace. And if your product or communications will exist in physical form, then we’ll probably discuss how QR codes paired with mobile web technology can do amazing things for your brand.

    But first I’ll ask – do we need an app for that, holmes?

    * Android 2.2 and HTML 5 mobile features

     

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