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At the IDG conference in Seoul last month I had the pleasure to meet Bruce Haines of Cheil Worldwide, a British expatriate living in Seoul. Bruce is one of the smartest marketers that I've met in a long time. During his keynote, Bruce cautions marketers against trying to assess ROI in a vacuum devoid of the brand. As with any number, ROI figures can lie and can be easily manipulated.

Bruce cautions marketers against trying to assess ROI in a vacuum devoid of the brand.

The 2008 Election

Here is a breakdown of the actual election spending numbers. The dollar figures are the reported spending amounts from the Federal Election Commission. Final votes are from CNN.com.

Looking at the return (votes) on investment (dollars spent) McCain is clearly in the lead. He ended up spending approximately $3.50 less for each vote.

That, however, does not tell the whole story as we all know. The real return that matters is the brand that was built and ultimately winning presidency. Looking at the wrong checkpoints on the way to a goal can lead us astray.

Drumming Gorillas

If you look at the overall success of the campaign from a purely fiduciary standpoint, you could say it was not very successful. This article originally from Grocer Magazine shows that Cadbury's market share actually dropped to around 1%. Again it depends on what you're measuring. If you expect ad spending to increase market share, this would not have been a success. Factors that you don't see include increases in raw materials costs and consumers price increases.

The issue for us here today is how to measure cool.

What is not measured is that Cadbury is now seen as a "cool" brand according to Bruce. He mentioned that if you'd told him a year ago that Cadbury chocolate would be seen as cool he would have laughed. The issue for us here today is how to measure cool.

So here are some discussion starters, to bring this back to marketing:

• What % of your ROI metrics are custom to your business? What % are "industry standard"?
  
• As ROI is necessary to prove marketing value to higher ups, how do you deal with it?
  
• How do you define the right metrics to make sure you're spending the optimal amount of money executing the right strategies?
  
• How do you measure intangibles like "cool"?
  
• Similarly, brand is nearly impossible to measure, yet extremely valuable. How are you attempting to measure brand value?
  

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Technorati Tags: branding, marketing, Matt Dickman, social media, Techno//Marketer, web2.0, ROI

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Kwang works at Chiel Worldwide in their interactive group, "the i". The presentation focused on a case study for Samsung's HAPTIC device. The Haptic looks very similar to the iPhone, but the operating system is unique.

Here is a video overview of the phone's functionality:

• Focus of the campaign was on brand experience and contagion
• The Haptic phone launch is very similar to the iPhone (full screen touch)
• Phone launched with a premium image/brand and technical image
• "first is better than better" - Samsung was not the first mover in this space
• The touch sensor provides feedback
• Japanese book "HAPTIC" gave the team feedback on how to approach marketing the device
• Had to explain the haptic term through many media outlets in a way people could understand
• Launch show made to mirror Steve Jobs keynote addresses, invited power bloggers
• Tagline "touch and it will react" driven through ads
• Use of celebrity to drive the "touch" focal point in ads, online, screen saver
• Haptic blog helped to engage users, also reached out to power bloggers to get their unique and personal experiences

Samsung also created a new ad where a building transforms in to the phone. The gist of the conversation is the guy with the phone says that his phone can become anything he wants. The other guy asks him to prove it by making the building transform.

Technorati Tags:
marketing, Matt Dickman, social media, strategy, Techno//Marketer, trends, samsung haptic

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Jung-Yul is the CEO of TNS Korea. His talk focused on finding the channels that are most effective for marketers to reach their customers. His firm has some interesting measurement methods and constructs for marketers.

Key takeaways:

• Purpose of marketing comms - persuade, create a higher brand experience
  
• Experience/encounters are made up of consumers (who), content (what), contact (how)
  
• Fragmentation is a challenge, new mediums are popping up, more selective consumers
  
• Questions for marketers are which points to use, how to spend the budget, how to optimize relationships
  
• Companies are imitating, experimenting, etc. to find what works
  
• Global economy is impacting marketing budgets and year-over-year budgets
  
• ROI measurement is lacking across channels
  
• Need four items to choose the right channel 1) market contacts, 2) channel clout factor [level of influence of each customer], 3) brand experience points and 4) brand experience share
  
• Market contacts - mass media, POS, one-to-one, indirect, sponsorships create 35 possible options
  
• Channel clout factor (CCF) - which are most informative, make brand look appealing, rank the 10 most important in daily life = CCF
  
• BES/BEP are derived by looking at the clout of each channel compared to the brand
  
• Look at most influential channel for a product category - rank from most to least
  
• In a credit card example in Korea, TV had the most influence followed by a point of sale solution
  
• The influence varies with each product and situation
  
• The challenge is to align channel spending with brand experience for that channel
  
• Shift viewpoint to that of the customer when viewing each channel
  
• Have to look at what the competition is doing to make competitive decisions
  

Technorati Tags:
advertising, branding, marketing, Matt Dickman, Techno//Marketer, trends, measurement

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Helen Park works for SK Telecom, the company who runs Korea's largest social network Cyworld. Today she is presenting their "T" brand case study. T is the mobile lifestyle service from SK Telecom (similar to Verizon/AT&T/etc).

Key takeaways:

• Rebranding campaign from previous Speed 011 name
  
• Three stage advertising campaign - dreamer, 24 hours T, mobile communications
  
• Previous campaign was disconnected from the consumer's view
  
• Mobile = necessity, essential
  
• Moved from service proposition to value proposition brand
  
• Engaged in storytelling to convey the new brand proposition
  
• Had to evolve from storytelling 1.0 (push/mass) to a never ending story in storytelling 2.0
  
• Enable the consumers to tell the story themselves, re-craft it and have it become their own
  
• Song in ad campaign was very catchy, open structured and could be crafted into something new
  
• Played well with Karaoke culture in Korea
  
• Ad campaign played on the openness of the brand through song and the "realize" tagline
  
• The gist was "whatever you think can be realized" "anything is possible as you think"
  
• Used digital to allow customers to add their own lines to the song
  
• Used 2008 Beijing games to build momentum
  
• Transformative logo was more symbolic, more rounded (adaptive) and streamlined to match brand attributes
  
• Created brand shop "hello T" to pull all of the elements together
  

Here you can see one of the clips with one of Korea's most popular singers:

Technorati Tags:
advertising, branding, marketing, Marketing 2.0 and beyond, Matt Dickman, Techno//Marketer, trends, web2.0

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Jacklyn Joung Ah Lim is the SVP of Marketing Strategy and Planning at AmorePacific (a global beauty products company). Her presentation is on the role of Consumer Behavior Knowledge. Jacklyn spent about 20 years in the US with various consumer products companies include Motorola.

Key takeaways:

• Changes in product delivery is changing marketing
  
• Businesses are spanning categories, channels, geographies and consumers
  
• Changing consumer trends: experiential, well-informed, self-preservation, quest for health and wellness, self-obsessed, search for authenticity
  
• Need to provide product that matches these trends (though many overlap)
  
• Consumer behavior (brad patterns): multi-brand usage pattern, multi-channel shopping, dabbling and sampling, verbal and demanding with frequent brand switching
  
• How to win -- focus on the consumer
  
• Approach to an emotional category - consumer segmentation and loyalty management
  
• Segments look at myriad factors - media consumption, rational v. emotional, spend level, country of origin, information engagement, involvement, etc.
  
• Form micro segments to manage portfolio and design the consumer experience
  
• Look at demographics, lifestyle, channel behaviors, product needs, media consumption, etc. to form unique profiles
  
• Take micro segments and apply them to the business (design, R&D, channel planning, communications)
  
• Loyalty management is the second key to delivering value
  
• Consumer grading - segmentation based on purchase value
  
• "Mileage program" - beauty points across channels add value
  
• Look at product value across the consumer's lifetime
  
• Each change in life allows for an opportunity for them to migrate, need to track how many defect to another brand
  

Technorati Tags:
advertising, marketing, Marketing 2.0 and beyond, Matt Dickman, Techno//Marketer, trends

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I came across this chart in today's eMarketer email and wanted to flag it for you to weigh in on. The chart looks at the preferred channel for receiving messages from marketers across various age groups. The channels they looked at are instant messenger (IM), text messaging (SMS) and email.

The chart (below) gives an interesting view of the choice of interaction. Note the IM numbers are actually shrinking as SMS is replacing that functionality especially as mobile devices improve. SMS is booming in the younger (high school) generation and holds strong through the 18-24 college group. The recent grad group drops off on SMS toward email and once you pass 35, nearly 80% goes toward email.

Here is the eMarketer data:

Email importance grows as age does while SMS importance grows as ages gets younger. Take a look at this in graph form to see the trends more clearly.

Basically, if you're looking for the preferred (read most effective) way to reach certain age population groups, make sure you keep this in mind. There are a lot of tools in the digital arsenal that need to be formed into one cohesive strategy.

It's also very important to recognize that the next generation of consumers are engaging in drastically different ways. We have got to have a good grasp on these platforms, what makes them effective, what makes them fail and grow our planning to include test cases NOW. Next quarter could be too late if your competition is already engaging. It's crucial to sustain future growth.

This goes toward explaining my post yesterday looking at the ROI from a digital marketing point of view and why email is still delivering results. Are you using SMS/IM in your marketing mix? We've seen studies about how people want to be communicated with in social media. How do you see them balancing?

Technorati Tags:
digital, marketing, Matt Dickman, strategy, Techno//Marketer, trends, email marketing, SMS, IM

A few weeks ago I launched a new poll in the right column on this blog asking you where you were seeing the best ROI from digital marketing. I wanted to share the results as I think they're telling of what I am seeing in this space. If you're curious, this is where those votes came from geographically.

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As you may expect, search engine marketing leads the pack. Social media marketing, however, came in second with 27% of the responses followed by email marketing. This was a little surprising to me in that social media marketing is showing proven ROI when up against email and search. Those were two of the early leaders in getting dollars from marketers and have solid track records where ROI is proven (versus traditional ad spending).

I also think it's how you're quantifying the return. Is it new connections, sales driven from social media outlets email acquisitions or conversations? I a new world of marketing, there needs to be new measures of ROI. What are you using?

Websites were surprisingly low on the list of ROI at only 12%, less than half of social media marketing. I think more people count a website as a cost of doing business and are looking for other ways to extend their brands. What do you think? Does this surprise you?

If you're curious, this is where those votes came from geographically.

Does this echo what you are seeing in your business? Dare to share?

Technorati Tags:
advertising, Community, marketing, Matt Dickman, social media, strategy, Techno//Marketer

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One of the hightlights of my trip to the Blog World Expo was sitting down with Geoff Livingston for a short video on behalf of Network Solutions. The video is now part of a new virtual conference by Network Solutions called the Solution Stars Video Conference. It will take place on October 29th from 1 p.m. ET until about 3:30 p.m. ET, users can log in and watch videos and live discussions featuring 32 people Network Solutions calls, “the world’s leading business and marketing experts.”

There are nine areas that will be discussed including:

• Building Web Presence
• The Social Opportunity
• Start with Listening
• Strategy Drives Outreach
• You Need Social Networks
• To Blog or Not to Blog
• Visibility Through Search
• Rising Above the Noise
• Time Demands

Participants include:

• Tim Ferriss, Best Selling Author of Four Hour Work Week
  
• Guy Kawasaki, Co-Founder, All-Top
  
• Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
  
• Darren Rowse, Author, ProBlogger
  
• Chris Brogan, Vice President of Strategy, CrossTech Media
  
• Rohit Bhargava, Author of Personality Not Included
  
• Wendy Piersall, CEO of Sparkplugging.com
  
• Lionel Menchaca, Chief Blogger, Dell
  
• Brian Solis, Author of PR 2.0, CEO of FutureWorks ( FutureWorks)
  
• Steve Hall, Publisher and Editor of Ad Rants
  
• Scott Monty, Global Digital and Multimedia Communications Manager, Ford Motor Company
  
• Liz Strauss, Social Web Strategist, Successful Blog
  
• Toby Bloomberg, CEO, Bloomberg Marketing
  
• Lee Odden, CEO of TopRankMarketing.com
  
• Jason Billingsly, Co-Founder ElasticPath
  
• Robyn Tippins, Community Manager, Yahoo! Developer Network
  
• Brett Tabke, CEO of WebMaster World
  
• David Alston, Vice President of Marketing, Radian6
  
• Jason Falls, Blogger, Social Media Explorer
  
• Mari Smith, Relationship Marketing Specialist
  
• Jennifer Openshaw, president of WeSeed.com
  
• Matt Dickman, Vice President, Digital Marketing, Fleishman-Hillard
  
• David Berkowitz, Director of Emerging Media and Client Strategy, 360i
  
• Ryan Anderson, Community Relations, Overlay.TV
  
• Becky McCray, Author, SmallBizSurvival.com
  
• Warren Whitlock, Book Marketing Strategist, BestSellerAuthors.com
  
• Chris Baggott, CEO of Compendium Software
  
• Lorelle VanFossen, Author, Blogging Tips: What Bloggers Won’t Tell You About Blogging
  
• Dave Taylor, Head Strategic Marketing Director, Intuitive Systems
  
• Paul Chaney, President of International Blogging and New Media Association
  
• Linda Bustos, Blogger, ElasticPath
  
• Jay Berkowitz, Author , Podcaster, and Keynote Speaker, Ten Golden Rules
  

You can also visit the “Solutions Stars Video Conference” event pages on Facebook and Upcoming:

• www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=33854706886
  
• upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1200021
  

Technorati Tags:
marketing, Matt Dickman, social media, Techno//Marketer, network solutions

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[Update: New November stats available here] This is a continuation of my look at social networks and their populations from a marketing perspective. When it comes to this arena Facebook has most of the buzz, but MySpace still has the volume. As strategic counselors to our clients, it is important to make qualified decisions about the vehicles we use as part of a campaign.

MySpace has become the red headed step child of the social media world as Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn have continued to gain popularity and support. But, what does MySpace really look like and how does it compare?

I was able to pull comparison numbers for the age of both networks and some interesting patterns emerged. Take a look at the following graph that shows MySpace in blue and Facebook in red.

The age of MySpace vs. Facebook (US)

MySpace has more people in every segment (nearly double across the board), but a couple points stand out:

• The 13-17 age group on MySpace is four and a half times larger than that of Facebook.
  
• Every age range between 18 and 50 is close to double on MySpace what it is on Facebook.
  
• The 50+ group on MySpace is 10 times larger than on Facebook, that is a 1000% difference.
  
• The 50+ age group on MySpace is nearly one quarter the size of the entire Facebook community.
  

Here are the actual numbers:

Takeaways and questions:

• These numbers represent all total users, not active users so take it with a grain of salt.
  
• I don't have growth numbers on MySpace so it's tough to gauge its vitality at this point.
  
• MySpace has a huge number of Boomers in their community. I will watch this demographic in coming months.
  
• MySpace skews younger than Facebook, engaging more of the highschool population.
  
• Populations between MySpace and Facebook (18-50) mirror each other in terms of population trends.
  
• Both sites offer ad targeting
  

What do you think? Are you still considering MySpace for campaigns? The demographics and targeting options let you reach people in tailored ways. I do think that the marketing options on MySpace are very limited and that's one hesitation that I have personally.