travelocity becomes first brand to use chatroulette for marketing.

via mashable.com

it was only a matter of time before the first marketers discovered chatroulette and use it for marketing purposes. the official travelocity gnome is the first to jump in and use chatroulette for marketing purposes.

screenshots sent to mashable.com by travelocity confirm that the gnome is hiding out there in chatroulette’s mysterious corridors on people to market travelocity's services to: he wants to motivate chatroulette users to step away from their webcams for a moment and take vacations.

according to adweek, “the idea is that folks sitting around video-chatting with strangers could use the excitement of travel.”

the iconic gnome uses signs to get his message across (see above). they read messages like, “this would be more fun if we were in rio.”

when asked if they are tracking activity or offering special promotions, travelocity responded, “we’re still experimenting so we haven’t applied any measurements just yet. once we figure out how we’ll move forward we will think about other applications like deals and offers.”

i believe that chatroulette is more than just seeing random penises, so it’s great to see that companies like travelocity agree. it still remains to be seen what becomes of this experimental test run, but it's definitely a clever approach to utilizing this new channel for marketing purposes.

how will the future of chatroulette marketing look? as always with any new form of digital media i believe that solid marketing / advertising strategy is that backbone to any success: focus on the marketing objectives, marketing strategies, and then the marketing tactics.

Posted via web from connected marketer.

Coming Soon: Click-to-Call in Ads on Mobile Devices with Google AdWords

Posted via web from Connected Marketing

The Fourth-Most Search Term by Toddlers is Porn

via gizmodo.com

A study showing the top 100 search terms children used in 2009 was just released.

To no surprise the term "Youtube" is the most searched in all age groups, with "Facebook" and "Google" being the other in the top three.
The fourth most searched term is where the head-scratching beings: For teens and tweens the term is"sex" (which really isn't a HUGE surprise). However, kids seven and under apparently prefer to skip this stage and search straight for "porn."

Big FYI here: That's more than searches for the Cartoon Network, and Hannah Montana.

What's the big takeaway from all this? If you believe children are our future (which I'm sure the vast majority does): Our future is doomed.

Posted via web from Connected Marketing

Google Browser Size - How Much of Your Website Do People Really See?

via mashable.com

I just had to share this great new tool by Google - "Browser Size". It lets you figure out how much of your website people actually see without having to scroll. In the future, this can help determine where to place buttons, call to actions, importnat content, etc.

According to mashable "Browser Size is very simple: It overlays a transparent image on top of any website, displaying what percentage of users (on average) will see your content without scrolling. Because people use various browser settings, monitor sizes and screen resolutions."

Posted via web from Connected Marketing

The Future is now: "The Golden Triangle"

Reading a great blog post by Brian Solis on "The Future of Interactive Marketing" got me thinking about the "Golden Triangle" that I frist heard about a few weeks ago. By the way the aforementioned blog post is a MUST READ for any marketer. 

 

In a nutshell, in addition to my favorite local search, the three current big megatrends in the web/tech sector are: mobile, social, and real-time. It's like a "golden triangle.” It's why the search engines were so keen on being the first to implement real-time search (Google), design mobile apps (bing), and partner with social networks (yahoo with Facebook & Google with Twitter).

As with Brian Solis puts it "the Golden Triangle [...] facilitates a new genre of content production, distribution, and consumption as well as social interaction and collaboration. It’s borderless, untethered, and practically device agnostic.

“You” are at the center of the Golden Triangle and remain connected to your social and professional graph via devices, applications and networks hosted on mobile and Web-based (cloud) platforms."

Posted via web from Connected Marketing

BROWSER WARS: Google Chrome Beats Apple Safari

via gizmodo.com

All it took was the release of the Google Chrome beta for Linux and Mac and it happened: Chrome became is the number 3 browser in the world, narrowly sliding past Apple's Safari with a 4.4 percent marketshare to Safari's 4.37 percent. The Google-Apple war is getting real, people.

Posted via web from Eric's online marketing blog

What Do Seniors Do Online? Visit Facebook and YouTube, of Course

Research done by Nielsen confirmed a trend that we’ve seen in recent years: more and more seniors are becoming active on the web. In November of 2004, there were 11.3 million active seniors online. In November 2009, that number jumped by 55% to 17.5 million. In addition, they spend more time on the web, totaling an average of 58 hours a month in front of the browser - just look at the data above.

Posted via web from Eric's online marketing blog

Ads integrated into content are the most effective for branding

This is for all the research and number geeks like me out there.

According to a new study conducted byDynamic Logic and published by media post, "ads integrated into the content of the page are the most effective in driving online ad awareness and purchase intent". So, according to this new study, banners and skyscrapers are actually LESS effective in advertising terms than rectangular ads that sit in the copy!

Ken Mallon, Dynamic Logic's SVP of Custom Solutions, puts it best when he says: "...creative quality is the most important factor driving the success of online advertising... (but) bigger doesn't always mean better..."

In addition, the research revealed that advertising campaigns utilizing Rich Media with Video created the strongest brand impact (across most branding goals, including aided brand awareness, online ad awareness, brand favorability, and purchase intent) compared to campaigns using Simple Flash and Rich Media without Video formats. Very insightful, is that the worst performer was Simple Flash, the format used most often by agencies and advertisers.

And in conclusion here hare some great takeaways from the study:

• Try delivering a Rich Media with Video ad as the first ad exposure to addressable online audience.
• On a tight budget, select less expensive formats and consider frequency capping to extend reach.
• Factor media fees and rich media fees in together and optimize most effective formats
• For message association goals, consider adding the message to every frame of the ad for best results.
• For every branding goal studied, a different rich media format was better than Simple Flash at getting results.

Source: Media Post Research Brief (September 1, 2009)

Check out my latest podcast on Online Branding

Head over to my company's INSIDEsolutions Live! section to hear my latest podcast that features practical tips for Online Branding with Social Media:

Social Media Emerging-Five Tips to help with Online Branding for Business | INSIDESolutions Live! |

In this 11 minute podcast I share how to take your customer relationships to the next level with effective online branding and leveraging social media for effective online branding for business.

In this podcast learn:

• Migrating the Offline Brand Personality to Online Branding
• Taking Your Customer Relationships to the Next Level
• Five Tips to Help you with Effective Online Branding
• Using the Real World to Enhance Your Online Brand

Alternatively, you can click here to listen to it in a popup window.

Using Online Communities to Grow Your Brand

A Looser Form of Brand Control
In order for a brand to succeed on the Internet a looser form of brand control is necessary. The inevitable active participation of consumers needs to be actively encouraged. One way of achieving this is by providing an unmoderated discussion forum, such as a Facebook fanpage or being present on Twitter. This ensures that a brand becomes part of a community. To an extent this is making a virtue out of modern necessity. Power has shifted from businesses to customers.

An example is AT&T which was able to react to customers outcries on twitter over the pricing of the new iPhone. They were able to act based on this feedback and thus squash any negative word of mouth spreading online like a wildfire.

The benefits to a company that has flexible design and production processes are great; flaws can be picked up and failure patterns can be identified sooner than they might have been. Design changes can then be made sooner, resulting in a better product, happier customers, and improved brand equity.

For example, customers on twitter complained about the arrow keys on the series 9 Dell Laptops being too small. In direct response to this Dell made sure that the arrow keys on the new series 10 Laptops are big enough.

There is a misguided perception that such collaborations between businesses and their customers can be potentially damaging as user comments can be unhelpful in the short term. But by encouraging unmoderated discussions, not only do new brand identities emerge, but also the distinction between the brand owner and its consumers disappears, thus increasing consumer identification and loyalty with the brand.

The Demise of the Brand?
Many experts are predicting the demise of marketing and branding on the Internet. We would argue that a closer understanding of the nature of branding on-line indicates a strengthening, not a weakening, of the importance of branding. By developing enhancements suggested or approved by the customers themselves, brands are responding to the marketplace in a way that protects them from a downward pressure on price and volume of sales.

The future of communication is online, the future of branding is personal.