I'm Now Actively Using Twitter

It's funny that right after posting earlier about Twitter, I felt guilty -- I've been on Twitter for months now, but hardly ever update it or use it. Then I went to Freelance Writing Jobs, which I check every day for freelance leads, and there was a post by Deb Ng, the site's founder, on Twitter.

Between Facebook, this blog, commenting on other blogs all day and writing blog posts for other Web sites, I guess Twitter just doesn't seem that important to me. But it only takes 30 seconds to update and follow people, so I can do it, right?

So I'm going to attempt to Twitter more (or tweet more? still not sure about the lingo), although I haven't really grasped how I can network and all that. I guess I'll learn!

You can follow me @harney89.

Twitter As a Tool for Business

Twitter is good for business. About 56% of Twitter users say they use the social communication site for business purposes, according to social media guru Rodney Rumford.

Not only for small businesses, Twitter is a "goldmine" for big consumer brands like Starbucks, which currently has about 6 million followers. A MediaPost article also cites a gourmet Korean taco truck business is L.A. that has built a following through Twitter: "The driver tweets where the truck will be 20 minutes ahead of time, and literally hundreds of people show up," one attendee told MediaPost.

The thing to remember to using Twitter as a marketing tool is to treat it like a conversation -- talk with people, not at them. And businesses should expect some negative opinions just as blogs crop up with negative opinions. Businesses need to use those negative opinions to show their strength, says Rumford.

Photo: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=101018

US Airlines to Give Away Drinks on Flights Again

US Airways is the only major domestic airline to charge for sodas, coffee and bottled water on flights, but it's now dropping the fees as of March 1 because "they have become a competitive disadvantage," according to Bloomberg.

Due to customer backlash (gee, you think?) US Airways has decided to listen to customers and abandon the fees. Even the flight attendants didn't want the carrier to impose fees on non-alcoholic drinks because they didn't want to deal with the sales process and unhappy customers, and who can blame them? Also, the flight attendants said that this extra worry compromised their ability to ensure cabin safety.

With consumers getting pickier about their airline choices, this beverage fee was just one more reason for consumers to not pick US Airways. So US Airways made the smart decision and is eliminating the fee this weekend. Good for them.

Photo: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aZO8dzaV3P7s

Tropicana Reverting Back to Old Packaging Due to Consumer Complaints

Tropicana is reverting back to its old look, due to complaints from loyal customers, reports The New York Times. PepsiCo, owner of Tropicana, unveiled the redesign of Tropicana brand of orange juice packaging in January. Customers emailed, called and wrote letters about not liking the new look. Some (including me) think that the new packaging makes Tropicana look like a generic store brand, rather than the Tropicana orange with a straw sticking out of it.

As we can tell from this packaging snafu, consumers do get attached to certain images and packaging. When I went to the store, it looked like the Tropicana was missing, since I was looking for the good ol' orange rather than a glass of OJ. Obviously, many others felt the same.

Of course, the "retaliation" came from a small percentage of Tropicana drinkers, but these are Tropicana's most loyal customers and Neil Campbell, president of Tropicana said “Those consumers are very important to us, so we responded.”

Photos: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/23/business/media/23adcol.html?_r=1&ref=business

Email Tops List of Advertising Performers

Datran Media surveyed more than 3,000 marketing executives about their anticipated marketing budget changes for 2009. And the advertising method getting thrown the most bones? Email, at 80.4%. Search was the next highest category at 56.8%.

The executives said that new customer acquisition was their most important goal for the year, and apparently email is the way to reach that goal. Newsletters took top billing for the 2009 marketing tactic everyone is planning on utilizing. But yet, budgets are allocated toward email? Sounds like we could all be seeing a lot more e-newsletters this year.

See the results of the study at http://www.datranmediasurvey2009.com/.

Photo: http://ztrek.blogspot.com/2008_06_01_archive.html

Fees for Bags Here to Stay, says American Airlines

Last year, a barrel of oil was selling for $147, which prompted American Airlines as well as all other airlines to raise the cost of tickets. Another way to recoup expenses was to add a fee to each bag checked. Now that the price of oil is down and the economy is sagging, the airlines were ahead of the game -- charging for bags is here to stay as a way to bolster the airlines' revenues while keeping that $15 off of airline tickets.

American Airlines' Executive Vice President Dan Garton said that bag fees are here to stay and that " they have allowed us to give customers choice. If you carry on your bag or don't take a lot of clothing with you, you don't have to pay the fee. So it is an optional fee. Customers do enjoy having the choice of how much they pay for services. So some people choose not to have bags, some travel with very many bags. I'd say you get what you pay for in this case."

I think this is baloney. This isn't an optional fee. If I don't want to pay the fee but I'm staying somewhere for a week, how am I going to not take more clothes than would fit into a carry-on? So my choice is to wear two outfits all week and wash one while wearing the other? That's ridiculous!

Garton also says "The customers who fly with us most and pay the highest fares do not encounter the same fees as those who fly once a year on a very leisure-based fare." Since I'm on the non-receiving end of this good deal for frequent fliers, I don't much like his reasoning, but, I do get discounts from certain stores that I frequent more than others, so I guess I can see the reasoning. Except, if all airlines do this, then I don't really have a choice, like I do when I go grocery shopping. I could choose to go to one of many grocery stores, but since most airlines (except Southwest! Yay, Southwest!) force fees on checked bags and a tiered pricing system, then I'd say most of us are screwed.

Time to gas up the hybrid!

Photo: Michael J. Carter, http://www.airwaysmag.com/channels.html?article_id=135&channel_id=3

Brands Not Relying on Celebrity Endorsements

Between Michael Phelps' bong photo and Chris Brown's alleged beatings of girlfriend Rihanna, celebrities aren't looking so good in February. And these types of publicity are exactly why more and more brands aren't using celebrities like they used to.

GreenLight found that only 7% of ads aired during the Grammy awards featured celebrity endorsements, down from 13% in 2008 and 21% in 2007.

The use of celebrities isn't going away anytime soon, but brands are definitely looking to reputation and possible repercussions from using any celebrities that might make their products look bad.

Read more at MediaPost News.

More Event Marketing for 20009

According to Brandweek, 53% of 300 senior marketing execs surveyed said that event marketing best accelerates and deepens relationships with target audiences out of all the marketing disciplines.

Slightly more than a quarter of those surveyed said that event marketing drives the greatest ROI. Event marketing gives way to experience marketing, with the difference described as: "involves integrated live and online experiences that drive deep brand interaction through highly relevant story telling and brand immersion."

These two trends are coming together at the same time along with another growing trend: being green. Of those surveyed, 66% plan on implementing or have already implemented a green initiative--up from 32% in 2007.

How Marketing Has Been Recession-Slapped

A survey from the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) shows that within the last 6 months, things have gone from bad to worse for marketers.

The latest survey found that:

87% of marketers surveyed plan to restrict travel and expenses (versus 63% 6 months ago)

77% are reducing ad campaign media budgets (versus 69%)

72% are reducing ad campaign production budgets ( versus 63%)

ANA president Bob Liodice said in a statement that there is a "need for brand building ... that acknowledges consumers' financial circumstances, and offers them products, services and solutions that meet their needs.

"For some marketers, that will mean skewing their media mix towards promotional spending and direct marketing. For others, it will mean framing a new, relevant and timely brand message."

More stats and details available at MediaPost's Marketing Daily.

Photo: http://blogs.timesunion.com/capitol/archives/8297

Product Integration Experiment with Jay Leno

With the economy down in the dumps, advertisers are looking for new ways to get their products in front of those watching TV since they can't afford to go out. The solution? Product integration. Maybe not the solution, but certainly a solution that we'll be seeing more of.

And Jay Leno's new primetime show at 10 pm on NBC is the experimental platform. Leno worked referenced to the Garmin GPS systems into The Tonight Show in May 2007 and since then other talk show hosts including Letterman have included product references.

It bugs me to no end when I watch The Biggest Loser when the scripted "oh let's make something in the kitchen with Jell-o and then let's hit the 24-Hour Fitness gym" scenes appear. It used to be more subtle, but now it's like the music and mood changes and I can tell something is about to be hawked my way.

But, unfortunately, that seems to be the way things are heading. Bravo's Top Chef has partnered with Toyota, Clorox and Diet Dr Pepper. Even Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, which hasn't aired yet, is making product integration deals.

I avoid commercials by choice; now I can't avoid ads within the shows I watch? I don't like it, but then again, no one asked for my opinion.

Read the whole scoop at Broadcasting & Cable.

Photo: http://www.collider.com/entertainment/tv/article.asp/aid/10079/tcid/1

Carmakers Slash R&D to Stay Afloat

Financial Times reports that carmakers are now cutting off monies to producing and researching future vehicle models. Ford announced last week that it was "postponing production of a new version of its Transit van. BMW decided against creating the CS, a high-end car and the X7, which would have been its biggest SUV.

“The global auto industry is under extreme pressure right now as a direct result of the financial crisis,” says Christoph Huss, president of the international Association of Automotive Engineers and a group vice-president at BMW. “It is inevitable that some companies will be forced to review certain production and engineering projects, along with wider spending cuts in areas like marketing.” Huss says that cutting R&D is "not a viable option" since carmakers have to meet regulations to keep cars safer and more environmentally friendly.

With less research and development, and marketing budgets getting cut, it's not looking good for us marketers or the driving society as a whole. With less research we'll be nearly back to square one with pollution issues.

2009 Top Trends

Consulting giant KPMG surveyed media and advertising pros about the top six trends for 2009. Here are the results (the pros were asked to choose the top from six options):

Ad downturn/ad spending down: 49%
Transformation of cell phone into personal computers: 40%
Thinning of "old media" through bankruptcies and closures: 38%
Internet penetration opening global markets: 25%
Failure of social networks to monetize as expected: 18%
Smartphones' potential for location-targeted content, advertising and marketing: 17%

The expectation of shifting ad dollars from traditional to digital media is down to 75% from 90% a year ago. The recession has changed everyone's expectations of what's to come in advertising for 2009. Those that were optimistic now have a wait-and-see attitude.

You can read more about the story at MediaPostNews.

Photo: http://gadgetsonthego.net/labels/blackberry.html

Survey Finds Personalized Online Ads Work Well for Big Spenders

According to a 2008 Personalization Survey from ChoiceStream, 39% of consumers are more likely to click on an ad if it is personalized. That number rises to 58% among those who shop online at least several times a month. Bigger spenders (those that spend more than $250 online in a 6-month period) are more interested in personalized ads than small spenders.

In addition, 70% of spenders say that their purchasing decisions are sometimes influenced by an ad they've seen.

This means marketers need to personalize online ads for a bigger ROI.

Read the full press release at ChoiceStream's website. You can also download a PDF of the full survey findings from this site by clicking on the "survey" link in the third paragraph of the press release.

TV Ads at the Movies Are Annoying, But Effective

I can't remember when TV ads started showing up in my movie theater. Maybe two years ago? All I know is I was stunned and thoroughly annoyed by the presence of product ads before the movie previews. And they aren't going away.

According to Media Daily News, a e-newsletter from MediaPost, two new studies have found that TV ads at the movies work.

A study conducted by the Cinema Advertising Council found that "combined cinema and TV ad campaigns more than doubled the conversion rate and lift compared to a TV-only campaign." The CAC study tracked the results of three ad campaigns for cable TV shows and found that 10.1% of subjects that only saw the TV ads watched the show's premiere, versus 22.7% of subjects who saw combined TV and cinema campaigns. Later, 24.7% of the former group watched any one episode of the show, versus 49.5% of the latter.

Another study has placed brand recall from movie ads at 68%, or four times more than TV ad recall.

Twenty-eight percent of movie-goers are "ad-avoiders" so the best choice for advertisers is to place ads where people don't want to leave.

Photo: http://www.orangecountybillboard.com/products/

Congrats to Hoosiers for 1st Place Super Bowl Ad

Congrats to fellow Hoosiers, brothers Joe and Dave Herbert, who created the best Super Bowl ad of 2009--the Doritos "snow globe" ad. Frito-Lay sponsored the contest, in which the brothers won $25,000 for being one of five finalists, and then won $1 million after USA Today ranked their commercial Number One on their AdMeter.

Articles about the Super Bowl ads: The Wall Street Journal, USAToday (watch the commercials here)

Photo: WTHR.com

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Marketing Dispatch is a blog dedicated to keep up with the latest in marketing trends, marketing news, marketing how-to's and basically anything else marketing. Hopefully you'll hear news stories here before you hear them anywhere else, and hopefully you'll find some tips that will help you in your own marketing world. Thanks for visiting!