Eric Leist » Marketing

Black Friday Foursquare Special Madness

Eric Leist — Thu, 25 Nov 2010 12:51:29 +0000

RadioShack

To be fair, the manager at RadioShack was extremely nice, and said he was going to print the (way too complicated) instructions on how to redeem Foursquare specials. Other employees passing by were asking what Foursquare was. Oh the woes of the early adopter.

Toys “R” Us

People are crazy! The line for Toys “R” Us wrapped around the shopping center. There were literally thousands of people waiting to get in.

I checked in on Foursquare, but got no mention of the Toys “R” Us badge. They are running the Foursquare special alongside Yelp specials and Facebook Places specials. However, when I checked in on both of those services, I didn’t see anything labeled as a deal or special. To redeem the special, the first 3000 people have to text a short code.

We talked about all of the Black Friday Specials on our AboutFoursquare Podcast special episode. Check it out:

Location-based Services in the Travel Industry

Eric Leist — Sun, 03 Oct 2010 06:40:12 +0000

On Thursday, we held our weekly Twitter #LBSchat and discussed opportunities for the tourism and travel industry. I’ve compiled some of the most interesting points of the conversation and added a bit of my own commentary here.

Question 1: How can Foursquare drive foot traffic to travel destinations?

As I mentioned here, it’s obvious Foursquare is moving toward a Whrrl-like model with it’s new 2.0 upgrade, which places To-Do’s and Tips in a much more prominent role. This change is the first of a two-step process:

Foursquare will take a main-stream tactic by spoon-feeding its users. First, Foursquare is introducing the core users to the idea of tips.
Second, Foursquare will implement more updates that will personalize and categorize the Foursquare user experience. Right now, tips are a dead end. If you leave a tip at a location on Foursquare and someone else completes your tip, you get no notification when happens. Whrrl has completed this loop with its influence scores and societies, but hasn’t yet penetrated past the iPhone platform.

Question 2: If you could only take one location-based app with you on vacation (domestic), which one would it be?

Dan Parks raised an interesting point here. Once Foursquare starts mining the To-Do and Tips data, they will be able to show which Foursquare users are more influential in certain verticals. The sushi expert’s tips will be displayed more prominently on location pages for sushi places. Same for wine connoisseurs, mommy-bloggers, urban socialites and more.

Question 3: How can an online travel sites like Orbitz and Expedia integrate LBS? What about drive revenue?

Alicia Collins raises an interesting issue here. When the reality she’s talking about comes to fruition, we will have real-world affiliate marketing. Right now, affiliate marketers get paid by how many clicks they get on certain links, or how many Amazon purchases are tied to their designated link. In a short while, affiliate marketers will be paid based on how much real-world action they are driving.

Question 4: Mobile application EpicMix lets skiiers track physical activity on the mountain. What’s more beneficial: specialty apps like EpicMix or LBS like Foursquare?

I have long been preaching the fact that location elements will become common features across almost all media, especially mobile media. In a few years, we won’t think about what location-based app we’re using. When we’re drinking beer, we’ll check into Untappd (and Foursquare along with it). When we’re running, we’ll use RunKeeper. You get the idea. Every app we use will have a location tie-in.

Question 5: How can LBS help travel marketers and content providers deliver audio and video content?

[Disclosure: One of my freelance clients was curious about the topic and asked me to include it in the chat.]

Maurice Rahmey’s point at the end is a good one. There are content creation companies already involved in LBS, or looking to get involved in LBS, but have no way of delivering their content on the LBS platforms! That’ll come soon, I think. SCVNGR will be one of the first. Stickybits is already dabbling in video and audio.

Discussion about Facebook Places

As per usual, #LBSchat skewed off onto a side discussion about what the hell that Facebook Places thing is supposed to be.

Question 6: Gowalla is partnering with Four Seasons to offer $100 gift certificates for users who complete local treks. Success or failure?

Here we have two opposing sides to the issue, and yet, I agree with both.

Want to join in #LBSchat? Head over to Tweetchat.com and plug in the #LBSchat hashtag on Thursday nights at 9pm EST. See you there!

“Mad Men” in the Twittersphere: The Future of Entertainment is Interactive

Eric Leist — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 21:31:43 +0000

I stumbled across an interesting sub-culture of the “Mad Men” phenomenon. Someone–actually, several someones–appear to be running Twitter accounts for all of the “Mad Men” characters. Yes, all of the characters. Even the vending machine has a Twitter account. The accounts interact with each other seamlessly, despite the fact that there are like ten Don Draper profiles.

A separate example:

My first thought is, “What the hell is going on here?” And then I see this:

So fans can interact with these characters (who I assume are being run by fellow fans) to create an interactive experience that goes beyond the 10p.m.-11p.m. time slot during which the show runs. Twitter gives these characters voices on an even playing field with fans.

This video by Ideo talks about the future of books. These folks believe that fiction literature will be interactive in much the same way as the “Mad Men” characters are living on Twitter. What’s the takeaway for entertainment marketers? Plan on making your content interactive in social spaces. If you don’t, your passionate fans will do it for you.

My question is do people always want to be active participants in everything? Is passive consumerism dead? Won’t there always be a small corner of humanity that just likes to curl up with a book and read? We’ll see.

Check out the rest of the “Mad Men” characters:

http://twitter.com/dondraperSCDP

http://twitter.com/Carla_Madmen

http://twitter.com/BethanyVanNuys

http://twitter.com/MisterDraper

http://twitter.com/HarryCraneSCDP

http://twitter.com/PeteCampbell_NY

http://twitter.com/_TrudyCampbell

http://twitter.com/The_Don_Draper

http://twitter.com/MsMeganSCDP

http://twitter.com/StanRizzo_SCDP

http://twitter.com/_BettyFrancis

…and I’m sure I’m missing a few.

#LBSchat Recap

Eric Leist — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 13:38:21 +0000

Last night we held our first ever #LBSchat. @mrahmey and I co-designed the idea over the past couple of weeks. Our goal is to open people up to new possibilities with location-based technology beyond the mundane discussions of Foursquare vs. Facebook Places. So last night we talked about how location applies to Groupon, Zynga, Starbucks, Chatroulette and Twitter. Here are some of the most insightful tweets from the night:

Cudos to the TriOut team for joining in. Having a platform perspective on these issues really enhanced the discussion. See the whole #LBSchat transcript here. If you’re interested in more location chatter, check out @waynesutton’s #GEOchat Tuesdays at 2pm EST.

Next Thursday at 9pm EST, we’re talking about gaming elements in location on #LBSchat. Don’t miss out!

The Di$ney Formula

Eric Leist — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 19:53:46 +0000

I just saw this video by The Onion posted on Facebook. It’s a satire, of course, but there is an underlying truth to Disney’s magical marketing. Disney seems to have developed a formula for child star success. The conglomerate uses multiple channels (television, radio, the Internet) to promote its stars.

If you watch for a progression in Disney Channel shows over the past six or seven years…you won’t see one. The shows are variations of each other with similar sitcom-like situations played out in various environments. The characters in each show follow archetypal Disney formulas. Can you blame the writers, directors and producers? Kids and young teens love the Disney stars. They scream for Miley Cyrus concert tickets, wish to wave a wand on Waverly Place, and dream of being adopted as the fourth Jonas sibling. The formula works.

My question is, “For how long?” We saw record companies perfect a formula for selling CDs with the rise of the late-nineties boy band craze. That formula peaked when *NSYNC’s album No Strings Attached sold 2.4 million records in the first week. Internet-based peer-to-peer file sharing programs brought that industry to a screeching halt. Never again will so many CDs be sold so quickly.

The Long Tale author Chris Anderson says the marketing formula that sold the *NSYNC albums was extremely similar to the one that made Elvis so popular in the fifties: sell sexed-up young men to eager young women. So a change in demographic-tastes had nothing to do with the downfall of the CD industry; rather, technology made more variety and versatility available to music lovers.

So will the Disney formula last forever? If not, when will technology (or something else) force the Disney “Imagineers” to imagine something new?

Social Media Marketing

Eric Leist — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 00:27:20 +0000

My business class team had to do presentations on emerging issues in business. We chose Social Media Marketing. Above is the presentation and below is the summary I wrote. Thanks and much credit to the rest of my team!

Social Media Marketing is the act of bypassing traditional communication channels to establish direct and meaningful relationships with current and potential customers. Over the past two years, there has been nothing short of a gold rush among businesses to establish a presence on social networking sites due to a high return on investment. Research from Forrester predicts that social media marketing, currently a $716 million industry, will grow to become a $3.1 billion industry over the next five years at the expense of offline advertising.

The driving theories behind social media marketing are much the same as for traditional marketing. They are slightly altered to fit the online nature of social networks. Because all media is now social media, meaning they can be shared, downloaded, uploaded and spread virally, these new methods are very effective in the online world.

Social media marketing is a pull method. It uses content disseminated through social networking channels so customers will be drawn in as opposed to interrupted. Content can include blog posts, videos, online contests, webinars, surveys, studies, cartoons, or anything that customers will find rewarding and valuable.

Customer relationship management becomes a much more possible and pronounced aspect of marketing online. An infinite number of feedback loops are now possible so that customers can easily tell a company what they think or feel about a product or idea without being wrangled up for a focus group. Additionally, personal selling shifts from the responsibility of employed salespeople to the enthusiasm of fans. One goal of social media marketing is to, through content and relationships, turn strangers into friends, friends into customers and customers into salespeople.

In our research, we found that many businesses were being dragged into social media after experiencing a crisis or communication breakdown between the marketing department and customers. With 71% of Americans who have Internet access using social networks, this new type of marketing is going to be a necessary part of every marketing plan in the very near future. Businesses will forever strive to put a human face on their corporate name.

Simply Selling Sex

Eric Leist — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 01:59:01 +0000

Let me ask you a question: If I wanted to buy a web domain, where would you tell me to go? If the first site that pops into your head isn’t GoDaddy.com, I’d like to know what is.

When I see the ads for Go Daddy, I’m bewildered at the company’s success. Somehow, Go Daddy managed to become the world’s largest domain registrar. You would never know that from its advertisements, though. Their strategy is strictly to get customers (and/or horny men?) to visit their homepage, effectively branding the site into their customers minds for when they eventually need a domain name.

The commercials never give any reason why Go Daddy is better than competitors. They never bring in celebrity endorsements—unless you count a showering Danica Patrick. The company forgoes everything that has ever been discovered about conventional persuasion and skips right to the sex appeal. In fact, most of the commercials don’t say what the company does at all!

We in the Internet marketing/PR world argue against the effectiveness of paid advertising. So how is it that these commercials—some of them banned–have helped drive Go Daddy to the top of its respective industry? Well, I’ve heard the three most powerful brands around are the words “free,” “sex” and “Harvard.” Well, if the GoDaddy.com advertising approach over the past four years isn’t evidence of that, I don’t know what is.

Did That Terrier Just Tweet When I Poked It?: Marketing to Boston University Students with Social Media

Eric Leist — Sat, 16 May 2009 02:06:27 +0000

I leave my dorm room mid-morning to make photocopies and media lists at my internship. On my way out of Myles Standish Hall, I pass flyers stacked next to the doorway advertising local restaurants, but I don’t see them because I’m busy texting. Walking down Beacon Street to the Kenmore T stop, a young woman in cargo pants asks me to “save the polar bears,” but I don’t hear her because my iPod drones out the sound of her voice.
On the T, advertisements cover the walls, but I don’t notice because I’m killing time playing solitaire on my phone. When I get off at my stop and walk to work, my eyes skip over a billboard ad for The New England Aquarium plastered to the side of a passing bus. When I sit down at my desk, I log onto my computer and pull up my web browser. My pop-up blocker prevents Amazon.com’s offer for free shipping from distracting me. I check my email and all I see is a message from my boss because my spam filter has trashed Fandango.com’s attempt to tell me what films I’d like.
A friend instant messages me asking, “did u c the trailer for the new johnny depp movie this summer during office last night?”
“no, i musta missed it,” I reply. “h/o.”
Five clicks later, I’ve already been to IMDB.com to get the name of the movie and I’m watching the trailer on YouTube, eagerly tapping a reminder into my phone to make an effort to see “Public Enemies” opening July 1st.
I’m a Boston University student. This is how my world works: if a public relations practitioner, advertiser or marketer wants to deliver a message to me, he or she will have to stray from his or her traditional methods and use new and social media.
Like every other Digital Native I know, I don’t want products pushed in my face. I don’t trust the source, and I don’t want to be interrupted. The channels that held my parents’ attention don’t work on me. I decide what I want to pay attention to, and I’ll actively seek it out online.
According to marketing guru Seth Godin, author of the popular ebookFlipping the Funnel, my attitude mirrors that of most Americans: “Whether you are selling steel I-beams, scientific glassware, or soccer balls, people are better at ignoring you than ever before.” The rules of the public relations game are changing quickly. To target these increasingly difficult-to-reach demographics, PR, advertising and marketing agencies and departments have to adopt several new strategies.
These new strategies harness the Internet’s power to influence buyers who have grown up with Internet access. Public relations’ use of new and social media fulfills three main roles that apply to college-age shoppers and consumers of all ages. Social media enhances word-of-mouth, transforming consumers into salespeople. It also provides a new forum for targeted advertising to individuals instead of demographics. Finally, social media and new media speed up the buying process.
More and more, consumers want to hear advice from people like themselves before they spend. If they want to reserve a room in a hotel, they read the consumer reviews on Travelocity.com. Before they buy a book on Amazon, they first read what others have said about it. Before going to see a movie, some BU students monitor the Twitter feed for its title to see if other moviegoers are saying they liked it. Although it has always been an important part of branding, the Internet provides a new forum for word of mouth. Best-selling author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR, David Meerman Scott calls this new forum “word-of-mouse.”
Scott’s newest book World Wide Rave highlights a textbook example of cost-effective “word-of-mouse” marketing. Cindy Gordon, Vice President of New Media for Universal Orlando Resort, was in charge of spreading the word that Universal Studios was building a Wizarding World of Harry Potter section of their theme park. Instead of sending press releases to media outlets, or buying television advertisements, Gordon told seven of the most popular Harry Potter bloggers via an exclusive webcast. Gordon’s webcast was the only initial marketing effort Gordon made, and it was the only one she needed. Universal estimates as a result of the webcast over 350 million people have heard about the park.
What happened in the time between those seven bloggers watched a webcast and Harry Potter fans around the world heard about the theme park? Social media’s “word-of-mouse” propelled the information from blogger to reader; from reader to friend; from friend to family. Shortly after that podcast in May 2007, my little sister woke me up at 7:30 a.m. to tell me about the park. My family has since made travel plans to go to Orlando Studios next year to see the Wizarding World of Harry Potterwhen it opens in early 2010.
A simple social media gimmick turned a webcast into monetary profit through the power of “word-of-mouse” alone. Obviously, the sheer popularity of the Harry Potter brand compelled fans to talk about the new park. Marketing as a tool to compel consumers to spend money on something they haven’t read seven books about might be more of a challenge.
For hypothetical purposes, let’s look at how a PR practitioner might go about launching a new pizza shop on Commonwealth Avenue using new and social media. A marketing or PR practitioner could complete this task successfully and inexpensively by spending some time using the free tools available online.
The first step would be to establish an online presence to make information easy to find. If Jane, a Boston University sophomore in The College of Arts and Sciences, sees construction near her dorm while walking home from class, she might wonder what’s going to be built there. She wouldn’t wander onto the construction site and ask one of the workers. She would most likely see the “Coming Soon! Petey’s Pizza!” sign and plug the pizza shop’s name into a Google search when she got to her computer. If the search turns up nothing but unrelated material, Jane will shrug it off and surf elsewhere on the net. However, if the “Coming Soon!” sign had a web address on it search engine optimized to the top of a Google search for the shop’s name, the Boston University student would likely visit the site.
However, an online presence is more than just a website with some fancy graphics and basic information. The online footprint Petey’s Pizza leaves has to harness the Internet’s ability to let the consumer share content. Imagine if the website had links to become a fan of Petey’s on Facebook or Myspace, or to follow the pizza shop’s owner on Twitter. What if Petey’s, like Papa John’s, created an application allowing users to order a pizza directly from Facebook or an iPhone? The owner of Petey’s could tweet specials and links to online coupons for BU students? What if the main website had a webcam in the kitchen so that customers could watch their pizza being made before it was delivered? Petey’s could create a YouTube video on the secrets of making a pizza, or how to toss pizza dough. Would BU students say, “Check this out!” and pass the links along to their friends? You bet they would.
Sure, Petey’s could place an advertisement in the Boston Globe or on local television channels and say, “Well, we tried,” when they didn’t see BU students rushing to order. Shrugging off the ineffectiveness of advertising these days would indicate Petey’s was missing the concept of viral marketing. When Jane Google searches for Petey’s, and invites her Facebook friends to be fans of Petey’s Facebook page because it has cool videos and coupons, she is selling Petey’s brand. She’s a customer and she is spreading the word on a local business simply because she finds what it has to offer online interesting. If any one of her friends ever orders a pizza, Jane made a sale, made money for the business, and branded Petey’s Pizza without being paid or solicited.
True, those social media marketing techniques might not work for every company seeking attention from consumers. Some products might not have such share-friendly features. Regardless, social media still plays a role in the buying process for college consumers with more than just word-of-mouse techniques. While we’ve seen old-fashioned, paid advertising is largely ineffective in penetrating the spam-proof bubble of college student life, social media provides a new forum for targeted advertising.
On Facebook, advertisements appear on the right column of the home and profile pages. These advertisements are not aimed at a general demographic of Facebook users. They are targeted, not on a demographic level such as television commericals and print advertisements, but on an individual level. For example, I have The Office listed on my Facebook profile as one of my favorite television shows. When NBC launched its new show Parks and Recreation, (from the creators of The Office) I got an advertisement on my Facebook home page telling me when and where I could watch it.
Google has also taken advantage of its ability to personalize ads. The Official Google Blog entry posted on March 11, 2009, declared Google’s new approach to making advertisements more relevant. Google said they would begin taking into consideration each user’s browsing history before deciding what advertisements to display to that user. For example, if someone interested in snowboarding frequently visits snowboarding sites, when that person uses any of Google’s online tools (GoogleDocs, Gmail, Google searches), the advertisements will be snowboard-related.
Members of the blogging community complained Google’s new practice violates personal privacy, but Google’s explanation in the blog post argues, “By making ads more relevant, and improving the connection between advertisers and our users, we can create more value for everyone.” Google has been conducting similar practices for some time. In my Gmail program, each individual email accompanies a string of sidebar advertisements reflecting keywords written in it. If my mom emails me about transportation for my trip home, I see advertisements for airline prices and rental car services.
While the individually targeted advertisement policies may border on privacy invasion, their justification is practical. The ads are more relevant to my life, and I am much more likely to look at them and click on them than I am, say, banner ads on the New York Times website. These ads influence my online spending in helpful, relevant ways, thanks to social media and Internet technology.
So if I see an ad for something I’m not necessarily looking for, but is relevant to what I’m looking at online, I can more quickly buy that product than I could in the days before the social media boom. This new development highlights the third role the interaction of PR and social media fulfills for consumers: to speed up the buying process.
Social networking sites provide a new forum for marketing and consumer spending to take place. Namely, they hand over control of cost and quality to the consumer. Boston University students socio-economically and diversely represent college students throughout America, who are a tight-budgeted demographic. For students these controls are a critical element to the buying process.
Now, consumers can sell directly to other consumers on social networking sites such as EBay and Craigslist. Gone are the days when a shopper would go to a store to see if an item was available or if the store even carried the item. Now, BU students frequent Craigslist for cheap, used furniture or dorm accessories for sale by young professionals. They might visit EBay and name their price for a new iPod or cell phone. The consumer is in control of price via negotiation or bidding and quality (new or used) thanks to social networking sites.
How should public relations practitioners in charge of promoting a product treat the consumer-seller Internet scene? I can see two ways. The first is to keep the brand strong. Alex, a BU junior in The College of Fine Arts, visits EBay and searches for “iPod touch” instead of “mp3 player” because he recognizes Apple as the industry leader. So although that user may be buying a used product from which Apple will make no direct profit, Apple’s PR can still promote the brand to keep new customers loyal. The college-age buyer of that used iPod will still buy songs from iTunes to load onto it. He may even have to call customer service once or twice. Although PR might not control a quantifiable relationship between a company and the profits from college-age consumers buying used products, opportunities still exist to improve the attitude and behavior of those consumers in favor of the company. Those consumers are a public, and the PR firms and departments need to treat them accordingly.
Ultimately, social media transforms the PR departments and their interaction with publics on a digital forum. The challenge for PR practitioners in the online world is keeping up with the ever-changing realm of social media. Companies need to know where the conversation about them is taking place and they need to be a part of that conversation. This added responsibility is a new aspect of boundary spanning.
Mike Volpe, Vice President of Inbound Marketing at Cambridge-basedHubspot lectured on social media marketing at BU in February. After hearing about services such as Twitter and social bookmarking sites such as Delicious.com, the students asked him, “What’s the next big thing?” Volpe responded, “You’re the college kids; you tell me!” PR professionals will have to take a reactionary approach to the future of social media. They will not be able to control what social networking site is the fastest growing or what web-based free service is this month’s hot topic. They will need to see where people are conversing online and go there to deliver a message. PR departments and social media consultants need to follow the lead of the consumer, because the consumer is in control.

Sparknotes’ Internet Marketing

Eric Leist — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 02:30:35 +0000

Last night, I was reading a plot summary for Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dallowway, and my eyes happened to stray–just for a second–to the right column of boxes I usually ignore on every website. The word “Procrastinate!” caught me off guard. Curious, and mostly uninterested in the plot summary I was reading, I clicked.

Every Sparknotes page has a box featuring articles aimed at distracting students. Each article has a catchy and occasionally controversial title such as “You Kiss Your Mother with that Mouth?” and “Pregnant with Syphilis at 14: Thanks a lot abstinence-only education” Don’t lie: you would have clicked too.
The articles, similar to blog entries, each tell a witty anecdote or highlight an issue. They have cartoons as well.
First I was puzzled: why would any site would want to distract its users away from the reason they visited the site in the first place? Then it hit me. Sparknotes.com has implemented a brilliant self-promotion/new media marketing strategy that causes its users to spend more time and clicks on their site (increasing ad rates) while giving them a chance to spread entertaining material by Sparknotes around the social media scene with a “Share this” widget.
Here’s why I think their idea is brilliant: I had the privilege last week of hearing Mike Volpe of Internet Inbound Marketing company Hubspot, speak on the internet transforming the landscape of marketing. In ablog post, Volpe writes:
“Fewer people are going to tradeshows, direct mail response rates are decreasing, email marketing is becoming less effective, and cold calling is becoming more difficult. People have more tools for blocking out this interruption marketing (spam filters, caller ID) and even governments are helping customers block this marketing (CAN Spam Act, National Do Not Call lists).”
At first glance, the box looks like an advertisement, so, my first impulse was to ignore it, to block it out. But seeing I was being offered the choice to distract myself, I in no way felt my life was being interrupted. I, the consumer, was in control. By granting this power to me, Sparknotes made me more willing to accept their invitation to read their content, talk about it, and spread it around to others. They effectively increase the power of their brand and draw visitors, who may have no intention to read literature summaries, to their material.
Pretty smart, Sparknotes, pretty smart.