Intel Ups Dollars to Digital Media

Intel Ups Dollars to Digital Media
Big Brands Increase Percentage of Sopend on Online Components

Intel decided to increase its co-op ad spend in digital media by 35% reports Online Spin.  Intel Corp. spends $300 million on their advetising worldwide.  So this is a hefty chunk of change we're talking about here.

 ”We’re going where the consumers have gone,” Sean Maloney, executive vice president at Intel, told The New York Times. “For the longest period of time, consumers formed their attitudes through TV, print, radio, and from the middle ’90s onward, there was more influence from the Net,” he was quoted as saying.

Any marketing or PR 101 class will teach you that you have to keep your eye on where the consumers are.  And just when you think you have them pegged, they shift.  This shift in media influence has been happening for quite a while and there is no doubt anymore that online is where the consumers are.

Take note that Maloney is talking about co-op advertising.  It's 'Intel Insde' brands like Dell, HP, Toshiba, sony and Lenovo.  So they will also be shifting their budgets to more digital media.

In the past 6 months online advertising hit the $10 billion mark, up 27% from last year.

What's in your marketing and PR plan for 2008?

10 Tips to Improve Your Sex Life
Written by Jennifer Ricciardi Your bed’s feeling a little too crowded. You kick out the dog. But it’s still crowded. What gives? It’s time to examine your gut. You’re getting older, your metabolism’s slowing, your handles are growing… maybe your thighs jiggle and your hips shimmy when you shake your booty. All in all, you don’t feel, [...]

Written by Jennifer Ricciardi

Your bed’s feeling a little too crowded. You kick out the dog. But it’s still crowded. What gives?

It’s time to examine your gut. You’re getting older, your metabolism’s slowing, your handles are growing… maybe your thighs jiggle and your hips shimmy when you shake your booty. All in all, you don’t feel, well, sexy anymore. If you’ve forgotten what the phrase “frisky devil” means, keep the Viagra at the doc’s office and make some of these easy changes to your health regimen (or just start a health regimen) to rev up your sex life.

1. OJ’s Not Just for Glove Wearin’

Vitamin C’s a perfect fit for boosting your pleasure. Popping a couple thousand milligrams a day will improve your blood flow (making for stiffer, longer erections for men and riper Tweety Birds for ladies); and this potent little antioxidant will also work hard to take down any free radicals that try to damage the cells in your private parts - C’s your own, personal sex brigade.

2. Couples Stretch

Stretching your muscles is great for increasing flexibility and helping you achieve some of those positions you’ve only been able to read about (what is “Skin the Cat,” anyway?). Stretching with your partner has the benefits of 1. learning more about each others’ bodies, 2. testing each others’ limits and developing deeper trust and 3. getting good visuals while you lengthen. Start off by trying this simple stretch for your hips and back: Sit cross-legged, facing each other; grab each other at the elbows; one of you leans back (while the other one supports); and hold it for 15-30 seconds. Switch. Now hop in bed and reap the benefits of your work!

3. Sunflower Seeds Aren’t Just For the Birds

Sprinkle these seeds on a salad or grab a handful as a snack and feel your energy soar. Sunflower seeds are packed with B1, an energy boosting vitamin. Energy boosting, as in more endurance in the sack. B1 is also responsible for making sure your nerves and muscles work together and for keeping your ticker strong - both essential bodily functions for crazy sex. Foods also high in B1: tuna, black beans, asparagus and spinach - ten bucks Olive Oyl was one satisfied ho’.

4. Go Nuts

Nuts are chock full of B3, a vitamin that aids in beauty, emotional stability and energy. B3 is one of those vitamins responsible for freeing the energy from your food so that it can be used by your body. For sex. High energy = good sex. B3 also increases blood flow (we love those hard-ons!), controls your blood sugar (because who wants to sleep with a moody monster?) and helps your nervous system function properly (so you can tingle all over). Enjoy these treats in moderation, as they’re also high in fat.

5. Throw out the Cow

Substitute your regular milk for soy and reap the benefits of this magical bean. Besides being high in B vitamins and good for your heart, soy helps the ladies get lubed up. Soy adheres to a woman’s estrogen receptors, which determine how much lubrication her vagina needs. A little more soy means a little more lube. You’ll make your man think he’s turning you on faster, giving him more confidence, and, dare we say, inspiration in bed.

6. The Reason they’re Red Hot

Add some spice to your day by enhancing your meals with chili peppers. Chili pepper’s another food to help your blood circulation and it also stimulates your nerve endings, making for more pleasure in your pounce.

7. Take a Walk

Even if you’re not a hardcore exercise fanatic, doing something as simple as walking two miles a day can improve your sex life. Besides making it easier for you to move around in bed, people who workout get hornier. An Italian study of men and ED showed that the more men exercised, the better their wangers performed - a simple walk cut any risk of ED by 70%. And they’re not alone, ladies. Some science types at UT Austin studied women pre and post exercise. After watching a porn flick, the physically active women had 169% greater blood flow to their vaginas compared to when they were inactive. Getting your heart pulsing gets the rest of you pulsing.

8. Throw out the Cow II

Next time you think of ordering a burger, think of ordering one made out of fish instead of beef. Fish is high in Omega 3, a nutrient otherwise missing from our American diets. Scientific evidence shows that it helps with brain function (making for smarter sex), staving off depression (making for happier sex) and improving cholesterol and blood circulation (making for mmmmmmmmmer sex). If you can’t bear to let go of your beef, try popping a pill; Omega 3 can also be found in your vitamin aisle.

9. Cut Down On the Booze

Almost everyone’s had the unfortunate experience of a not-so-hot night in bed after knocking back a few too many: She needed to fake orgasm because she just couldn’t get aroused and he, unfortunately, couldn’t fake orgasm so he had to face his limp willy. Face the sad, sad truth: You don’t recover from a hard night of partying like you used to. The longer you prolong the beginning of the end, the lonelier your own end will be. Take care of yourself now so you can take care of your partner later.

10. Masturbate

You hear it right: go to town on yourself! The better you know your body and the more in tune you are with your “feel good receptors,” the more you can help your partner bring you to that place of ecstasy. You know how your doctor recommends you exercise three to five times a week? Just add this onto your regular routine. (Except you might want to wait until you leave the gym.)

*11. Suck It Up

Since this isn’t as easy as popping a pill, we’ve listed it as our bonus tip: suck it up and lose that weight you’ve gained since college. You keep talking about it, whining about it - just do it. You’ll feel lighter, you’ll look better, your confidence will skyrocket and so will your sex life. Eat less, exercise more, cut out the carbs, stick to yellow food, count your calories… so many diet options out there guarantee that you (or your lover) will be harder. In so many ways.

If you liked this post, buy me a beer

SEO Affects Sales of Consumer Packaged Goods CPG
CPG retailers need search marketing in their mix

44% of traffic to consumer packaged-goods sites comes from search, according to new joint research from comScore, Procter & Gamble, Yahoo and SEMPO. And these buyers spent 20 percent more in the month following their search activity, reveals the study.

Who knew? Even those looking for CPG go online first..Nearly 163 million unique consumers visited baby, food, personal care and household product sites during the three-month span of the study--with 71 million of those visits originating via search. Baby and food products drew the most search traffic, with 60% and 47% of the visitors arriving via search respectively. 

These stats show both the brand-building and purchase intent benefits that CPG brands can derive from adding search marketing to their mix.

Search-driven CPG site visitors' motivations are important to understnad, says the study.

• 30% were looking specifically for the company Web site
• 73% were researching products
• 64% were seeking help with an actual purchase decision
• Almost 50% were looking for product promotions

Understanding these CPG search motivations is the key to linking brand benefits to search behaviors says the rpeort.

And if you are a CPG retailer bear in mind the impact of natural or organic search results.  "If you think you're covered by Pay Per Click ads in the search engines, think again" says Marketing Sherpa. 

According to eyetracking studies you get far more views and clicks from organic search.

 

Of course the trick is to raise your search engine visibility and get your website onto page one in Google for all the brand and generic key words and phrases CPG searchers use to access products like yours.

.

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The Role of PR in a Web 2.0 World
If your head is still in the sand about new media now would be a good time to change position

As many of you know I am also the official blogger for Bulldog Reporter, an industry newsletter that has over 50 000 PR practitioners as subscribers.   Last week I was in San Francisco speaking at the TurnPROn Online PR Summit.  Jim Sinkinson, CEO of Bulldog Reporter, was there too and we had a delightful dinner together in the city after the event.

One of the topics of discussion was the role of PR and media relations in a Web 2.0 world. Jim had mentioned in his presentation earlier in the day that a recent Bulldog survey found that PR people rate driving traffic to their corporate website as one of their main concerns today.

In an interview with the Daily 'Dog today MJ Gilhooley says

Simply put: Audiences are more in control than ever and increasingly savvy about filtering marketing messages. As a result, PR pros have a new hat to wear: listener, learner. With the tables turned per the advent of Web 2.0, sheer Darwinism alone will lay to rest the pros who five years ago considered major market headlines and covers the end game. Bottom line for PR: Control of the message is out. Engagement and dialog is in—especially in social media communities.

McKenzie Worldwide published data recently indicating that 67% of today's consumers would prefer to get their purchasing facts from other consumers—not "communicators."  This supports the study out early in the year that showed that the most trusted form of advertising is recommendations from other consumers 'just like me.'  

Consumers are turned off by some kinds of digital advertising, like text messages, pop-ups or banners, that may explain digital marketers' eagerness to work indirectly, through blogs, social networks and other kinds of online forums. Of all survey respondents, for instance, 61 percent said they trusted consumer opinions posted online, says another report from Nielsen Buzzmetrics..

And the recent IBM study of online behavior revealed that audiences are increasingly savvy about filtering marketing messages. Consumers are seeking consolidated, trustworthy content, recognition and community.

Consumers are increasingly contributing to online video or social networking sites and of those who contributed content, an average of 58 percent worldwide did so for recognition and community, not monetary gain.

The report predicts that marketers and advertising revenues will follow consumers' habits.  Given the rising power of individuals and communities, media and entertainment industry players will have to become much better at providing permission-based advertising and related consumer-driven ratings services.

U.S. users report more usage of social networking sites and user generated content than almost any other content services category:

• 45 percent use social networking sites
• 29 percent visit user generated content sites
• 24 percent use a music service such as iTunes
• 24 percent subscribe to premium television content

The following key skills or practice areas are becoming increasingly crucial for communicators of all disciplines:

• Better positioning of clients with outreach in the blogosphere
• Mastering skills necessary to optimize web video placement opportunities 
• Engaging in virtual-world interaction and visibility 

If the new media Web 2.0 world is still unfamiliar territory,  find a partner who can deliver social media training and help you to develop social media strategies for your clients.

 

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Delta's Blog Gets Caught in the We We Calculator
Blogging is an amazing tactic for engaging in conversation with your customers

Brian Eisenberg of Grok.com took a well placed swipe at the Delta blog today.  Brian ran the text of the post about how Delta gathers customer input through the customer focus ("We-we") calculator and found these results:

Your Customer Focus Rate: 17.39%
You have 4 instances of customer-focused words.

Your Self Focus Rate: 82.61%
You have 15 instances of self-focused words.
You have 4 instances of the Company Name.

You speak about yourself approximately 0,005 times as often as you speak about your customers.

Delta has an ad running on Yahoo! News that takes you to their blog.  The ad copy says change is about offering your two cents worth so Brian promptly gave his two cents to the author of this blog post:

1. The key to great customer insight and analysis is empathy. Don't live by the surveys or the data; live with your customers. How often do you go through the process of booking and flying, just like the majority of your customer's do? Want to improve the experience? Experience it like most people do. You'll hate it. Really!

(I wholeheartedly agree.  I am also a Delta frequent flyer and the last two calls to Delta have been a severe pain in the rear.  In fact, just a month ago I opted to fly with AirTrans because it was cheaper to buy a new business class ticket with them than change the date on the economy class Delta ticket I already had!!!!).

2. Show us you really care about listening to OUR voices. I believe you have honorable intentions, but your words are all about Delta.

This next comment from Brian really made me chuckle

The Greeks use the symbol delta to represent change because "Διαφορά" means "difference" in Greek. Will you really make a difference in customers' lives, or will you be content putting lipstick on a pig?

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