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?

Mega Speaking Event gets Patsi out from behind her computer...
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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.

 

Web 2.0 News Content on Your Website
What Journalists Want Online

If you've been in the dark about how to plan your online news for the media, a new study from Bulldog Reporter and the TEKgroup can guide your content strategy for 2008.

Journalists’ use of online newsrooms, blogs, RSS and social media is much higher than most PR professionals had thought - in fact the greatest change in journalism practices due to new Internet technology is the ability to access corporate news and contact information online 24 hours a day.

• Nearly half of all journalists report visiting a corporate website or online newsroom at least once a week
• 85% visit at least once a month
• More than a quarter report regularly reading five or more blogs to research desired topics
• Nnearly 70% follow at least one blog regularly
•  More than a quarter (28%) of journalists visit a social media or networking site, such as YouTube, Facebook and MySpace, at least once a week
• More than 44% visit at least once a month
• Nearly 16% of journalists receive five or more RSS feeds of news services, blogs, podcasts or videocasts every week
• 37% receive at least one regular RSS feed
• 20% say they look for audio and vidoe material at least once a month
• 64% report that they use Google or Yahoo! online news services

If you don't yet have an online newsroom this needs to be top of your list for 2008.

Learn to optimize your news content for search so that it can be easily found when these journalists are searching Yahoo and Google News.

Add images, audio and video to your news content.  it's fairly simple to do and it won't break the budget.

Syndicate all your content with RSS feeds. If you don't have an RSS feed then you have no chance that yours will be that one feed they read regularly.

Publicity for Your Book


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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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Publicity for Books


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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