Last week I received another great example of Participatory Marketing at its finest via an email alert from Upromise. The alert was an invite to attend a live seminar in NY on March 24th called Tuition Tuesday. The 2 hour event, held in conjunction with Leap -- a non-profit organization that works to improve the quality of public education through art-based learning, promises to offer advice on planning for and managing rising college expenses. This is particularly relevant given the hit that many of us have taken on our 529 plans. In addition to the opportunity to mingle and converse with other portfolio battered families, the effort also includes a video contest called Tuition Tales. Tuition Tales gives participating individuals the chance to win $10,000 for college. Reaching across generations, the contest encourages students, parents, grandparents and friends to get involved and create a personal 30-second video detailing why they or somebody they know deserves $10,000 for college. Submissions across three categories (saving for college, in college now, paying it back) are due by May 5, 2009 and voting online begins May 12, 2009. Participating individuals are also encouraged to rally their friends and families to vote. Winners will be announced on May 20, 2009. You can sign up for additional details about the program via email alerts at the Tuition Tales website. 

For Upromise the program is not only an opportunity to engage existing Upromise members and to build upon their community efforts, but to extend the visibility of its brand to friends and family who they hope will also sign up to help those members save. Overall a good example of how a community focused program combined with a “social” contest and email marketing program join together to form a robust participatory marketing program that will help Upromise drives memberships, engagement and savings activity.

Part two of our exclusive research is out and the results confirm what a lot of us in email have felt for a long time – email is in desperate need of an overhaul. Look, email has changed very little over the last 15 years, despite the evolution of the Internet into a social gathering place. In fact, what little innovation there has been over the last 8 years has been protectionist in nature in order to save the medium from spam. At the same time, the shifting online paradigm and rise of social networks are challenging email for the attention of the online consumer. In fact, according to a recent study by Nielsen, "member communities" now exceed email participation by 67 percent to 65 percent – and that difference is even more pronounced with Gen Y users. So we asked our Gen Y panel about email and the social internet and here is what they had to say:

- Marketing email is not relevant according to Gen Y consumers – only 28 percent of those surveyed believe the email they get from companies is relevant

- Gen Y consumers are eager to see “innovative services” that allow them to better control, organization and manage email coming from brands. Specifically, 
    o 78 percent would like their email client to automatically categorize and delete expired promotional messages 
    o 62 percent would like to communicate directly with retailers about their favorite products in exchange for getting the best prices from them 
    o 44 percent say they’d subscribe to an email service that collected and summarized multiple offers of interest to them     
    o 32 percent say they’d share promotional email offers with members inside a social network and open emails from others

- More than half of Gen Y consumers (51 percent) say they’d join a separate social network dedicated to managing brand interactions

It seems to me Gen Y is not asking a lot from email, especially in today’s semantically intelligent digital world – or are they? Let us know what you think.

PMN members interested in getting a copy of the complete survey can email info@thepmn.org.

Email newsletters can be challenging. While they often are a staple of a brand’s ongoing email communications, response tends to fall off over time. Over the years, I’ve been asked numerous times to offer suggestions on how to keep email newsletters fresh and exciting and that’s why it is the focus of my second eM+C column.

In short, the best email newsletters relinquish control, provide timely, relevant content around a user’s express interests and/or behaviors, offer multi-channel distribution options and include mechanism that invite the recipient to participate. One brand whose newsletter efforts have always impressed me is the Washington Post. While the Washington Post was a former client, their newsletter program is one of the few that does a lot right, but can go further and do some things better.

To get the complete scoop, read my column and let me know your thoughts.

With email marketing generating an average of $45.06 for every dollar spent, it should come as no surprise that acquiring new email addresses and/or encouraging additional subscriptions remains a top priority for many marketers. While companies spend millions each year leveraging search, online advertising, co-registration, direct mail, advertising, telemarketing and live events in an attempt to acquire new subscriptions, few have been as creative as American Airlines.

As a subscriber to the AAdvantage eSummary email newsletter, I was recently invited to engage 100% of my travel brain to become a more savvy traveler. The invitation included an offer to participate in a series of quizzes and to learn more and hopefully subscribe to three additional promotional emails - AAirmail, Net SAAver and AAdvantage promotion. It also included 1,500 bonus miles (500 miles for each new subscription) and a chance to win a luxury vacation for two.

Intrigued, I clicked and was pleasantly surprised. The microsite included a well-thought out series of games designed to highlight the benefits of each newsletter independently while showcasing how they interrelate. Samples of each newsletter were provided, content expectations set and quiz results analyzed.

What I like so much about this effort is how its creativity draws the recipient in and encourages them to learn more about each newsletter and how it can benefit them. Seems to me American has an opportunity to take this effort one step further by encouraging users to share the quizzes with friends and family. While forward-to-a-friend is included on the follow-up subscription confirmation this effort would be well served by giving the recipient the ability to post the contest/quizzes to their social networks to further increase visibility and participation.

To test your travel brain click here.

Like millions of others, I sat glued to the TV watching the Super Bowl this past weekend. Besides enjoying a great game, I also had high expectations for the ads this year.

After all, at $3 million for a 30 second ad and the economy in the dumps, the pressure was on to deliver. Unfortunately – most didn’t. While we saw our share of talking babies, monkeys and 3D commercials few efforts went beyond that and encourage users to participate with the brand. At a time when agencies have shed nearly 7,000 jobs we need to think not only about buzz, but creating results with call-to-actions that drive response, encourage participation and create an ongoing relationship.

I’m not saying you need to sacrifice creativity, I’m saying advertisers need to demand that their agencies think bigger and be accountable to deliver creative ads that drive more than buzz. So who hit it out of the park? For more including the hits and misses, check out my byline on DM News today!

As we all know, the Super Bowl is a unique platform that is a marketer’s dream in terms of communicating a message to an enormous and engaged audience.  The one brand I’ll be watching this year is Audi, who has been quietly building its Super Bowl franchise over the last few years by using various marketing techniques in tandem to promote its lineup.  

 

It started last year, when Audi bought its first Big Game ad in 20 years and generated some buzz with its “Godfather” spoof to introduce the all new R8.  While the ad received average scores, it was a great study in integrated marketing.  In fact, the ad aggressively leveraged email to help build awareness and excitement and included an email sneak preview on Saturday, 2/2/08 at 7:04PM, which was followed by another email on Sunday morning 2/3/08 at 6:13AM before the game. 

 

My Take: Kudos to Audi and its agency for attempting to coordinate marketing tactics to extend the awareness and success of its very expensive Super Bowl investment.  Consequently, the coordinated effort resulted in a reported 200 percent jump in web site traffic according to Audi.

 

So what’s in store for this year’s Super Bowl effort?  Interestingly enough, Audi is all about participation this year.  A recent visit to the website included a dedicated flash asking visitors to join Audi on a “journey of progress.”  Visitors are encouraged to sign up and receive an exclusive sneak preview of Audi’s new commercial prior to its Super Bowl ’09 debut – a la last years effort.  But it doesn’t end there.  By signing up, Audi is also offering additional benefits including “exclusive access to events” and “once-in-a-lifetime experiences all year long” as the journey of progress continues throughout 2009.  In an environment when most are cutting back on ad spending, Audi is shelling out the big bucks and turning to participation to extend the reach and ROI of its investment. 

 

It will be interesting to see how this one plays out.  To sign up click here and lets reconnect and discuss after the game.   

 

‘Til Next Time

Today I debuted a new monthly column on eM+C called Email Marketing Strategies and Tactics Exposed.  The goal of this column is to highlight exceptional email communications and, more importantly, to dissect the individual components that make them work so well. 

 

Why this column?  During my years heading up marketing and strategy for Bigfoot Interactive, I used to do quarterly meetings with some of our largest accounts.  These meetings often involved a review of marketplace trends, research findings and competitive/campaign assessments, including best practices collected from the hundreds of campaigns we tracked.  This last bit is what got clients leaning forward in their seats, and it wasn’t long before clients requested more “real life examples” to discuss and learn from. The next thing I knew, I was doing a client tour around the country highlighting the very best of the best in email marketing.  This tour became a franchise for our company because it took all the talk about industry best practices and what marketers should be doing, and made it tangible and actionable.  I’ve always thought it would make a great column, and so, with this opportunity from eM+C it has now come to life. 

 

Why Now?   In my mind – success in ’09 will be founded on two critical concepts.  1. Marketers must push themselves to do better.  If you don’t have a comprehensive strategy for lifecycle communications – you should, if your not integrating email with other marketing efforts – you must, if you not leveraging best practices and analytics to optimize results – your toast.  This column will help you do all that and more.  2.  Evolution and innovation – the market and consumers are changing and evolving.  To build on success and remain relevant, marketers must embrace the notion of marketing with customers rather than at them.  The Participatory Marketing Network (PMN) was founded on that principle and it is our hope we can use this association as a platform to help marketers build innovative marketing programs that engage the recipient in such a way that it extends the success and reach of your messaging across the social internet. 

 

It is my hope is that you will find eM+C series of evaluations beneficial as you think about your own email communications.  Over the course of the next 12 months we will highlighting the best of the best and by this time next year my hope is to have built the ultimate email communications playbook.  Enjoy the column and if you have or come across an email communications program worth writing about, drop me a line at info@thepmn.org. 

'Til Next Time

What do influential companies have in common? According to Business Week, they define and redefine ideas and the terms of competition.  That’s exactly what we need to do with the way we market.

 

The rise of the social internet is redefining everything including email.  Consumers are in control; old marketing approaches are losing their effectiveness and consumers are growing increasingly frustrated.  Think it’s just hype? Well, take a look at a few of the red flags over the past few years.    

 

2002:

• Nielsen Begins Tracking Tivo Usage.

2003:

• Do Not Call Registry Created And Passes 50 Million Mark In September 2003. 

2006:

• DMA Mail Preference Service Reaches 4.6 Million.
• DMA Email Preference Service Reaches 400,000.
• AOL pays $3 million to settle complaints related to consumers having difficulty canceling their accounts after a consumer posts recording of their interaction with an AOL representative on a website.  Posting gets national press coverage and serves as one of the first and most powerful examples of the emerging social web.

2007

• 78% of consumers report using anti-spam/filtering solutions.

2008:

• Do Not Call Registry reaches 157 million – Wow, name one marketer's list who has grown that fast?
• Catalog Choice, a leading mail preference service surpasses the 1 million mark.
• DVRs used in 20% (up from 9%) of all households and make up 7.5% of all prime time viewers.
• PC Magazine print folds - not to mention dozens of others…but let’s save some space for more bad news.
• DMA study finds email ROI declining.  Hey don’t worry, email is still cheap.
• eMarketer reduces its social media advertising forecast for the second time this year as social networks find themselves still trying to figure out how to turn their vast audiences into advertising dollars.
• Forrester Research’s Josh Bernoff publishes “Time To Rethink Your Corporate Blogging Ideas” citing corporate blogs rank at the bottom of the trust scale with only 16% of online consumers who read them saying that they trust them.  For some of you out there still wearing your rose colored glasses, you’re probably thinking hey that’s 16% I might be able to sell.  Go for it, time is running out.

What do these stats say about the state of marketing?   I believe they indicate that traditional push and permission marketing strategies and tactics are sick, very sick and will get sicker if they don’t evolve.  Consumer control and growing trust issues are a problem and these issues need to be recognized and addressed. It’s time to start listening to customers and engage them with creative and innovative ideas and communications that create value.  After all, the great marketing of tomorrow will be, as Business Week notes - less about a company’s physical assets and more about the force of its ideas.  Those ideas must start with what benefits the customer first. 

 

Now the good news…many of you are starting to think differently.  According to a recent StrongMail study, a significant number of organizations plan to experiment with new programs in 2009 to raise visibility and increase sales. As long as they are customer-centric that is a good start.  In addition, the investment in email trumps all other programs as the communication of ideas that value and speak to the needs of consumers grow increasingly important.  Key lesson for '09 - experiment more, create BHAGS: Big Hairy Audacious Goals and use powerful mediums like email to encourage your audience to interact with your brand.  If we do that well we might just see some good news like higher open and click-through rates, cheaper acquisition costs via WOM and more sales.  

'Til Next Time

Building innovative marketing programs requires chutzpah!  You’ve got to take chances, be willing to shake things up and try new things.  At some organizations this can be difficult.  But you don’t have to change the world all at once – in fact it is always best to take a crawl, walk, run approach. Start with one program, test the waters and communicate success.  Look to other innovative programs for inspiration and then build something and make it your own.  Part of what we want to do with this blog is showcase some examples and be a source of inspiration for our members.  Well, here’s another example of an innovative participatory marketing program in action – Amazon’s Customers Vote program. 

 

Amazon’s Customers Vote is an innovative shopping program where customers vote for, and receive a chance to compete for their most “ridiculous deals” during the holiday season.  It reminds me a lot of American Express’ “My Wish List” effort and it is a shining example of participatory marketing in action.  Here’s how it works.

 

Step 1: Visitors browse six rounds of deals and vote for the ones they’d like to buy at an amazing price.

Step 2: Participants check their email the day before each buying round to see if they’ve been randomly selected to participate in the ability to purchase the product.

Step 3: If selected, participants are invited to come back for a chance to purchase.

 

Here is a sampling of some of the deals:

- Samsung 46 inch 1080p HDTV: List Price: $1,599, Winning Price: $699 with 250 Units available.

- TomTom Go 730T: List Price $449, Winning Price: $245 with 1,000 units available.

 

The result? Thousands of consumers talking about the great deal they got at Amazon, thousands more wishing they got selected and over 500 message board posts.  And what was the glue that helped keep this participatory marketing program going? Relevant, timely email communications that engaged a willing audience.

 

‘Til Next Time.

 

Look, I expected to get inundated with email offers over the holiday weekend given the economy, but the kinds of messages I received showcase just how little we’ve progressed over the last 8 years or so.  Yes – email is cheap. Yes – email can be effective and efficient. Yes – the economy is hurting. But no way, no how can you continue to PUSH irrelevant offers over and over again and expect success.  It is a different world folks, and it is no wonder that, according to the DMA’s recently released Power of Direct Economic Study, email’s ROI is projected to steadily decrease.

 

So how bad is it?  How desperate were some of the world’s most prominent brands?  Well, take a look at just one of the examples from the 900 + brands I track on a regular basis.  The Worst of the Worst offender this weekend was luxury retailer, Neiman Marcus.  Here are the eight subject lines I received over six days, none of which were even opened.  Can you spell Desperation!  They are even shouting at me as much as 3 times on black Friday in the hopes of getting my attention.    

 

November 26^th:  GO-TO GIFTS under $100 + Free online shipping

November 27^th:  THANKSGIVING SALE: Save as much as 60% + Free online shipping

November 27^th:  The After Thanksgiving Sale at Neiman Marcus Stores

November 28^th:  SAVE AS MUCH AS 60% OFF! Thanksgiving Sale + Free online shipping

November 28^th:  PERSONALIZED GIFTS: Put their stamp on it! + Free online shipping

November 28^th:  FREE ONLINE GIFT WRAP through the weekend + Free online shipping

November 29^th:  TORY BURCH gifts + Free gift wrap + Free online shipping AT ANY PRICE

November 30^th:  FINAL DAY! THANKSGIVING SALE ONLINE + Free online shipping AT ANY PRICE

December 1^st:  SO! YOU NEED A GIFT?  Find it here + Free gift wrap ENDS TODAY & Free online shipping

 

Folks – this is not the way a premium brand builds a strong relationship with an affluent customer. 

 

On the opposite end of the spectrum were a few brands who looked like they were trying.  They seemed to be taking small steps to use the precious holiday weekend to show their appreciation and add value to the relationships they have with their best customers.  Take Best Buy’s Member Only email. While far from perfect, Best Buy attempted to provide “exclusive in-store offers” and “bonus points” that appeared to reward loyalty and encourage return visitation with “Check back every week to see what’s new.”  It is a step in the right direction and if it could just include more customized offers based on my past purchases or wish list, and special hours for me to do my shopping without the huge crowds, they’d have one happy participating brand advocate. 

 

Who is e-annoying you the most this holiday season?