Sweetmantra: Internet Marketing Advice

The Little Internet Marketing Tactic That Could

It's time to pay tribute to a powerful yet simple Internet marketing tactic that is often overlooked in favour of more "cool" options.

I am referring to the 'lowly' email signature file.

A signature (or SIG) file is a brief chunk of copy that is automatically appended to the footer of your outgoing email messages. Most email programs allow you to set this up in advance, and some allow you to easily choose and rotate between different SIG files.

If you work for yourself or a company, I strongly recommend that you - at the very least - include your name, title, company name, and contact info in your SIG file. (For those of you who are rolling your eyes at this 'obvious' suggestion, you'd be amazed how many people forget to include their phone number. Monitor your inbound email during the course of the next few days and you'll see what I mean.) Even if you don't have a Website, make sure that your email address is included as a clickable link.

You should also consider including a brief description of your business, your tag line (if one exists), and perhaps a specific offer or call to action. This could be a brief blurb about an upcoming seminar you're giving, a link to your blog, or an invitation (and link) to subscribe to your email newsletter.

Don't be deceived by their simplicity. A SIG file can be a very effective tool. It costs nothing, you can change it as often as you want, and it's a smart and efficient way to gently remind everyone you correspond with about your products or services.

iSummit Diary: "Wife Crack" and "Branded Entertainment"

I attended, and was a speaker at, iSummit 2006, March 29-31, 2006 in Toronto, Canada. This entry is the second of two featuring my notes from the sessions I attended.

Xbox 360 Live Arcade

John David, the Lead Program Manager for Xbox Live Arcade, gave attendees a tour of this next generation videogame console's Arcade service and revealed some other interesting factoids about the 360:

• Arcade gives Xbox 360 owners who connect to the Xbox Live service the opportunity to download and sample 'simple' arcade games. All are free to sample, but in most cases a small fee is required to play the full game.
• 50% of Xbox owners so far have connected to the Xbox Live online service.
• According to John, Arcade is a way for Microsoft to get the game console "back into the family room" where it will be used by all members of the family, not just the hardcore gamers.
• 3 million arcade games have been downloaded through Arcade.
• Microsoft had expected an average 8.5% conversion rate of Arcade game trials to purchase, but have been getting a remarkable 20% conversion rate instead.
• I learned a new term; John referred to a few of the Arcade games as "wife crack," meaning a game, usually puzzle based, that is highly addictive to the female spouse of a male gamer. (Of course, lots of women play videogames, but "wife crack" refers to games that appeal to spouses who normally never play videogames.) Microsoft is very interested in these "secondary" gamers (the spouse) because that's where the growth in the videogame market lies. See also "gamer widow."
• While Microsoft's focus is still on making the 360 "an awesome games box" the Xbox 360 console has other capabilities that make it directly competitive with current and future offerings from other major players, including cable and satellite companies.
• Microsoft will soon be adding music videos and song downloads to the Xbox Live Marketplace, some free, some paid. Hello, iTunes? It will be interesting to see what will happen when (not if) Microsoft adds TV shows and movies to the menu. Background downloading of large media files is apparently in the works.
• Xbox Live is also a communications platform: 600,000 text messages a day are exchanged on Xbox Live between its members.

Branded Entertainment: R U 4 Real?

This session provided an overview and examples of "branded entertainment," long-form content that is partially or fully funded by advertisers as an alternative to conventional advertising tactics such as TV commercials. Examples featured during this session included:

• The Ringing: Created by GJP Advertising in Toronto, this three-minute online horror movie spoof is actually an ad for Covad Communications, a VOIP start-up. The movie features staff at a small business being terrorized by their phone system, before being saved by a Covad employee.
• The Swarm: On behalf of M&M Minis, BBDO Worldwide created a custom comic book with Marvel as well as an online "CyberComic." The objective of this campaign was to drive engagement with the brand by tweens. Shawn Zupp, BBDO's Director of New Content, told the audience that branded entertainment was chosen because it was deemed a "less passive and less predictable" media experience for the target market.
• The Adventures of Seinfeld & Superman: These short movies, dating back to 2004 and no longer online, featured comedian Jerry Seinfeld kibitzing with an animated Superman on behalf of American Express. Dave Sylvestre, Group Creative Director at Organic, described these as "opt-in entertainment" and said the goal was to be 95% entertainment, 5% advertising. For the record, I still consider the whole Seinfeld & Superman affair a PR stunt more than anything else.
• Nike Full Ride: Jeff Spriet, President of Chokolat (the "branded entertainment" arm of Taxi Advertising & Design) suggested that "associated entertainment" is a better name for the strategy as its goal is to create brand associations. To address what he called "TV commercial wear-out," Chokolat produced "Full Ride," a series of four 30-minute shows for Nike about up and coming college football players. Broadcast on ESPN last August and also available 24/7 on the Web at www.nikegridiron.com (although not any more, it seems), these 'TV shows' cost less to produce than a typical 30-second television ad and received a 0.2 share of the 18-49 year-old TV audience.

Finally, and as luck would have it, at one point during iSummit I found myself sitting next to Salim Ismail, Co-Founder of PubSub. If you're a blogger, or interested in staying on top of what bloggers are writing about, then you must check out PubSub. It's described as "a matching service that instantly notifies you when new content is created that matches your subscription." Fair enough, but you really have to try it to see its power. If you're familiar with the Google Alerts service, then you will have some idea of the usefulness of PubSub, which 'reads' over 23 million blogs. While not a new service (it's been around since 2004), PubSub isn't that well known among the bloggers and marketing practitioners I have spoken to. I'm on a mission to rectify that! ;+)

For more about iSummit I encourage you to check out the iSummit blog and the iSummit Website.

iSummit Diary: 3G Content and Machinima Marketing

I attended, and was a speaker at, iSummit 2006, March 29-31, 2006 in Toronto, Canada. This entry is the first of two featuring my notes from the sessions I attended.

iSummit is described as "an international entertainment and media event dedicated to the business of digital content on interactive platforms." This was a lively and intimate conference focused more on interactive content rather the underlying technology. It was also a really diverse and international crowd made up of folks from the television, interactive, technology, and marketing worlds (or unusual combinations of each). Kudos to the New Media Business Alliance and the sponsors for putting on such a stimulating event.

The 3G Experience: Signals From Around the World

• This session was devoted to the high-speed 3G mobile phone networks, coming soon (as early as this fall) to Canada but already quite popular in other parts of the world.
• In Japan, teenagers account for 70% of the 3G network revenue, most of which is pay-per-use and pay-per-view service and data offerings.
• One panelist suggested that Asia was ahead of the Australian market by 2 years, and that Australia was ahead of the US (and Canadian) market by 2 years.
• In England there are already 3-5 million 3G subscribers, depending on who you ask.
• In Italy, the most popular 3G content is ringtones (30%), 'adult' (25%), games (20%), TV clips (15%), music/songs (7%), sports info (3%), and 'gossip' content (2%).
• Speaking of TV, short video 'digests' are the way to go versus long-form video.
• Another interesting statistic: the typical mobile phone user changes their phone every 18 months.
• One obstacle to success with 3G phones was said to be the user interface; the easier they are made to use, the more easily the revenue will flow.
• We were shown a demonstration of Kemeleon, a very cool 'animated messaging' service that converts SMS messages into animated character video messages. Weird, yes, but also hugely popular with teenagers in Asia. (Apparently some of the most popular, and profitable, 3G services are completely 'pointless' from a rational or traditional point-of-view. Go figure.)

Machinima Showcase: Videogames as Filmmaking Tools

• This session provided an overview of the emerging and fascinating filmmaking medium of "Machinima" whereby creators use videogame engines to create short films.
• Machinima began as a grassroots effort; the most famous example is the popular series of films based on the videogame Halo, Red vs. Blue.
• Heavy.com is paid by videogame publishers and console companies like Sony to make 'films' using their games. From a marketing point-of-view, this is a high-tech spin on product placement. The entire film is the product placement, so to speak.
• SecondLife.com is an example of an online game that has migrated to being a 'filmmaking' tool. The 'filming' process requires real-time collaboration between many people, not unlike the offline version, however the 'crew' members can be located in different corners of the world and meet "in world" (in the online world) to 'perform' and 'shoot'.
• For more info about Machinima, see Machinima.com and The Academy of Machinima Arts & Sciences.

Here are some other stray tidbits from iSummit:

• CBC will soon be launching a free, ad-supported video service at www.cbc.ca/video ... doesn't appear to be live yet, but keep checking.
• Also, check out BiteTV, "Canada's first interactive television channel" targeting 18-24 year-old males. It's further proof the CRTC's days are numbered.

For more about iSummit I encourage you to check out the iSummit blog and the iSummit Website.

In the second installment of my iSummit diary I will be sharing my notes from the sessions on Xbox Live and "branded entertainment" plus I've got a hot tip for everyone interested in blogging. Stay tuned...

The Importance of Avoiding "I-Neveritis"

I'll be the first to admit I suffer from I.N. every now and then, and so do a number of my Internet marketing colleagues. "I.N." stands for "I-Neveritis" and the first step towards recovery is, of course, admitting you have a problem in the first place.

There, I feel better already.

What is "I-Neveritis," you ask?

Well, if you're an Internet marketer I.N. is the debilitating and counterproductive habit of thinking that everyone uses the Internet like you do. As in, "I never click on Sponsored Links in Google so that can't possibly be an effective marketing tactic," or "I never use text messaging so that can't possibly be a good way to reach people." You get the idea...

There's nothing wrong with you not doing, or not liking, some particular aspect of this medium. Just be careful that you never write off the validity of a tactic or media vehicle because you personally aren't a big user or fan of it. A lot of the times it really doesn't matter what your personal preference or usage of the item is because - chances are - you're not the target market.

What really matters is the target market and what they like and do. (Hint: Be sure to ask them.) And that tactic or media vehicle you don't like could turn out to be enormously popular and effective. So try to keep as open a mind as possible and avoid catching "I-Neveritis."