Sweetmantra: Internet Marketing Advice

2007 Digital Marketing Conference

The death of Princess Diana. The Bre-X scandal. James Cameron's Titanic.

Where were you in 1997? And what were you doing?

Although it seems hard to believe, this year marks the - gasp! - 10th anniversary of the Canadian Marketing Association's Digital Marketing Conference.

I'm on the organizing committee for this conference and we've really tried to pull out all the stops in honour of this year's first decade mark.

Some of the featured speakers we've lined up include Mike Murphy from Facebook, Chuck Porter from Crispin Porter + Bogusky, and Simon Assaad from Heavy.com.

Ipsos Reid returns for a second year with the results of The Canadian Digital Marketing Pulse survey and we've just added a very special surprise session for Thursday afternoon featuring four Canadians you won't want to miss.

The enormously popular roundtables, "The Experience Exchange," are back by popular demand, and yes, yours truly will be moderating one of the roundtables on podcasting.

If you're serious about Internet marketing, please join me and a few hundred other Internet marketing enthusiasts at the 10th annual Digital Marketing Conference in Toronto, Canada on Thursday, October 25 and Friday, October 26.

For more information and to register, visit the 2007 Digital Marketing Conference Website.

American Idol Demonstrates Power of the On-Demand Consumer

I am addicted to American Idol. There, I said it.

Now that I have confessed, let me explain why I am hooked on this show. It is a great example of what I call the new "On-Demand Consumer" in action.

Every year (every season), millions of consumers vote for their favourite product (the singer), the one they want to be manufactured (their album produced and released by a major music label).

And how do these On-Demand Consumers vote? By calling a toll-free number or sending a text message from their mobile phone. It's a simple - yet utterly brilliant - model. And it is being replicated all around the world with Canadian Idol, Australian Idol, Latin American Idol, etc.

Last week I was giving a talk on the On-Demand Consumer and I was asked what percentage of American Idol voting was done via SMS (text messaging). I didn't have an answer at the time, but I did get one later.

According to figures released by Telescope, the company that handles the voting for American Idol, a combined total of 580 million toll-free and SMS votes were placed during Season 5 (2006).

Cingular, the telco partner of Telescope for the American Idol voting, claims that 64.5 million text message votes were received for that season.

When you crunch the numbers, that means that 11.12% of voting was done via SMS.

I don't know why I thought this number would be higher, but I did. Then I realized that not only is 64.5 million an enormous number, but each and every one of those 64.5 million votes was paid for by the voter.

That's right.

Millions of Americans, mostly teenage girls (right?), were so motivated by the On-Demand nature of this show that they were willing to pay 5-10 cents per vote to help influence the 'design' of a product. A product they would then be willing to fork over more money - a lot more money - to buy when it was released a few months later.

Take, for instance, the first American Idol, Kelly Clarkson. Her debut album debuted at number one on the Billboard chart and went on to sell over 2.5 million copies in the United States.

With all due respect to Ms. Clarkson's talent as a singer, it's no surprise her first album was a bestseller. Those millions of On-Demand Consumers were getting precisely the product they had voted for.

Welcome to the world of the On-Demand Consumer.

Is Your Website Mobile-Friendly?

I'm one of the millions of Canadians who uses a mobile device (two, in fact) to surf the Web. Twice this past week I was thwarted in my attempt to access a number of popular Websites because the sites weren't designed to allow mobile surfers, like myself, in.

I have two observations to make regarding this:

1. Companies that continue to ignore (shut out) mobile surfers are going to start noticing that they are losing customers and, even worse, irreparably damaging their brands. As more and more people start to use mobile devices to access the Web, they are going to flock to the Websites of the companies that welcome them and their wireless brethren and avoid those that don't. Even when mobile surfers are forced to surf through a 'wired' device (e.g., a desktop computer), which Websites (and brands) do you think are going to be top-of-mind to them? Certainly not the ones that spurned them in the mobile environment.
2. It's not as difficult as you might think to make a Website (or at least some of its key content) accessible to a mobile surfer. You don't even need to create a separate WAP Website. If you avoid the use of frames, JavaScript/Flash navigation, image maps, and tons of images, your main site will be more mobile-friendly. Sound familiar? Pat yourself on the back if you recognized that many of the same best practices that make a Website easily found by search engines also make a Website easily accessed by mobile users.

If you're planning on launching, or re-launching, a Website, make sure you remember to consider the mobile surfer in your plans. Their numbers are only going to increase over time.

The Interactive Gospel According to Kevin Roberts

During his keynote speech on the first day of the 2006 Canadian Marketing Association annual conference yesterday in Montreal, Saatchi & Saatchi's Kevin Roberts strung together 10 words that were music to my ears:

"Within the next five years, all advertising will be interactive."

Roberts covered a lot of ground during his talk, which was (somewhat ironically, given his apparent fondness for interactive) peppered with over a dozen TV commercials. He argued that "the power now sits with the consumer" and that marketers are playing catch up to them.

Roberts also made the case for advertising on mobile devices ... "the future is going to be on screen" ... and implored marketers to "revere the big idea" and stop focusing on the technology ... "assume it can be done."

On Websites, Roberts commented that "most of the Websites I go to look like packages," versus telling a story that will connect with people on an emotional level.

His speech came at the end of a long day for many of the attendees and was very well received, especially by the tiny contingent of interactive marketers in attendance, including yours truly.

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."

Could This Be Google's Next Killer App?

This past weekend I went on one of my rare, real world shopping expeditions. I found myself standing in the housewares department of my local large department store. And I was annoyed.

I'd gone there in search of a new humidifier and for the life of me I couldn't figure out where the store kept them. Of course no staff were anywhere to be found, and there was no store directory or useful signage in view. I was about to lose it, and then I got one of my crazy ideas.

I thought to myself, wouldn't it be great if I could simply Google this store and find out where they keep the humidifiers. You know, just whip out my hiptop, type in "humidifiers" and be guided to their exact location in the store. (Forget coupons, I just want to know where the damn things are!)

At first I dismissed my idea as Internet-centric foolishness. Of course you can't Google a bricks and mortar store.

Or can you?

I've started to mull the idea over a bit more. The leading retail stores already offer real-time inventory queries on their Websites. Handheld GPS units are available. Wireless Web devices are available. Plus there's Bluetooth.

This is doable.

What's the business model behind this? I don't know...yet. But I do know that I walked out of the department store frustrated and empty-handed because I couldn't Google the store. They lost a sale, and their brand dropped a notch in my books.

Google, are you listening?

P.S. In case you're wondering, I did end up buying a humidifier - from a store that had them on display right at the front entrance. Couldn't Google that store either, but in their case I didn't need to.