Sunday, August 30, 2009

Interesting Updates from the Pew Internet and American Life Project



Back in July, the folks at Pew released the findings of another study in their Internet and American Life Project. The study entitled “The Audience for Online Video-Sharing Sites Shoots Up” contains many exciting new insights for marketers.

“Watching online videos on sites like YouTube is more prevalent than the use of social networking sites (46% of adult internet users are active on such sites), podcast downloading (19% of internet users do this) and the use of status updating sites like Twitter (11% of internet users do this).

Message to advertisers trying to reach the described “adult internet users” group: it’s time to move your money away from Facebook and MySpace, and start working with YouTube and Hulu.

Personally, I think that Hulu tends to gain more from this finding because they have established the presence of advertisements in their video content with users. YouTube is a mix of self-made and professional work, and the small ads that pop up at the bottom are pretty annoying. However, YouTube has the tools in place for advertisers to see where their entire universe of content is moving. With this amount of “Long Tail” data at their hands, they might be able to effectively incorporate behavioral data on a new level.

“Nine in ten internet users ages 18-29 use video sharing sites, up from 72% one year ago.”

I just find this fact stunning. There are only a few other nearly universal facts about internet users ages 18-29, like they have access to a computer or they breath oxygen. This finding raises some interesting questions.

1) How much investment in internet video is too much? Are we really ready to let Google control this universe?

2) Should businesses invest in creating their own video playing website like Fox and NBC have with Hulu? P&G presents TideTube?

3) Is this really the apex of internet use for now?

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Michael Vick, The Eagles, and Sports Marketing


Image from Newsday

As a Bears fan, I chuckled at the Eagles signing of Michael Vick. Say what you will about the organization being a stand-up entity, this is still the team with fans who throw whatever they can find on the field and boo their future Hall of Fame quarterback on his draft day.

The home crowd will make or break Vick’s future with marketers. Winning the city of Philadelphia over is hard, but if I am his publicity team here’s what I would do aside from giving 50% of his money to the ASPCA:

1) Turn him into Rocky.

Philadelphia is the underdog capitol of the universe. Until the Phillies’ World Series victory last year, it seems like the last win the city had was the American Revolution. If you show the fans how much he has lost and how hard he is working to get it back, they may begin to respect him.

2) Keep him out of the news.

The only mentions of Vick should be on the sports page for the next 5 months. Don’t advertise any of the positive stuff. His playing time is the only thing that can bring marketers back. His image must be performance.

3) Turn down initial sponsorship offers.

Seriously. Eventually the information will get out that Vick is turning down chances to make money, which adds to the aura of seriousness.

Numbers 2 and 3 were integral to the reestablishment of Kobe Bryant. During and after the Eagle, Colorado trial, Bryant lost many of his sponsorships. Over the last three years, he has rehabilitated his image not by attaching his name to causes but by focusing on his game play. The sponsorships have since come back and the trial is a distant memory.

Monday, August 17, 2009

And We're Back! And So Is GMAC Bank?


Back from my vacation for real... let's get to it.

GMAC Bank rebranded itself as Ally Bank and they brought in BBH to create the image of a consumer friendly, "new" bank.





As far as introductions go, I feel like this is a home run. BBH turned the doubly toxic asset of GMAC Bank's brand - an article of pure cynicism and criticism - into the snarky commentator of its competitors. As of now, this campaign is the best in the financial services arena since the economic downturn. Of course, it's not too tough when you're compared to vanilla stuff like this: