Companies have been told that using social media as a means of public relations is beneficial in the long run, but ROI might take a little while since networking on social media sites like Facebook or MySpace is all about establishing relationships.
Online marketing consultants observe that many internet marketing professionals are hesitant about investing portions of their budget towards social media because returns are slow and not immediate.
However, if done well, social networking builds long-term relationships with online consumers.
Those looking for long-term, sustainable customer relationships can spend less per month using social media.
While 64% of surveyed businesses state they have tried social media out, 31% are not spending in this area at all.
While maintaining email advertising lists and creating a strategy during a down economy, don't overlook co-registration.
Co-registration is an arrangements between companies to collect user information for purposes of email advertising. Usually this would be a separate check-box on a Web signup form where the user can opt-in to receive messages from a third-party.
Such potential partners are hard to come by because it's expensive and time consuming to set up partnerships on an individual basis. Because of this, most organizations work through a third party that makes the arrangements, processes the leads, and sells them.
Whenever money is involved, there will always be unscrupulous people involved. Marketers looking for a quick way to grow their email advertising list combined with suppliers looking to sell as many addresses as possible usually leads to significant problems that people must be aware of. These are the problems that people must defend against if they are going to enter co-registration for their email advertising campaign.
Before contracting with a co-registration provider, find out:
Is this really co-registration or is it just a list purchase or rental? Some vendors have a hard time separating the two concepts. Co-registration is where individuals opted-in to your list on someone else's site. A vendor can't have thousands of addresses for you immediately; if they do, you know that something is wrong.
How does the sign-up process work? You should try it out with a fake address and see what happens. Can you choose lists individually? Does the vendor honor those choices or do they sell your address elsewhere as well?
How signups validated? Do they use double opt-in or will they be selling you potentially invalid addresses?
What other data comes with the addresses?
Will you receive any other demographic information? Will the data include where and when the subscriber opted in?
Who else will receive the same addresses? The point of co-registration is that the subscriber signs up for multiple lists. Will you have any control over, or visibility of, which other organizations are receiving the same address?
What happens in the event of complaints and non-deliveries? Will you be compensated for recipients who complain? What about for non-deliveries?
Even if all these things look good, take some more defensive measures.
Try Before You Buy
You must verify that you're getting what you expect. In the most egregious cases, vendors have been known to forge email advertising co-registration addresses. Ensure that the economics don't give incentives to the unscrupulous. To that end, you should pay for addresses only after you've sent to them.
Monitor Your Sources
If a particular vendor or site goes rogue, or even if the site is scammed and starts providing poor quality data, you must be able to identify it quickly and immediately segregate those addresses to prevent damage to your reputation.
Follow the Money
Track ROI for your email advertising co-registration addresses and sources. Keep the ones that work; drop the ones that don't. List size is far less important than the ROI you get from it.
Despite claims to the contrary, email advertising co-registration isn't a quick fix or shortcut for list growth. It requires significant planning and maintenance to keep the program running well. However, if your partners and vendors are well chosen and monitored, it can be a solid way to grow your list beyond what you can achieve through more traditional means.
Your full service ad agency might explain to you a handful of social media tactics that they will claim you should use employ as a strategy. However, its usually more of a bunch of tactics that they want to be paid for rather than a strategy.
But it should always come back to answering why you should be doing this.
Social media strategies involve much more than just putting the accounts together. The members of social media communities want valuable and quality content. If you have that, you will be a trusted source of information for your service/product.
So what exactly does a social media strategy involve? Here are some simple questions you should consider before wildly deploying social media marketing tactics.
Answer the Question of "Why?": Your social media strategy should fully tell you why you're using a particular tactic. Is it because your audience is there and interacting already? Is it because the potential for branding and exposure is there?
How to Deploy a Strategy: How do you gain respect in social media? Do you go in guns blazing, or do you sit back and get a feel for what you're about to embark on? Is it an approach of asking questions first and then offering advice? Do you want to ask for submissions from the audience or start by writing valuable content? Your strategy should fully answer these questions before you start.
Defining Your Goals and Measuring Analytics: How do you know your efforts are doing anything? What is your company expecting as a return on your time and resources spent on your marketing efforts in social media? If there isn't a clear set of goals to be measured for your efforts, how can you justify your tactics? Do you have clear ROI for your social media efforts?
When to Should You Re-evaluate?: Some New Jersey marketing companies sometimes forget to define when they should re-evaluate their efforts. But what if something isn't working, and you aren't meeting your goals? What if something else is working really well? Set points in your strategy for re-evaluation. Remember, nothing is ever set in stone when it comes to social media marketing.
It's very common to create a MySpace account or Facebook fan page because it's free, easy, and everyone else is doing it. While New Jersey marketing companies should secure accounts on social media sites for their clients or brand names, they shouldn't just devote massive amounts of time to one particular social media marketing tactic just because of the above three reasons.
Implementing social media marketing tactics for any reason without a good strategy in place will ultimately lead to confusion and disappointment in your efforts in the social media game.
If any full service ad agency, public relations agency, or search marketing firm comes to you and says that you need a Facebook fan page without any reason other than that it's new, you need it, and they know how to do it for you, then you might want to stop and ask yourself why you're using that advertising agency.
Many companies view social media as another outlet to pump their marketing messages into, especially marketing companies that have had success in other areas of marketing such as SEO, PPC, email advertising, or traditional media marketing outlets like television advertising, radio advertising, or print advertising.
Facebook fan pages, MySpace accounts, Twitter streams, blogs, YouTube channels, Digg submissions, Flickr accounts, Wikis, even rating and review sites are all social media marketing tactics you see commonly touted as efforts companies should be doing. But have you ever stopped to ask why?
Why should your company have a Facebook fan page? Is it because everyone else does? Maybe your competition does?
While it may seem cool to be able to say that you have all of these different social media accounts, you have to ask yourself if these marketing tactics are what you need to be doing to be successful in social media?
Consumers are changing the way they research and buy products. If your marketing strategy hasn't changed, it probably should. Traditional media marketing is still important, but marketing companies must move beyond pushy-style communication and learn to influence consumer-driven touch points, such as word-of-mouth and Internet information sites.
Because of how consumers are now making decisions, word-of-mouth is more important than ever. Consumers overwhelmingly say that a recommendation from a close and trusted source is most important to them when making a purchase.
The people that others turn to for advice are called Influentials. They are the most powerful opinion leaders in their communities. They are the most active 10% of the public, they are turned to for advice and opinion, they generate word-of-mouth recommendations, they are connected to more groups, and they are more educated and engaged in the world. Influentials are twice as likely as the total public to recommend and be sought out for advice.
Influentials are connected consumers who are more active Internet users. With the rise of Internet and social media, Influentials can now influence many more by writing reviews on Websites, sending mass emails, and postings on social networks. In the past, the Influentials were limited to impacting friends/family. Now their areas of influence have grown exponentially.
About 20% of word-of-mouth is stimulated by traditional media and online advertising. This is about 700 million word-of-mouth impressions each day in the U.S. Also, the effectiveness of word-of-mouth is significantly increased when stimulated, encouraged, and/or supported by traditional media or online advertising.
Buying media across the Internet and television advertising helps maximize the strength of influence of the Influentials. Your business should strive to connect to consumers wherever they are, fully activating your advertising messages, and word-of-mouth research is a key component in that mission.
Comcast will acquire a 51% interest in NBC Universal from General Electric in a deal valued at $30 billion.
As part of the deal, the French media company Vivendi will sell its 20% stake for $5.8 billion, leaving GE with a 49% stake.
This deal creates a massive media giant with assets spanning broadcast, cable advertising, telephone, internet, and movie and television advertising, as well as theme parks. NBC, the network in the middle of it all, will be just a small part of it.
NBCU's cable presence will be much more prominent with the addition of Comcast's Versus, the Golf Channel and E! Entertainment to its portfolio, which includes CNBC, MSNBC, USA, Bravo and SyFy.
However, integrating it all while winning regulatory approval could take well over a year.
What it will mean for media buyers and any full service ad agency is hard to say at this point. The upside for marketing companies is the ability to place clients across a wider range of media outlets. However, such deals are difficult to execute, and media buyers have long turned away from them.
The downside for media buyers is that consolidation typically leads to higher prices.
But Wall Street analysts have favored the deal, believing Comcast is far better suited to run an entertainment company than GE.
Jeff Zucker will remain chief executive of NBCU, reporting to Comcast CEO Steve Burke, but at some point Zucker will likely be replaced. Zucker has survived under GE but his track record as a CEO has not been up to par. He's been widely criticized for managing for the bottom line and blamed in particular for NBC's tumble to 4th place in the ratings.
Presumably an early goal for Comcast will be to invest dollars and talent in making NBC the flagship TV property once again.
U.S. retailers spent 7% more on paid search campaigns between October and mid-November 2009 across all major search engines -- Google, Bing, Yahoo -- compared with the same time last year, according to the SearchIgnite Mid Q4 2009 U.S. Search Marketing Report released Monday.
Consumers continue to buy online, but many are spending less on average per transaction. During the first half of the quarter, traffic conversion rates rose 17% year-on-year, but the average order value declined 27%.
People are buying online, according to Roger Barnette, SearchIgnite president. "We're feeling pretty good about how the quarter will end up," he says.
Retailers allocated a higher percentage of ad budgets to Bing this holiday season. U.S. retail marketers dramatically increased their search spend on Bing -- up 47% compared with MSN in the year-ago first half of the fourth quarter. Average order values on Bing are 21% higher than across all engines.
Despite retailers' increased allocation of their paid search dollars to Bing, Google still captures the majority of retail paid search campaigns with 75% of all budgets in the first half of the fourth quarter, compared with only 16% on Yahoo and 8% on Bing.
"Although the Monday after Thanksgiving is a big day for online retailers, there are several big days from now through mid-December," Barnette says. "You can't really compare it to 2008, because last year everything got thrown out the window. After Thanksgiving it all just fell off a cliff."
Research from SearchIgnite may reveal a rise in conversions and retail sales, but findings released Monday from CrownPeak suggests that companies are not making the most of online search marketing dollars. The study, "Holiday PPC Ad Strategies," suggests that retailers could do better by improving the connection between paid search ads and Web site landing pages.
In fact, of the 66% of advertisers that did not connect holiday search ads to targeted landing pages, nearly 13% drove traffic to the advertiser's home page. The remainder misdirected ads to general category pages, or ads that did not integrate the advertising copy. Only 34% of holiday-themed search ads analyzed in the study drove traffic to retail landing pages, but few had a call to action.
Half of product-specific advertisements linked either to a canned search or category page, or the retailers' home page. Some advertisers -- primarily content aggregators -- directed ads to specific landing pages, which featured advertisements for other providers of the product.
As part of the two-week study, CrownPeak analyzed search marketing results across 10 different holiday-themed phrases, including holiday deals, holiday gifts, Nintendo Wii, Elmo Live, and Christmas decorations. Individual advertisements were analyzed from more than 100 online marketers, all of which leverage the Google AdWords pay-per-click advertising product to disseminate campaigns.
The advertising agency of the future will have to adapt to the changing ways of the business world. Instead of distinguishing themselves between specific disciplines, such as just a public relations agency, or just a direct mail advertiser, or just an outdoor advertising agency, or billboard advertising agency to get even more specific, advertising agencies of the future will have to broaden their horizons. They will have to become full on all-solutions marketing companies. A recent post on a great blog called Actionable Insights by Covario explains in full detail why a simple advertising agency may be a thing of the past. In the future, a marketing solutions company will be the answer to a business's problems.
Sports radio ratings aren’t as high as many people thought.
For big games, ratings shoot way up. But there are only a handfull of big games in any season. For other games, ratings drop way down.
As a result, the radio advertising rates that stations used to get for their live sports coverage have gone down significantly, by about 20% to 30%. Industry sources reveal that some stations radio advertising rates have dropped even more than that.
Some people think that the more accurate the ratings data is, the better it will be for everybody, even if it means stations having to reduce their radio advertising rates.
One such person is Bob Snyder, founder of Beason Broadcast Partners, which consults with sports radio stations and sports franchises on ad sales. He thinks that the more reliable ratings data serves to build credibility with New Jersey marketing companies, advertisers, and retail advertising agencies, making sports play-by-play broadcasts that much more attractive for advertising.
However, others think that the numbers don’t tell the whole story when it comes to play-by-play sports.
Tim McCarthy, senior vice president of radio at ESPN, says that overworked media buyers, who face tons of pressure from clients to get the best deal, only look at the numbers and without taking into account the unique, passionate audience that radio broadcasts deliver.
“What’s the value of a Yankees/Red Sox game or a Bears/Packers game? These are rivalries that have packed arenas for years. They have value. To say no one cares is not true.”
The problem is that radio stations are seeing less radio advertising revenue from broadcasting rights they agreed to pay big dollars for before the more accurate ratings data was released.
Those deals, since they are no longer profitable for the radio station, create a problem for the station's bottom line. However they are still valuable because they set in place a station's position in the market.
Now is the time to invest in radio advertising since the rates have become incredibly low. You can get more air time and reach more people with the same amount of investment, thereby drastically increasing your ROI.
This is another example of one of our cable advertising spots. This one is for a local New Jersey car dealership, George Wall.
This spot proves a couple of things. First, not all cable television advertising spots need to have one person screaming over another about their amazing deals in order to be effective. Second, not all cable advertising spots need to cost alot of money. They can be made by utilizing a minimal amount of resources, both human and other. Third, your company's daily business doesn't need to be interrupted with a film crew on site.
Finally, it is a buyer's market in the worlds of both online and traditional media. This small dealership, by adding a 3rd franchise, is expanding, and it needed an affordable way to get it's message out to the local market. In the example of this cable advertising spot, visuals play a vital role in attracting customers to the business. And it is all done at an affordable rate.
According to a new study, mobile marketing budgets are going to increase dramatically over the next year. 31% of New Jersey marketing companies anticipate a budget between $100,000 and $250,000 on mobile marketing in 2010, compared to only 22% of New Jersey marketing ccompanies a year ago.
About 13% of New Jersey's best ad agencies plan to spend from $250,000 to $500,000, up from 4% of New Jersey's ad agencies in 2009. More than 15% will have a budget of more than $1 million for mobile marketing campaigns, compared to only 11% a year earlier. 23% are budgeting less than $100,000 and 10% don't even know how much they are going to spend on mobile marketing.
The study also showed that 60% of full service ad agencies that aren't doing mobile marketing yet plan on buying mobile marketing in 2010.
30% of best ad agencies say that mobile marketing has become an integral part of the advertising media mix. Among full service ad agencies that have run mobile marketing campaigns, 78% said that they met campaign goals, while 80% said that they developed internal resources to support mobile efforts.
The proliferation of Google Android-based devices, such as smartphones, should help full service ad agencies, such as a retail advertising agency, an automotive ad agency, or a public relations agency more easily run campaigns across different smartphones.
For many online New Jersey marketing companies, online conversion rates are alot less than what they used to be. But simultaneously there are also some online marketing consultants who have experienced no significant drop in traffic conversions. This is because they have built exceptional subscriber loyalty over some years.
For many online New Jersey marketing companies, the biggest problem is email advertising deliverability. Email advertising is being filtered so heavily today that often less than 20% of a large mailing list gets delivered.
However, there are a few ways you can improve your email deliverability. One such way is to run it through a spam checker before sending it out. The best email advertising programs have built in systems that give you spam scores before sending your email out. So, for example, let's your email scores higher than a 1 on a 5 point scale, you should probably revise your email.
Also, a business totally dependent upon email advertising is not a very solid business. Businesses need a database that has not only names and email addresses, but physical mailing addresses as well. That way, if something apocalyptic ever happened in the world of email or the internet, they could just start using direct mail and still be in business.
Many ISP's now monitor email delivery rates, bounce rates, and even open rates. They use readily available data, and if a given ISP or third party list host has a dismal record, they may block all emails from that source. If ISPs are blocking sources that send out alot of emails that have very poor open rates, some online marketers may have to move to a different outlet.
For example, a business could start marketing through various social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, or MySpace, and even build a larger email database. Businesses could use these social networking sites in much the same way that email is used. They can send direct communication messages with product/service offers, discounts, value deals, etc. And, since social networking sites are free to use, businesses will save money.
In a recent survey, email advertising was shown to be the preferred method of communication. When asked to rank their preferred methods of receiving marketing messages from vendors, 62% of responding consumers said that email advertising was their preferred channel of communication, followed by 23% for direct mail, and 13% for social media. The least preferred way to be contacted was telemarketing, with 80% putting it at the bottom of their lists.
The survey, conducted in Boston, MA, in October 2009, also showed that email advertising communications frequently trigger purchases, with 75% of respondents indicating that they had bought products or services as a direct result of receiving an email advertising message from a vendor.
The most common items bought as a result of direct email advertising were clothing and accessories (82%), followed by purchases from restaurants and coffee shops by 49% of respondents. Other popular items bought as a direct result of email advertising campaigns include grocery items (40%) and personal electronics (38%).
The survey also asked consumers about their involvement in social media direct marketing.
Social media marketing was found to be significant, with 40% of respondents stating they receive correspondence from vendors on the social networking sites they use, such as Facebook and Twitter. Nearly one in five people (17%) had volunteered or requested that companies actively contact or update them via these social media platforms.
Most companies were quick to cut advertising budgets as the recession took hold of the economy. To most people this seemed to be the rational choice. Historically, however, the data indicates that it is better to maintain a strong advertising presence through an economic downturn. Understanding this counter intuitive phenomenon will be helpful to companies who want to weather the storm and come out stronger than they started.
The best reason for any company considering advertising is a simple fact: the competition isn't advertising. When a company stops advertising because of a recession, the market essentially is left open to its competitors. Customers will still need services irrespective of the recession. Your company can be the one the customer chooses because you've made your presence known.
Another positive from advertising through difficult times is creating a long term position for your company. The visibility of your product increases during a recession because of drop in advertising of your competition. Even if consumer spending has dropped, when a consumer does make a purchase your sales will drop if your product is not on their mind. Gaining the customers that pick you through difficult times can turn out to be a benefit in the long run. This underlying trust between consumers and your company is invaluable. There are some very good examples of this i.e. Pepsi rose to prominence during the great depression.
The bad economy can also be helpful in certain aspects. Television advertising, radio advertising, and internet advertising prices have also taken a hit. What better time to advertise than when you spend the least for a time slot! Use this time to make contacts in the advertising industry as well. An Account Executive can be your crucial contact to get your ads in prime placement, negotiate good deals on rates and even get extras thrown in for your ads.
Use this opportunity to talk to your customers directly. Customers react favorably when a company makes available products that help the consumer weather tough times. In the auto industry, companies have come up with great automotive marketing ideas and programs that protect buyers from the impact of losing jobs. These programs have reflected as positive growth in automotive sales leads. An example is Hyundai, who achieved a growth of 4.9% in sales with their assurance plus program. Toyota on the other hand has taken a 36% drop in sales.
In spite of seeing the obvious benefits of advertising through tough times we still face one question. Where do we get the money to sustain an advertising campaign in this economy? This is where we look deeper into budget advertising.
There are a few options available to a small business to advertise without hurting their bottom line. Here’s a look at few of them.
If you have a TV commercial for your product, post it on YouTube. It costs nothing to upload a video and it effectively increases your ad's shelf-life.
Going back to the basics of traditional media is always a prudent choice. Issuing flyers and coupons can definitely help create a buzz. It's a relatively low cost initiative and by implementing programs that offer a discount to those who bring in a flyer can bring in new customers.
Maintaining a website is crucial. Even if you do not engage in selling products online, having a virtual presence goes a long way. People searching for local businesses will notice your competition if they have a website and you don't.
Radio advertising is a good way to reach out to local customers and give you the ability of choosing a target audience. Taking time to find out which stations and the time slots in which a particular set of people will be tuned in will help increase efficiency of your ads.
Co-op advertising is a great cost-effective way to get your name out in the public. The cost is shared by several related businesses. For instance, a bath fitting company can advertise with furniture dealers and reach out to common audiences. This increases exposure with limited need of expenditure.
At the end of the day, a bad economy does not necessarily mean bad business forever and effective advertising does not have to be expensive There has never been a better time to be innovative and reap the rewards.
Sao Paulo has now joined in the anti-outdoor advertising parade. The city of Sao Paulo, Brazil has banned billboard advertising, flashing neon signs, and electronic scrolling panels. As a result, fierce debate has sparked among the city's inhabitants.
City planners, architects, and environmental advocates have hailed the new legislation as bringing the city "one step closer to an imagined urban ideal" as they applaud the banning of visual pollution. One columnist calls it a "rare victory of the public interest over private, of order over disorder, aesthetics over ugliness, of cleanliness over trash".
On the other hand, however, advertisers and business groups oppose the decision. They say that free expression will be inhibited, jobs will be lost, and consumers will have less information about which products to buy. They argue that the availability of information is the essence of capitalism and consumer culture.
The new law also places rules on store signs and even on mobile outdoor advertising, such as on the side of a bus, or banners on airplanes and blimps. A court called the law unconstitutional because the federal government controls airspace, not the city government.
Popular reaction to the legislation has generally been very supportive, as the bill passed by with a whopping 45 to 1 vote. However, full service ad agencies and marketing companies fear that the legislation will profoundly negatively affect them, ultimately causing a loss in revenue and by extension, employment. There are 13,000 billboards that have been installed illegally, but the advertising agencies argue that they are merely scapegoats, and the real blame lies with another entity, possibly corrupt government officials taking bribes.
Last time I talked about addressing your prospects' problems through relevant direct mail messaging. This time I will talk about using direct mail advertising and email advertising together to drive up response rates.
Because of the recession, some people have been discontinuing their direct mail campaigns because they think it is not cost effective enough. However, as an automotive ad agency, a retail advertising agency, and a professional services advertising agency, we like to think that we know what we're talking about. We know that the real metric we should be looking at is not just investment cost, but ROI. According to the experts, direct mail followed up by an email has a much higher ROI than either form of communication alone when running an integrated marketing campaign. Direct mail by itself also has a higher ROI with business-to-business when running a single faceted campaign.
The reasons for this are as follows. Most of the time, direct mail lists are alot cleaner than email advertising lists. Also, generally speaking, people are more accepting of unsolicited mail than they are of unsolicited email. After all, it's much more likely to open up an email and get a computer virus than it is to open up some mail and get an actual virus. Next, for business-to-business, direct mail is still delivered even if the prospect is no longer with the company. Email addresses, on the other hand, are usually turned off when a person leaves an organization. Think of all the people that got laid off in the recession and how many email addresses must have been turned off. Lastly, direct mail is subject to an infinite amount of creative possibilities, whereas something like print advertising, television advertising, or billboard advertising always has to follow a certain preset format. Even email advertising has to follow a specific template most of the time. But direct mail advertising is only limited by your own creativity.
Direct mail is a great way to increase your b-to-b clientele, especially as part of an integrated marketing campaign. And because of the recession, the cost for direct mail has actually gone down. Use direct mail to start a conversation with your prospects; follow up that conversation with an email; direct that prospect to your online assets; and finish the conversation with a sale.
In the last post I talked about using direct mail to get clients in non-traditional spaces, or spaces outside of the office. In this post I will talk about using targeted, relevant direct mail in order to address your potential customer's grievances.
Direct mail is the backbone of your marketing campaign, but to ensure that it fulfills all of its potential, every part of it should be customized and relevant. You need to be able to find out what is important to your audience. You can use that information to take your prospects through the buy cycle with meaningful, relevant messages that pertain to their needs and wants.
You need to be able to find out your prospects needs/wants/grievances and address them in their language. How do those grievances relate to your product/service? By answering that question, you can solve your prospect's problem with relevant messaging. You can even integrate relevant white papers (for business-to-business) to help your prospects identify with your company/business, which in turn will make them more likely to become your customer. For example, for us, we would distribute a white paper with our automotive marketing ideas, if and how they failed or succeeded, or if they increased automotive sales leads. Since our audience is mostly of the automotive industry, that white paper would be highly relevant to our prospects, they would identify with it since they probably have the same problems, and they would most likely be interested in our service since we know how to solve the problem.
Knowing your prospects' problems is the first step in being able to solve them. You can address those problems with proposed solutions through direct mail advertising. Getting their attention right away is critical, and this will help you to do just that.
Cablevision on Tuesday took the wraps off Optimum Select, a new advanced telelvision advertising service that includes a call-to-action application.
Among the first clutch of clients to sign on as Optimum Select partners are: Unilever, Gillette, New York-based retailer Century 21 and Benjamin Moore.
First announced last month, Optimum Select went live in early October, with an opt-in execution for Gillette’s line of body wash. Cablevision subscribers who clicked on an on-screen overlay were issued free samples of Gillette’s shower-gel product.
Gillette provided 30,000 samples for the promotion. The stockpile was depleted in a week.
In a second initiative, paint brand Benjamin Moore sent a coupon for a free two-ounce color sample to Cablevision subscribers who pressed the “select” button on their remote during the spot. Similar premiums are available to viewers who interact with ads for Century 21 and Degree Fine Fragrance Body Mist, a Unilever brand.
“Unilever has been enhancing our television advertising spend with interactivity whenever possible, and it’s a proven element in our overall marketing mix,” said Rob Master, director of media North America for Unilever. “We applaud all new developments that add further scale and consumer involvement to the existing iTV footprint.”
In addition to the RFI wrinkle, Cablevision also allows for telescoping long-form content from standard 30-second spots, which presents an opportunity for marketers to more fully immerse viewers in their brand messaging. Automotive clients are particularly well suited for telescoping ads, as this will increase automotive sales leads.
Cablevision is also tinkering with addressable ad units and for the last few years has offered dedicated advertising channels like the VOD showcase Disney Channel on Demand.
“We’re extremely pleased by the initial response,” said David Kline, president of Rainbow Advertising Sales Corporation. “Advertisers recognize the extended brand experience enabled by Optimum Select, where direct marketing meets TV and transforms the traditional media ad model to offer qualified lead generation, brand engagement, enhanced measurement, insight and learning.”
While Cablevision didn’t disclose how it was pricing its Optimum Select units, the operator said advertisers will pay a premium for the interactive spots. For the first stage of the deployment, the interactive ads have been activated on 25 major cable networks.
Local ad sales account for a tiny fraction of Cablevision’s overall revenue haul. In the second quarter of 2009, the MSO took in $26 million in ad sales, down 13 percent from a year ago ($31 million). That works out to 1.4 percent of the company’s total Q2 revenue of $1.88 billion.
Cablevision will begin pitching Optimum Select to media buyers and marketing companies later this week.
Marketers for Ford call the Ford Taurus SHO the company's flagship. Once you get behind the wheel of the car, you'll understand why. The Ford Taurus SHO has a V6 engine, Ford’s new 3.5 liter V6 EcoBoost engine, that exerts an amazing 365 horsepower and 350 ft. lbs. of torque. As a result, the Ford Taurus Sho has all kinds of punch power in all kinds of driving situations.
The 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 uses twin turbochargers instead of a single unit. Each one of the turbochargers is smaller which helps to reduce internal inertia. This allows the engine to neutralize the “turbo lag” found with the earlier turbocharged applications.
The new Ford Taurus SHO driveline includes a high-capacity, 6-speed automatic transmission with a sophisticated torque-sensing all-wheel drive system. The SHO also is equipped with paddle shifters on the steering wheel, which offer the driver a bit more control over the powertrain on the open road.
The car has a sport-tuned suspension with unique shock absorbers, springs, stabilizer bars, and strut mount bushings. Ford’s steering and brakes have also incredibly improved in the past few years.
The combination of a well-tuned suspension and crisp steering give the car a solid feel on the open road. The car also has a sense of control that complements the raw power, pushing you up against the back of a comfortable leather-trimmed seat.
The exterior of the Ford Taurus SHO has been restyled to give it more sophisticated lines, giving the car a more modern feel.
The Ford Taurus SHO includes sporty, painted wheels, a deck lid-mounted spoiler, and twin chrome exhaust tips. The SHO comes with Ford’s three-bar grille with SHO-specific, parking lamp bezels.
The interior of the SHO is comfortable and driver-oriented to relieve some of the tedium that is inevitable in heavy traffic or long drives.
The list of standard features on the SHO includes Intelligent Access with a push-button start that allows the drivers to enter the car and start the engine without using a conventional key.
Another feature designed for families with youthful drivers is MyKey, which allows customers to restrict the speed and persistent safety belt reminder, as well as limits on the audio system’s volume. The top vehicle speed can be limited to 80 mph, and speed chimes can be programmed to engage at 45, 55 or 65 mph with this system.
The Ford Taurus SHO also comes equipped with the Ford SYNC system, which includes 911 alert, vehicle diagnosis capability and GPS-based features such as business search. SYNC also connects to MP3 players, iPods, memory sticks, and PDAs, and now brings traffic updates, and directions via a turn-by-turn route guidance.
Ford Taurus SHO also comes with the capless fuel filler system, a feature unique to Ford.
An ambient lighting system with MyColor also allows the driver to program interior lighting from a choice of five soothing colors to suit their mood or the driving conditions.
The 2010 Ford Taurus SHO comes standard with the full array of active and passive safety equipment and features offered across the Taurus range such as front- and side-impact air bags.
Ford is also making a long list of options available on the SHO, including equipment normally found on more expensive luxury cars, such as a reverse camera system, adaptive cruise control (which allows the driver to set the Taurus SHO cruising speed while using radar technology to monitor traffic traveling up to 600 feet ahead), and a collision warning system, which is linked to the adaptive cruise control and the brakes.
A Blind Spot Information System with Cross Traffic Alert, which provides driver warning in the corresponding sideview mirror is also optional on the SHO. The Cross Traffic Alert uses existing BLIS radar modules to sense oncoming traffic when the car is backed from a parking space.
Multi-contour seats with active motion are also options as is a voice-activated navigation system, a Sony audio system with 12 speakers, a digital amplifier and 390 watts of continuous power.
The 2010 Ford Taurus SHO is priced at $37,995. It gets an estimated 17 mpg (city), and 25 mpg (highway). The car weighs about 4,368 pounds.
