Branding Voodoo

Change is Inevitable

2009-07-01T14:03:00.000-04:00

You've reached one of MindComet's legacy blogs. We're no longer posting here, but we're definitely still blogging. Visit http://blogs.mindcomet.com to find our current blogs and you can follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mindcomet.

We've Moved!

2008-02-04T16:29:00.000-05:00

Just a quick note - we have consolidated our blogs, and Branding Voodoo will not be actively updated in the near future. However, feel free to visit our other active blogs for engaging content. Branding topics will continue to be covered on Viral Voodoo, Corporate Communications Voodoo, and Online Marketing Voodoo as well as our marketing podcast, Internet Marketing Voodoo.

Growth in Brand Monitoring

2007-05-11T11:20:00.001-04:00

There has been substantial growth in the brand monitoring service industry in recent years. There are full service organizations which will monitor all aspects of a businesses' brand, focusing primarily on consumer generated content. According to a recent Forrester Wave Report, "Brand monitoring solutions support four key steps:

1) Data Collection
2) Information Processing
3) Data Analysis
4) Insight Delivery."

In this report, Forrester went onto evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the seven leading brand monitoring vendors. In a separate interview, Peter Kim, author of the aforementioned Forrester report indicated that a full-scale analysis of all major media, including internet, television and print can cost as much as $75,000. This high cost presumably would include the most thorough data collection and analysis, as well as industry leading advice, or 'insight delivery'. As a field, there is strong indication that venture capital and angel funding is on the rise, as this is seen as a high growth, high potential industry. Also, as more consumer generated content fills the internet, and becomes increasingly organized and accessible, the need for competent brand monitoring services will grow. Supply will meet demand it seems, and a competative landscape is shaping up for the monitoring vendors.

It may come down to the size and scope of your business whether this magnitude of monitoring and evaluation is necessary or even feasible. But there are alternatives, many of which are 'free' of charge (don't forget that it takes time and resources to decipher this information yourself!). In either case, the relevance of monitoring your brand cannot be overlooked, and there will be people who want to do that for you. Do your research on these vendors carefully, Forrester is a great source of information.

Brand Monitoring Important In Times of Tragedy

2007-04-20T15:48:00.001-04:00

The recent Virginia Tech shootings have been splashed across newspapers, news channels and especially websites of every kind. In times of horrific events like this, it is highly important to make sure your website and/or brand is portraying the situation in a light of sympathy and respect.

MySpace is currently under scrutiny due to a mishap of advertising placement on profiles of Virginia Tech students who lost their lives earlier this week. “Shoot the Rapper, win $5,000” banner ads were displayed randomly on their MySpace pages, which MySpace is saying is through no fault of their own.

Shawn Gold, CMO of MySpace, stated, “That’s a random network ad that runs throughout our site, and it’s not connected contextually because we don’t place banner ads contextually on MySpace.”

The fact is, MySpace made the mistake of not monitoring what ads were displayed on what pages in a time of mourning for many people. It is to the point now in our society where even if the ads were not displayed on purpose, your audience is going to take offense to it and that could possibly cause an uproar over something you could’ve easily handled in the beginning.

Brand Monitoring has really come into the spotlight for multiple reasons and the recent Virginia Tech tragedy shows proves another reason to closely keep an eye on what you are putting out on the Internet.

Read the the Article

Damage Prevention and Online Brand Monitoring Go Hand in Hand

2007-04-09T10:22:00.001-04:00

..via MediaPost
In an attempt to avoid negative online attention and a false online image, Johnson & Johnson, the makers of the birth control patch Ortho Evra, has gone out of their way to ensure their brand is safe. The company has already purchased web addresses that provide negative domain names including examples such as Deathbypatch.com and Orthoevrakills.com. This quick action to swallow up such e-addresses is a promising step in protecting their brand and may have come about from following the much publicized Vioxx controversy and negative domain names they dealt with.

Pharmaceutical companies have become a highly sought out target to bash online in the past couple years, mostly thanks to litigators who mention negative domain names in medical malpractice TV ads. Johnson & Johnson found that non of the insulting web addresses were in use at the time of purchase, but thought ahead to the fact that they would probably be used at some point in the near future to criticize their controversial birth control pill.

Planning ahead is necessary to save face for your brand and product. Once damaging information spreads through the Internet like a wildfire, damage prevention is going to take a lot more time, effort and money. Start early and use constant brand monitoring, especially if you think your brand and/or product could be in trouble.

Read the Article

Taco Bell/KFC Rat Infestation Broadcast on YouTube and Now This Blog

2007-03-23T14:11:00.000-04:00

A month ago, a video was uploaded onto YouTube that has caused quite a ruckus for Yum Brands Inc.’s Taco Bell and KFC fast food chains. It shows a Greenwich Village, New York Taco Bell/KFC combination restaurant infested with a multiple number of rats scurrying across the floor.

Reports of rats in your restaurant are damaging to your brand to begin with, but when video footage is broadcasted for all to see on the Internet around the world, you could be in for some serious public relations and brand problems. They are going to need a solid crisis management strategy and brand monitoring plan to control the negative online exposure that is starting to skyrocket and may eventually overflow on search engines for the restaurant duo.

We know in today’s informed world that the brand is very important and once consumers have felt betrayed or a health scare arises, they part ways with that brand and usually don’t think twice about looking back.

“Are they selling the Taco Bell rats on Ebay yet?” –frequently asked question in the blogging scene.

Political Brand Monitoring Reaches YouTube with Anti-Hillary Ad

2007-03-23T13:58:00.000-04:00

In one of the highly talked about stories of the past couple weeks, the famous “1984” Apple commercial has been resurrected as an Anti-Hillary campaign spot early in the democratic primary.

The “Vote Different” ad was released March 5th only on YouTube and independently created by a supporter of Barack Obama. It has since had over 2 million views and almost 5,000 comments, showing just how powerful consumer generated media and word of mouth is. YouTube is reining at its height of popularity right now, which is a different picture from the last presidential election we had. All candidates must be on high alert for what may appear online through blogging, video sites, etc. It’s a different virtual world this time around.

Watch "Vote Different"

Read Article

MySpace Wins the 2006 Title for Most-Searched-For Brand

2007-03-23T13:54:00.000-04:00

Based on a sample of 10 million Internet users over a 52-week average of industry search terms (excluding porn), the online personal branding mecca MySpace topped the list of "The Top Ten Most Searched Brands in 2006" reported by Hitwise.

Only three “real world” brands, including Wal-Mart, Target and Bank of America, made the list this year but were not able to crack the top five.

Top 10 searched for Brands (spelled exactly how searched for, as reported by Hitwise):

1. myspace
2. ebay
3. yahoo
4. mapquest
5. craigslist
6. walmart
7. google
8. target
9. match.com
10. bank of america

Read Article

JetBlue CEO Goes Live on YouTube

2007-03-12T14:06:00.000-04:00

What is sure to spark a wave of popularity, JetBlue’s CEO recently released a video on CGM airwave YouTube to discuss the latest crisis situation that the airline company is going through. A good move on JetBlue’s part, they put the crisis out there along with answers and a name and face to who is in charge-anyone with Internet has access to it. Tackling this situation the way they did shows they are up to date in the technology world and are aware of the way most people are getting their news and information now, online.

Any company with a good interactive marketing team should be well aware that just positive word of mouth and good impressions cannot save you. Defend your brand and work to fight against bad impressions of your company because that’s what your consumers are going to look for first.

Anheuser-Busch Checks Age for Bud.TV, Online Network to Leverage User Generated Content

2007-02-05T11:29:00.000-05:00

In their new marketing venture, a web-based TV network titled Bud.TV, Anheuser-Busch is getting serious about past criticism for targeting underage drinkers. To show critics they are taking control of this matter, Anheuser-Busch has hired a Washington based company which provides age-verification services. The outcome being that in order to surf the website or create an account, you will need to provide your name, date of birth and zip code so this company can run a real-time verification check through public databases to prove your info correct.

Bud.TV provides Webisodes, celebrity interviews, comedy, short films, consumer generated content and outlets for chatting and blogging.

The wait is on to see if they will now put the majority of their budget and efforts into online marketing where consumers interests continue to grow.

View the full story by MediaPost here.

Companies Need to Include Brand Monitoring in Public Relations Plan

2007-01-29T15:59:00.000-05:00

Paying attention to the blogosphere should not even be an option in today’s business world. The majority of client’s conversations and comments are held online in postings or blogs for the entire world to read. How do you control this information written about your brand? By including online brand monitoring as a top priority in your company's public relations plan.

A lot of PR professionals are still concerned about what is mentioned in the paper, on television or in magazines and not realizing that one of their main focuses needs to be in the interactive world. Internet discussions are happening in real time and PR professionals have that much more opportunity to pick up on and/or combat what is being passed around about the brand they represent.

There are many tools out there that can help your company keep track of their Internet reputation. Technorati or Google Alerts are great examples of sites that will give you quick notice if your company is mentioned on the Internet. It’s only a practical idea to check them out.

“Self-Googling” is a Form of Personal “Brand Management”

2007-01-29T15:55:00.000-05:00

In today’s digital world “self-googling” is necessary to stay on top of how you are portrayed on the Internet. Future employers, potential clients, investors as well as coworkers have probably "Googled" your name in the past. Instead of constantly worrying what is going to be displayed about you, take your personal brand into your own hands and start monitoring.

Make sure you are careful when posting blogs or commentary on Internet sites that include your name and/or e-mail address. When you are being searched they can appear and be directly traced to you, which could come back to hurt you in the future. In this “self-googling” article is an example of how blogging can affect your career. It describes how a student posted negatively about a company, then at the first job he landed realized that he now represented the company he badmouthed. He had to hurriedly remove the comments because any time the badmouthed company was googled, his comments were prominently displayed for all to see.

Manage your own public profile by putting out positive information about yourself on your own weblog or website of which you control the content. Continue monitoring yourself regularly and stay up to date of how you are portrayed in cyberspace, brand manage yourself.

ROI: Measuring Brand Buzz Online

2007-01-29T15:48:00.000-05:00

You know times are a-changing when the executive vice president and global research director with a top media buying agency like MediaVest tells Advertising Age that ROI is more than just counting eyeballs.

Our time has come, online branders. Rejoice!

Kate Sirkin, the aforementioned executive, goes on to say that when measuring the performance of Super Bowl advertisers, she looks at “online buzz, online traffic, people talking about your brand and searching online” to find out how much people are talking about a brand and which brands received the biggest jump in positive conversations pre- vs. post-game.

There are many ways to measure online buzz, including the basics like share of discussion and consumer sentiment on particular topics. Other metrics look at the “influence” or “activity” of certain posts or sites by capturing the number of comments left following a blog post or the number of blogs that link to another blog a la Technorati.

One of the challenges lies in limited ability to capture traditional metrics like reach and audience demographics, since that data isn’t available for many blogs and message boards.

What kind of metrics do you use to measure online buzz? Is buzz a true measure of ROI? Post your thoughts here.

Revitalization is the New Brand Management

2007-01-22T14:19:00.000-05:00

Every three to five years is the new time period in which brands need to revitalize themselves so they can remain viable.

In a recent survey sponsored by the American Marketing Association, and independent firms Luth Research and MiresBall, it was found that brands scored highest on its success index when that brand had been refurbished within that period of time.

Surveyors cited strong competition was the number one motivation for their brand overhaul and in second place was changing customer demographics/psychographics, pricing pressure and lack of brand awareness.

Still going strong are the companies’ marketing tactics, with web and interactive marketing placed highly in the realm of brand marketing, standing second only behind word-of-mouth.

When was the last time your brand was refurbished? Does the public relations plan for your brand include announcing a remodel and using interactive marketing?

Click here to read the full article.

Niche Sites May Provide Better Return for Brand Advertisers

2007-01-16T14:32:00.000-05:00

By now, you’ve heard about the expected growth rates in online advertising. In fact, search engine marketing and branded advertising are two of the areas expected to see a spike, 27 percent and 21 percent respectively, according to Merrill Lynch.

What brands may not realize, however, is that slapping an ad on Google, Yahoo! and a few major vertical sites may not yield the best return, according to an eMarketer article that references a recent study by Media-Screen.

“Consumers have gained control over the content they consume online and advertisers need to adjust their strategies to match,” said Josh Crandall of Media-Screen. “By advertising on smaller Web sites, those that consumers are visiting based on their personal interests, companies can reach a highly engaged consumer with a message that relates to a subject that is important to them.”

Media-Screen’s research found that 62 percent of sites mentioned by respondents receive fewer than one million unique visitors per month. Therefore, advertisers would be wise to consider allocating a portion of their online budgets to experiment with niche site placements.

What are some of your favorite niche Web sites? Are you more inclined to click on ads on a niche site vs. a large site like Yahoo!?

Top Trends to Watch in 2007

2007-01-08T14:35:00.000-05:00

A new brief from the Center for Media Research compiles the top trends for the year based on interviews BtoB’s Kate Maddox held with marketers, ad agencies, media companies, analysts and other industry experts.

Check it out:

CMO Influence – chief marketing officers are expected to gain increased influence at the executive table.
Web 2.0 – user generated content, blogs, wikis and the like will continue their reign as marketers seek loyal communities of users.
Global Expansion – new markets and international campaign.
Online Video Advertising – Maddox references eMarketer's prediction that online video advertising will increase by 89 percent this year.
Engaging the Customer – marketers know engagement is the present and future, so the focus is shifting from the “if” to the “how”… namely how to measure it.
Sopisticated Search – search is capturing marketers’ dollars, accounting for 40 percent of total online ad revenue in the first half of the year.
Sales Leads – a BtoB survey of marketing priorities found that more than 62 percent of respondents said acquiring new customers is their number one goal. Maddox also notes a MarketingSherpa study that says free trials, Webinars, white papers, blogs and podcasts are the most effective lead generation tools.
Behavioral Targeting – more relevant targeting is the name of the game for online advertising, and Maddox expects personalization and improved conversion rates to continue to boost BT.
Trade Shows – Maddox sees an increasing demand for face-to-face dialogues among executives.
Email – there is no stopping email, the staple of online marketing. It continues to beat direct mail nearly two-to-one.

Do you think there is anything missing from this list?

Word of Mouth Marketing and Its Brand Impact

2007-01-04T23:33:00.000-05:00

Consumers’ impact on brands has never been more apparent. But the Word of Mouth (WOM) landscape has changed dramatically over the past year, and ethical considerations such as transparency are more important than ever.

But the increased sensitivity hasn’t changed the fact that you can’t can't motivate WOM until your identify your brand advocates, which Harald Eltvedt from Informative, a research company, discussed during a recent WOMMA conference.

Advocates are valuable because they are connected. In fact, Informative’s research has shown that an advocate on average will know three times more people than a traditional customer. These advocates provide a greater number of recommendations on a consistent basis and are usually passionate, with 95 percent volunteering their opinion.

According to Eltvedt, a consumer's brand advocacy value is measured by:

1. The ability to reach potential customers (Influencer)
2. Willingness to promote your offerings over a competitor's (Promoter)
3. The influence over the purchase decisions of others (Credible)

From their testing along these three areas, the company says approximately 10-15 percent of brand customers are advocates.

There is a difference between advocates and customers, of course. Often the largest advocate may not be the largest customer from a revenue perspective.

Users Remember Online Video Ads (is that a good thing?)

2006-12-19T18:28:00.000-05:00

A new Burst Media survey of more than 2,600 online visitors shows that 69.5 percent of them actively view video content on the Web, according to an article in MarketingVOX. Fifty-six percent of those viewers recall seeing ads in the content they’ve consumed. About half say they typically continue watching the video content after seeing an ad.

About 25 percent of respondents say they pay more attention to video ads than to standard ads. However, no big surprise here, no one really wants to see the advertising. More than 77 percent say the ads are intrusive (BrandingVoodoo assumes we’re talking about pre- or post-roll ads but we can’t be sure).

So the net is that people are watching online video, they remember seeing ads while they’re watching it and no one likes it. So if you don’t want your brand to be the one disrupting their viewing experience, what do you do to get your message across?

Display Ads Drive Major Traffic for Marketers

2006-12-11T18:04:00.000-05:00

Consumer packaged goods companies are realizing the brand-building power of online media, according to Advertising Age. A recent article notes the 6 million unique visitors Procter & Gamble receives to its corporate Web site each month, despite being free of e-commerce.

Though the article doesn’t address one thing we’d like to know — namely, what consumers are doing when they get there — it does tell us that a large chunk of the traffic is coming from a display ads on sites like Yahoo!.

Interesting, but why does it matter? Nielsen BuzzMetrics’ Pete Blackshaw says that visitors to these corporate Web sites are more likely to recommend products. In fact, 40 percent of people who provide feedback via email are likely to recommend it to others, according to the article.

In addition, a study by research firm McKinsey & Co. illustrated the ROI another packaged goods brand realized through the online channel. Visitors to the brand’s Web site generated $40 in average profit vs. the $5 generated by consumers through traditional media.

P&G also uses email relationship marketing and online promotions to drive traffic to its site. Blackshaw recommends companies use video, blogs and other elements of online communities to further engage online influencers via the suddenly-hot corporate Web site.

Viral Goes Virtual with Web 2.0

2006-12-05T09:38:00.000-05:00

One of the hottest topics at the UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York is Web 2.0, according to MediaPost. No big surprise there.

The article notes that to speakers at the conference, Web 2.0 sites are so interesting because they take online marketing to next level of interactivity, where users are actively involved with each other, sharing their opinions and virally spreading messages about brands. It’s easy to see why it is so important to engage these consumers—they are shaping your brand’s reputation online.

Adidas, for one, has a shop in popular virtual world Second Life selling virtual sneakers to residents.

While the article says Adidas has sold an insignificant amount of virtual shoes on the site, residents have spent plenty of time generating real buzz for the shoes, both within the Second Life and via other online outlets. In fact, some Second Life residents have posted photos of their avatars wearing the sneakers on photo-sharing site Flickr.

This is a great example of how to enable brand loyalists to promote their brand of choice by using cool new applications of Web 2.0 technology. How are you using technology to create buzz about your brand?

Consumers Respond to Strong Brands

2006-11-29T10:53:00.000-05:00

An interesting new medical study has uncovered how strong brands activate certain areas of the brain, reports MediaPost. The effort, conducted by a team of international medical researchers, is reportedly the first to use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to understand how the brain responds to brand messages.

In the study, 20 men and women were exposed to three-second visual stimuli of well-known and lesser-known brand logos along with a question to help evaluate brand perception. The fMRI captured images of the brain during the exposure.

The results indicated that “strong brands activated a network of cortical areas and areas involved in positive emotional processing” as well as those associated with self-identification and rewards, according to the article. In addition, the brain exerted less effort when processing strong brands. In contrast, the lesser-known brands showed higher activation in the areas of working memory and negative emotional response.

The so-called “brain branding” is a step forward for the advertising industry as it strives to better understand how and why consumers form opinions on brands.

New Ideas for Creating Brand Loyalty Online

2006-11-14T10:01:00.000-05:00

A recent iMedia Connection article offers several great suggestions for capitalizing on consumers’ brand loyalty by creating fun, interactive ways for them to express themselves within online communities.

One idea is to make movie, television or other characters exportable to Web pages via video—welcoming visitors or delivering witty comments—to help make fans’ sites a whole lot cooler.

Another includes a great example of a brand that did it right: when Jay-Z became Budweiser’s new spokesperson, the company edited their logo (gasp!) into his new music video. When Jay-Z fans put the video on their sites ... bam, instant yet unobtrusive promotion of the Budweiser brand.

The message is clear: your brand loyalists are out there, it’s up to you to give them creative ways to express their affinity.

What’s your big idea?

Engagement: The Great Debate

2006-11-07T20:31:00.000-05:00

Shockingly enough, BrandingVoodoo isn’t the only awesome blog out there. One of our favorites: Engagement by Engagement, which is largely authored by the folks at Nielsen BuzzMetrics. I don’t love the title but the content is good.

A recent post by Max Kalehoff discusses the need to tie a user taking an action, generating sales or otherwise contributing to a business outcome in order to prove engagement’s value as a metric.

In an earlier post, Pete Blackshaw cites engagement examples in the much-hyped Dove Evolution ad that’s been all over the Web. He equates engagement in the campaign to video views, comments, blog entries, forum and message board posts, refer-a-friends and user generated video mashups.

It’s nice to have something tangible among all of the philosophical discussions around the hot topic. Now, how do you assign a scale of engagement—a single numeric measurement— to a metric that encompasses all of those things?

Netflix Builds Brand Online

2006-11-03T16:47:00.000-05:00

Given the sucess of online social network groups, it was only a matter of time before other companies found away to capitalize on the craze and found a way to use it to sell their own products.

Netflix has found away to do just that. Netflix users can now create networks with their friends and family. While selecting movies users are able to see which movies have been rated by people in their network and how they have rated the movies. Netflix is using the social network to building their brand, and brand loyalty.

Google’s Advancements for the Advertising Industry

2006-10-23T16:56:00.000-04:00

Information about Google and YouTube has been saturating Web journals recently. One key benefit of this acquisition has been ignored, and it is important for traditional agencies to take notice. This purchase gives online advertising agencies credibility, searchability and brandability according to MediaPost Publications. Google is known for its firm position as a leading search site. Though it is widely regarded as the best search tool, Google has not had the database to create the kind of usability it wanted to in the past, but all that is changing now. By incorporating YouTube’s database of videos, Google will be finding new ways to enhance usability.

So what does this mean for traditional advertisers? Try to envision a person sitting at their desk and looking around at videos under Google’s new video search. Now see a real-time contextual ad running at the same time with a targeted video. This is not to say that is the only plan Google has for this new source of data and video content but it is a very important to advertisers. The kinks have not been worked out but it is Google’s plan to create a new process for advertisers to bid on ad inventory and then place the ads with specific video footage.

There is a certain amount of discomfort and the moment considering some of YouTube’s legal issues but it is Google’s intention to sort and set new precedents for online video posting, searches, brand-focused advertising--and everything in between. Right now it is important for advertisers to give Google the time needed to figure out exactly how to move forward with all this new data and give them a chance to really show what the new Google will be able to offer the online advertising industry as well as consumers.