Online Display Advertising Increases In-Store CPG Brand Sales
October 15, 2011
New research from comScore and dunnhumbyUSA shows that online display advertising does have a positive effect on in-store sales for consumer packaged goods brands.
According to the research, consumer products brands get a median 21% sales lift from households that are exposed to online display advertising, and 5 out of 6 online display ad campaigns boost sales for consumer products brands.
The study also found that 70% of online display ad campaigns generated double-digit sales lifts, and 40% of online display ad campaigns generated sales lifts of 30% or more. Furthermore, the research showed that targeted online display ads (from in-store buying data and online browsing data from the study sponsors) generate an in-store sales lift of 42%, which is twice as high as non-targeted campaign results (21%).
These are some significant results that further support developing an integrated marketing strategy that raises awareness and purchase intent across media channels. It’s the continuing exposure to targeted communications where audiences already spend time that increases brand favorability and sets the stage for purchase decisions and conversions at the store level. Online display advertising is just one more place where marketers can expose audiences to their messages and stake a place in consumers’ minds, so when it’s time for the consumer to make the purchase decision, the brand is top-of-mind.
There has long been a debate in business circles about the direct effects that online display advertising delivers with executives relying on click-through rates and immediate conversion percentages as the measurement stick to judge a campaign’s effectiveness. The results from the comScore and dunnhumbyUSA study provide more proof that online advertising can do far more than drive immediate sales. Just as television commercials are unlikely to motivate a consumer to jump off his couch and head to the local store to purchase a specific consumer product, neither is online display advertising meant only for that purpose.
Show the results from this study to your executives next time you need to justify your online display advertising budget. It might make them realize they’ve been very short-sighted in their vision of online advertising success in the past. In fact, staying with that old way of thinking is going to lead to missed opportunities that competitors are more than happy to take from your brand.
Image: stock.xchng
Twitter, Tweet, Trademark, and Lessons Learned
October 13, 2011
This week, Twitter settled a lawsuit to secure the trademark for “tweet.” Back in 2009, Twittad, a company that provides sponsored advertising on Twitter (e.g., a Twitter user publishes a tweet with an advertiser’s message in it), secured the tweet trademark as part of its tagline, “Let your ad meet tweets.” Twitter claimed that the term “tweet” had already become a popular term that users created to refer to their published Twitter updates, and Twittad’s use of the term would cause consumer confusion.
Until Monday, Twitter wasn’t having much success in securing the trademark to tweet from Twittad, but a confidential agreement was finally made, and Twitter should get the trademark for tweet that it’s wanted for so long.
The lesson to learn is this — always secure trademarks related to your brand, business, and company. Think big and do your due diligence. Don’t pick a brand name that another company in your industry already uses. That’s what happened to Apple when it launched the iPhone (Cisco originally owned the trademark for iPhone) and IBM when it realized a small computer company owned the trademark for Big Blue.
Trademark applications aren’t difficult to complete and the cost is minimal. It’s worth the time, effort, and money to research potential brand names for availability and any potential problems before you spend even more time and money rolling out a brand that turns out to be a trademark infringement.
It’s fairly safe to assume that Twittad received some compensation from Twitter to settle the trademark lawsuit and give the rights to the tweet trademark to Twitter. That’s what happened to Apple when it got the iPhone trademark from Cisco, and that’s a position you don’t want to find yourself, your company, or your brand.
Brand equity is a powerful business asset. You wouldn’t risk other business assets by skipping steps to protect them, and you shouldn’t skip those steps with your brand either. Step 1 — make sure you can trademark your brand name!
Walmart Launches Local Marketing Push via Facebook App
October 12, 2011
Walmart might put an end to the debate as to whether or not Facebook is effective for local marketing by global companies with its new store-level messaging Facebook campaign.
According to AdAge, Walmart will launch a new Facebook app that will allow the company to customize messaging for each of its 3,600 brick-and-mortar locations. The app will deliver more relevant information about local deals, promotions, events, limited-distribution products, and more.
Walmart already has over 9 million Facebook fans, so the local messaging the new app will provide (assuming it works correctly) should be a welcomed addition to Walmart’s Facebook presence as far as customers are concerned. For example, Walmart expects to tie local events (like sporting events) and weather-related news and trends (like upcoming snowstorms) to the messages published through the new Facebook app. The app will also integrate with mobile devices, so consumers can find real-time deals at stores near their current locations.
Walmart claims the new app is being launched based on customer input and feedback, but messages will only be published twice per week to ensure consumers aren’t overloaded with local Walmart messages.
There is no doubt that this is an important step in localized and personalized social media and mobile marketing. Marketers are clamoring to tie localization and personalization to brand campaigns, but we’re still very much in the experimental phase. The Walmart Facebook app is drawing a lot of attention and should deliver some interesting learnings for marketers considering similar approaches to reaching the social web audience in a way that’s customized to their individual wants, needs, and location.
For global brands like Walmart, this type of localization via the most popular social networking site represents a significant opportunity to turn a one-to-millions conversation into a one-to-few or even a one-to-one conversation. That’s the real trick of successful social media and mobile marketing — connecting the brand to individuals in a way that could never happen through traditional mass media marketing 20 years ago. It’s an exciting time to be a marketer!
What do you think about the new Walmart Facebook app? Could you do something similar to promote your brand and business?
Image: Walmart Stores
BT Vision Launches New Logo and Brand Identity
October 7, 2011
London telecommunications company BT’s on-demand digital TV service division, BT Vision, rolled out a new logo and brand identity (created by Proud Creative) last month that strives to make the brand more modern. Moving away from the tired swooshes, BT Vision’s new logo includes a play button graphic that is meant to represent a portal to modern, digital content. The old and new logos are shown below.
As the press release explains, “The portal is the V of Vision; it’s a ‘play’ button — and it’s a transition into another space. A space of transformation, colur and life. The portal can represent BT Vision’s genres by adopting the different genre color, and by its behaviour. The portal floats, bounces, skips and jumps; representing and reflecting the diversity and abundance of content that is BT Vision.”
The best way to get the full effect of the new logo and brand identity is to see it in action through its on air execution created by ManvsMachine. The video below demonstrates how this new logo can effectively be used to drive recognition, interest, and open the doors for diverse application.
MvsM / BT Vision Rebrand from ManvsMachine on Vimeo.
Overall, this seems like a great rebranding effort. The color palette is bright and bold and seems to reflect the brand appropriately. While some designers on the Brand New blog indicated they thought the triangle icon is too closely related to billiards, I think this will be an easy hurdle for BT Vision to jump in terms of consumer perception.
BT is a big player in its market, but BT Vision only has approximately half a million subscribers. There is clearly plenty of room for growth for BT Vision. What do you think of the new logo design and brand identity? Is it enough to help BT Vision reach its growth goals? Leave a comment and share your opinion.
Top 100 Global Brands of 2011
October 5, 2011
Interbrand released its top 100 global brands of 2011 report, and Coca-Cola took the top spot for the 12th year running with the brand valued at $71.9 billion. IBM came in second, and Microsoft rounded out the top three.
When it comes to the biggest brand value gain — Apple stole the title with a 58% increase in brand value. Amazon also performed well with a 32% jump in brand value, and Google experienced a 27% increase.
On the flip side, big losers in terms of brand value on the 2011 list include Nokia, which experienced a 15% decrease in brand value, and Nintendo, which suffered from increased competition leading to a 14% drop in brand value.
The breakdown of brands by sector in the list of the top 100 global brands is as follows:
- Electronics = 14 brands
- Financial Services = 14 brands
- Automotive = 12 brands
- FMCG = 11 brands
- Alcohol = 7 brands
- Luxury = 7 brands
- Business Services = 5 brands
- Diversified = 5 brands
- Internet Services = 4 brands
- Beverages = 4 brands
- Restaurants = 4 brands
- Apparel = 3 brands
- Media = 3 brands
- Computer Software = 2 brands
- Sporting Goods = 2 brands
- Energy = 1 brand
- Home Furnishings = 1 brand
- Transportation = 1 brand
The top 100 global brands are primarily American brands. When looking at brand value by region, 52 of the brands on the list are from the Americas, 38 brands are from Europe and Africa, and 10 brands are from Asia Pacific.
Interbrand develops its annual global brand ranking report by evaluating brand financial performance, the brand’s effect on consumer purchase decisions, and the brand’s strength relative to its ability to continue earning money for the company in the future.
The leading 50 brands in the top 100 global brands of 2011 according to Interbrand are:
- Coca-Cola = $71.9 billion
- IBM= $69.9 billion
- Microsoft = $59.0 billion
- Google = $55.2 billion
- GE = $42.8 billion
- McDonald’s = $35.6 billion
- Intel = $35.2 billion
- Apple = $33.5 billion
- Disney = $29.0 billion
- Hewlett-Packard = $28.5 billion
- Toyota = $27.8 billion
- Mercedes-Benz = $27.4 billion
- Cisco = $25.3 billion
- Nokia = $25.1 billion
- BMW = $24.6 billion
- Gillette = $24.0 billion
- Samsung = $23.4 billion
- Louis Vuitton = $23.2 billion
- Honda = $19.4 billion
- Oracle = $17.3 billion
- H&M = $16.5 billion
- Pepsi = $14.6 billion
- American Express = $14.6 billion
- SAP = $14.5 billion
- Nike = $14.5 billion
- Amazon.com = $12.8 billion
- UPS = $12.5 billion
- J.P. Morgan = $12.4 billion
- Budweiser = $12.3 billion
- Nescafe = $12.1 billion
- Ikea = $11.9 billion
- HSBC = $11.8 billion
- Canon = $11.7 billion
- Kellogg’s = $11.4 billion
- Sony = $9.9 billion
- eBay = $9.8 billion
- Thomson Reuters = $9.5 billion
- Goldman Sachs = $9.1 billion
- Gucci = $8.8 billion
- L’Oreal = $8.7 billion
- Philips = $8.7 billion
- Citi = $8.6 billion
- Dell = $8.3 billion
- Zara = $8.1 billion
- Accenture = $8.0 billion
- Siemens = $7.9 billion
- Volkswagen = $7.9 billion
- Nintendo = $7.7 billion
- Heinz = $7.6 billion
- Ford = $7.5 billion
You can see the complete top 100 global brands of 2011 list here, and read more about the methodology behind Interbrand’s annual brand ranking here.
What do you think about this list? Do any brands surprise you? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
Image: Interbrand
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