Quick response codes (QR codes) are becoming the norm in print advertising, and according to a report by mobile marketing firm Nellymoser, approximately 4,500 QR codes appeared in the top 100 magazines during 2011.

Those QR codes appeared in a mix of ads and editorial pages, but advertisers are definitely the ones leading the print magazine QR code trend.

Nellymoser found that women’s magazines are the most popular place for QR codes with the top magazine titles for QR code use ranking as follows:

1. InStyle = 141 QR codes
2. ESPN The Magazine = 136 QR codes
3. People = 136 QR codes
4. Self = 126 QR codes
5. Entertainment Weekly = 123 QR codes

Between January and December of 2011, QR code usage in magazine advertising jumped by over 122% from 3.6% of ad pages to 8% of ad pages. Most of those QR code ads are from the beauty, home, and fashion categories according to Nellymoser. The top brands using QR codes in magazines during 2011 were:

1. John Frieda = 82 QR codes (beauty industry)
2. L’Oreal = 79 QR codes (beauty industry)
3. Cuisinart = 74 QR codes (home industry)
4. Garnier = 72 QR codes (beauty industry)
5. Revlon = 67 QR codes (beauty industry)

Nellymoser also reports that the more QR codes that are in a magazine, the higher the overall scan rates, and QR codes that include a message describing the benefit consumers get when they scan them receive higher scan rates than stand-alone QR codes. These are useful findings for brands looking to engage with consumers via print ads. Including an ad with a QR code in a publication that already has many advertisers who use QR codes is a better choice than being the lone QR code advertiser in a magazine.

This is a situation where consumer behavior simply makes sense — common sense. Once a person takes her mobile device out to scan one QR code, it’s a lot easier to keep on scanning. That’s one less hurdle for the advertiser to have to navigate in its effort to connect with consumers. Add a compelling message alongside the QR code, and that advertiser stands a much better chance of driving scans and conversions.

What do you think about QR codes in magazines? Are you using them to promote your brand yet? Have you ever scanned one? Leave a comment and share your experience from the brand and consumer side.

Image: Flickr

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 Corporate Eye

To many old school marketers, making the leap from traditional marketing to social media marketing is still a challenge they’re having trouble with. Brand managers find themselves investing time and energy into proving that traditional marketing and social media marketing can be successfully integrated, and in fact, they should be integrated at every opportunity.

Some brands are providing great examples to learn from and use as a launch point for strategic planning meetings. Let’s take a look at two brands that are connecting outdoor advertising to Facebook marketing in creative ways.

Chevrolet

The Turning Billboards into Ads campaign married outdoor advertising with Facebook in a clever way that also looped in social responsibility and cause marketing opportunities. See the ad below, or click here to view a larger size from Ads of the World (ad agency: MacLaren McCann, Canada).

The copy in the ad explains the complete campaign, including the Facebook connection:

“Where do billboards go when they die? Well, in this case, they went into the hands and onto the shoulders of everyday people. On September 25th 2010, the Cruze launched with one of the biggest media buys in Chevrolet Canada’s history. From billboards and transit shelters, to bus wraps and station dominations, the urban landscape was wallpapered with Cruze ads. But rather than just taking the materials down and shipping them to landfills, we wanted them to live on in a meaningful way. So we collected all the outdoor vinyl, combined it with recycled seatbelts and bicycle inner tubes, then created messenger bags, laptop sleeves, plus oversize totes. The result? Hundreds of highly functional bags made from 100% locally sourced, upcycled materials. But this is just the beginning. Stay tuned for what’s next on Facebook.com/chevroletcanada. Turning ads into bags is just one more way Chevrolet is Driving Our World Forward, one billboard at a time.”

There are so many brilliant pieces of this campaign and it should definitely get the creative juices flowing and pique the interest of executives who might not see how traditional marketing and social media marketing can and should coexist.

The National Lottery U.K.

The National Lottery U.K. launched a social media promotion on its Facebook Page and integrated it perfectly into an ad campaign, which included the billboards shown below (ad agency: Camelot Creative, U.K.).

Click here to see a larger version of the ad below from Ads of the World.

Click here to see the ad below in a larger size from Ads of the World.

Click here to see the ad below in a larger size from Ads of the World.

The billboards shown above are certainly attention-grabbing and they tie in perfectly to the “What would you do?” campaign. “Not what you’d do” if you won the lottery? Then tell the world what you would do with your winnings by visiting the National Lottery U.K. Facebook page and sharing your story. It’s a great way to connect traditional advertising to a social media campaign.

These are just two creative ways that brands connect social media and traditional marketing. Hopefully, they’ll help to inspire creativity in your next campaign.

What do you think? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

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 Corporate Eye

CareerBuilder has gotten positive feedback from consumers on its humorous television commercials featuring chimpanzees that debuted in 2005. The ads were a viewer favorite during the 2011 Super Bowl, so the company plans to feature the apes again in its upcoming 2012 Super Bowl commercials.

As AdAge reports, the ads scored well in terms of likability, but not as well in terms of persuasion. Despite those results from Ace Metrix, CareerBuilder announced the chimpanzees would return for the 2012 Super Bowl and posted an ad spot online, which you can view below.

Now, CareerBuilder has more problems than lack of persuasive power for its ads featuring chimpanzees. This week, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) released a letter from award-winning actress Angelica Huston asking CareerBuilder to stop using apes in its ads. Huston’s letter to CareerBuilder’s CEO, Matt Ferguson, is particularly compelling. For example, in response to the company’s claim that it’s acceptable to use chimpanzees in ads because an animal monitor and trainer is on set during production, Huston writes:

“Having a monitor on the set does not forgive the fact that you have paid to have these bright and social young apes torn from their mothers and subjected to confusing and often abusive training. These animals will likely be sold after a few years to some cheap roadside zoo or traveling show, where they will be condemned to cramped cages, left to suffer from extreme loneliness and sink into despair. And for what? It is astonishing that you are unmoved by the videos, photographs, and case reports of what befalls these animals from the moment they are taken from their mothers to the moment they die.”

The New York Daily News reports that CareerBuilder spent $3.5 million for its 30-second spot during the Super Bowl.

“Ferguson told Forbes the chimp ads have helped dramatically increase CareerBuilder’s market share since they began running in 2005. They are worth the price, he said, which this year averages $3.5 million for a 30-second spot.”

Regardless of how you feel about PETA, CareerBuilder, these ads, or Angelica Huston, this is a story that brand managers need to be aware of, particularly brands with broad audiences. It’s challenging to put together messaging, commercials, brand experiences, and so on that appeal to the masses. No matter what you do, someone is likely to dislike it. However, it’s the company’s responsibility to understand the various ways that messages, ads, and branded experiences might be received and interpreted by consumers. Remember, consumers build brands, not companies. If their perceptions of your brand are skewed against the image you’re trying to create, your brand is in big trouble.

While it’s likely many consumers who have viewed the CareerBuilder ads were not aware of how chimpanzees are treated when their time in Hollywood is over, the word is spreading quickly now. Thanks to the social web, the days of this type of story only spreading to a small audience are long gone. The image Huston paints in her full letter (follow the link above to read it and view an accompanying video) definitely makes the case that it’s not worth it for a brand to put these animals in ads.

The lesson to learn is this — understand how your brand messages, ads, and experiences might be perceived by larger audiences and how those perceptions could affect your target audience’s perceptions. Influence can come from all directions these days, including PETA and Angelica Huston. Cast a wide net when you examine your target audience’s sphere of influence.

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 Corporate Eye

In the United States, advertising during sports programming can be a pricey investment, but it works. That’s why so many brands invest so heavily in national TV sports advertising. According to Nielsen, national television sports advertising rose to $10.9 billion in advertising expenditures between Q4 2010 through Q3 2011. That’s up from $10.3 billion during the same period a year prior.

Interestingly, Nielsen also reports that the bulk of those advertising dollars are going to cable sports programming, which is growing at 37.3% year over year vs. the 5.9% growth rate that sports ad spending is seeing in general. Furthermore, the amount of live sports programming offered on TV and cable increased by a similar amount in 2011 — approximately 5%.

So who were the big sports television ad spenders in 2011? The top 10 advertisers in sports were responsible for 26% of the total amount spent during the Q4 2010 to Q3 2011 time period, led by one company that outspent the #2 company on the list by more than 100%. Here are the top 10:

1. AT&T Wireless = $423.5 million
2. Bud Light = $210.2 million
3. Verizon Wireless = $207.7 million
4. McDonald’s = $164.9 million
5. DIRECTV = $160.5 million
6. Geico = $158.1 million
7. Sprint Wireless = $147.4 million
8. Southwest Airlines = $143.5 million
9. State Farm Insurance = $127.5 million
10. Miller Lite = $126.6 million

What do you think about the advertising spending by these companies that’s dedicated to sports programming? Seems like a great opportunity for other brands to stand out from the brands that consumers are used to seeing one commercial break after another.

It’s important to point out that the increase in sports TV advertising spending has been on an upswing for the past three years. In 2008, national sports ad spending (network TV and cable) was $9.88 billion, but then it dropped to $8.28 billion in 2009. Spending increased significantly in 2010 to $10.38 billion and rose again in 2011 to $10.98 billion.

If 2012 Super Bowl ad sales are any indication this will be another good year for sports advertising spending. According to Adweek, the average 30-second ad for the 2012 game cost $3.5 million or more and all ad spots were sold by the end of November 2011 (most were sold by the beginning of September 2011) . Interestingly, Bud Light is the game’s sponsor, and auto manufacturers are the biggest buyers of ad time during the 2012 Super Bowl.

Image: Flickr

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More eyeballs doesn’t always equate to better return on marketing investments, and that applies to social media marketing just as it does to more traditional forms of marketing. Sure 800 million people are on Facebook, so it’s not surprising that 94% of marketers surveyed during a December 2011 study conducted by Awareness Inc. indicated they would use Facebook to market their brands in 2012.

However, marketers are finally starting to realize that bigger isn’t necessarily better. In 2012, marketers are finally branching out and trying to catch up to consumers by following them to more diverse social sites.

First, let’s take a look at the leading areas that U.S. marketers plan to invest social media marketing budget dollars in during 2012 as reported by eMarketer:

1. Increased presence across social media platforms = 70%
2. Increased frequency of content publishing = 59%
3. More robust social media marketing management = 50%
4. More robust social media monitoring = 45%
5. More social media presence = 33%
6. Other = 6%

At the risk of sounding like a broken record by repeating things I say and write all the time, the power of social media marketing as a brand building tool (which leads to word-of-mouth marketing, loyalty, and increased sales) comes from surrounding consumers with useful and meaningful content so they can self-select how they want to interact with your brand. Not everyone likes to read long blog posts or keep up with Facebook. Increasing a brand’s presence across social media platforms should be a strategic imperative, so I’m glad to see 70% of respondents to this survey at the very least plan to throw some more money toward it in 2012. Let’s hope they also plan to prioritize it near the top of their 2012 goals.

So where do marketers plan to spread their presences to on the social web in 2012? According to the survey, the biggest growth will be for blogs, forums, YouTube, SlideShare, Foursquare and Tumblr. Here’s the breakdown of social media platforms that survey respondents used in 2011 compared to what they plan to use in 2012:

• Facebook: 88% in 2011 vs. 94% in 2012
• Twitter: 83% in 2011 vs. 91% in 2012
• LinkedIn: 76% in 2011 vs. 86% in 2012
• Blogs: 57% in 2011 vs. 85% in 2012
• YouTube: 66% in 2011 vs. 84% in 2012
• Forums: 29% in 2011 vs. 48% in 2012
• Flickr: 30% in 2011 vs. 41% in 2012
• SlideShare: 22% in 2011 vs. 38% in 2012
• Foursquare: 23% in 2011 vs. 33% in 2012
• Tumblr: 15% in 2011 vs. 25% in 2012

Blogs are definitely the big winner for 2012. Even marketers that are well-established in social media plan to increase investments in blogs in 2012. According to the study, 91% of those experienced social media marketers expected to increase their use of blogs.

I have a fairly simple reaction to the results of this study — it’s about time. However, only time will tell if those increased investments are enough and targeted to the right strategic decisions rather than focused on tactical catch-up efforts.

What do you think? Will marketers catch up to consumers in social media in 2012? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Image: Simon Q.

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 Corporate Eye