Skype Rolls out Click and Call Advertising for Businesses
July 21, 2010
Skype has long been known as the site where people can make free online phone calls to anyone at anytime. Last year, eBay sold the majority share of Skype to a consortium of buyers. Less than a year later, Skype has partnered with Marchex (an advertising company) to launch a new click and call advertising program.
Here’s how it works:
- Businesses sign up for click and call advertising with Skype through Marchex.
- Once signed up, advertisers get a blue Free Call button with their listings on various local directory sites (see the image for an example) that consumers are likely to find through keyword searches, such as Yelp.com, YP.com, and more.
- A consumer can simply click on the Free Call button in a directory listing where it appears to immediately call the advertiser via Skype.
- Advertisers are charged a flat fee per Skype call.
- Advertisers can set a pre-determined budget to manage costs, and Marchex provides call analytics reports.
Marchex and Skype are promoting the partnership as a great way for businesses to boost contacts from the 560 million registered Skype users around the world (100 million in the United States). Check out the video below for more details (or click this link to view it on the Marchex website if you can’t view it below).
The program is still in early stages, and there have been some criticisms because consumers can’t see the Free Call button in some browsers unless they have a specific Skype browser plugin installed. However, Google offers similar programs in its mobile pay-per-call product and its Google Voice extension for its Chrome browser, which have shown some success, so the expectation is that the Skype program should do well.
It’s an interesting concept that certainly has the chance to attract consumers who are actively looking for information about a specific business or product at the exact moment they need it. Research shows that leads attracted through click-to-call advertising have the potential to deliver higher conversion rates than other forms of advertising. I’d imagine we’ll see many retailers testing the Skype program out. What do you think?
5 Rebranding Mistakes to Avoid No Matter What
July 17, 2010
Rebranding is hot these days. It seems like more companies are sending out press releases about their “rebranding” initiatives than ever. However, many of these rebranding efforts miss the mark despite the huge amounts of money invested in them.
How can your company ensure that your rebranding is successful? It’s simple. Avoid the 5 mistakes listed below.
1. Forget a facelift. A simple nip-tuck will do.
A rebranding takes more than a few tweaks to your logo and slogan, redesigning your signage, and printing new business cards. A rebranding is an opportunity to re-imagine your story and create a new brand promise that will take your company into the future. Would you rebrand yourself by simply getting a new pair of shoes or would a complete makeover — physically and emotionally — be required? The same goes for your business brand.
2. Don’t call in unbiased branding experts to help you.
One of the most common mistakes companies make when it’s time to rebrand is assuming that they have the talent in-house to get the job done. The job might get done, but it won’t be as good as it could be if you got help from people who live and breathe branding and can cut through the internal debates and hangups to truly roll out the best rebranding effort possible.
3. Involve anyone and everyone in the decision-making process.
When it comes to rebranding, everyone seems to feel like it’s their place to weigh in on the decisions. Believe it or not, most people don’t have all the facts. Their opinions should be taken into consideration but those opinions should not rule with an iron fist.
4. Don’t bother doing any research. Go with your gut.
It’s true that the best branding experts have a sixth sense about branding, but there is more to branding than gut feelings. You need to be able to formulate strategies and decisions should be based at least partially in fact. Strike a balance between research and creativity, and you’ve struck marketing gold.
5. Just update the logo and forget about everything else.
Your brand is far more than just a logo. Rolling out a new logo is not rebranding. Don’t confuse the two.
Image: stock.xchng
Time to Weigh in on the 2014 World Cup Logo
July 15, 2010
While the 2014 World Cup champions continue to celebrate, the rest of the world waits for 2014 when the World Cup will be in Brazil. I thought it might be a good time to take a step away from corporate branding for a day and have some fun with sports branding, specifically, the 2014 World Cup logo.
The official 2014 World Cup logo was revealed last week, and as with most global sporting event logos (e.g., the Olympic Games), everyone seems to have an opinion on this attempt by Brazilian agency Africa. You can see the official 2014 World Cup logo in the image to the left. The official press release explains that the logo is a representation of, “an iconic photograph of three victorious hands together raising the world’s most famous trophy,” and the colors are representative of Brazilian culture.
There is a even a video representation of the logo, which is actually interesting. You can check it out below.
The most vocal critiques of the logo claim that it’s too “crude” and the illustration and execution are “unrefined”. I can see that point, but I really don’t have a problem with this logo. I think the concept is strong and the design seems to be purposefully loose. While I can definitely see that a stronger illustration could make the logo even better visually, I’m not certain that was the designer’s actual goal.
What do you think of the 2014 World Cup logo? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
How One Twitter Account Got 40,000 Followers in 5 Days and with Just 3 Tweets
July 13, 2010
On July 8, 2010, Twitter announced its new @earlybird profile. With just 2 tweets published on July 8th and 1 tweet published on July 9th, the @earlybird profile had nearly 40,000 followers by July 12th. Not bad. Check it out below.
What’s so special about this Twitter profile that people want to follow it? Simple — they believe the promise of what this Twitter profile, called Twitter @earlybird Exclusive Offers, claims to be able to deliver — real-time deals and exclusive, limited-time only discounts. If you follow @earlybird, great discounts will appear in your Twitter stream, so you can take advantage of them before they disappear.
Here is how Twitter describes @earlybird Exclusive Offers on the Twitter Help Center:
“Twitter @earlybird Exclusive Offers are special time-bound deals, sneak-peeks, and events that are promoted by the official Twitter @earlybird account. We partner with select advertisers and retweet offers that they have crafted only for the Twitter community. Our advertising partners determine the terms of the offer, including availability, amount, and price. As with other forms of advertising from Twitter, we are focused on bringing value to our users and will keep your interests in mind as we develop this program.”
Twitter partners with advertisers to choose the deals to promote on the @earlybird profile, which will always be time-sensitive or supply-sensitive. Of course, Twitter will make some money from these partnerships, too. At first, advertising partners will represent large, international brands or be focused on the U.S. market, but in time, Twitter plans to roll out more diverse deals, location-based deals, category-specific deals, and more.
As the success of the @DellOutlet Twitter profile demonstrates, consumers truly do use Twitter to find useful promotions and deals. Twitter might just have something with the @earlybird Exclusive Offers program. The company certainly needs to find ways to make money, and since the @earlybird Exclusive Offers program is opt-in, consumers only see the tweets and deals if they take an action and follow the @earlybird profile. Advertisers also benefit from the opt-in feature, since followers are likely to be more receptive to the promotions they hear about through @earlybird.
I think it’s safe to assume that if the deals tweeted through the @earlybird profile are good ones, we’ll see that list of 40,000 followers grow quickly. What do you think?
Internet Remains Top Source for Consumers to Find Information
July 9, 2010
In a study conducted by Fleishman-Hilliard and Harris Interactive in January 2010, consumers with Internet access in several countries around the world were asked where they turned to when they need to find reliable information to aid in making purchase decisions. The Internet took one of the top two spots in six out of six countries polled: United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Japan and China. You can see the stats in the chart from eMarketer below:
In fact, half of the countries surveyed ended up with the Internet taking the number one spot in terms of where consumers look for information. Particularly interesting in this study is the fact that the Internet (excluding email) is considered “absolutely essential” or “extremely essential” to 71% of consumers with Internet access in China — a country that is already one of the biggest marketing opportunities for international business expansion.
It’s hard to believe that 10 years ago, the Internet wasn’t a necessity. Many businesses still didn’t have websites and the social web was only just catching on. Go back 10 years before that and most people didn’t have Internet access in their homes. Times have certainly changed quickly. Today, the Internet is the place for consumers in countries around the world to turn to first when they need information to help them make buying decisions.
No longer is the Internet an ancillary marketing tool or tertiary distribution channel. Today, it’s a top priority for just about any business you can think of. It’s amazing to sit back and think about how the world has changed in such a short amount of time.
Today, businesses have the luxury of instant access to people around the world 24 hours per day and 365 days per year, but they also have the disadvantage of too much information getting to consumers. It’s a different world than it was 10 or 20 years ago, and as marketers and business people, we’re lucky to be a part of such an exciting time in the history of how we do business.
Just something to think about…
You can read the complete article from eMarketer mentioned in this post which includes additional statistics here.
Image: eMarketer
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