Corporate Eye

...compare, compete, excel

Ideas and Trends

Should Your Branded Content Have a Fee?

the_times_ukThe publishing industry has been struggling to figure out how to stay afloat since print advertisers have migrated en masse over the past several years to the online space.  Online advertising dollars are the source of the money needed to keep online publications running and throughout the past decade, most online publishers (including media giants) have moved from paid subscription models where content is only offered behind a paywall to a freely available model in an attempt to boost page views and advertisers’ investments.

Interestingly, a couple of publications have been experimenting with a return to the paywall model they abandoned years ago.  The Times of London and the Sunday Times are examples of such a publication.

According to a report from Nielsen, The Times websites attracted over 3.09 million U.K. visitors each month during the second quarter of 2010 when all content was available for free.  A paywall was put in place at the beginning of the third quarter of 2010.  During that period, paywall visitors (which includes people who are using a free trial, print subscribers who automatically get free online access, and people who paid specifically to access the online content behind the paywall) amounted to just 362,000 visitors per month, but overall traffic to The Times websites dropped to just 1.78 million (which includes the paywall visitors).

That means the number of visitors to The Times websites nearly dropped in half after the paywall was put in place.  Furthermore, after the paywall was put in place, just 20% of visitors accessed the information behind that paywall.

The Times actually views these results positively saying that the paywall customers are statistically more affluent, more targeted, and more engaged (3rd quarter results showed a 42% increase in page views per person –17– compared to 2nd quarter results — 12).  For The Times the paywall audience can drive a premium rate from advertisers who want to connect with those consumers.  Top it off with a subscription fee that many of those paywall customers are paying, and The Times is optimistic about how charging consumers a fee to access some or all of a site’s content will affect their business in the long-term.

Where do you stand on the free content vs. paid subscription content debate?  Branded content is a bit different since it’s usually a marketing tool, but what about premium branded content?  Where do you think that fits in?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Mandatory sustainability measures: a digest

PounceLike spring follows autumn or cats pounce on mice (even under the snow!), now seems to be the season for people to discuss mandatory supra-national reporting standards.  Without going into too much detail, here is a selection of last week’s activity for you to peruse at your leisure.

EU may legislate on corporate, social and environmental data

This story was reported by Responsible Investor (RI).  In effect, the EU is keeping the door open for future ESG legislation, but the period within which any decision will be made is rapidly narrowing.

In May 2010 the European Parliament passed the resolution “Delivering a single market to consumers and citizens”.  This highlighted “the importance of establishing a green single market for emerging low-carbon and environmental technologies, services and products” and insisted that “the use of conformity assessments to gauge social environmental and economic impact at both EU and national level” should be ensured.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive, broadly agrees with this opinion and describes the need for a Single Market Act as urgent.  Consequently, it now aims to have a Single Market Act passed and implemented by the end of 2012 with a draft scheduled for publication in early 2011.

Of further note in the RI article the report the commission is considering a review the status of “foundations, corporative societies and mutual associations”.  If the EU were to start to legislate to put these forms or corporation on even an equal footing as traditional businesses it would change the ESG dynamic overnight.

Full disclosure of SRI data “would boost the market”

This story comes from CityWire, an independent publication a quarter owned by Reuters, and reports on the views of the European Sustainable Investment Forum (Eurosif).

Matt Stevens, Eurosif’s executive chairman, is quoted as saying “A purely voluntary disclosure scheme does not guarantee significant, relevant and comparable data from all issuers.”.

However he is at least partially contradicted by Steve Waygood, former Chair of UKSIF, who says “I am not convinced that the potentially ossified regulatory hand on all issues is the right one .. (however) .. there is definitely a need for much better guidance on what should be disclosed”.

In his role as Head of Sustainability at Aviva Investors, Waygood prefers the approach of asking stock markets to make ESG part of their listing criteria.  While not regulatory, this is still a form of mandatory ESG disclosure.

Are businesses ready to accept more carbon legislation?

Yes, is the surprising answer from Carbon Guerilla’s chairman Les Hayman, as reported by Business Green.

Hayman believes many companies are tapping into carbon accounting as a way of lowering costs and cites an example of someone who chews through up to £40/day in carbon credits purchased from a mobile phone provider.

He says: “I think governments are only just starting to realise that this area is an incredible one for taxation, and one that allows them to look like really good global citizens.”

The idea of carbon allowances for individuals and corporations isn’t not a new one but unfortunately, and unwittingly, Hayman also points out the flaw in such schemes.

“Think of carbon as a debit or credit card, so you spend something you have or something you pay for in the future,” he says. ” (This)  makes people aware that it’s a limited commodity like currency.”

Except currency isn’t a limited commodity, as fans of quantitative easing will all too happily point out.

The accountants are coming

Sustainability reporting is often linked with financial reporting because, as George Monbiot recently said, “the way in which nature is being squeezed into a column of figures in an accountant’s ledger .. may be necessary. What else will induce the blinkered, frightened people who hold power today to take the issue seriously?”

With this in mind there are there’s one other story which is worth keeping an eye on.

The US SEC is considering the adoption of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as a replacement for the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and will continue to report upon measures required throughout 2011.

In the meantime, IFRS is already the norm in the EU & South Africa and will be integrated into accountancy rules in India, Russia, Japan and Canada from 2011.

Although an agreement on accountancy rules between erstwhile competitors such as the US, Russia, the EU and India will be unprecedented, such worldwide agreement will make the integration of sustainability concerns into financial calculations much easier.

Picture Credit: Pounce! by photofarmer under Creative Commons Attribution License.

EU and UK on Governance Collision Course

EPP Summit March 2010The EU has rejected the idea of voluntary codes for corporate governance for Europe’s businesses and has shown support instead for compulsory measures.

In a speech on Monday, the European Commission’s Internal Markets Commissioner Michel Barnier said “I am clear we will not be able to rely only on voluntary codes”. (Speech in full (PDF))

The EU is due to deliver a discussion paper on Corporate Governance in 2011 and it is now certain that this will include an element of compulsion in sustainability reporting.

This will cause consternation among some of Europe’s member states.  The UK in particular supports wholly voluntary measures and is likely to fight against any top-down imposition of standards from Brussels.

In particular the UK’s corporate governance and reporting regulator, the Financial Reporting Council, has said it will “defend to the death” the voluntary “comply or explain” principle which underpins many of the UK’s corporate reporting requirements.

Proposals which are up for discussion include limiting the number of directorships a person can hold, making a Chief Risk Officer mandatory and moving director remuneration away from the “hit-and-run culture that has caused so much damage”.

However Commissioner Barnier’s comments are aimed at a bigger target than just the EU.  He concluded:  “None of these actions can be wholly effective if taken in Europe alone.  We live in a global world.  And in a global world, policies which have a global impact must be designed – and applied – at a global level.   That is why action at the G20 is so important.  And why Seoul next month [November] matters – because it’s the right level for the issues we face.”

The Seoul Summit agenda includes the G20 Business Summit, a roundtable of 100 CEOs meeting with government representatives who will address Trade and Investment, Green Growth and CSR and is described as “a process, rather than a one-time event”.

The summit will also focus upon how to implement changes in the global financial system to make it more robust and accountable.

As Commissioner Barnier made his comments within the context of improving financial systems and increasing corporate responsibility, it seems likely that the EU will raise the subject during the roundtables or the main summit itself.

So the scene seems set.  Sooner or later the EU will push for compulsory governance standards and will push for them to be recognised worldwide.  You have now been warned!

Picture Credit: EPP Summit March 2010 by europeanpeoplesparty under Creative Commons Attribution No Derivatives License.

New Brand Marketing – More Facebook Likes Equals More Savings

Consumer products companies and retailers have been watching the success of social shopping site Groupon, and now, they’re trying to generate similar success through their own social media marketing efforts.

Groupon is a site that offers local shopping discounts to site members with a catch.  The offers are very good, but shoppers can’t get a deal until they get a specific number of other people to take that same offer.  As more people join an offer, the better the deal gets.  Groupon launched in November 2008 with 400 members, and today, Groupon has 25 million subscribers in 29 countries.  With those huge numbers, it’s not surprising that most of the offers on Groupon attract enough users that they can cash in on those deals.

In recent weeks, many big brands have launched their own attempts at group buying and rising discounts, primarily through Facebook.  Four such promotions are described below (via BrandWeek):

  1. Walmart: Walmart placed Facebook ads for its new CrowdSaver service offering an 18% discount off of a plasma television if they get 5,000 Facebook likes.  5,000 people quickly liked the Walmart Facebook page.  Ultimately, Walmart will open the discount to all consumers, not just people who clicked the Facebook like button.
  2. Jack in the Box: Jack in the Box is running a promotion called “Be My Rich Fan” where the company created a virtual nickel jar and deposits a representative nickel each time a new person likes the Jack in the Box Facebook page.  Over 213,000 people liked the Jack in the Box Facebook page before the promotion was over and the pot had grown to over $10,000.  When the promotion ended, one of those followers won all the money in the virtual nickel jar (in real money).
  3. Healthy Choice: ConAgra Foods’ Healthy Choice brand offered a “progressive coupon” on the Healthy Choice Facebook page giving people who liked the page 75-cents off of their next purchase of a Healthy Choice product.  As more people liked the Healthy Choice Facebook page (the number tripled within 25 hours of the promotion’s launch), the coupon got better until it reached it’s ultimate level of “buy one get one free” within three days.
  4. Barilla: Barilla offered a coupon for its Wasa Crispbread that grew in value as more people liked it on Facebook.  Within a few weeks, the number of Facebook likes for Wasa Crispbread grew to nearly 8,000.

facebook-coupon-wasabread

Clearly, if you offer savings, people will come, even if that discount seems small.  Just look at the results for the 75-cent coupon for Healthy Choice!  Even the ultimate buy-one-get-one-free coupon for Healthy Choice only equates to a few dollars!  How engaged will those consumers stay in time if your brand doesn’t continue to offer coupons and other useful information?  That part of the story has yet to be experienced.  Will those thousands of Facebook likes turn into long-term, sustainable sales?  Drawing attention and getting Facebook likes is just the beginning.  It will be interesting to follow these brands in the future to see if they can retain the levels of interest they drew with their crowd couponing.

What do you think?  Can you implement these types of tactics in your own business?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts.

UK Mobile Marketing Wide Open for Business

mobile phonesAccording to a June 2010 report from comScore, the number of people who own smartphones in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain and Italy nearly doubled to 60.8 million people between 2009 to 2010 (41% growth to be more precise).  In the United Kindom alone, smartphone use nearly tripled (70% to be precise) to 15 million users between 2009 to 2010.  The latter data comes from a report from the Internet Advertising Bureau UK as reported by eMarketer.

Considering the fact that it’s estimated that 1 in 3 people in the United Kingdom who use the Internet have accessed the web via their mobile devices in 2010, it appears that the opportunities for brands to reach consumers via mobile advertising are significant.  However, eMarketer also reports the comScore study found that in the United Kingdom in 2009, mobile advertising spending accounted for, “just 1% of the sum spent on all online ads aimed at PC users.”  As you might expect, that spending is expected to grow quickly.  In fact, the Internet Advertising Bureau UK predicts it will more than double before 2011 comes to a close.

Keep in mind, there is still much to be learned about mobile advertising.  Although many consumers claim not to mind receiving mobile ads that are actually useful to them, there is still not a written recipe for success.  There is much testing to be done in the coming years, so although we’ll see ad spending in the mobile environment grow by leaps and bounds, return on investment numbers are likely to track across the charts.  However, without experimentation and more research, there is no way of knowing what will work in mobile marketing and advertising.  It’s an exciting time to be a marketer, but the challenge is getting the budget to do the necessary testing without a guarantee of success.

Have you been successful in convincing your executives to set aside a percentage of the marketing budget for mobile marketing?  The numbers don’t lie.  More people are using mobile devices to conduct more aspects of their lives everyday.  It can easily be argued that brands which don’t carve out a space in the mobile environment will find themselves playing catch-up later.  Certainly, smartphones aren’t going to disappear anytime soon.  On the contrary, they will only get faster, more affordable, and more prevalent.  There’s no turning back now.

What do you think?  Leave a comment and share your thoughts about mobile marketing in 2010 and beyond.

Image: stock.xchng

The Personal Touch In CSR | CSR Around The World

Ida HornerYou never know how blinkered you’ve been until those blinkers are removed.

A few days ago I spotted Michael Portillo on TV using the medieval term for Europe: “Christendom”.  It was a programme about Christianity and in context, so there was nothing wrong with it.

But it makes the point, very well and very powerfully, how grounded our cultures are in a particular way of approaching life and its concomitant issues, even after centuries of change.

Hence one of the big stumbling blocks to Turkey’s accession to the EU: there are some who still say that the EU is and should remain Christian at heart.  Turkey, being a Muslim country, can therefore not join.

A similar set of blinkers surrounds CSR.  We in the west tend to think of it as a business strategy .. what if it was more personal than that? [Read more…] about The Personal Touch In CSR | CSR Around The World