Archive for the ‘Industry News’ Category

Strobe Promotions Advances in PROMO 100!

Tuesday, June 1st, 2010

2010 PROMO100

“Given the challenges presented by the economy over the past year, we feel truly blessed to have been able to continue to grow,” notes Strobe’s President, Steve Caputo. “We are so thankful that our clients continue to find value in our service offerings, and we work hard every day to deliver promotion marketing campaigns beyond their expectations.” He attributes Strobe’s success to date to the company’s tenacious approach to adapting promotion marketing to the changing landscape of digital delivery channels including social media, and to a tremendously dedicated and knowledgeable staff. “Every member of the Strobe team has contributed to our growth, and I am awed by what we have been able to achieve thus far.  We are all looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead.”
The 2010 PROMO 100 was announced via live webinar on June 1st and ranks firms across the country according to numerous factors including overall net revenue, net revenue per employee, two-year growth and years in business. The 16-page report, also unveiled at the webinar, not only lists the top 100 agencies, but profiles companies in specific marketing disciplines. The full list can be found online at http://www.b2bmarketingtrends.com/Webcasts/2010_PROMO100.pdf

PROMO magazine announced today its annual list of Top Promotion Marketing Agencies in the US, the PROMO 100. Strobe Promotions ranks #89, moving ten spots ahead of its inaugural position on the list last year. Building upon its success in 2009, Strobe Promotions reported net revenues of $1.99MM. In addition, its two-year growth of 49% landed Strobe among the Top Ten fastest growing agencies. Strobe attributes this remarkable success to expanding its business with existing clients Visa, eBay and Pepperidge Farm, while acquiring new brand accounts including NetSpend, Tiny Prints and Intuit, and new agency clients Edelman and Imagitas.

“Given the challenges presented by the economy over the past year, we feel truly blessed to have been able to continue to grow,” notes Strobe’s President, Steve Caputo. “We are so thankful that our clients continue to find value in our service offerings, and we work hard every day to deliver promotion marketing campaigns beyond their expectations.” He attributes Strobe’s success to date to the company’s tenacious approach to adapting promotion marketing to the changing landscape of digital delivery channels including social media, and to a tremendously dedicated and knowledgeable staff. “Every member of the Strobe team has contributed to our growth, and I am awed by what we have been able to achieve thus far. We are all looking forward to the challenges that lie ahead.”

The 2010 PROMO 100 was announced via live webinar on June 1st and ranks firms across the country according to numerous factors including overall net revenue, net revenue per employee, two-year growth and years in business. The 16-page report, also unveiled at the webinar, not only lists the top 100 agencies, but profiles companies in specific marketing disciplines. See the full list.

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IMA 2010Strobe recently received a 2010 Interactive Marketing Award for its work with PayPal on the “Wishing Wonderland” campaign, which garnered 1st place in the Holiday Theme category. More on that program can be found here.

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Facebook & Twitter & Blogs… Oh My!

Friday, December 11th, 2009

Implementing a Social Media Policy

The hot topic of the PMA Law Conference this year was social media.  It was a hot topic indeed, in light of the recently published FTC Guidelines concerning the use of testimonials and endorsements in advertising and social media, as well as the new Facebook policies put in place the day before the conference. Naturally, many questions arose throughout the conference discussions. One overarching concern for marketers about this topic is “How do we protect ourselves and our clients in this ever-changing environment without inhibiting the creative use of these social media marketing tools?”

The take away is basically this: create a social media policy for your company.

HOW DO I KNOW IF MY COMPANY NEEDS A SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY?
Is your company or brand leveraging social media in their marketing strategy? Has your company created a fan page on Facebook or established a company account on Twitter? Maybe your employees are tweeting about the company on their personal accounts. If so, then it’s time to consider creating a social media policy, a tool to help your employees navigate the social media jungle.

WHAT IS A SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY?
Like any good set of terms and conditions or Official Rules, a social media policy will outline what information should or shouldn’t be posted to any social media platform in order to avoid violating the FTC Guidelines. It should apply to any employee, agency or blogger who posts information (that can be attributed to your company or product) to any social media site; including their own or the company’s blog, Facebook fan page, or Twitter account.
ftc sm policy
In short, the new FTC Guidelines cover all advertising messages including product reviews, endorsements and testimonials, hosted on blogs and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. Compliance with the FTC Guidelines is all about disclosure. So, bloggers, and in some cases your employees (or agencies, or even your mom, if she likes to brag!), who make these “endorsements” must disclose the material connections they share with the Sponsor. This way, consumers are aware when the author of a review/testimonial has been paid or received free product in return. Your social media policy would outline how your employees, agents and bloggers should conduct themselves when talking about your brand and products on the web.

WHAT SHOULD A SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY DO?

  • Provide guidance and training to those people who are involved in social media for your company.
  • Make a reasonable effort to monitor your company’s social media platforms including blogs.
  • Make sure you have reserved the right to remove false statements when identified or anything that is posted that you think could be problematic.
  • Train all people involved in social media for the need to be truthful. Stress the need to provide honest & truthful opinions to avoid false advertising claims.
  • Instruct your people to disclose the connection to your company (whether they are employees or bloggers provided with free product).
  • Instruct your people to respect all Intellectual Property rights.
  • Explain that all statements made must be verifiable.
  • Require sponsor approval if bloggers wish to run a contest.
  • Limit employee social media direct messages (may be considered email and fall within CANSPAM).

Make sure the social media policy is reviewed by marketing, HR, legal, PR departments and your advertising agency so you have everyone’s input.

WHY A SOCIAL MEDIA POLICY?
While not fool-proof, a social media policy will help steer those in your company to walk the right path when it comes to sponsored messages and testimonials on social media, and having one in place may determine whether or not an action will be brought against your company, should an infraction of the FTC Guidelines occur.

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Augmented Reality Check: Brands Bring AR to Life

Monday, November 9th, 2009

A couple of interesting articles surfaced this week, talking about an uptick in brands applying augmented reality to their online marketing campaigns. Augmented Reality is a sort of digital “trick photography” that can convert a twobk aug real dimensional, monochromatic image into any sort of 3D holographic looking image by simply holding it up to a webcam. Burger King jumped on board the AR train with a banner ad that converts a dollar bill into menus from their dollar menu.

And then there’s Kia, Nestle, Wise Foods and Frito Lay all mentioned here as players in the AR game. As promotions go, this tool will engage the consumer and increase time spent with the ad and with the brand. The real immersion occurs only among consumers with webcams, but those with it can get a sampling through online videos that demo the AR experience.

It gets the promotion wheels in my mind spinning. Augmented Reality ads are all about immersion, about spending time with the brand, in a fun and engaging way.  And wouldn’t you know, that’s where promotions can shine! The chance to win, the ability to share or the opportunity to get something for free are all proven conversion levers. In fact, a promotion can draw the consumer even closer, motivating them to provide data or to opt-in. With an augmented reality experience as the “hook”, a strong promotion offer as the “line” and a great prize as the “sinker”,  you’re certain to land your consumer.

Augmented Reality is one of the latest digital innovations to bridge the gap between  the real and the virtual,  leaving so little to the imagination… except imagining new ways to engage!

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Blogs & Social Media Bring Change to 30-year Old FTC Regulations

Thursday, October 8th, 2009

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The Federal Trade Commission announced this week that it is changing its regulations regarding sponsored testimonials online, and not surprisingly, the web has been a buzz ever since. The original FTC ruling about sponsored endorsements from 1980 is designed to protect consumers against fraudulent advertising and applies to television, radio, print and later, email. Beginning December 1, 2009, the scope of this regulation will be expanded to also include blogs and social media platforms. Why is this such big news? Well, the proposed changes will affect four important and vocal parties involved in the marketing process; consumers, bloggers, celebrities and companies, by making sure that any paid endorsements online are made known to the public. While that’s a significant change, the ruling spotlights an issue that will have a widespread impact on our industry.The fact that the U.S. government is imposing regulations on blogs and social media means that it now considers both to be legitimate channels of mass communications. If you’re reading this blog post, you certainly get the importance of the social web, but this is a wakeup call for marketers still unsure of the validity of this channel.

What this means for brands & bloggers
In a phrase, no more under the table pay for play, everything will be out in the open. It is not an uncommon practice for companies to send influential bloggers free product (or cash, trips, etc.) in return for a positive review on their blog. However, the blogger is currently under no obligation to tell the readers about the transaction, although some do. Under the expanded FTC guidelines, bloggers and social media users must disclose any paid relationship with a company (this includes freebies, not just money) so that consumers are aware. The same situation applies when brands reach out to social media users to post sponsored content on sites like Facebook and Twitter. It should be noted that sponsored blogging/posting is still allowed, so long as it is indicated as such, just like the accepted practices of marketing through traditional media channels

Another new issue addressed by the FTC is the practice of creating entirely fabricated blogs and personalities so that a brand can falsely feed advertising content through the voice of a supposed customer. Now, companies will not be allowed to mimic user-created sites to mask advertising messages from their audience.

What this means for consumers
In keeping with the FTC’s mission, the reason for all of these new rules is to protect the consumer. Consumers have to most to gain from these new changes, the more transparency there is in product related blogging and posting, the more educated they will be. Similar to the “paid actor” disclosures seen on television commercials, it will be much easier to distinguish a paid blog post, wall post or tweet from an actual opinion.

What this means for marketers
This is not bad news. The same regulations already apply to television, radio, print and email and marketers have been abiding for almost 30 years. Marketers now will have to be smarter and more creative with their social media marketing campaigns as well. As good marketers, we should always want our consumers to be well-informed about our products and services. The proposed FTC regulation is intended to level the ethical playing field and weed out those who are abusing these channels. Many brands will continue to thrive in our online social space, the point is to be here and do it right. Those marketers still skeptical about Web 2.0 applications need to recognize, as the government has, that social media and blogging are maturing into viable and impactful communications channels.

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Social Media Hastens the Adoption Cycle & Twitter vs. Facebook for Marketers

Friday, October 2nd, 2009

I’m on my way home from some successful meetings in Austin, Texas and finally find a moment to catch up on some trade tidbits, in this case, from IAB Smartbrief, and wouldn’t you know, there’s not one, but two items worth pausing to consider. The first calls out Nielsen’s recent survey that “Time spent by users on social media, as well as marketers’ spending in the segment, have posted strong growth over the past year.” Now isn’t that sort offacebook & twitter usage a “duh” moment, especially if you’re paying any attention to that space, either as a user or a marketer? And it’s my guess, that if you’ve found your way to this blog, then you’re paying attention. Nielsen is simply validating what we’ve seen and experienced, but I do think that in this report, there lies the revelation of a new trend.

In great part, traditional marketers have historically been slow to adopt new channels for their marketing…well, at least slower than the pace of consumers adopting that same channel. Why? Quite sensibly, they are looking to spend their money “where the eyeballs are.” So the migration of marketing spending from radio to television (in the 50s) network TV to cable, from offline to online, from DM to email all happened after the wave of household penetration of each medium had achieved a majority. However, in each case, the migration happened faster than the one before it. (Are we moving at a faster pace? Nah, that’s just your imagination…). The term Web 2.0 was coined in 2005 (?), and yes, you can find articles each year between then and now that tout it as “the next big thing”. The fact is, until last year, the critical mass of the population had not discovered this mutation of its beloved web, and it’s liberating addiction (there’s an oxymoron for you…). What strikes me about this latest digital (r)evolution is that marketers are getting there quicker.

“Users logged 17% of their online time on social networks and blogs in August, compared to 6% for the same month in 2008, and ad outlays in such venues over the same period jumped 119% to $108 million, according to Nielsen.”

That’s an 11% increase in consumer activity in this arena vs. a 119% increase in advertiser involvement. Hmmm. Is that the marketing treadmill I feel speeding up?

The second article talks about consumer receptivity to marketing messages. It seems that consumers are more prone to interact with marketers on Twitter than they are on Facebook, (or any other social network, for that matter). This time, Interpret tell us that;

“Nearly one in four Twitter users surveyed had either reviewed or rated products online in August vs. 12% for users of other social nets…” (That means TWICE as likely to enter the conversation on Twitter),

“and one in five Twitterers were apt to look at company profiles or click on ads or sponsored links, compared to 11% and 9%, respectively, of non-Twitter users.” (Again, that looks like 20% vs. about 10%, or TWICE as likely.)

If you remember, some of the earliest marketing stories about Twitter spoke of brands like JetBlue and Comcast and Zappos responding to consumer complaints via twitter, in what must have shocked those twitterer as a truly personal and timely concern on the part of the brand. Could it be that brands were getting to the party early? Are these actually marketing success stories that predate the population of users on Twitter reaching critical mass? It’s just a thought on my part, but maybe consumers got there after the twitter landscape had been painted as an arena for brands to converse with their users. That might account for consumers’ predisposition to this channel as one through which the ears of the marketers can be reached. Frustrated? Got a complaint? Not happy with a trusted brand’s ad? Just tweet it and see what happens.

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