eROI Days Email Agency

Web 2.0 companies are springing up all over the place. I know most of you are thinking that this is just like the Dot Com rush of 1999, but it’s different because many of these business models are sound and social networking / user-generated content works (given the right implementation of it).

One company (Matchpoint) in our backyard came to us 6 months ago with an amazing concept - connect professional parents, highly-skilled and intelligent parents who are getting back into the workforce, with each other and ultimately to flexible, contract jobs. It has some elements to LinkedIn, but it is far more visually appealing, niche, and a hybrid full-service revenue model of having real regional managers place professionals in these jobs. Create your own profile on Matchpointcorp.com!

In Seattle, venture capital reporter John Cook, documents the top 100 Web 2.0 companies in the city alone. Here are the top 5:

Atomic Moguls: Next generation fantasy games. (New entry)

Avvo: Consumer-oriented online legal service. (Stealth)

Bag Borrow or Steal: Luxury goods borrowing service.

Beet Inc.: Online music. (New entry)

BeRecruited: Online sports recruiting site. (New entry)

Read his full blog posting with all 100 Web 2.0 listings >>

Our very own Dylan Boyd with eROI spoke on this panel where the goal was to engage audience participation and guess who the Liar was among the 5 panelists.

First potential liar: Al Gadbut, CEO, Acquire Web
Acquisition Email - is your response true? Al showed examples of acquisition email for an auto-insurance client, non-profit event, financial services client, and telecom client. Was he lying that email recipients actually sent long, valuable responses to acquisition email that so many people perceive as spam? (Not a liar)

Second potential liar: Scott Mencken, Director, Relationship Marketing, eBay
With hundreds of different lists and email creatives for transactional and marketing emails, Personalization is Key! Lots of ways to personalize email:
1) Audience composition
2) Degree/Mix of personalization
3) Email design + production
4) Frequency of delivery

Results: 113% lift in open rates; 285% lift in response rates, and 160% increase in sales.
(Not a liar)

Third potential liar: Dylan Boyd, Vice President, Sales and Strategy, eROI
Offline to Online Lead Capture Case Study for Jewelry company:
PIN-coded direct mail postcards sent to 100k customers/prospects (their in-house list). That postcard sent people to a website where they were asked to do only 1 thing - enter a unique PIN code and click “submit”. The following page pre-populated all of their info and asked a few other questions like email address and 2 lead qualification questions, then gave the customer a coupon for limited sale in their physical stores.

Results: 1920 coupons redeemed ($312.50/sale) = $600k in sales
Learnings in this case: use branded URL to instill trust: rogersandhollands.com/vip
Next phase: convert to more email as postal rates are set to increase 7% or more.
(Not a liar)

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Shelly Palmer kicked off the Day 1 afternoon session with a talk on “Big Media - Disintermediated.” I gotta admit that the guy is sharp and came up with some new concepts that I hadn’t thought about.

Here are some notes from his talk:
In 701 days, it marks the END of analog TV. The U.S. is going 100% digital.

Myth: With the consumers shift to online, media barons will become a thing of the past.
Reality: Everything about media has been democratized and the playing field has been leveled between media barons and user-generated content (quality, location, production value) EXCEPT Promotion. Big media companies still own the lions share of promotion and they always will so you need to respect it and leverage it (25% of all TV ads promote their networks own TV programs).

Consumers have always had control of their media consumption, but now consumers feel truly empowered and listened to. Media companies want to build that trust relationship w/ readers/viewers/consumers like a trusted friend or family member, so they are adapting their marketing and advertising to be more one-to-one. The new model for media is relationships + engagement with consumers.

CONTEXT (not Content) is King
Shelly gave a great example of the same content having a whole lot more value given the context it resided in, similar to good content being far more valuable on a nytimes.com versus noname.com site. Example:
1. Pawn shop sells a gold nugget for $25
2. Pawn shop w/ legitimate papers proving that this gold nugget is the last of the Machu Pichu treasures of its kind - $25,000
3. Same gold nugget w/ Incan treasure story being sold by Southeby’s starts at $25,000,000.

OMMA West ‘07 - Day 1 Re-cap

Overall theme of the event: “High Anxiety”

Topics covered were:
1) Top 10 Online Marketing Buzzwords you need to eliminate
2) Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post, talks about the power of the Blogosphere as well as consumers need + longing for authenticity, transparency, and like-minded values to the media and brands they consume.
3) Shelly Palmer, Media 3.0 host, coins the next big realization - Context (not Content) is King
4) The new new thing in Social Networks
5) Case studies of HOT trend: User-Generated Video integration into websites - for Media, Big Consumer Brands, and smaller brands
6) Email Liars Club - featuring AcquireWeb, Ogilvy, AvenueA / Razorfish, and eROI

Details to follow in upcoming blog posts…

Panelists:
Jason McDonnell, Doritos
Chris Miller, Taco Bell
Todd Riley, GM Planworks
Ajuy Kaul, Lenovo
Chuck Sullivan, Oganic
Rex Briggs, Marketing Evolution

With so much noise of all of these brands coming online, its getting harder and harder to have a lasting brand impression online. Conversely, AdAge reported that branded search is far more prevalent than unbranded keywords which proves that consumers want to go to a trusted source and manage their expectations with getting to a website that they already know a little something about beforehand.

Examples of great online consumer experiences around strong brands:
MyCadillacStory.com
PatriotAdventure.com
BestBuy.com
http://fftf.Doritos.com/

Consumers are going online more than ever, but consumers still rely on magazines, TV, and traditional media for true brand connections. Their is huge opportunity for online branded experiences, but it is much more complex than traditional channels.

When people think of Texas, I don’t think rain is something that comes up in their minds, yet that’s what it did Sunday night, rain. It was unfortunate this happened our last night of the conference. We didn’t get to meet many new people and most of the night consisted of drying off between stints of running in the rain, a lot. It’s ok though, we still managed to catch a few shows and play some foosball on the way home from The Fray Cafe. Let me just say, Leslie couldn’t handle me on the table (-; After wringing our clothes out, we went to sleep. It was a nice memory that escaped me the night before.

We woke up to a sunny Austin morning and wished we had a few more days to stay, but work called, so we had to get all we could out of that day. It turns out chance favored us.

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Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington Post and named as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in ‘06, impressed the hell out of me with her bold statements and charisma. She talked about consumers longing for authenticity, transparency, and values. “If you can hit upon this, that’s when the magic happens,” she continued.

Huffington strongly declared, “Don’t be stopped by the naysayers. We have to deal with the naysayers - including the inner-critic in our heads. We must break through our own self doubt.”

Mainstream Media has Attention Deficit Disorder! Examples:
1) Anna Nicole Smith is everywhere in U.S. media for an entire month, then it doesn’t exist ever again. (Drop it like it’s hot).
2) Kosovo - does anyone know what’s going on in Kosovo today? No, and we should because lots of bad stuff is happening.
3) Elian Gonzalez - how is he doing in Cuba? Does anyone know?

Key insight on the Blogosphere - bloggers like to take little nuggets, investigate, and make them into stories that get AMPLIFIED in the mainstream media. Many times, blogs are the source of the bigger stories. The Huffington Post is a news aggregator for progressive, political news. 800 bloggers write for free because they want their views out there real-time.

There will always be Print and New Media. Huffington used the analogy of Gilligan’s Island - “it’s not just Ginger OR Mary Ann - let’s have a three-way.” Meaning: there is a need for magazines, newspapers, blogs, and other forms of online media.

Fearlessness is key. You need to experiment (what works today will not work in a few years). Your organization must carry the torch like Google, where they accept an 80%-90% failure rate as a great thing. 10% success on big ideas is HUGE. Don’t be easily discouraged - most people give up way too early.

3000 attendees at this Online Marketing Media and Advertising show in Hollywood, CA today. Wow!

Apparently, a survey went out with lots of buzzwords that people voted on and should be avoided at all costs - there were 10 of them, but I could only remember the top 7:
7. Viral
6. ROI (sorry, but that will NEVER go away)
5. Buzz
4. Out of the Box
3. Synergy
2. Engagement
1. Web 2.0

Nick Nyhan, founder of Dynamic Logic, is the show’s Master of Ceremonies. He leads the discussion with some dazzling facts about the online marketing industry and trends. Online marketing spend is up to $18 Billion; hard to hire again; and VC money is back in a big way.

We’re living in an Era of “Control Shift + Options.” Digital is about Control.

Advertisers thinking about:
1. Engagement
2. Advertising Opps
3. Accountability

Consumers think:
1. I’m in control
2. Free Content
3. Scary Data

Advertisers / Brands must give up a lot of control to survive in this new world. Consumers are at the center with brands all around them trying to make a connection of the 7,000 marketing messages bombarding the consumer each day.

Former Crispin Porter + Bogusky execs just wrote a book called “Punk Marketing.” To be honest, I’m intrigued enough to buy it on Amazon and learn something from them, but it’s a tall order to out-punk an industry full of us punks in the marketing and advertising industry.

Here’s the article that got me interested:
“Rebels with a Marketing Cause”

The authors of the new book Punk Marketing talk about the emergence of advertising that rejects tradition and embraces edgy attitude

by Reena Jana

Punk-rock impresario and Sex Pistols producer Malcolm McLaren once said, “Punk was just a way to sell trousers.” The quote appears, appropriately, in a new book, Punk Marketing, by Richard Laermer, chief executive of public-relations firm RLM PR, and Mark Simmons, a marketing consultant and former executive at hot ad agency Crispin Porter + Bogusky.

The duo defines punk as “an attitude of rebellion against tradition” and the genre of punk marketing as “a new form of marketing that rejects the status quo and recognizes the shift in power from corporations to consumers.” They apply the term to any type of ad or marketing campaign that defies traditional tactics–think consumer-generated ads that spread via YouTube or guerrilla-marketing stunts such as the Cartoon Network’s controversial electronic displays that were mistaken for bombs by Boston residents last month (See BusinessWeek.com, 02/09/2007, “Guerrilla Marketing Gone Wild”). The book, which is perhaps not as rebellious as the snappy title suggests, is best seen as a neatly organized time capsule of late-2000s marketing and ad strategies.”

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I got an email from one of my good buddies who knows that I’m a huge supporter of my bald brethren. He had this article to share with me - while you read it, make sure to pay attention to the fabulous quotes throughout the article and especially the very end quote to close the article:

“The New Niche: Hair Care for Men Without
By ANNA JANE GROSSMAN
Published: March 8, 2007

THE same week a Los Angeles salon owner was pleading with Britney Spears not to buzz her head, barbers were laying tracks across the scalps of all sorts of men at the Aidan Gill for Men salon in New Orleans.

“We have at least one man coming in for a head shave every day,” Mr. Gill said. “Had Britney come here, we’d have shaved her all the way down. She’d have looked incandescent.” For most of recent grooming history, having a totally bald pate was a look most likely found among men with formidable personalities and names to match — Kojak, Yul, Ike, Warbucks, Clean. It wasn’t a look for John over in accounting.

But in the late 1980s, Michael Jordan shaved it all off. Soon, the world was examining the scalps of Bruce Willis, Andre Agassi, Moby and just about one token character on every TV show — not to mention a swarm of Oscar nominees and presenters this year, including Jack Nicholson (who had shaved his head for a role). The response is a booming market of products being developed and sold specifically to the unhirsute — a new front in the nearly $5 billion onslaught of male grooming products in the United States.”

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Somewhere in the conferencing 101 handbook is a blurb about going out and meeting people at the conference sponsored events. That blurb also details how to drink at a conference, or how not to drink. There was an open bar at the place I went to and next thing you know things got a bit hazy.

So hazy in fact that I was supposed to call my girlfriend, and when I woke up in the morning I called her to apologize for not calling, and it turns out I did call her. Oops. Now she’s onto just how much I was drinking. You can take the kid out of Alaska, but you can’t take Alaska out of the kid.

The cool part about this whole SXSW thing is all the conversations that occur away from the event itself. I had no idea how much value would come from just meeting and talking to people. Last night I got to meet some of the people whom I respect and follow on the web. Welcome to Geek’s Paradise.

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This email glossary (that a co-worker sent me) is hilarious - take a read and comment below if you can add to this list:

“Tipping point
Point during a conversation by email where it becomes clear to both participants that they could have sorted things out days ago with a five-minute phone call.

Out of Office Reply
Device used by business people to avoid having to respond quickly to incoming email.

Thank you interval
Time spent wondering if you need to send a thank-you reply to a thank-you email.

Fistful
Measurement unit for spam. 10 spam emails is one fistful. Ten or more fistfuls is one sh*tload. So a sh*tload of spam is anything more than 100 spam emails.

Reply-all blindness
Disease characterized by an inability to distinguish between the “reply” and “reply all” buttons in an email client. Typical symptoms include acute embarrassment and complete loss of privacy.

Junk folder equation
The decision to review the contents of your junk folder is a function of two factors A and B. Where A is the potential value of finding useful mail inadvertently filtered into the spam folder. And B is the depressing prospect of wading through 500 ads for p*nis enlargers just to find an expired coupon for your local hardware store.

CC/BCC blindness
Disease causing the victim to put every address in their distribution list in the CC field of their email client, thus ensuring everyone gets a copy of both the message and the address list. Victims generally only suffer once from this affliction.

Disclaimer text
Long-winded piece of legalese commonly found at the bottom of corporate emails to indicate that the message “Hey John, how was your date last night?” should not be construed as a binding legal contract or a business solicitation. And unauthorized use, disclosure, copying or alteration of this question is forbidden on pain of something undefined (but possibly unpleasant) happening to you.

Can-Spam Act 2003
1. US law designed to restrict the sending of unsolicited commercial email
2. US law designed to allow the sending of unsolicited commercial email

Download uncertainty threshold
Point in time at which it is clear that the incoming email must include a large attachment, meaning either potential work, holiday snaps or another forlorn attempt to do something amusing with Photoshop.

The email paradox
The simultaneous feeling of despair and optimism when you check your email in the morning. Optimism at what interesting messages might arrive. Despair at the thought of finding work, complaints, several fistfuls (see above) of spam, another email from that client/customer/friend you’re trying to avoid…and yet more forlorn attempts to do something amusing with Photoshop.

Non-verbal clue
Situation where recipient is left wondering if the phrase “Die, you b*stard, die!” should be taken at face value or is simply another one of those unfortunate email misunderstandings.

Spam surveys
Statistics collected by anti-spam solution providers to give them an excuse to put out a press release once a quarter to tell us that there’s a lot of spam around (in case we hadn’t noticed.)”

My #1 Online Marketing Prediction for 2007 was that cause-related marketing, if done correctly, would have the most buzz and effectiveness. Dove continues to get accolades for its “Campaign for Real Beauty” and even investment banks like Goldman Sachs are doing the right thing by strong-arming energy utility bad boys to go green.

However, the one campaign that I was sure would out-perform all others in the cause-related marketing arena was the Red Campaign where dozens of major brands charge a premium for their red-colored products and give a significant portion of the proceeds to the AIDS effort in Africa. I may be wrong on this one. AdAge reports that “Bono & Co. Spend up to $100 Million on Marketing, Incur Watchdogs’ Wrath” while only bringing in $18 million in revenue (the quick math shows a $82 million loss).

After a late night at a Deerhoof concert, we all awoke fairly sleepy. I am surprised I have made it this far without a nap. Today was the first day of the SXSW panels. As with any conference, there are times slots and multiple panels available. Thankfully they release podcasts of each panel so that I still may get the information I missed out on.

There were five panels I attended. Each of them offered a different insight into the topic they were covering. More than anything they made me inspired, warm, and fuzzy. I think SXSW draws all of the rockstars in the industry and they do as good of job being in the audience as they do on their panels. It’s refreshing to know that they are still out there seeking knowledge from their peers.

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Be delighted. If you aren’t impressed with this video and technology advances, you don’t have a pulse. With the touch of your fingers, you can make 2D maps turn 3D. You can zoom in and manipulate thousands of images on the fly. You can do anything. Jeff Han is a legend and the future is far closer than we ever imagined.