Be Real.

By Olin Graczyk

You’ve got to love marketing and media in the year of 2012 with its abundance of emerging social channels, tech startups, digital publishing, social, mobile, and digital media startups (must.. stay.. vague..).  Don’t get me wrong; it’s exciting as hell to experience the grind of becoming informed with one, while another tool or medium just sprouted beneath you.  But come on, we have startups forming around new startups.  There are little “startup groupies” now.  You blasted Interwebs.. look what you’ve done.

Part of our job in digital and social marketing is to play with these new toys.  The growth of Facebook and Twitter has created a thriving category of social media publishing and analytics platforms, constantly competing to one-up each other.  What has become a “digital pastime” for consumers is opening up huge revenue potential for tech startups.  These tools are important and valuable for businesses and agencies, helping us become smarter, faster, and more efficient with our social media efforts.

Testing Pinterest Platforms

Pinterest is the new social kid on the block, quickly emerging as the third most popular social media platform within the category.  In January 2012, Pinterest witnessed nearly 12 million unique visitors that were also spending nearly 90 minutes on the site (that’s only behind Facebook)!  We already posted a compelling post about Pinterest and an outside-the-box method to assign hard value.   So, as you can see, we’re already believers in its potential.

Because our social media managers at Bernstein-Rein were quick to see the value and engagement of Pinterest, we’ve been able to partner with several third-party Pinterest publishing and analytics startups that are currently launched in private-only BETA.

 

 Pay attention here, this may be important to you

 We’d like to share some inside visibility and insight into a couple of our favorite new Pinterest platforms and how they are helping us analyze our efforts and become better social practitioners.. 

 

Curalate:

Curalate is a startup from Philadelphia, PA.  It definitely has one of the best user interfaces of any of the social media tools we’ve ever used.  However, where Curalate really shines is through its rich data that pulls in information from your pins, as well as pins users pinned from directly from your website.  Therefore, you can truly see what content is most popular on your brand or retail site, and the virality of that content. 

 Some key benefits of Curalate:

• Ability to track multiple brands through one platform
• Track account follower growth over time
• Find Pinterest influencers that have interacted with your brand or content
• Monitor competition growth, engagement and content virality
• Analyze the engagement process and success of "boards"
• Determine the potential Reach/Impressions of each individual pin
• Integrates with Google Analytics to understand the impact pins have on site behavior and engagement

Curalate is definitely a powerful analytics platform at its core.  If you’re interested in the engagement levels of your Pinterest profile and content, and want to analyze how you stack up versus the competition in your category, then keep an eye out for the public release of Curalate.

Twitter:  @Curalate

Website: www.curalate.com

Pinerly:

Pinerly provides more of a two-tonged approach, which includes a great blend of Pinterest data, with an extra dose of platform publishing.  In fact, you can post of all your content within Pinerly, without any need to leave the platform.   Additionally, Pinerly will soon be releasing “Pin Scheduling” which will help social media managers stack content and drip-release them during the most engaging parts of the day.

Rick Kats, Co-Founder of Pinerly, is really focused on building the platform around the correct “social media approach,” which he explains as more than just pushing out product or content, but devising and executing on a good strategy.

“This is where Pinerly comes in.  Our whole idea is to help businesses, brands, bloggers and others think about a good strategy: provide tips, blog, and try to make things as easy as possible from a measuring and optimizing perspective,” Kats stated to us via email.

Some key benefits of Pinerly:

·         Easy access to Reach and Click metrics to determine click-through rates of your content

·         Enables users to track pins as “campaigns”

·         Provided Reach numbers update dynamically and provide valuable insight into potential impressions

·         Dynamically populates suggestions for pins that are popular and can be used to keep your audience engaged

·         Highlights Pinterest influencers currently within the platform to leverage

·         Dashboard provides a clean & simple snapshot of marketer-friendly metrics

Pinerly is really an easy self-serve tool that brings multiple layers of functionality into a single platform experience.  If you are most interested with streamlining pins while getting some click-through insight, then Pinerly is a perfect tool to start with.  Additionally, when an upcoming update rolls out with Pin Scheduling, social media managers can really focus on automating the pin process for ideal times of engagement… without having to cancel 6pm dinner plans.

Twitter:  @Pinerly

Website: www.pinerly.com

 

Questions?  Any platforms you’re currently using for Pinterest that trump these? 

Tweet us @Bernstein_Rein and let us know.  We’d love to continue the conversation. 

 

 

 

 

by Olin Graczyk

 

Pinterest no longer needs an explanation.  You’re probably getting attacked from every angle with content, success stories, best practices, and how-to articles for getting your brands on Pinterest.  You’re not going to get that here.  What you will get, is some outside-the-box thinking for assigning value to your Pinterest endeavor…

Marketers meet my first crack at Pinterest “hard metrics.”

Listen, I hate reporting on the soft metrics. Every time someone comes at me with FB or Twitter fan and follower numbers, I cringe in disgust.  Don’t come all up in here with ‘yo street terms. Leave that at the door.

Whatever you just said, step outside this office, erase those nasty client-friendly terms, then come back in and we’ll talk about social media.

No, I’m after value.  I’m after a complete experience with traceable steps along the way we can measure and manipulate to fulfill strategy and impact objectives. And if your strategy is to pay money for followers.. we just ain’t gonna get along my friend.  Back to business…

What I was trying to do.

I want to understand the value of a reaction.  On Pinterest, this ideal reaction is a “repin.”  I don’t think I need to explain this, but just for good measure, “repins” offer a pretty fair assumption of a users engagement with our content.  Additionally, a repin contributes to virality.  Us marketers, we loooove our virality.

My rationale.

Sometimes (ahem.. most of the time) we don’t have the luxury of working with brands with a strong ECOM presence.  Even further, sometimes we have very little, if any, insight into digital’s impact on in-store sales numbers.  A CPG client would be a GRAND example of this.  I can only imagine, as a marketer, you struggle with this daily.

One thing I am OCD about lately is proof. When we do something digitally effective, give me proof.  Then, out of thin air, *poof* - this article lands in my inbox: Brand Websites Create Retail Store Buyers

This article, in very condensed form, tells me the following:

brand website visitors are heavier buyers within a brand’s product category, spending 53% more than non-visitors on the category in retail stores

Read more: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/167229/brand-websites-create-retail-store-buyers.html#ixzz1nAiZppaA

Guess what Pinterest does really well? I hope you guessed that it sends a lot of referral traffic to websites.  Although, if you guessed it can keep track of the new beers you sample, well, kudos to you as well.

My Pinterest Formula.

Given the above value, I can assume that for every visitor I send to our CPG website, it will provide a lift in order/sales value.  Therefore, I’m armed with the information I need to create this:

What the hell have I just done? :)

No worries ‘mon.  I’ll explain.  Assigning “X” as my “Repin Value,” I am calculating the value above by:

1. 1 (the repin) + Average Virality (the historical average virality of our repins)
2. multiplied by our standard Pinterest click-thru rate (examined through Google Analytics)
3. multiplied by the assumed sales lift value (in this case, the % lift in correlation to average order value) 

Let’s drop in some hypothetical numbers:

In the above example, based on historical data, I could assume an associated value of $2.81 to each repin.  (You may think this is high, and it is. However, at this point in time, it is very possible to hit these marks based on the ripe nature of Pinterest.  But, as Pinterest continues to gain momentum and become noisier, a value like the above will be extremely hard to accomplish. At least one could assume…)

Yet, the vibe in the air right now is still one of two things, “cool stuff Olin,” or “yea, what the hell did you just try to do?”  Let me attempt to give it some appeal…

My Rationale for Why this will work for You.

All too often we get stuck on absolutes.  In no way do I have the audacity to say that “this will deliver you ROI.” It won’t pard.  But, what it can do is apply you with the value you need to create a fair benchmark throughout the entire funnel of events.  These are “hard metrics” compadre.  Numbers you can optimize against. 

The most important part of this exercise (and where 95% of people get lost in focus) is by not affixing yourself to get caught up in the EXACT value of the repin, or the the EXACT fluctuation in sales lift.  We have too many forces at work here to attempt that.

However, what you can look at is the cycle.  This formula is divided into Exposure/Reach, Conversion, and Value.  Guess what is necessary when you establish valid benchmarks? 

If you said all three of those, you are correct.

My Challenge to You.

When you look at this, understand that you can manipulate every part of this funnel. We can impact Exposure based on the topical and appealing nature of our Pinterest posts. We can impact CTR by optimizing the descriptions and the value we offer our users in exchange for a click-thru (recipes, more content, discounts). Lastly, as an agency, we can impact average order value, as well as, continuing to research the in-store lifts we provide.

Let my leave you with this.

Social media is still in an adolescent phase amongst brands and marketers.  We are learning.  But, I assure you, the only way we can fail is through poor strategy, improper benchmarking, and misuse or a complete lack of data interpretation.

Hopefully, this generates some ideas on your end for combating those evils and becoming smarter social, data, or digital strategists.

 

 

 

by Josh Davenport

A recent article discussed how retailers are largely ignoring people on social media networks. Two-thirds of all customer issues are largely ignored by retail brands. This shocking statistic indicates a lack of understanding of the inherent qualities of social media.

Social Media's main quality is the conversation. That is, the web is a space where retailers can connect with their customers one-to-one. It's not dissimilar to the storefront: customers come in, associates interact with them, give them advice and guidance and ultimately, the customers purchase the product.

With the rise of the big-box stores (and some of the worst offenders are big boxes), customer service became an issue. Stores became widely known for having few associates and those who were there were unknowledgeable. Even department stores have cut staff in an effort to shave costs.

These efforts were largely counterproductive! Customers who had a bad experience would tell their family and friends. Even if the store had cost on its side, often the retailer would lose sales to a higher-end retail brand that put effort into making customer service a key part of its strategy.

Now we find the process repeating again. Even as companies like Zappos and Southwest Airlines are owning the social media space, interacting with their customers on Twitter and Facebook, we find that retailers are ignoring their customers once again. 

Companies see Facebook as a platform for marketing: offering deals and coupons to customers who like their page. This ignores the primary purpose of the medium: to connect. These retailers are doing nothing more than treating the greatest method for reaching out and connecting with their customers as nothing more than a grab for eyeballs, like any other traditional media outlet.

The irony is that there are companies who've learned this lesson well. These are the companies whose agility in the social sphere will pay off with increased sales and brand loyalty. Others... may find themselves abandoned by irate consumers. Ambivalence, in this case, is worse than contempt.

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

by Brian Brooker

In many ways, I’m an unlikely person to speak about Steve Jobs.  I’m not much of a computer person.  I’m not technically minded.  But then again, maybe I am the perfect person.  
 
Steve Jobs knew how to create products for people like me.  People who want to listen to music or write a script or play a game but who don’t know much about computers or how they work.
  
Steve Jobs was a master of simplifying.  He boiled everything down to its essence.  He understood the power of design and it shone through in all of his inventions, including the Apple stores that sold them.
 
Steve Jobs was a visionary.  I don’t use that word lightly.  I put him in the same space with Walt Disney.  Jobs was prescient.   He could see what we wanted before we knew we wanted it.  And once he created it, we couldn’t imagine our lives without it.
 
Steve Jobs was driven. He never stopped creating. He had countless inventions and he kept working right up until his death.  It was “the discovery” that drove him; not the riches that followed.
 
Steve Jobs was brave. He believed there was a better way and he was bold enough to change things.  He kicked convention in the balls.
 
I can’t think of another person on the horizon like him.  I’m in awe of what he did and who he was.  

By JD Hillen

There is a lot of hubbub about HTML5 taking over Flash as the “must use” technology for developing interactive web and mobile applications. And like any debate, there are just as many arguments that support the claim as there are to refute it. 

The term HTML5 has been turned into a media buzzword as the magic-bullet solution for cross platform development. Most of the controversy stems from statements made by Apple and more importantly Steve Jobs himself. But good ol’ Steve has hated the Flash platform for as long as it has been around. Why? Because Adobe and Apple are in direct competition with one another. It’s like McDonalds vs. Burger King... Coke vs. Pepsi... Adobe and Apple are no different.

While virtually being blocked from running on Apple’s mobile devices, Adobe has rolled with the punches. Where most companies would have rolled over, Adobe went ahead and created some amazing tools that make cross-browser and cross-mobile development extremely easy and cost effective, all through the Flash platform (Flash Builder 4.5 & Flash CS5.5 both allow you to develop on Flash / Flex / or AIR and then compile your project out for mobile, desktop, and web.) 

In addition to some smart dev tools, Adobe has partnered directly with Google as well as Facebook to bring the best Flash experience possible to the web and mobile devices.  Point is, I don’t think Flash is going away anytime soon.

HTML5 may be the “greatest” according to some, but in reality, it is just another technology like JavaScript, PHP or .NET that can be added to our development arsenal.

As creative technologists, our job is to recognize problems and use the best technology solutions available. HTML 5 might be new, but it doesn’t make Flash defunct or not a valid option for many, many of our projects.

Here are a few links that show HTML5 browser support, Browser usage stats, and Flash Player market penetration.

HTML5 & CSS3 Support - http://bit.ly/qx65NC
Browser Usage Statistics - http://bit.ly/rsq5Hi
Flash Player Market Penetration - http://adobe.ly/rsx1dm

JD Hillen
|Creative Technologist

 

We're constantly interested in how best to engage with customers. After all, it's the main business we're in here. What is advertising but delivering the right message to the right people at the right time? 

So it was with some interest that we recently came across this article by Brian Solis at the Harvard Business Review: "Social Media's Impending Flood of Customer Unlikes"

Brian's main point is that, while companies are attempting to build equity through social media, they are essentially delivering content that falls on deaf ears. Companies are still stuck in the broadcast model: throwing untargeted messages at consumers and expecting a lot of enagement in return. But because one of social media's abilities is to allow a customer to listen only to things that interest them, brands' are increasingly being tuned out and unfollowed.

So, it's up to brands to make sure that their messages are interesting, engaging and most importantly, useful. Research shows pretty consistently that consumers follow brands that give them valuable offers/discounts or in order to make purchases. 

Strategy is the key here. Finding out what a brands' customers want from their social media stream and giving more of it. This can create what social media is ultimately all about, a conversation, and that's the true meaning of engagement.

We hosted the first BR Open this summer. A great way to show off the little-known skills of our people. Sure, they're fantastic creatives, but they've also got some serious game!

We had our ladder tournament and finally we reached the championship match and we crowned our winners!

We love the work our people do and it's great stuff, but there's something about getting everyone together and blowing off some steam, pong-style.

By David Drace

Just over 60 years ago, a visionary ad agency creative director named Bill Bernbach had an epiphany and created a new team structure. 

Prior to his innovation, the Copywriter and Art Director usually worked in different rooms. The writer came up with the ideas and the Art Director put them into layout. Bernbach realized that when words and artwork worked together, more powerful ideas emerged, particularly in the new world of broadcast television. The best big ideas came from the cooperation of those two minds (hence the copywriter/art director team that we see as the “traditional” structure today). That team structure resulted in brilliant work like this:

That was at the dawn of broadcast television – the last media revolution. 

Creative Technology

Now we’re in the midst of another revolution. None of the old tools have gone away (words and pictures are still of paramount importance in great advertising), but there’s a powerful third element that’s present in most innovative work we’re seeing these days. You can call it many things – experience, interactivity or online engagement – but whatever you call it, the work leverages technology in a new or interesting way. 

Since understanding technology is not the forte of most art directors or copywriters (they have enough on their plates already), many of today’s Bernbachs have realized the need for a new member in the traditional team. The common title for this new role is “Creative Technologist.”

As a new area of specialization, there are about as many creative technologist job descriptions as there are creative technologists. But Bob Greenberg of R/GA, the creative technologists’ Bill Bernbach, sums it up nicely:

“There are critical creative needs that didn't exist in the old advertising. Advertising is no longer just about the display ad or the TV commercial or the banner; it's about creating meaningful tools and architecting user experiences. Our technology group, they can keep up to speed technically with the top people at HP or IBM. But they also understand how to work with others to create an application that will lead to community."

When you add technology to the equation, you get ideas like this:

Nike+ earned R/GA Adweek’s Digital Campaign of the Decade in 2009.

Job Descriptions are So 1960

A Creative Technologist can come from many backgrounds. But it’s generally someone who has good knowledge of programming and can write code, but who also has a passion for creativity and big ideas. And someone who can look ahead to the new and developing technology. It’s a pretty tall order.

So what does a CT do? It varies greatly between agencies. But I like how Trevor O’Brien, McKinney’s Creative Technology Director sums it up:

Mark Avnet of 360i has this to add:

“They sketch with technology, just like a visual creative can sketch with a pencil. They’re steeped in strategy, so the things they come up with make sense – it’s not about technology just for the sake of technology. The experiences they design address real needs of people and brands.”

It’s probably one of the most interesting jobs in advertising today. A CT spends a good deal of his or her time experimenting with new technology and using it to solve problems that haven’t even been defined yet. This constant experimentation and quest for innovation keeps the job interesting. And the new experiences that come out of this experimentation have the potential to captivate and delight consumers, and turn them into advocates for your brand. That’s our ultimate goal.

Here are a few of our own examples, showing what can happen when creative technologists are invited to the concepting couches at BR.

Honor Angus (McDonald’s):

http://www.honorangus.com/

Love Letters (Elbow Chocolates):

http://www.elbowchocolates.com/loveletters/

Seek Your Balance (Commerce Bank):

http://seekyourbalance.brmethod.com/

Stache The Halls (Self-Promotion):

http://stachethehalls.com/

Although we’ve had creative technology people at BR for as long as we’ve been doing digital work, it hasn’t been a formal role or title until now. We feel that formalizing the role will help elevate and validate the discipline, while helping to alleviate the identity crisis that some technical folks face in the ad agency world.

Are you a Creative Technologist, or do you work in an agency or organization that has people acting in similar roles? We’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences.

Reposted from http://bartolucci.posterous.com

by Joe Bartolucci

Hello and greetings from the Midwest (now a little further south).

I’m in a pitch where the RFP states “We want to see Integration, Integration, Integration.”

Okay. So they want integration, that’s pretty clear. However, when you dive into it, clients have different meanings of integration. Mostly, they have a very uninformed idea of integration, which I call “Matchy-Matchy” or “Matching Luggage.” See the attached photo of matching luggage.

 

 

Not only is it pretty uninspiring (I chose something ugly ), but all the pieces of luggage pretty much do the same thing, they hold your stuff.

If you are someone more experienced at building integrated campaigns, you realize a better expression of this might be something like this photo of a grilling set.

 

 

 

All the pieces look somewhat similar, right? But every single piece within the set is designed to do something very specific (much like all of our media channels available to us today).  All of them used together hopefully deliver something very successful (& tasty).

So if you’re off to design some integrated marketing campaign, it’s best to understand what each medium is best at doing and don’t try and make each medium do everything… or the same thing (like luggage). Try to strategize around making your campaign act differently in different media and leverage the strengths of each. And please don’t try and make everything look exactly alike, because if you're clients are smart, that's all you get credit for.

Wishing  @Jess3 could make an amazing info-graphic to explain this better? Hollah if you want to work on it together. @bartonow

 

One of the great things about this industry is when we're able to share good news. We put it up and spread it around far and wide. Well this good news should spread itself it's so sweet!

BR has been a partner with Hostess Brands for six years. We started with project work, then we were awarded their snack cake work and then the media for the company's brand portfolio. It's been a fantastic relationship that's been characterized by hard work, great creative and a deepening trust. Here's some of our work for Hostess:

We'd been working with Hostess for a while and they decided to call a review for their agencies. Grey and us were the participants. We put our all into this pitch. Hostess is a great brand and we were pumped up to keep the business. We were incredibly excited when we won the entire Hostess Brands advertising portfolio. It was a great victory and it shows how committed we are to becoming true business partners with our clients. Plus we do love us some Hostess snacks!