Ad Sales Blog

The thing about overlap...McDonalds takes its shot at Starbucks

When you sell media there is always overlap. Your magazine readers read other magazines, your website visitors visit other websites, etc.

But overlap can also be used to strategic advantage if you come up with a plan to pull traffic away from competitors. That is what McDonalds did to Starbucks in May of this year with a special promotion designed pull overlap business their way.

According to Experian Simmons who tracked the results of the program, "For some time, the percentage of McDonald’s customers who also visited Starbucks trended steadily at around 17 percent. This trend quickly changed upon the launch of the McDonald’s McCafe coffee line in May of 2009. In one week, the percentage of McDonald’s customers also visiting Starbucks dropped below 15 percent and remained below 15 percent for about 9 weeks."

Think about your competitors that overlap and consider what content you could deploy that could bring them over to your side.  

White papers most influential collateral for tech buyers

According to the “Eccolo Media 2009 B2B Technology Collateral Survey Report,” white papers are the most influential form of collateral for tech buyers. Eccolo surveyed the use of B2B technology collateral during tech purchases. When compared to other collateral, white papers came out on top. 

Tech buyers found "most influential": white papers 38%, brochures 28%, case studies 22%, videos 9%, podcast 3%:   

The study also offered useful information on how to make white papers more influential: 

"When asked to rank which factors would most likely increase
the influence of a white paper, respondents most
frequently responded that providing detailed technical
information would increase influence, closely followed by real-life use cases and new industry developments. Likewise, we asked respondents to rank those factors that would decrease the influence of white papers. Respondents most frequently indicated that poorly presented information would decrease a white paper’s influence, closely followed by too much focus on a product or vendor, and no inclusion of real-life case studies."

Download the study for free (reg required).

 

To catch a blogger...

Bloggers have more influence on the web than ever. Many see their influence being as great as paid advertising. But can bloggers be influenced? Last year's Technorati: State of the Blogosphere study shows us the way. When bloggers were asked what content or advertising moves them:

The biggest influence on bloggers is, by far,other bloggers. To catch a blogger's attention, you or your organization need to launch a credible blogor find credible presence on the blogosphere itself. This is good news for content publishers who can create targeted blogs that sponsors may want to support.  

Read the entire Technorati study  

How print ads help generate web leads

Let’s talk about yellow page advertising. Here’s a form of advertising designed to elicit a response. Telmetrics, an advertising call tracking company released data earlier this month demonstrating the power of a unique URL as part of a print ad.

Telmetrics measured how many solid sales leads came from yellow page ads and compared how many came from a reader picking up the phone, versus reading a URL on the ad and responding online. 

Company president Bill Dinan made the assumption that most survey respondents would say they picked up the phone to engage the advertiser. He was correct, but surprised at how close it was when only 56% of leads came in via phone calls, and 44% came through a direct response of the URL printed on the ad. The study also discovered that unique URLs like  CallFlorists2.com were more often visited than client specific domains with URL extensions like Publisher.com/florists. If you want your print ad to generate a response keep the URL in the ad and keep it unique and simple.

Read the Telmetrics report

Sell more media by putting a price on brand equity

For media salespeople who struggle with the challenge of proving the dollar value of a branding campaign this study is a blessing. Millward Brown Optimor, the study creator, does the hard work for us as it examines the "brand value" of the worlds top 100 brands and ranks them.

According to this study, "Brand Value" is the financial value of a brand, "defined as the sum of all earnings that a brand is expected to generate." By isolating revenues only associated with a company brand, true brand value is laid bare. The study is also fun. These are companies we all know and it turns the potentially dull business of ranking brand equity into a horse race. Over previous the year brand equity at Home Depot is down 16%, Pepsi is up 15%, Starbucks down 25%, and BlackBerry up 390%. Goooo Blackberry!!

On a call.

 You can use this study to make a hard connection between brand building and revenue generation. You do not need to go into every detail of the study, use the study to sell the idea that brand value is revenue value. Find a page or two from the study where the well known companies are known to your client. Now turn that same line of thought to your clients business.

Ask: How much is your brand worth? What if it were worth more? How much more revenue would come in if it were? How could this happen? The answers to these questions could help you selling a branding program.

Download the FREE 2008 30 page report: http://www.brandz.com/upload/BrandZ-2008-RankingReport.pdf

 If one of your clients is actually in the report, you can have fun on the call by comparing 2008 results to 2007 report.

Download the FREE 2007 28 page report: http://www.millwardbrown.com/Sites/Optimor/Media/Pdfs/en/BrandZ/BrandZ-2007-RankingReport.pdf

Magazines: most credible source of "information about a company"

My 7/8 post reviewed a 2008  Edelman Study that documented how young Americans rated Business magazines as #1 in credibility as a source of company information, and Wikepedia #2.

But as Gregory Kohs correctly commented, the Edelman study is not focused on young Americans, it is a world wide study focusing on business leaders.

While the "young American" finding was interesting, the more important finding is how business leaders, world wide, perceive different media.

Posted here is chart on media credibility as it relates to this broader audience. 

As with young Americans, business magazines were #1 followed by stock or industry analyst reports, then followed by Television.

This is a great report to bring on a call to document the credibility magazine advertising can bring to a marketing program.

Download the entire Edelman study

Young Americans: business magazines #1, Wikipedia #2

Which news sources young Americans find most credible might surprise you. Buried on page 14 in the "Edelman Trust Barometer 2008", an annual survey of trust related issues conducted by international PR giant Edelman, is a tiny bombshell that every business magazine publisher needs to see. 

When Americans, ages 24 to 35, were asked "How credible is each source for information about a company?" Business magazines ranked #1, Wikipedia was #2.  

On your next call.

Obviously this is a great study to show if you are selling advertising in a business magazine, but it also documents that trust exists in both traditional and new media. If you are selling an integrated package this study documents that trust can come from a variety of online and offline sources.    

Download the entire Edelman study 

Media integration through contests

One of the best ways to monetize your online media is to integrate it with your print to hold a contest. The formula works because contests invite "reader response" which advertisers see as "customer response."

Both print and web work extremely well as contest announcement vehicles but after that their different strengths separate. Contest entry processing is handled on the web--the print contest entry forms of old are fading away. But print remains the preferred announcement vehicle for winners. Calling all egomaniacs...when you win don't you want something you can hold in your hands and show your friends at a party or frame and put on your wall?. Tough to do if the winners are just posted on a website.

Integrated media is also a great way to involve advertisers. Typically to tap for the prizes. But in so doing something creating value that you can you can charge for, Heres how; people who enter a contest to win a prize are interested in owning that prize. Everyone registers but not everyone wins. After you give away the prize what you have left is  database of people who still want the prize/product but don't own it. A dream database for any advertiser.

ON your next call consider if a contest might involve some of the advertisers you call on.

There are many ways to structure advertiser involvement into contests. Media Bistro has a great pile of them on them website, a link is below:

   See some creative media contests from Media Bistro's web site

 

B-to-B digital ad revenue to top print by 2009

Burlingame, Calif.—B-to-b digital advertising revenue will outpace print ad revenue by 2009, according to a new report from market research company Outsell.

According to the report print accounted for 44.7% of the $20 billion b-to-b media revenue in 2006, compared with 28.3% for digital products and 27.0% for events. But by 2009 the roles will reverse.

B to B print revenue will account for 34.3%, 38.6% share for digital products and events 27.1%.

Read the news item on the B to B website:

http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071022/FREE/71022037/1078

Media buyers and sellers agree: Stop the buzz words!

During March 13-15 MediaPost subscribers, which include media buyers and sellers, were surveyed by Dynamic Logic and asked if there were buzzwords they would  like to  have people stop using. About half (49.5%) said yes.

Top of their "stop using" list were the buzzwords: "Web 2.0" and "engagement."

On a call, it's a good idea to check the  buzzwords at the door. The problem with words like these, is they mean different things to different people, so using them often does not advance communication. 

Download a PDF of the  survey

PS:
I don't mean to make light of the survey. It is a great trend survey that gives a view of what to expect from media buyers in the coming year.