Archive for the ‘Mobile’ Category

Digital snacking – the death of downtime?

August 13th, 2010

Next time you’re in the queue at Starbucks or Tesco, watch people.

If it doesn’t look like they’ll get served in the next few seconds, chances are they’ll start prodding at their phone. Which will be in their hand. Ready. There’s even a phrase “Blackberry jam” that has been coined to describe being stuck at tube station exits behind office workers slowing to a halt as they breathe in that fresh phone signal.  http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Blackberry%20Jam.

Increasingly, people don’t do downtime. And this includes me. I’m not proud to admit it, but I find myself digitally snacking in the those oh-so-boring seconds in-between lift floors. Or waiting for the train to pull to a stop. Or while your colleague grabs a drink before a meeting. A watched kettle might never boil, but it’s definitely enough time to read the BBC headlines. I wager that checking facebook has replaced reading a tabloid as the nation’s favourite on the loo pastime (or is that a boy thing?).

I don’t say this is a good thing. It might even be a dreadful malaise, but it’s definitely real. And it’s getting worse/faster. Multi-tasking on iPhone 4.0 means – God forbid – that no longer do we need to stand by idly whilst the Spotify app hogs the foreground. Nope – we can start a track playing and check Twitter. Why has no-one updated anything in the last five minutes?

So what does this mean for marketers?
1. Recognise that mobile is not just a different screen size, but a different occasion, involving different mind states and needs.
2. Think little and often. It could be titbits of information, mini games or a decent facebook page; brands would do well to provide snacks.
3. Speed up. Marketing has always been about getting messages across efficiently, but boy, that really matters now. Halve your copy, and double its punch.
4. Social again comes to the fore. Opening up safari, then going to Google, typing a search and clicking on results is slowwwww. Just gimme the link or a Like button to press already.
5. Or provide alternatives. The world isn’t on its way to hell in a handcart. Downtime is good, and brands that help people to switch off will be more important than ever.

Guest blog: Carl Mesner Lyons is Marketing Director at toptable. He has been in marketing since the 90s and has worked on brands such as Guinness, the Guardian, lastminute.com and Capital Radio. Read more about his take on how brands can get famous and stay relevant at http://www.talkablelikeable.com/.

iPhones, iPads and the advent of ‘shortcut search’

April 26th, 2010

The advent of Apple’s iPhone – and indeed smart phones in general – is changing how we consume media and content. Nowadays, web-based information can be accessed more readily (and more cheaply) without us necessarily having to be chained to our desks.

The behaviour of searching for web-based information on the smaller screen is, however, different to how we search on our personal computers. This is exemplified by the fact that mobile search volumes (the amount of times that people search the web on their mobile phones) have been, by and large, disappointing, to the extent that to date neither Yahoo! nor Google have been able to realise significant ad revenue through mobile search advertising.

When we’re on the move we tend to be more time poor, and the restrictions of screen size and bandwidth mean that we are more likely to limit our searches to content such as maps, or for local listings such as restaurants, and less likely to carry out in-depth search-based research for purchases such as office equipment or cars.

Another new behaviour to understand is the consumption of apps. Apps on smart phones are fast becoming short cuts to finding information and the apps development market is being flooded by brands who want to make their mark. Often this new app consumption behaviour is replacing the behaviour of web search. For example, on my PC if I want to find out if there is a National Trust property in a certain area I will open up my browser and I will search on Google for “national trust properties in [area]”; but on my iPhone I won’t search by my browser (Safari), I will open up my National Trust app, and I search within it by area. This behaviour of downloading and deploying apps to snack on information can be described as ‘shortcut search’ behaviour.

Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt has made it clear that the technology giant will be prioritising their product and technology strategy for “first screen” technology moving forwards, in order to capitalise on the larger and faster growing web markets such as India, Africa and South America (where mobile phone adoption takes precedence over personal computers). It is therefore important for digital planners to keep one-eye on the future opportunities for brands on these new platforms. And if app search and app consumption grows to be as prolific as PC-based web search over the last ten years, Google, Microsoft and the other search providers will want to capitalise in terms of advertising revenue.

For those of you who have seen or even touched one of the new iPads, it is enough to melt the heart of the most sceptical of gadget geeks. I think the experience is more akin to the iPhone experience (and eighteen months in, I am still a woman in love!) than to the Mac. It has the speed and the rich visuals of the Mac but it is a giant touch screen that glides at the swipe of your finger, and with big, friendly app buttons on it.

So the big question is: if we start booting up our iPads on the train, bus or in the car (preferably not when driving!) because the very mobile screen size and bandwidth affords us more time online, will our search behaviour be similar to our PC or Mac search behaviour i.e. via the web browser, or will be it be more comparable to mobile phone search behaviour i.e. via apps? Will one platform’s search behaviour cannibalise the other? And what will this mean for brands who rely so heavily on search traffic volume to satisfy direct response, sales and business targets? We shall wait and see!

Blog post by Amanda Davie, Managing Director of Reform

Search Engines in 2009 & Predictions For 2010

December 22nd, 2009

It’s that time of the year again. End of year roundups and predictions for 2010. It’s been a busy year in search, well in fact its been a busy decade (but we won’t go there)! If 2009 was the year of Bing, Wolfram Alpha, Google Caffeine and expansion of AdWords usage, along with everyone’s attempts at Real-Time search integration, then what does 2010 have in store for the search industry?

From a user perspective, search engines were looking east. Taking from insights in the far eastern search markets, Bing and Google focused more on becoming a one stop destination hub. From the second you type your query into Google, suggestions are sent your way. In 2009 they upgraded the suggestions to include direct links and elements such as the latest weather reports, or even parcel tracking information, all before you even click “submit”.

Personalisation was a key objective for search engines too, as user data continues to get used to determine future results and trends. However, it met a lot of critique, from many who cited that personalisation may take away from independence (with less and less “new” perspectives given to users). Just like the improvements in audio/video searches and real time search though, 2010 looks to be a big year for the development of these technologies.

As far as traditional SEO and PPC goes, Google impacted these strategies too. Lines began to blur between the two, as Google integrated local results (map results) and expandable PPC ads (integrating PPC and Google Base results together) to include sitelinks and product prices / listings. From an SEO perspective, Google spent the latter part of 2009 emphasising the need for speed – advising that a sites load time may become a big factor for optimisation in 2010.

And Google didn’t stop there, continuing their foray into a vast range of things – some of which it has been working on for a few years, such as voice recognition search, along with working on more efficient translation tools and various apps for the Android operating system. And then there were the many mash-ups of their existing offerings, such as City Tours and Social Search.

It wasn’t all bright lights for Google though, as they continued to seem out of place when it came to other forms of media, including a much criticised attempt to push the Google Chrome browser on TV and print media ads. They also took what many people felt were a step back with a more traditional pricing on “paid placement” local listings, and YouTube ads, opting away from their cost per click rates – and instead going towards the old CPM rates in some cases.

At the same time though, marketers looked closer at the impact of TV on search. Going beyond slogans that say “search for (name of brand) on Google” – marketers looked at having the celebrity presence on their search listings too. Hilary Swank, Scarlett Johansson, Oprah Winfrey and Jessica Alba were celebrities used to endorse PPC ad copy in 2009.

The merger between Bing and Yahoo looms ever present for 2010, while Yahoo Search Submit Pro calls it a day. Yahoo site explorer is rumoured to be next in line, which was the source of many an online SEO tool that analysed links. When this will happen is unclear, but it does remind many of a search marketer of the times when the Yahoo / Overture keyword tool was silently put to sleep.

And of course, it wouldn’t be an end of year / new year posting without some predictions, so here goes. Among our predictions for search in 2010, are:

1. SEO will become the darling of marketing, as recession strapped companies look to get the most of their budgets

2. SEO’s will need to know how to communicate with designers and developers (and vice versa), as factors such as load time, script usage and site coding become key SEO factors

3. Data (advertiser and customer) debates will heat up over the year, as companies like Facebook, Google, Bing, etc tread the line between insight and privacy

4. Local and retail advertisers will see Google Maps and Google Base traffic volumes soar

5. Launched in 2009 – Scoopler.com will become one to watch in the “real-time search” race

6. Search becomes the marketing channel for geniuses (or genii), as from keyword research to semantic psychology – things are about to get really interesting!

7. International SEO and PPC strategies will evolve fast in 2010, as search engines such as Baidu spent late 2009 moving towards a more westernised search methodology in both paid and natural search listings

8. Real time search still needs a fair bit of work and will look vastly different this time next year

9. Mobile search will finally catch up to all the hype its received in the last few years

Drop us a line and let us know what you think is in store for search in 2010.

Blog post by Niall Madden, SEO Director of Reform

Search and Social Media

December 3rd, 2009

There was a really interesting article in the Nov/Dec issue of B2B Marketing called “Search and social media go hand in hand” by Tom Chapman. It discusses the importance of tying up search and social media efforts. However, it got me thinking about how there are very few businesses doing this at the moment, and very few doing it well enough to get anywhere near maximising their performance in each channel.

Part of the problem is that search marketers have traditionally operated in silos, coming from agencies where IP and data can be jealously protected to ensure the agency’s own longevity on the business. As such, the methods used to identify what people are searching for and what sites are ranking on those searches are rarely shared, let alone fed into a social media strategy. Further to this, as most of industry’s knowledge of search is confined within the walls of agencies and the search engines themselves, the focus has been on using the available data solely for buying decisions. To drill into this information and use it as a way of understanding consumer behavior, and the view of a market sector that a consumer is presented when searching, requires a different mindset.

Another problem is the continuing focus on using search and social media for dealing with negativity. When most people hear “search” and “social media” together they tend to think of all of the negative comments that could be showing when people search for their brand. Then they set about figuring out how to knock them off the first page rankings. This is just one (and perhaps a short sighted) example of how search can work with social media.

Using search query volume data to inform social media content development, tracking trends and rising searches to allow you to analyse the effect of your social media strategies, analysing rankings to show you where there are gaps in rich content listings that you could target to drive traffic to your social content, are more positive examples. Optimising your social content is the next big step, ensuring that everything works in tandem with your SEO strategy. There are a whole host of things you can do to inform your social media strategies, to get even more value out of your investment, and to hone how your brand is presented to consumers.

The barriers that we face to having the channels working together in true synergy are compounded by the elevation of social media to the latest “big thing”. The fact is, it’s not so different from everything else we do; social content development decisions should be driven by the same data and thought processes as all other content.

In Digital, we tend to specialize in different channels and think of them independently. The consumer doesn’t see separate channels though, they have one all encompassing experience. Specialists from each channel need to rally together to pool their knowledge and work harder together to align their efforts, not say “oh yes, we can do that” when a client asks about a different channel if it’s not their core specialism. Communication, open mindedness, and a willing approach will help us get these channels working better together, helping us unlock the true value of both.

The reinvention of an all together more grown up search

November 19th, 2009

Search, for some has always been a dirty word. Swathed in mystery for a long time with images of wizards in ‘black hat’s’ springing to mind whenever SEO was mentioned. Lots of nerdy types claiming to have the magical fairy dust to get to number one in Google and such like. Then things started to change. Every man and his goat was ‘doing search’ with hundreds of agencies claiming to be the experts. Confusing for the client and a bad user experience all round for those of us in the industry.

Google’s tools in particular mean that literally anyone can do it, but it is now starting to be recognised that, although anyone can do it, in order to really benefit from search’s efficiencies, clients need to take more responsibility for how search is actually working for them, instead of just switching it on and waiting to see what happens.

These days change is still afoot but new trends are emerging in the way people purchase and manage their search marketing. Many of the UK’s biggest online retailers now handle all matters pertaining to search in house, with roles filled by ex agency gurus or mathematical whizz kids who are very good at excel. J There are plenty of reasons for looking after search in house. Often, dissatisfaction with agency service levels, or lack of transparency, but also the realisation that search is an integral part of marketing for any business nowadays, and it needs to be positioned within the overall strategy and understood by all stakeholders in the business.

In the agency world too, things are changing. Search is being given a new value at different ends of the process chain. Design and build agencies are being asked by their clients to work on their search strategy, PR agencies are overwhelmed with requests to manage online PR, and they all need to pull up their socks and get stuck in, and ask for help where they need it from bona-fide search experts if they want to maintain their quality of offering across everything they do.

There isn’t any mystery to search, but it requires a lot of patience, and analysis, and it can be laborious, tedious even and, well, it’s not very glamorous. But, one thing is clear: it’s undergoing a reinvention, which Reform is glad to be a huge part of, where search is at last a big cog in the process for all sized and shaped clients from the first website ideas to their 10 year business plan.

Search has come a long way in its early years as a marketing channel. But it is still immature, and we all need to take responsibility – clients, agents, engines and trade associations – to take the industry to a new level of innovation and efficiency. It’s time for search to grow up. To be reinvented.

We are conducting research into how people use search as a marketing medium. If you would like to take part, please click on the link here: www.reformdigital.com/research

Who are you talking to, Mr Advertiser? What do you want me to do??

November 12th, 2009

 

I like adverts. In fact, I really like some of them.

I’m that annoying person who laughs out loud in the cinema. I get there early so I can see them before the film starts. And, let’s face it, a tube journey would be dull without them too, so we should embrace them. The good ones that is. The ads I like best are the ones that work. The ones that have a hard hitting message or a funny story within .

Sometimes they are really clever and you might not see it at the first glance. You need to look deeper, and when you get it they make you smile or frown or tut- depending on what the aim is.

So what is really annoying me at the moment are the Yahoo! ads that have been popping up all over the place. What the hell are they trying to tell us? What do they want to sell to us? I can’t work it out. Apparently it’s all about me. It’s personal. I’ve been told by people on the inside at Yahoo that the ads do not feature models but rather ‘real people’. That would explain the wooden poses. But what do they mean? Where is my call to action? Most people in the non media savvy world still think of yahoo as an email provider and these adverts are not exactly going to change that.

Someone said to me just the other day “I didn’t know that Yahoo had a search engine” but I don’t roll my eyes and explain how it all works any more. I spent 4 years doing that while I worked for Yahoo search. It seems to me that Yahoo could have just put up massive billboards on roundabouts around the UK saying “Hey! Yahoo also has a search engine” and they would have achieved so much more.

They are not the only big media owner trying to show us some love right now though. Oh no. However, Microsoft has got it right. All along the travelator in Waterloo yesterday, I was being bigged up by Microsoft. They listened to us, the normal folk. They made changes that people like me suggested. We count. Microsoft appreciates us. Smiley happy people beamed at me from large ads.

Happy happy happy.

I got on the Northern line wondering what Windows 7 means for me. Even though I had not played any role in the Windows 7 release, I saw the ad, understood what they wanted me to think and now I am aware of the product AND I even know some of the new feature improvements. Well done Windows. Their ads picture people (who may or may not be ‘real people’) and it doesn’t matter to me at all because I can see what they are representing.

Shop ’til you virtually drop

October 15th, 2009

I heard a lot about ecommerce buzz strategies in a workshop at the Internet Retailing show this week. E-commerce at its most sexy, with ‘get the look’ getting intimate on knickerpicker.com, Virtual carpeting with a photo of your house on Shaws Floors and My deco and other “me commerce” strategies from Steven Hampson of e-inbusiness.

As someone with no design experience (and very little creative flair), even the most basic faceted search technology is fascinating to me and, as a keen fashion site frequenter, I am loving the idea that I might be able to choose a little avatar, much like a star doll or mini me version of myself who will virtually try on items and give me a twirl in a cat walk show while I sit in my dressing gown at my kitchen table. It’s here already- well, for the most part only in the US so far, but it is aready a day to day (virtual) reality, and you don’t need to put a super unglamorous headset on to try it out. Unless you really want to…

Likewise, if you want to design a new bathroom, even old B&Q are in on the act with a lovely tool for having a look before you buy.

What really got me interested though was that all this can apparently increase a site’s performance in search. 500% more pages indexed in Google and 80% increase in SEO coverage! That’s according to US super store Sears who have invested heavily in interactive, customised merchandising to engage their customers and make them more likely to buy. Similarly, by including video demos of the experiences buyagift offer, their conversions shot through the roof at 50%.

All goes to show that the consumer knows what they want and they keep telling the e-tailers. With people tweeting their every thought these days, the retailers are pandering to the consumer. Can’t afford to ‘do a Habitat’ so they must continue to tread carefully with social media, but by opening up their sites to allow the youth market to share what they are considering buying and get their friends’ opinions before they buy, they are hopefully securing themselves a loyal customer base… for now.

We need to look beyond the media landscape to predict future media change

October 5th, 2009

 

It’s normally around this time of year that the next year predictions start to tumble from the media trend spotters.

And some trends don’t require a crystal ball or an econometric model to forecast, for example:
• Yes, Google probably will make big waves in the smart phone market
• Most phone and computer manufacturers will try and replicate Apple’s super intuitive touch screen technology
• Online TV consumption will rival traditional box set consumption
• Social media tools such as Twitter will amplify – and potentially replace – some traditional PR and publicity vehicles

But let’s forget about 2010 predictions and look ahead to ten years time. How different will our media consumption habits really be by 2020?

Nigel Gwilliam, Head of Digital at the IPA has recently returned from a fact finding mission to Japan and China – two nations with a very different media landscape to here in the UK, and for many different and sometimes contrasting reasons. Here are some of the IPA’s observations in terms of digital media consumption:
• The Japanese have been using smart phones since the late 90s. Email on the move is “so 1999, darling” (I don’t know the Japanese for darling, sorry!)
• In China there are over 200 internet addition treatment centres and boot camps
• In 2007, half of the top ten best selling books in Japan were written on – and for – electronic handheld reading devices
• In Tokyo, teenage girls can attend a fashion show and buy the clothes they see on the catwalk there and then – via their mobile phones

Are these signs of future times for Western media consumption? Not necessarily. Media habits evolve as a result of external influencing factors in society such as economic growth (particularly the import/export market), government regulation, cultural attitudes and education (the teaching of English as a foreign language).

Let’s look to the East for some examples of factors that have influenced media consumption:
• In Tokyo, it is frowned upon to talk on the subway. So people don’t talk on their phones, they email on them (cultural)
• Chinese netizens prefer anonymity, so they don’t publish (blog) as much as UK netizens (government and the “censor culture”)
• There are no Japanese mobile phones outside of Japan (economic)
• Manufacturers and mobile phone networks work together – product doesn’t necessarily come before marketing (economic)
• The isolation of single-child families in China has led to an explosion in online socialising (cultural)

As avid, future-gazing media planners we need to look beyond 2010 and who will be the next Google killer, and think about the broader socio-economic backdrop and how this will impact digital Britain in the years ahead. What factors will influence the adoption of new media and new devices? What will be the barriers? And the enablers? It’s certainly a complex predictive model. Perhaps we need a crystal ball after all?

Procurement officers must understand the ‘true’ value of digital services

September 30th, 2009

Procurement officers have grabbed a few headlines of late. The headline of an article in Media Week (Sep 22) suggested they are a misunderstood bunch, regarded as “hard-nosed characters”, but moving away from the notion all they care about is cheap by “seeking to derive more value from their relationship with media owners”. Surely – in procurement speak – that amounts to much the same thing: for “more value”, see ‘squeeze a few more drops out of the agency’.

Ok. Maybe I have misunderstood the purpose of the article, but it’s clear there remains an unhealthy level of opinion that all agencies are cutting deals using advertiser volumes. To say “if an agency sits in front of you and says it does not get rebates or discounts, you are working with the wrong agency” doesn’t say a lot for their relationship with the agency and attempts to tar all agencies with the same dirty brush, which is just a bit unfair.

I spent eight or so years running i-level’s finance team. They never enter into any long term or volume deals which ever resulted in discounts or backhanders from media owners and I doubt they were alone. They focused on getting clients to understand digital’s value and worked hard to deliver customers for clients – and lots of them.  Might not have been a view shared by other agencies at the time, but they were able to win business from traditional players who focused trading among the top ten sites and no more. Most of its clients got it and I’m happy to put forward a few names of some great procurement people who got it. Didn’t stop them from trying to chip away, but they appreciated what a great agency could do and played fair. Come to think of it, judging by the article their bosses might think they’re a soft touch, so I’ll keep their names to myself.

Anyway, until the point digital is perceived to be commoditised like traditional channels, there is room to do as most of the procurement officers say. Agencies have a great opportunity to build relationships with them, educate them on the agency’s stand out features to create a platform to support the value they put on their services.

Price audits on display buying are valuable, but don’t let that be the only means of measuring an agency. There is nothing to stop a big, multi media buying shop buying the inventory cheaper on the top sites, but it might deliver a fraction of the customers it could have done. Health checks on their effectiveness and ROI achieved go some way to giving procurement the markers the business really needs to look at.

Who knows? Maybe you can convince them to pay agencies well when you beat agreed targets, but accept it to swing the other way when results are a long way off. Maybe then we’ll stop both sides resisting the right of the other to be paid to do the job properly because you know that under that “hard-nosed” exterior is someone just like you and me.

The power of pretty things and why the iphone is ridiculous

September 22nd, 2009

Everybody seems to want- or already have- an iphone these days. Some look after theirs in a little plastic case, lest it should become dirty or sweaty. Others, like myself, show no respect for the beast that is Apple’s baby and throw it nonchalantly into the dirty depths of a handbag to scratch against my keys.

Physical phone abuse aside though, that’s just the beginning with an iphone. Everyone has their different little ways and isn’t it great that there is bound to be ‘an app for that’. Ugh. It’s so pleased with itself- presenting all manner of nonsense that you can’t really manage without. I mean why does my colleague Amanda need that app that makes balloon animals?- but she paid $1.99 of her hard earned cash for it. Are we all going simple or are we still simply impressed by the power of this exciting medium which can make everything mobile?

Either I’m getting old or it’s gone too far. My very good friend commented that she would like an iphone at the weekend. “Why?” I asked her, with genuine interest. “To have everything in one place” was her comment. Clearly that is not why she wants it or she could have pretty much any phone on the market today.

She then went on to say that she “didn’t really need the internet on her phone” so I explained to her that her £40 a month would be somewhat wasted if she did not bother with the key selling feature on the iphone. “Anyway” she said “I really want to stay with Orange so it won’t be until next year”

Brilliant. It goes to show that Apple have done it again, at least for the time being. The iphone is sleek and shiny (and often covered in makeup in my case) and it can make everything all touchy feely and sexy instead of business like in a Blackberry way. That’s why so many people want one.

That’s that then. I’ll be sticking with it until something else comes along. Even though I’ve now got repetitive strain to my fingers from prodding the screen, and I’ve completely lost the ability to use a regular mobile phone. Even though I think that the wireless connection is much slower than a Nokia or a Blackberry. And even those irritating screen freezes it does- so similar to a Microsoft office product in nature- have now become a part of day to day life.  Just like the voicemail it sends to me from 1969. In fact, mine is so vain it even takes photos of itself…..