Which creative elements seem to work the best in emerging media? Which don't seem as effective?

Emerging media has forever changed the communications dominion enjoyed by print and broadcast media. This shift has happened so rapidly that many integrated marketing communications (IMC) professionals continue to deliver products from a media world that no longer exists. Today every reader is a publisher and every click a vote in the marketplace of ideas, goods, and services. It is a data-rich world where every click and byte of each information transaction can be tracked. It's clearly time to explore new creative options!

Presenting the final creative keynote presentation for Breakthrough iMedia Summit 2007 Anne Benvenuto, EVP of strategic services for R/GA, used the mythological archetype Hydra -- a serpent figure with many heads -- to explain how agencies need to change their internal processes to successfully adapt to the demands of the new media market.

‘"The Hydra has new needs," Benvenuto said, using the metaphor to infer that today's media leaders need to inspire their teams to new heights to get the best outcome from emerging platforms and consumer-relevant content.
"Traditional media teams are not used to working with interactivity or with the people who bring those ideas to the table," Benvenuto said, attributing this divide to the fact that old media is rooted in a linear narrative, the basic concept behind TV. But it takes innovation and inspiration to stretch media concepts far enough to meet the behavioral and experiential demands of today's consumer.
Faced with consumers who are avidly co-creating and expecting high levels of creative outreach to win their loyalty -- or interest -- what are marketers doing to capture the online audience? …. One of the solutions, Benvenuto said, is to embrace complexity, and that means navigating through the broad array of deliverables in today's media world:’

So, as new media comes to us very fast, furious and with great complexity, which creative elements seem to work the best and the least? Thorough attention to layout, graphics, color and other creative aspects must be considered in order to be user-friendly and inviting. Too many links, photos or graphics may distract or even deter visitors, so the correct balance is vitally important. First impressions are key, and remember, you never get the opportunity to make first impressions twice!

What special, eye-catching innovations are companies using to start and build relationships with consumers? Are they working?

Acquiring and building consumer relationships today are quit different, especially through the use of new media. New media, such as mobile marketing, blogs, RSS feeds, podcasts, in-game advertising, and social marketing, have impacted traditional communications. And yes, they are working. Businesses are effectively integrating these new media opportunities into their marketing and sales strategies.

Today, consumers are empowered in ways like never before. With dozens of product choices available at the click of a mouse or through other mobile devices such as PDAs, the concepts of "instant gratification" and "personalization" are no longer the exception; they are the rule. If a consumer can't get what they need or want immediately, it's pretty simple to find other alternatives. Therefore, companies must utilize these new media technologies, and their eye-catching abilities to stay in the game.

Mobile marketing, for example, allows for the opportunity to deliver the right message to retail shoppers at the moment of decision – in and away from the store. This both improves the experience for the shoppers and increases the advertiser’s worth. Other new media avenues such as blogging, social marketing, and podcasts also offer great consumer relationship building opportunities.

Some of the factors that make blogs powerful as marketing tools include personal interaction through comments, instant notification of page updates through RSS feeds, and the overall friendly personalized tone and writing of the blog posts themselves. This coupled with the proven high search engine optimization value of blogs make them a marketer’s dream for building customer relations. The marketing purpose of the blog is for developing longer term relationships between the business and the general public. Over time, the readers naturally gravitate toward purchasing the company’s goods and services. A blog is relationship marketing at its best. The blogger provides helpful information, and links to other sites that benefit the readers. The visitors return the business' generosity with their purchasing dollars.

Buzz-building Techniques for Bloggers

Effective blogging is all about the “buzz” that you create. After all, who wants to spend time writing a blog if no one sees it or comments?
There are many ways to build buzz, but the bottom line is you have to “create” the buzz it just doesn’t happen – at first anyway. If done effective, though, you may be very surprised!
Below are several buzz building suggestions:

1) You should first make sure that your blog is viewable and accessible
2) Choose an audience for your blog; write quality content; and update often
3) Add your blog to blogger’s listings
4) Add your blog URL in your email signature block
5) Sumbit your address to blog search sites and directories such as Technorati, Popdex, and LS Blogs.
6) Submit blog to all search engines
7) Link to as many other blogs as possible
8) Install a blogroll, a very simple social networking scheme
9) Be an active commenter and leave a link back to your blog
10) Offer to exchange links on your site under your links section.

Why do we want to create buzz? What is all “the buzz” about buzz? Buzz is being created about everything from new products, to book reviews, to the adventures of motherhood. For products and services, it offers a low-cost, high-reach opportunity that hasn’t been possible. It allows us to come in contact with our audience and get real feedback which is invaluable. For individuals, such as the new mother seeking advice from those who have already trodden the path, it opens her doors to an endless amount of advice and feedback and the opportunity to exchange thoughts, joy and concerns with others who care.

You may say that blogging is connecting the people of our world one blog at a time!

What are the ethics involved in the use of emerging media in integrated marketing communications?

Emerging media through digital capabilities has expanded the integrated marketing communications (IMC) opportunities but it has also brought with it new ethical issues. Many feel that marketing through the use of digital media is intrusive. While the opportunity to market through digital media avenues is exciting for IMC professionals, we must be very careful not to cross the line and always remain ethical in our practices. Currently, the government only minimally regulates Internet marketing and therefore, until there are regulations put in place by the government, unfortunately, each individual is acting on his own code of ethics.

One area of great concern is consumer privacy. Recently many privacy and consumer groups have come together to recommend a "Do Not Track List" and other policy solutions to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in order to offer consumers more control over online behavioral tracking.

Another area of concern is how intrusive can we be as IMC professionals without crossing the ethical line? For example, the youth market is more Internet-savvy than any other demographic; therefore they are a prime target audience of emerging media. Emerging media allows us to reach such prime targets while playing video games, surfing on the Web, by cell phone, etc.

Even journalists have to recheck their ethical standings as they contribute to online accessible articles. As these new forms of storytelling emerge, new technologies move to newsroom desktops and new efficiencies promise to change the dynamics between information providers and consumers, the line between news and opinion can easily be blurred, imperiling the credibility of the practitioners and their organizations. A team of online journalists from across the country came together to discuss the issues surrounding their work, and they created a set of guidelines for maintaining ethical journalism on the Web.

How is emerging media being used to enhance integrated marketing communications?

The best way to answer this question is to visit Media Week’s Digital Download . Upon entering this page you feel as though you have been propelled into the next century. With eye-catching advertisements of its own, and headlines such as U.S. Game Industry Sales Remain Robust and California Web Sales Tax Bill Faces Long Odds you will very quickly realize how different the advertising world has become.

One very effective advertiser on this page is Tremor Media, whose marketing slogan is “a seismic shift in advertising.” This slogan very effectively states what is happening within integrated marketing communications (IMC) – “it’s seismic activity!”

Successful IMC today is all about understanding and effectively using these “seismic” new media avenues. From in-gaming advertising, to Bluetooth marketing capabilities, to well created widgets, these tools are changing the way marketers showcase their products and consumers shop.

But how are these new media being used to enhance integrated marketing communications? First, we need to understand that today’s consumers aren’t like they use to be. There aren’t as many people reading newspapers, magazines, or even watching television. What they are doing is spending more time on web sites, on cell phones, playing video games, or participating in social networking or blogging. Therefore, today’s consumer is best known as the “wired consumer.” If you are an IMC professional, it is imperative that you understand the wired consumer.

The wired consumer opens up many new opportunities for IMC.
 The opportunity to reach a pre-qualified audience
 The opportunity for far greater exposure
 The opportunity for far greater exposure at a significantly lesser amount.

Advertisers now have the ability to target audiences where they are receptive to advertising messages – on hand-picked web sites with relevant content that they really care about; via cell phones and Bluetooth technology when they are near or attending a special event; while playing video games; and the list goes on. Campaigns can now utilize behavioral targeting, contextual targeting, standard channels, geography, day-part, browser type, operating system, and connection speed targeting to ensure that your ads are seen by the right audience, and only the right audience to make the most of your media budget and deliver a larger return on investment.

It’s Time for Marketers “To Get in the Game!”

Gaming (In-Game Advertising) refers to the use of computer and video games as a medium in which to deliver advertising. Gaming is one of the fastest growing global entertainment forms and presents unique marketing opportunities for brands targeting hard to reach consumers – specifically young adult males 18-34 and females who make up 30% of gamers. The latest developments in video game hardware and software deliver truly unique, ultra-immersive entertainment experiences and are the ultimate way to connect with a large audience that is highly engaged and can be targeted to meet your needs.

Hundreds of advertising firms have been created or have switched their focus to accommodate this highly sought-after type of advertising. In 2002, Massive Incorporated, a subsidiary of Microsoft, was formed to develop in-game advertising. Massive’s website touts them as a “pioneer in new media” who has developed a leading video game network. Massive offers great examples of different ways to advertise through gaming on their website. According to Massive, in 2005, spending on in-game advertising was $56 million (USD), and they expect this figure to grow to $1.8 billion by 2010.



IGA Worldwide, another prominent developer in this new form of advertising, says “70% of advertisers state that contextual advertising makes games more relevant,” and “one billion eyeball hours can be generated by a top-selling game.” IGA predicts this fastest growing entertainment sector to be a $2 billion industry by the end of the decade.

Still another leader in this industry, NeoEdge Networks’ chairman Nolan Bushnell founded the Atari Corporation in 1971 and is often referred to as the “Father of the Video Game industry.”

Marketing Opportunities in Chat Rooms

Who would think of using chat rooms as a marketing medium? Not I – until recently that is when I had a conversation with someone who had and then my curiosity was peaked!

A chat room (or chatroom) is a term used primarily by mass media to describe any form of synchronous conferencing, occasionally even asynchronous conferencing. The term can mean any technology ranging from real-time online chat via instant messaging and online forums to fully immersive graphical social environments.

Have you ever been to a chat room and posted a message? If so, did you consider giving an advertising pitch? If not you may have missed a golden opportunity.
Chat Room Marketing is the use of online chat rooms to promote your product or service. Chat rooms are usually broken into categories and it is important to find the right one where your targeted audience gathers. Create a chat room profile with your ad, business info, or signature file. Announce to everyone in the chat room something interesting or free that's offered on your web site. This will draw visitors to your web site.

Always be aware of chat room rules before engaging the visitors in a sales pitch that could be considered SPAM. Send electronic messages to target people in the chat room that would be interested in your products or services to try to initiate a conversation with them. After a few moments indirectly bring your sales pitch into the conversation. This is a great way to do one-on-one selling electronically. Do not directly SPAM them with your messages.

Another great idea is to have a chat room on your Web site which will create an online community and bring visitors to your web site. You could possibly host a free online seminar in your chat room about a subject of your expertise or schedule experts to speak in your chat room. You can also use a chat room as a communications tool to meet with current customers to answer questions or solve problems.
Make sure your spelling and grammar is correct when chatting, so people understand what you are typing. Use some chat room emotions and acronyms to help people understand you're typing like " :D " to show you are laughing or " :) " to show you are smiling.

Marketing your products or services in chat rooms is a more personal way to gain new customers. Prospects are actually communicating with you instead of reading your ad.

Just exactly what are RSS Feeds?

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication, and is used to describe the technology used in creating feeds. RSS is one of the two main families of web syndication formats used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts; Atom is the other. Web syndication is a form of syndication in which a section of a website is made available for other sites to use. All web feed formats are based on XML (Extensible Markup Language), a text-based computer language used to describe and distribute structured data and documents.

Syndication benefits both the websites providing information and the websites displaying it. For the receiving site, content syndication is an effective way of adding greater depth and immediacy of information to its pages, making it more attractive to users. For the transmitting site, syndication drives exposure across numerous online platforms. This generates new traffic for the transmitting site — making syndication a free and easy form of advertisement.

Web feeds (RSS feeds) have some advantages compared to receiving frequently published content via email:

• When subscribing to a feed, users do not disclose their email address, so users are not increasing their exposure to threats associated with email: spam, viruses, phishing, and identity theft.
• If users want to stop receiving news, they do not have to send an "unsubscribe" request; users can simply remove the feed from their aggregator.
• The feed items are automatically "sorted" in the sense that each feed URL has its own sets of entries (unlike an email box, where all mails are in one big pile and email programs have to resort to complicated rules and pattern matching).
A "Feed Reader" is required for using Web Feeds. This tool works like an automated e-mail program, but no e-mail address is needed. The user subscribes to a particular web feed, and thereafter receives updated contents, every time updating takes place. Feed Readers may be online (like a webmail account) or offline. Recently a number of mobile readers have arrived to the market. An offline web feed is downloaded to the user's system. Feed readers are used in personalized home page services like iGoogle or My Yahoo or My MSN to put content such as news, weather and stock quotes appear on the user’s personal page. Content from other sites can also be added to that personalized page, again using feeds.

A web feed is a data format used for providing users with frequently updated content. Content distributors syndicate a web feed, thereby allowing users to subscribe to it. Making a collection of web feeds accessible in one spot is known as aggregation, which is performed by an Internet aggregator. A web feed is also sometimes referred to as a syndicated feed.

In the typical scenario of using web feeds, a content provider publishes a feed link on their site which end users can register with an aggregator program (also called a feed reader or a news reader) running on their own machines; doing this is usually as simple as dragging the link from the web browser to the aggregator. When instructed, the aggregator asks all the servers in its feed list if they have new content; if so, the aggregator either makes a note of the new content or downloads it. Aggregators can be scheduled to check for new content periodically.

To explain all of the above in a visual context, see below:

1)
An RSS link appears on a website indicating feeds are available.

2)
After clicking on the RSS link you are taken to an RSS directory which gives you a list of all the feeds available.

3)
After making a selection of feed, you are directed to a page which tells you more about feeds and how it will work. Then it asks you to click one more time to "subscribe to this feed".

4)
Next, a screen will come up telling you where the feed will be saved on your computer and how to access it.

5)
To view your feeds, click the Favorites Center button and then click Feeds.

That is exactly what RSS feeds are!

Using Widgets in Marketing

Confused about how you can use widgets, gadgets and buttons in marketing?



Example widgets

What are widgets?
Widgets are visual tools made available on a web site or on a user's desktop. (The example widgets shown above can be found in the right-hand column of this post, along with other widgets.) They either provide some functionality, like a calculator or they provide real-time information, for example on news or weather.
They are often placed in the left or right sidebar, or in the body of an article. They are relatively easy for site owners to implement, especially if a widget template is used from a source such as GoodWidgets.com. There are several different types of widgets:

1. Web widgets.
These are buttons that create click-throughs. Many times partners will place these on their site and it will help drive visitors to your site and/or engage visitors with your brand when they're on other sites.

2.Google gadgets.
Google has many ready-made gadgets. It's worth considering this format so that you can syndicate it via Google. See examples of Google gadgets. (The Inspirational Quotes and Pictures and Bejeweled gadgets to the right are both Google gadgets.)

3. Desktop and operating system gadgets.
These have been around for awhile - See Skinkers gadget examples. You may have seen the BBC had a desktop Dr Who or Desktop Motty. They can work well if the brand is big enough to support it, but many feel they are invasive.
Vista, the new Microsoft OS also makes it easier to create and enable subscription to these gadgets and place them into Sidebars. See examples of Vista Sidebar gadgets.

• Google also has desktop gadgets

While gadgets may be worth considering if you are in news or travel, or high involvement brands like a football club, most feel they are too geeky to be relevant for company use.

4. Social media widgets.
You see these everywhere - they are encouraged to get users to subscribe to RSS or bookmark the page on their favorite social media site like Delicious, Digg and Technorati. They provide shortcuts for visitors and are useful for site owners to see which articles are most popular. The big plus about this approach is that they encourage inbound links at a page level, which are great for search engine option.

5. Facebook applications.
A separate mention for Facebook applications. Facebook has opened up their API to enable developers to create small interactive apps that users can add to their space to personalize it. One branded Facebook application that is in the top 10 that really shows the viral power of these apps is from Travelpod.com which allows users to compete about where they have traveled. Just Giving has a branded app with several hundred users and their more general charitable giving widget which they say is one of the main referrers to their sites.

6. Mobile widgets
Many of the widget strategies discussed above are also being introduced for mobiles also, but this is a real niche area - if you are marketing to teenagers (a big niche) or Blackberry owners (another big niche).

7. Google Gadget Ads
These should not to be confused with Google Gadgets which are incorporated into personalized iGoogle homepages. They enable advertisers to incorporate a super-compact micro site within 3rd party sites via the Google AdSense network or other sites.
They use the same ad formats as other image ads, e.g. Medium Rectangle: 300 x 250. Here is an ad example from Honda.
How can widgets support marketing?
Widgets combine a range of digital marketing techniques:
• Online PR and strategic viral marketing
• Brand advertising and Brand engagement
• Direct response sales and lead generation through affiliate marketing
Widgets have great reach potential. You can encourage partners to place them on their sites and this will help educate people about your brand, and engage with your brand when they're not on your site (which is the majority of the time).
They offer your partner sites the opportunity to add value to their visitors through the gadget functionality or content, or to add to their brand through association with you (co-branding).
They also provide a direct response mechanism, so visitors can click through to your site to buy, or sign-up to what you are offering.
So, to summarize, benefits of widgets for web marketing include:
• Increase reach
• Relatively low cost
• Engage visitors with brand - particularly useful for products which are launched which require an increase in awareness.
• Can assist with Search Engine Optimization.
The main disadvantage is that they are only one tactic in your overall digital mix, so will likely not make a dramatic impact in comparison with paid search marketing for example.

Learn How to Make and Use Podcasts

As discussed in an earlier post, a podcast is an audio file that is broadcast over the web. Incorporating podcasts into your web sites has many benefits. It enables you to distribute audio/video content in addition to printed materials, like brochures or normal web content. It brings personality and interest to things like tutorials, success stories, and even sales pitches. One of the greatest benefits a podcast offers is portability. Those viewing your information no longer have to be tied to the desk for information. They can now carry it with them as they move around, on the go!

How can you produce your own podcasts? Let’s take a look.

Preproduction
Before thinking of stepping up to the microphone, much planning must be done. Preproduction takes over three-quarters of the time to produce a podcast. First keep the audience in mind. Who will listen to the podcast? Determining who exactly the audience is should help focus the podcast. The podcast will need a name. The more creative, the better! In preproduction, you must also decide upon the format for the podcast. Who will actually be heard in the recording? Should you have a host? What segments do you plan for the show? Perhaps you will want to share book reviews, conduct interviews or training. When planning, consider the length of your podcast. This will be based on your content and audience.

Recording
Recording will be a much quicker process if you have practiced what you plan to say before taping. It doesn't matter what platform or application you use to record the audio. One option is Audacity. It's open source, cross-platform, free and allows for mixing together multiple audio files. For the Macintosh platform, GarageBand is a popular choice which is also free. Many tutorials on Audacity and GarageBand can be found by Googling.

After recording, save your finished audio show at maximum quality in the native format of your audio application. That way you can go back and edit it or reuse it and you'll have a good version. Convert the file to MP3 format. Make sure you save it with a .mp3 file extension. The article Saving MP3 Files for Podcasting has more detailed information. Publish your MP3 file to your web server, and test them with any MP3 player. Create the RSS feed to your podcast.