Online Video Has Too Much Potential; Don’t Make TV Broadcaster Mistakes
Forget the fiscal cliff--focus on fiscal 2013

Whether you’re in consumer or B2B, it seems like everyone’s jumping on the video bandwagon to connect with customers and clients and to show they’re cool. However, if you’re using video to steer prospects closer to a purchase decision, then you better take the high road and keep the intrusive hard-sell to a minimum.

New research from AOL and QaulVu indicates that consumers would rather be pitched prior to watching short videos rather than being pitched at the beginning and middle while watching longer videos online. "Consumption habits are evolving rapidly, and we're seeing consumers display many of the same ad avoidance tendencies online than they do with TV," said Ran Harnevo, senior vice president of The AOL On Network, in a press release.

Our Take. Duh! But before dismissing this report as just another expensive exercise in restating the obvious, let’s drill down into some useful kernels of insight:

The AOL/QualVu study found that ads in short-form content actually produce significantly higher recall, brand affinity and purchase intent than those in long-form content.

Additional findings include:

• Ads in short-form videos are more effective than ads in long-form content-- short-form video produced a 25 percent higher brand recall and a 42 percent higher purchase intent for the featured product or service.
  
• Viewers are adopting traditional avoidance behaviors during ads within long-form videos. If ads are too frequent and interruptive; they’ll avoid them altogether (by walking away, going to other sites, multitasking with their phone). This is the same “annoyance” behavior that is demonstrated when viewing television without the use of a DVR.
  
• Consumers want content that’s more targeted and more humorous. Researchers found that 67 percent of respondents would be willing to answer a question to make their ads more personalized and enjoyable.
  
•  ‪Consumers understand the exchange of free content for advertising, but they want to make sure their time tradeoff of watching ads also benefits them. They found coupons, contests and links as the most positive forms of engagement.

Don’t insult the viewer’s intelligence. They’re busier than ever and have a myriad of myriad of ways to bail on you instantly if you bore them, bother them or overbear them with your message.

Fiscal cliff and beyond

Whether or not Congress sends us over the fiscal cliff next week, it can’t stop the calendar from rolling over into 2013. You have budgets to meet, customers to serve and new products to roll out. At the end of the day, most of you are in businesses that won’t live or die by new capital gains rates on the ultra wealthy and a few more bucks taken out of the average worker’s paycheck. They’ll be some residual impact, but the overall macro economy is showing more positive signs than ever and the so-called cliff is more likely to be a gradual slope than a one-step painful trip to the auto body shop.

Are we out of the woods yet? Not by a long-shot, but it’s going to take some real legislative hubris in Washington to put us on a direct flight to Recessionville.

Here are some positive macro-indicators that have us encouraged:

• The U.S. economy grew faster than expected (3.1%) in Q3 according to the Commerce Department. Consumer spending, which the Department says fuels 70 percent of the economy rose 0.4 percent in November and incomes rose 0.6 percent, the biggest gain in 11 months
  
• Homebuilding permits reached their highest level since July 2008 in November the Commerce Department reported Wednesday. Further evidence of consumer confidence and demand is that mortgage rates are actually inching higher according to a separate report from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
  
• The National Federation of Independent Business reports that the share of small business owners who say their credit needs are not being met is falling.
  
• Corporate profits are at a high. They’ve amassed mountains of cash waiting for fiscal cliff and other issues to be resolved. They have tons of cash available to buy cash or hire people when the feel secure enough about the recovery.
  
• Consumers have become a lot more responsible about debt. They’ve significantly deleverage themselves since the downturn began and are finally feeling a little better financially, especially with housing market bottoming out according to experts.
  
• Household formation is picking up: Young people are finally getting some form of employment and moving out of the parental nest and into their own homes, according to Moody’s Analytics. Demographic data suggest there should be about a million more households headed by younger Americans today than there actually are—that bodes well for continued formation of households and typically injects about $150,000 of output per household into the economy, according to Moody’s.
  
• The average vehicle on the road is at a record high of 11.2 years, according to research firm R.L. Polk. Experts expect pent up demand for new cars being unleashed (especially as job market slowly improving and workers need reliable transport to get to their jobs).

Conclusion

Have some eggnog. Unwrap those presents and let’s hit the ground running by the middle of next week. Don’t wait for the day after New Year’s. We’ve got to much work to do. The world didn’t end when the Mayan calendar expired yesterday and it’s not going to end on January 1. You customers, clients and constituents are counting on you.

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TAGS: AOL, QaulVu, Ran Harnevo, Commerce Department, fiscall cliff, online video advertising, ad avoidance, R.L. Polk, Moody’s Analytics, National Federation of Independent Business, Mortgage Bankers Association

TAGS: Building permits, Commerce Department, Seth Godin, James Hackett, Steelcase, cutting corners

Now Is Not the Time to Be Cutting Corners

We know it’s late August. It’s hot, muggy and you’ve already used up your vacation. The business and political climate is still uncertain and you’ve got too many deadlines to possibly handle before the real post Labor Day sprint kicks in. At times like this, there’s always the temptation to “mail it in,” cut corners a little and maybe try to get by with 90 percent effort or even 80.

Don’t do it.

As Steelcase CEO, James Hackett revealed in yesterday’s New York Times, “you have to practice for moments when your integrity might be tested,” such as a bad earnings quarter or a tough issue at your company. “People tend to double down and do bad things under the most extreme pressure.”

In this hyper competitive age of outsourcing and technological one upsmanship, we’re pressured to squeeze every penny out of our production process and every hour of productivity out of our workforce. But cutting costs and cutting corners in order to pump up your bottom line won’t work in the long run, argues futurist and blogger, Seth Godin in his post today, “The Race to the Bottom.”

“There's always the opportunity to cut a corner, sacrifice lifestyle quality and suck it up as we race to grab a little more market share. But the problem with the race to the bottom is that you might win.” Instead, he argues, we should strive to win the race to the top which is focused on “design and respect and dignity and guts and innovation and sustainability and yes, generosity when it might be easier to be selfish.”

OUR TAKE: As we’ve opinioned again and again in this blog, you can’t replace the value of high quality products, high quality client service and going the extra mile for your employees, strategic partners and stakeholders.

The bulls eye prioritization system

As Hackett observed, one technique that’s helped him prioritize for short-term, medium term and long term goals is to think of your work life as a bulls eye. “You put now in the center,” and the outer ring is “near” and the furthest ring is “far.” If you analyze your work calendar, how much time do you spend in each of the three zones?  “You’ve got to train yourself to work in all three zones simultaneously.” Unfortunately, it’s human nature to get pulled into the “now,” Hackett argues, and unfortunately at most organizations, the reward systems are build that way. Great leaders, he says, can transcend the short term thinking.

Macro View

Building permits rise to a 4 year high

Last week the Commerce Department reported that new building permits surged 5.1 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 717,000 units last month, the highest since October 2008. The numbers are yet another signal that the housing market is improving and experts say it could be the first time that home building adds to U.S. economic growth since 2005.

OUR TAKE: What we like about this indicator is that it points to “new” building activity, not just “sales” which in recent years has mean clearing out old inventory of bargain basement homes, factories, office space and apartments. This is potentially real investment activity and shows signs of confidence on both the consumer and business fronts.

Conclusion

As preseason football gets underway, focus hard on your basic blocking and tackling. Nail down the basics before you get too visionary, but again, don’t ever try to cut corners. As a great leader and marketing organization, however, you have to spend a little time up in the film room and up in the coaches tower to get the overview of where you are now and where you are going. No one wants to get blindsided by the unexpected or caught offside for moving to soon and too carelessly.

There are too many competitors, referees and video reviewers watching your every move.


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TAGS: TAGS: Building permits, Commerce Department, Seth Godin, James Hackett, Steelcase, cutting corners

 

Digital advertising and online video surge continues
Picking the right tool for the right job

Despite an overall gloomy forecast for global advertising, GroupM estimated positive growth for digital media in its latest report released Thursday. The global media investment management firm projected that growth in measured digital media investments will rise between 16 percent and 18 percent to approximately $100 billion globally in 2012, compared with a previous 16 percent forecast. That amount accounts for about one fifth of the entire 2012 measured ad spend.

Internet advertising budgets continue to grow in every country. The GroupM report forecast a 22 percent spending uptick in 2013, as digital spending trends continue an upward trend globally, regardless of local economic conditions.

Online video watching and advertising breaks record

More than 180 million U.S. Web users viewed a record 33 billion pieces of video content--and 11 billion ads --in June, according to comScore. Driven primarily by video viewing at YouTube.com, Google sites ranked as the top online video content property in June with 154 million unique viewers, followed by Yahoo Sites with 51 million, Facebook.com with 49 million, VEVO with 46 million and Viacom Digital with 39 million. Last month, time spent watching video ads totaled 4.6 billion minutes, with BrightRoll Video Network delivering the highest duration of video ads at 805 million minutes.

Overall, video ads reached more than half (53%) of the total U.S. population an average of 68 times during the month.

Macro View

A Commerce Department report Wednesday showed builders broke ground for more new homes in June than in any month in nearly four years. Wednesday's housing report from the Commerce Department showed home construction jumped 6.9 percent from May. Because builders cut back so sharply during the downturn, "if there's an increase in the number of households of any magnitude, the homebuilders will now benefit," Daniel Alpert, managing director at Westwood Capital, an investment-banking firm told the Wall Street Journal last week.

Meanwhile, last week’s cover story in the staid Economist argues that the U.S. economy is remaking itself (see article) thanks to the private sector. “Old weaknesses are being remedied and new strengths discovered, with an agility that has much to teach stagnant Europe and dirigiste Asia.”

What’s more, last week, the Mortgage Bankers Association said applications for home mortgages jumped last week on a surge in demand for refinancing as interest rates for 30-year mortgages fell to a record low. Other data in recent weeks has shown a sharp increase in signed contracts for home purchases in May, as well as rising home prices. “Housing continues to be the one sector of the U.S. economy that is outperforming expectations,” said Michael Gapen, a Barclays economist told Reuters.

Conclusion

Despite this morning’s sell-off in U.S. equity markets, the latest economic data confirm our economy is clearly in a slow growth mode and that won’t change much, regardless of who wins the November elections. Yes it’s going to be slow. And yes there’s going to be some growth. If you’re trying to reach your target customers, you need to be selective and online video and digital advertising absolutely have to have a place in your marketing mix—but they’re not magic silver bullets. You have to pick your spots carefully and mix video and digital into your overall tool kit.

My dad is a lot handier than I’ll ever be when it comes fixing things around the house. Sure he’d sometimes fix things that weren’t really broken, but it’s his intrepid appetite for experimentation—not a manual or eHow video--that eventually teaches him how to get the job done.

“There’s a tool for every job, and a job for every tool,” he’d admonish me. “But don’t ever try to use that fancy new cordless drill to fix everything on your Honey-Do list.”

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TAGS: Digital advertising, online video, GroupM, comScore, Commerce Department, home building, Mortgage Bankers Association, Barclays, BrightRoll Video Network

Research: B2B Marketers Not Focusing on Customer Pain Points Too much “about us," not enough WIFM

A new survey from Corporate Visions finds that four out of five (80%) B2B marketing and sales professionals think their demand generation campaigns are ineffective. Among those, content is the biggest challenge. Researchers concluded that nearly 40 percent of the 440 surveyed B2B sales and marketing pros think the single most important factor hampering their demand generation campaigns is that they aren’t “engaging” or “provocative.” Another 31 percent cite a lack of sales and marketing alignment, and 12 percent cite budget constraints. 

Perhaps more distressing was the fact that 60 percent of B2B marketing and sales professionals think their organization's demand generation campaigns focus solely on their own company's products, features, and services, rather than focusing on their customers' pain points. Not surprisingly, two-thirds (65%) of sales teams say they’re using less than one-half of the demand generation content their marketing department produces. Click to access the complete PDF infographic.

Our take: In this age of instant messaging, Tweeting, Yelping and Facebook and Pinterest posting, it’s never been easier to create content. But it’s also never been harder to stay relevant. Great educational content that really resonates with your qualified prospects must be thought about strategically and published purposefully within a nurturing campaign. We’ve found it takes at least 8 to 10 meaningful touches with your prospect before your message sinks in....so you better have message point 8 at the ready before you fire off No.1. Otherwise, you’ll be chasing deadlines and an idea black-hole that results in sloppy, superficial or otherwise ineffective thought leadership marketing.

Creating great content is hard work (who knew?!?) Respect the process and your prospect will respect you.

Micro view

Business inventories are up and retail sales fell for the third straight month in June, the Commerce Department reported yesterday, but in my own neighborhood, two of the 12 houses on our street just sold—at or near asking price-- and two of my direct neighbors are undergoing MAJOR renovation projects. The noise and dust is annoying, but at least some folks are prospering and that should give all of us a lift. Chances are you're seeing the same thing in your neighborhood.

Macro view

Despite a recent run of disappointing economic data, a broad range of experts and forecasters expect the economy to improve slightly in coming months, thanks to lower oil prices and new signs of life from sectors like automobiles and housing. Tensions in the Middle East have faded and gas prices have fallen to $3.38 a gallon from above $3.90 a gallon in April, which has left more money in American consumers’ wallets and businesses’ ledgers. Experts say every penny that the price of gas falls leaves about a billion dollars in American pockets over the course of a year, economists estimate.

The lower gas prices “will take a few months to show up” in consumer spending and confidence numbers, a Macroeconomic Advisers report said recently. But, it should lead to higher sales for businesses and greater optimism among households.

Economists pointed to surging new car sales as a good economic indicator: a sign that households are confident enough to make a major purchase and that they are accessing the credit markets. It is also a boon for auto businesses — the auto industry reported a 22 percent jump in sales in June, with some carmakers reporting that revenue increased as much as 60 percent year-on-year. And the closely watched ADP monthly survey showed that private sector employers added a strong 176,000 jobs in June.

Conclusion
It’s going to be a bumpy ridge for a while. Stay smart and stay focused. We’ll get through the summer doldrums with plenty of momentum for the elections, Q4 earnings and some clarity political and tax-policy clarity in 2013

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TAGS: Corporate Visions, Commerce Department, thought leadership, content marketing, demand generation, sale versus marketing tension