Applegate Media Group

Sending out your own e-mail newsletters and promotions can be highly effective, but it’s not the only form of e-mail marketing. Advertising in other companies’ e-newsletters should be a part of the overall online media strategy. Advantages of e-newsletter advertising are:

1. Engaged and qualified audience

Your customers and prospects rely on e-newsletters as an information source. Your ads in e-newsletters put you in front of an audience who is looking to learn about products and services like your own with a potential intent to purchase.

2. New leads

Advertising in other companies’ e-newsletters exposes your company to a target audience who may not be customers or prospects already.

3. Connection with a well-known publishing brand

E-newsletter advertising provides an opportunity to build credibility through a relationship with a respected information source.

4. Increases your own e-mail subscriber database

E-newsletter ads can be used to collect e-mail addresses of new prospects, and grow your own in-house list.

5. Delivers hard-to-reach prospects

E-newsletters that are targeted to specific industries allow you to connect with hard-to-reach prospects or gain visibility in new markets.

6. Ability to segment

Some publishers allow segmentations of their subscriber lists, sending specific content to certain groups. This would enable you to personalize your advertising message to different groups within the subscriber list.

7. High delivery and open rate

Electronic newsletters land your advertising message right in your prospect’s email inbox. Your customers sign up to receive e-newsletters, so your message is received in a welcome context. Since subscribers accept emails from the publisher, there is less likelihood of email bouncing or ending up in a spam filter.

8. Measurable ROI

Because e-newsletters are subscription-based, publishers are able to measure their performance. They are not only able to measure the open rate, but also see who opened the email and who clicked on your ad. To boost your click-through rate, consider offering something of value – a discount, free shipping, case studies, webinars, etc.

9. Save money, resources and time

An e-newsletter advertising campaign increases your visibility to potential customers without the need for time-consuming list maintenance and content creation. Ads are quick, easy and less costly to create.

Contact Applegate Media Group at 887.515.5557 or info@applegatemediagroup.com to put together a targeted e-newsletter campaign for your business.

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• Advertising Business Marketing posted on July 15, 2010
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Product placement is a promotional tactic where a real commercial product is used in fictional or non-fictional media to increase consumer interest in the product. There are three ways product placement can occur:

1. It simply happens.

2. It’s arranged, and a certain amount of the product serves as compensation.

3. It’s arranged and there is financial compensation for placement or integration.

The goals of product placements are:

– Image recognition – make the product known.

– Functionality – placement should be implemented in a way that shows what the product does and how it can be used.

– Emotional attachment – the use of a product should illicit a positive emotional response from the audience.

Food, cleaning and beauty products as well as electronics generally do well with product placements. Beauty products, apparel, small electronics and cars are often the best product placement performers because they are purchased for social validation.

The most common types of product placement are:

Product placement in movies

If done correctly, product placement in movies can actually add the sense of reality to a movie that the use of non-branded product simply can not achieve. The best examples of product placement are seamlessly woven into the narrative. Two of the now-famous product placements are Ray-Ban sunglasses in Risky Business and America Online in You’ve Got Mail. The most successful product placements include a tie-in advertising campaign linking the product with the film and announcing the association before the movie’s release. On the other hand, poor use of product placement can seem forced and obvious, detract from the credibility and quality of the experience, and compromise the integrity of the story.

Product placement on TV

Product placement is not as widespread on TV as it is in the movies, but it is a rapidly growing industry. More commonly referred to as “product integration” in this medium, this process has to share its advertising space with traditional advertising unit — the 30-second spot. On American Idol, product placement is renewed year after year by AT&T Wireless, Coca-Cola and Ford. Unconfirmed compensation to American Idol by each of the three companies is said to be around $26 million.

In-game product placement

Gamers are an extremely attractive advertising target. They have above-average household incomes. Game consoles are becoming “digital hubs” in the living room, resulting in greater advertising exposure for all members of the household. Finally, gamers respond positively to product placement. In one study, 70% of gamers considered product placement a positive feature that added to the reality of the game. Studies have also shown that short-term recall rate of brand names in video games is upwards of 40%, with sports games taking the lead with a 54% brand recall rate. This makes video game product placement one of the most effective ways to create consumer awareness. Product placement in video games can range in degree of interactivity. Game streetscapes can contain billboards with advertisements for products. Products can also be woven into the story of a game.

Reverse product placement

While traditional product placement refers to integrating a real brand into a fictional environment, reverse product placement refers to creating a fictional brand in a fictional environment and then releasing it into the real world. In an early example of reverse product placement, the restaurant chain Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. was brought to life through its association with the film Forrest Gump. In this example, fictional product was so popular with viewers that a company decided to create a real-life version. Reverse product placement can also be used to generate buzz about a product before its launch. American Apparel launched a line of jeans in the virtual world Second Life several months before launching them in its real-world stores. Since it is often much less expensive to release a fictional product than to manufacture an actual product, reverse product placement can be used to gauge the public’s interest in a proposed new product.

One of the most important advantages of product placement as an advertising tactic is that it can not be bypassed because it is integrated into the media. Products have already found their way into movies, television, video games, music and books, but with digital technology continuing to skyrocket in both form and function, there’s a seemingly endless stream of new and innovative ways to put products in front of potential consumers.

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While bill ads have been around for a while, in general they have not been targeted based on actual transaction history. Cardlytics, the company behind this new program officially launched last November, has done just that.

How does the program work? When bank customers sign in to view their online statement, they see reward offers in three different places:

1) Alongside transactions

2) In a column on the transaction page, or

3) On a rewards-summary page.

An offer is activated once the customer actually clicks on it. Following activation, when the customer uses the credit or debit card with the featured merchant, the reward is then processed by the bank. Rewards can be applied to transactions made online or offline, and no special software or interaction is needed by merchants.

The program makes use of a pay-per-performance model, so Cardlytics is paid only when consumers redeem the offers. Costs vary based on the client category and the specific offer type. Average campaign activation rates are 15%, but have been as high as 45%. According to Cardlytics, advertisers, consumers and banks alike have embraced the new concept, and so far, major marketers such are McDonald’s, Macy’s and Staples have signed up. The company has implemented more than 100 marketing campaigns reaching nearly half a million customers to date. By the end of the summer, they expect to have 50 to 70 financial institutions on board, which will enable it to reach 10 million customers.

McDonald’s ran a 6-week test campaign in their Houston region encompassing 140 stores. The 10% cash back offer appeared in transaction statements alongside McDonald’s purchases as well as purchases made at competing chains. Of those who had not been to McDonald’s in the last three months, but who had visited a competitor, 19% converted the McDonald’s offer. The heaviest fast food consumers, those that spent over $75 on fast food over the three month period, converted McDonald’s offer at a rate of 60%.

Privacy concerns are not an issue because while Cardlytics is privy to transaction data (name of the merchant, transaction date, amount spent and customer’s zip code), it does not have access to customer names, account numbers or home addresses. That information is managed by participating banks, and it stays behind the bank’s firewall. In fact, Cardlytics argues that their ad model is less intrusive than many behavioral-targeting tactics because it doesn’t cookie customers or follow them online. The lack of negative reaction from the consumers is evidenced by low opt out rates – less than 5%, which is about two-thirds less than the 12% – 15% the company was modeled for.

Transactional promotions or transpromo marketing is one of the most effective channels for customer retention strategies and loyalty programs, providing numerous up and cross sell opportunities. Its top advantages are:

1. Precise targeting capabilities

2. High response rates

3. Pay-for-performance model

4. Turnkey set-up

5. No creative fees

6. Fast implementation

One disadvantage of transpromo marketing is a potential of enticing and rewarding customers to make purchases that would have been made regardless of the offer.

What are your thoughts on transpromo marketing? Are you ready to embrace it?

• admin posted on July 2, 2010
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• Karol Bodenhamer posted on July 1, 2010
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Gartner defines location-based services (LBS) as services that use information about the location of mobile devices, derived from cellular networks, Wi-Fi access points or via satellite links to receivers in (or connected to) the handsets themselves. Examples are services that enable friends to find each other, parents to locate their children, mapping and navigation.

Location-based services may be offered by mobile network carriers or other providers. They are also known as location-aware services. Some of the most popular ones are as follows:

Foursquare
Most recently released data cites 1.2 million users. A significant number of local businesses are participants, with PepsiCo as one of the largest advertisers. Read our April article for more details on Foursquare.

BrightKite
Founded in 2005, BrightKite launched its first big brand program in May this year for Starbucks. The program involves Starbucks-branded badges. Featuring a Facebook-like friend feed, users can upload pictures and comments about where they are and what’s going on. They can log in, check in and let their friends know what they’re doing. BrightKite has 1.5 million users.

MyTown
This monopoly-like game lets users buy real estate by checking in to real-life locations. The service, which has 2.3 million users since its launch in December of 2009, has worked with brands such are H&M, Travel Channel, Olay and Microsoft Windows.

Loopt
Loopt’s community is built on three principles – Connect, Share, and Explore. Loopt turns a mobile phone into a compass. Installing the application allows a map on the phone to be populated with user’s friends’ locations and spots they’ve visited. Loopt has 3.5 million users and is soon expecting to launch a service for retailers who can use the app for loyalty-reward programs.

GyPSii
GyPSii is a location-based network that allows users to upload photos, videos and other information about themselves and then geo-locate this information. Geo- locating is when a user, for example, takes a photo of an ice cream stand, uploads the photo to GyPSii’s service and then adds the GPS location to it. Once everything is tagged and loaded, GyPSii pushes the image out to other users with a location on an online map that lets friends see where the user is and how to find the spot from the photo. GyPSii has over 2 million users.

Gowalla
The service has 250,000 users and focuses on travel. National Geographic and Washington Post have signed up to offer unique content.

GateGuru
A navigational app for airports, it rewards users for checking in to terminals and rating businesses. Since it launched in December of 2009, 125,000 users have signed up. In June, JetBlue will launch a program to reward frequent travelers and point leaders with airline freebies like plane tickets and vouchers.

Citysense
Citysense is a location-based social network of a different kind. Rather than having a friend feed, Citysense populates a map based on the location where people are transmitting a cell phone signal from. Without the need to log-in, users can see where their friends are congregating and instantly get information about what’s happening at a local hot spot. Currently, only BlackBerry users can take advantage of the service, but an iPhone application isn’t far behind. Citysense is available in the city of San Francisco for alpha testing, and will eventually roll out to major metropolitan areas in the US and abroad.

According to Gartner, the rapid increase in LBS users is due to the greater availability of GPS phones, reduced prices and abundance of app stores. What do you think? What is your favorite location-based social network and why?

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