SXSW Interactive 2010 kicks off in just under a month. With the excitement building, I thought I'd again share what I learned at SXSW last year...
SXSW Interactive 2010 kicks off in just under a month. With the excitement building, I thought I'd again share what I learned at SXSW last year...
Posted by Tracey Hope-Ross at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
This week in our CDM (Canadian Digital Mom) series, we dive into how CDM's consume information.
The present changing technological landscape represents the greatest crisis faced by marketers. But it also represents the greatest opportunity – if we are prepared to evolve, rethink the ways in which we’ve been doing things, and embrace the technological revolution head-on. In the past, advertisers had a distinct advantage over their contemporaries of today: a passive audience that was, for all intents and purposes, trapped.
Connecting with Moms today is less about the old ethos of “breaking through” and instead focused on being “invited in.” Brands must shift away from passive consumption and move towards active participation. Technology makes all of this possible. Though women historically have not been considered beta-adopters of technology, they are proven early adopters of social media. Of Moms surveyed in our 2008 Mom Central “Moms on Twitter” Study, 48% consider themselves early tech adopters. These women intuitively understand the importance of social media and online networks, as those pathways closely reflect their everyday offline behavior.
Canadian moms weave the internet and social media into the fabric of their lives; they’re now leading the charge.
These Digital Moms, on average, spend 3.1 hours per day, 6 days a week, using the internet for leisure purposes. As a mom from British Columbia puts it, “I prefer to be online. I’m able to be selective about what I read and watch and I can quickly get what I nee d to help me through my day.” Many Canadian moms agree with this sentiment. They spend more time online than with traditional media including TV, radio, and print. In fact, Moms are least likely to be seen reading a newspaper or a magazine – information that they used to get from these sources is now easier and less expensive to access online.
For today’s marketer, reaching the modern, active engaged Mom consumer means convincing them to spend their valuable time with your brand. Our role as marketers today is to do more than create a great TV spot or print ad. It’s about creating ideas that will actually engage Moms; ideas they’ll find interesting and in which they can actually participate.
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My favorite Super Bowl ad? Not the commercials of men running around without pants, not Bud's auto-tune, not the weird "KISS" ad, not Letterman hanging with Leno, but this from Kia:
Why? Because it reminds me of my sister. Can you tell which is the ad and which is my sibling?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJqs3D2vv4I
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In fact, Canadian Moms spend 1,000 more minutes online each month that their U.S. counter parts – meaning over 16 hours of extra time online every month, and roughly twice as much time spent online as that spent by U.K. moms.
According to Stacy DeBroff, CEO and Founder of Mom Central, "Marketers seeking to reach Canadian Moms need to ensure that strategic online activity gets embedded into any communication plan."
Posted by Tracey Hope-Ross at 04:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Last month, our CEO and founder Stacy DeBroff published an article in Media Post, focusing on Mom Bloggers and FTC guidelines. She wrote:
Because blogs offer the potential of powerful first-person brand ambassadorship, they have emerged as a key way to ignite consumers. More and more brands want to expose bloggers to their products and services in the hope they will post favorable reviews... With blogger's increased rise in audience and sway comes increased FTC scrutiny.
With bloggers garnering so much attention from brands, agencies and the FTC, we wanted to better understand their perspective. Last week, we asked Mom Bloggers directly how they feel about the FTC guidelines, how they changed their blogging habits and how brands can best work with them to connect with Moms. Though I'm in the midst of analyzing the results, I thought I'd share some quick prelims:
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Man, I love it so far. Skipping over the basic overviews, some sections caused me to sharpen my #2 Ticonderoga and do some serious underlying. Like this, from page 46:
It's hard to spend money on research when there is no clear guarantee of a profitable payback. Interesting isn't it though, that spending money to support short-term promotions, circulating additional catalogs or flyers, running a bunch of banner ads, adding to the sales force or tossing a new product or service into the market seems so easy to justify - even when faced with just as iffy a payback.
Love it.
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Marketing research used to be a backroom function, but nowadays the distinctions are blurring between marketing researchers and brand managers. Marketing researchers must have the business savvy of a brand manager and the analytic mind of a researcher. They need to be creative, take risks, spot market trends and pass this information onto CEO.
I agree with with Arora. Traditional marketing research and researchers need to adapt or die. No longer can researchers be content to crunch numbers. We need a new call to action – and a more strategic, bigger picture.
My response:
Perhaps the methodologies and platforms will shape the role. As research moves into a more organic, dynamic, social media space, how will our industry adapt?
Perhaps the changes will come not from internal brand managers, but from external agencies that change the game plan via social media and other platforms from which they can gather "market research." Perhaps these "hybrid" researchers exist in other capabilities?Posted by Tracey Hope-Ross at 11:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
From emarketer, digital tools keep Moms connected with their families. More than 40% of Moms wanted technology that would help them be a better Mother.
It's never a good idea to post a photo of your baby smoking a cigarette on Facebook.
Shamable says we're not on Twitter to make friends. They'll call B.S. on you for that one.
Vovici suggests we drop the ageism when it comes to online communities.
And finally, from Tremendous News, 5 Signs That You're Liked On Twitter.
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