Archive for September, 2010

Weather Channel App Ad Analysis

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010

A few weeks ago I wrote about how mobile advertising is failing to work for either consumers or marketers, and today I wanted to quickly share another example of how it is falling down in other places.

As a frequent traveler, I have really enjoyed the Weather Channel app for my new iPad. It has a beautiful interface that quickly allows me to pull up local weather conditions, forecasts, and a predictive radar map. In fact, the app is much better than the Weather Channel website, which is cluttered with ads and links. However, its iPad app advertising model is cloudy, and I don’t see the forecast getting much better.

Naturally, the Weather Channel is trying to turn its app into an advertising medium, and it includes a marketing message on the loading screen and an ad unit in the lower left-hand corner of the local conditions page. However, there are a few obvious problems that should turn off marketers and consumers alike: First, I have been getting the same ad for the Cadillac CTS-V Coupe ever since I first downloaded the app. It is pretty obvious that The Weather Channel either has had no other advertisers embrace its iPad app, or the Cadillac brand dumped a ton of money to buy up the inventory in an effort to “own” this new channel. Either way, it’s a waste of their money and my time.

The second problem is that the ad itself feels very heavy-handed and simple-minded. As you can see from the screen shot above, the same “Perfect Conditions” ad unit is displayed no matter what the weather forecast is. Whether it’s beautiful and sunny or rainy with flood warnings, it’s always “perfect conditions” for a CTS-V Coupe!  Both Cadillac and The Weather Channel would have been smart to have a few versions of the banner creative that actually change based on the weather conditions you pull up. For example, if the rain is pounding, the ad unit could describe a safety feature of the car. Just acknowledging the current forecast adds relevancy, which rewards the user and increases the likelihood of action.

The heavy-handedness continues in the links under each day’s forecast–note the “Perfect conditions for a dream drive” repeated three days in a row, again, no matter what the forecast is. This was obviously something The Weather Channel threw in to make the Cadillac team feel even better about its media buy; however, it is irrelevant for the user and looks lame. This makes one remember that checking the weather does not mean someone is in the mind-frame to start exploring new car options.

Yes, it’s still early for this new medium and over time improvements are likely. However, there really is no excuse for this ad overload out of the gate. The Weather Channel should not make the same mistakes on the app that it has made on its website; and if Cadillac is the only advertiser, then use the extra impressions to advertise new cable channel shows or explain in-app features. Finally, Cadillac should take the time to try something new and relevant in this new medium, rather than repeating the same, tired single banner ad.

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Posted in Apps, mobile | No Comments »

Meaningful Marketing Start-ups: SaveWave

Tuesday, September 21st, 2010

It’s been a little more than two years since our launch of the Marketing with Meaning platform on this blog, and nearly a year since the publication of my book on the topic. One of the interesting things that has happened since I’ve been trying to drive this new paradigm of marketing is that I have come into contact with a wide range of individuals around the world who also believe in our cause. It’s a delight to log in to my email, Twitter, or blog accounts each day and find a random message of thanks from someone who has just discovered what we’re aiming to do.

As a spokesperson for this next evolution of marketing and a strategy leader at a digital agency, I also have a chance to connect with entrepreneurs who are building businesses based on the shift toward Marketing with Meaning. While there are some people trying to create businesses based on shoving interruptive ads in front of our faces, a handful of start-ups are working to build platforms for marketers to add value through their advertising. So in the next few weeks I plan to feature a few of these businesses here. Unless specifically called out, I have no financial ties to these companies; rather, I believe that their success will serve as a catalyst for the movement that we desperately want to see supplant the old approach–so I want to give them whatever helping hand I can. And in a few weeks I will even be able to share a meaningful marketing platform that we have been working on for more than a year here at Bridge Worldwide!

First Up: SaveWave

SaveWave is a rare example of a start-up that was spawned from a large company–that itself is part of a much larger organization.  The company was recently formed as an offshoot of Upromise, the multi-brand loyalty program that helps people save money for college. Upromise itself is a great meaningful marketing platform that I had a chance to work with when I worked in marketing at P&G.  It has helped people save billions and generates huge results for its brand partners (see my previous post here). Because of its success, Upromise, in turn, was purchased by Sallie Mae a few years ago. In June, some of the key founders of Upromise saw a huge opportunity to take a piece of Upromise’s success model and create something new.  Such “intrapreneurship” is praiseworthy on its own, because it can be so difficult to build something on top of your day job and get the parent company to embrace a concept that is outside its usual business model.

SaveWave was created to channel a very powerful tool: access to product-level purchase data at more than 27,000 retailers in the U.S. Getting access to this UPC and shopper card data and building the trust of retailers comes from years of work by Upromise. Now this access will allow SaveWave to help marketers create other offers and promotions that are based on understanding whether a specific transaction occurred.  This unlocks an incredible amount of potential for meaningful marketing. The first and most obvious use of this system is for mobile/digital couponing, which Upromise has actually been offering since 2008; but this also allows for much more, for example:

  • Brands can partner with retailers to make personalized offers to customers. Instead of one-size-fits-all coupons, you can test various alternatives and vary your offer according to customer type.
  • Marketers can go beyond just offering cents back, and instead could allow customers to earn other “rewards,” such as frequent-flier miles, iTunes songs, or Starbucks cards.  These latter alternatives can be much more meaningful in that they are “real” benefits that you can feel and spend, whereas $.50 savings on a $100 bill at the checkout lane is not registered as a real savings by shoppers. Meanwhile, marketers can purchase these kinds of rewards for less than the actual cost of redeeming a coupon.
  • SaveWave plans to “white label” its tool with one or more APIs. In other words, they want to provide the back-end engine that a thousand other big companies, entrepreneurs, and app-builders can use to create their own meaningful marketing tools.  We’re already assessing the tool for our clients and our own app ideas.

Nothing is easy in the start-up world, of course, even if you have competitive advantages such as SaveWave’s data access and a nice first round of venture capital funding. I think the company’s main challenge will lie in figuring out how to stand out among a very wide swath of competitors. Digital and mobile couponing is a no-brainer and will eventually happen; the result is that everybody is going after the prize.  I think the key to success will be to actually get relationships up and running quickly, using big deals to lead to drive positive momentum.

So if you’re on a big brand or working on a way to make digital coupons and rewards do more for your business or clients, check out SaveWave and contact my friend Brendaen Makechnie over there.  Tell him that Bob sent you.

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Posted in Coupons, Loyalty Program, Movement | 1 Comment »

Why I’m out of Foursquare, and Why Some Apps Succeed

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

And so another personal venture into the new is complete. Following in the footsteps of services such as Second Life and Pointcast, I have now decided that Foursquare is no longer for me. It has gone down a personal “hype cycle” in my life–going from interesting to integral to ignoble in just a few months. Where once I was checking in with glee and sharing my whereabouts with new collections of friends, now I’m moving on with life and onto Facebook Places. My personal journey is one that others have also reported, and I think a look into why Foursquare worked for a while, and how others continue to be a part of my life, shows a path to meaningful platforms.

What I Loved About Foursquare

I got into Foursquare big-time back in March 2010 during the annual SXSW event. I attended with a small group of Bridge people and we had fun checking into new places and tracking each other’s locations around Austin. I was immediately attracted by the fact that you could walk into a restaurant and find a digital trace of other people who had been there in the months, days, or minutes before. The app allowed me to share my experience with Facebook friends and Twitter followers, and I was delighted by the chance to earn fun badges. And as a digital marketer I also saw firsthand the promise of location-based services.

Over time I tried to build Foursquare into my routine around town. I would meet people for a drink at a bar and excuse myself to check in, and I would dutifully add new locations to the service in order to “get credit” for my appearance. As a digital marketing consultant, I also began to speak glowingly of the possibilities of this new service

Where It Fell Apart

But soon the bloom came off the Foursquare rose for me. The first negative came in my attempt to work with the company on behalf of some of our very large clients. Phone calls went unanswered and scheduled phone calls ended with me sitting on the line waiting for their side to pick up. I quietly advised my teams and clients to wait until the company got its act together before we went further down this road. As a user, I also started doubting the value of this once-cool toy. I began to hear stories of people getting burglarized when they were not home, and my wife wondered why I was telling the world when I was out of town and she and my girls were alone.  The “Honey, I need to understand what’s new in digital because it’s my job” excuse goes only so far, especially when there is no real utility in Foursquare at the end of the day.

And here we come to the real issue: There is no clear reason to install and use Foursquare. It is a toy that entertains for a few days or weeks, but at the end of the day there is no reason to make this a habit. Hardly any stores or restaurants pay attention to the service by, say, offering free offers with check-ins. The mayorships and badges seem silly after a while.  And your friends tend to get tired of seeing where in the world you are.

Meanwhile, Facebook has come into location services with something that works much better. You can utilize your current friends list rather than starting from scratch with a new network, and check-ins can link directly to the Facebook pages of where you happen to be. Stores and restaurants can do marketing on their Facebook pages and offer information or special deals. Foursquare is still figuring out how to build a business and service users and marketers. But Facebook has this down already.

The Lesson: What New Apps Need to Succeed

In looking at a wide range of new digital services, I believe some patterns begin to develop. And the biggest one that I see right now, across everything from mobile apps to social media services, is that success comes in degrees based on whether the new company has the following:

  1. The Toy Factor — When people can download your app, try something new, and show their friends you have yourself a great “toy.”  Foursquare is a toy. It has novelty, a link to the real world, and some games including the chance to earn badges. This is enough for people to download and play with for a few days or weeks, but it won’t last forever. The gang at Foursquare is still keynoting conferences and now has some investment dollars, but I believe the time has gone. The company should have built these next two factors into their initial design.
  2. A Valuable Tool–Once past the toy factor, your app needs some kind of useful service in order to succeed. Facebook, for example, started out for most of us as a clever toy that allowed us to play with self-expression. But many of us started using the service to communicate regularly with our friends. And because it was so useful, we built it into our daily habits and rituals. Foursquare could have created a simple way for retailers to communicate with the people checking into their businesses. Or it might have been launched with a focused purpose of helping people find money-saving offers on the places they visit. Now an app called Shopkick is showing it the way in this direction.
  3. Meaningful Marketing Model–Here’s where a lot of services have still not cracked the code, and where there is still tremendous opportunity for today’s start-ups. For marketer-supported services, you need a business model in which the advertising itself adds value to the service. Facebook is a great tool, but it still hasn’t shown that the little-seen ads on the right-hand side can drive marketers’ business. The best example of success here is Google and its AdWords service. The company started with a new search algorithm based on human link sharing. This was immediately a new “toy”–and because the results were so much more accurate, Google became a valuable tool. When the company created an advertising model based on search, everything came together; Google search ads are relevant to the searcher, and the marketer pays only when a desired action takes place–so there is a win-win-win that has created a +$20 billion business for Google.

I’m obviously simplifying the world of digital services and apps here, but I think this list helps to put a lot of things competing for our attention into their place.

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Posted in Apps, mobile | 6 Comments »