Here’s a few photo highlights from parties held during ERA’s recent eRetailer Summit in Miami. Check back often, your mug shot may be up next!
Click here for more information about upcoming events!
Back in December, I wrote a post discussing PETA’s marketing tactics against the Olsen Twins for wearing fur. Click here to read the original post, “Has PETA’s Advertising Gone Too Far?” This post spurred the most comments to date on our blog. Below I’ll share a few of the comments we received. And stay tuned, PETA has seen our blog and is rendering a response!
I think it’s an innovative new approach to go after high profile celebrities with a catchy phrase like “trollsen twins.” It caught my eye when I read about it and isn’t that the point? – Anne
For me, PETA’s tactics turn me off from the cause more than anything. I sympathize with their plight, but the vile public harassment makes their campaign less about fur and more about the defamation of their current target. – Jessie
Ummm, that’s pathetic. I don’t think it is effective to attack people as far as their lifestyles are concerned. They are just attacking celebrities because of their iconic status, thus drawing in attention. Yes, that works but not for the mission of the company. I think it would be more powerful if they actually focused on the reality of animal rights, something that would open the public’s eyes to the issues and recruit supporters. PS- This makes me think of Jeremy Piven throwing meat at the Vegans in PCU. – Jordan
I think PETA’s approach is not very different from other product advertising campaigns, such as, tobacco’s - “smoking after sex.” Alcohol and tobacco have been selling sex for years, why not PETA. Peta should hire a nutritionist to conduct some research into the possibility of vegetarians being more virile and potent. It could launch a whole new Viagra type advertising campaign. Let’s uncover the hard facts about being a vegetarian. – James
There is a documentary on HBO about the head lady of PETA. She is a nut. After watching that I would never support PETA. As for this campaign, it does nothing for me. Instead of using celebs they need to show people some of the hidden camera footage they have of the way some of these animals are treated. PETA has a crazy following with the mentality “you are with us, or against us,” and that is the wrong way to go about things. If they are looking for people the change the way they treat/consume animals the hot Olsen Twins are not going to get it done. – Boris
The tactics of PETA are sensationalistic and ineffective. If they really wanted to change the plight of animals and make a difference, they would not be wasting their time defaming celebrities and making tabloid headlines, but rather putting their efforts into exposing and trying to correct the horrible conditions behind the scenes. – Joy
We encourage all blog readers to dive into the discussion with us. Simply click on the “Comments” link below each post to add your thoughts.
Pat Cauley, eMedia editor, Electronic Retailer Magazine
It was the summer of 2003. I had just finished my first year of college down South, returned home to Pittsburgh and landed an internship in the Steelers’ marketing department. Walking into Heinz Field’s corporate offices was like something out of a movie for someone who was born and raised in ‘Steelers Country.’
I remember like it was yesterday sitting down in the boardroom as a manager sat across the long, brown, intimidating table ready to grill me. Forget a suit, I was dressed in old Catholic school gear I had dug out of my closet and forcefully asked my mother to dry clean! That table was all that stood between us. I was expecting the usual litany of dress code rules, vacation allowances, etc., when he caught me off guard and said, “What does marketing mean to you?” It would be two more years before I would even take my first marketing class, and so a stab in the dark was all I had going for me. Throughout the next four months, I learned an insurmountable amount of information about promoting the Steelers brand to better the community and serve the fans.
These early lessons have carried over into my current career, as I watch many of our members and readers engage consumers—rather than fans—to buy and interact with their companies. Fortune recently released a list of the top 20 most admired companies:
1) Apple, 2) Berkshire Hathaway, 3) General Electric, 4) Google, 5) Toyota Motor, 6) Starbucks, 7) FedEx, 8 ) Proctor & Gamble, 9) Johnson & Johnson, 10) Goldman Sachs Group, 11) Target, 12) Southwest Airlines, 13) American Express, 14) BMW tied with Costco Wholesale, 16) Microsoft, 17) United Parcel Service, 18) Cisco Systems, 19) 3M and 20) Nordstrom
These companies obviously all benefit from extraordinary marketing and/or advertising departments. For me, good marketing means taking creative risks. Taking the big chances is sometimes worth it, but sometimes it doesn’t pan out quite as you’d like. Take Cartoon Network’s gaffe last year, for example, when large, electronic light boards featuring characters from its popular “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” giving the middle finger led to bomb scares and the closing of multiple bridges in Boston. How is one supposed to know when a marketing gimmick or promotion has gone too far? How should CEOs react when marketing departments propose such big ideas?
Enjoy the following hilarious clip from CollegeHumor.com that pokes fun at the Cartoon Network scenario.
What does marketing mean to you?
Pat Cauley, eMedia Editor, Electronic Retailer Magazine
ERA’s eRetailer Summit is off to a great start. We’ve already exceeded last year’s total registrations before the tradeshow floor even opened! Whenever I attend conferences, I always seem to find myself drawn to the education sessions, rather than the tradeshow floor. My instincts proved correct today when I learned more about blogs within an hour than I had learned in the past three months. I’ll begin implementing what I’ve learned moving forward. I hope you check back often as our blog continues to grow and expand in quality and quantity.
Earlier today, I also had the pleasure of eating lunch while listening to a keynote presentation from YouTube’s Brian Cusack. Among many interesting statistics, he addressed the rapidly shifting media consumption habits. It turns out people are spending as much time engaging with online content and videos now as they do watching TV. Don’t believe it? If you’re reading this blog post, you’re part of that statistic.
Since you’re clearly not watching your TV right now, enjoy the following video I came across while checking my email today. It’s definitely not something I want to think about when I board that plane on Wednesday!
How do you think marketers and advertisers will adapt if these viewing habits continue?
Pat Cauley, eMedia editor, Electronic Retailer Magazine
Pat- Thank you for your post. We at Quova enjoyed reading it and were glad to see that you appreciated the spirit behind our Valentine’s Day package. While the gift was clearly the attention-grabber, we did have a serious intent—to demonstrate the very real threat of card not present fraud, a critical security issue for online retailers. After all, online fraudsters worldwide weren’t joking around when they unlawfully carried off $3.1 billion in goods from e-commerce sites in 2006.
But there was another clue in our mailer as well. Pinpointing the physical origination point of an order on the Internet and comparing it to the bill-to and ship-to address is one of the most effective tools in combating online fraud.
Many online retailers already use some type of fraud risk scoring method. They may look at whether the buyer is a new or repeat customer, the nature of the purchase, especially a very expensive one, the type of shipping request, credit card security codes and more. But one item frequently overlooked is reviewing a customer’s location when they place an order online. By adding just this one step of comparing the customer’s billing address to his IP address location to the transaction, one Quova e-commerce customer was able to detect an additional 70 percent of his online fraud.
Think about it—nearly every business decision is affected by geography: language, currency, shipping, taxes, licenses, government regulations and more. When a customer walks into a brick-and-mortar store you can tell a number of things about them right away: age, gender, what they’re shopping for, whether they’re return customers. But when a customer visits your retail website, you know exactly none of these things…where they are, what they want, what brought them in, or how likely they are to be crooks. It’s an anonymous process. Knowing the geographic location of your web visitor can provide the same sort of data for an online transaction. So the fact that Tom isn’t actually based in your office was an indicator that something may have been amiss with the package.
Quova does this with a technology called IP Geolocation, which can tell you where your online customers are and how they connect to the Internet as soon as they visit your site (through their IP address). There’s no need to ask for further information or store cookies in their browsers. The service is offered on a subscription model and is easily deployed with an API to your web application.
So while we see we sparked some humorous discussion around your office last Thursday, we also hope that we spark some more meaningful discussion among your readers about the best practices in geolocation technology, and the role it can play as part of a comprehensive online fraud prevention strategy for retailers.
Kerry Langstaff is vice president of marketing for Quova, Inc.
Do you think Quova’s marketing tactic was successful?
As multichannel retailers, how do you help secure your customer’s data?
Never would I have thought that something in my office would happen today that would be more entertaining than what the guys at CollegeHumor.com came up with in the post below. But, here’s my story…
As you may know, Electronic Retailer magazine is based in Southern California. However, I work out of ERA’s D.C. office. I often get mail for my California co-workers at the ERA address and I simply put it in another envelope and send it on. Earlier today, my co-worker Stephanie came into my office and placed a FedEx box on my desk addressed to our executive editor, Tom Dellner. I e-mailed Tom and told him I had a package here and asked him if he wanted me to open it and see what it was, or simply send it along in another FedEx box. Tom told me he wasn’t expecting any mail, that it was probably a press kit, and that I should just open it and make a judgment call.
As I’m opening the FedEx box, I hear my co-workers chatting down the hall. I walk into Robin Greenspan’s noisy office while slowly opening up the box. As I look inside, I see a red bag with hearts all over it. I realize it’s a personal item and my face begins to blush a bit. Everyone in the room starts asking me what it is, as my co-worker Stephanie blurts out, “It’s for Tom.” That’s where the trouble begins.
“It’s a gift!”
“Tom sent you a gift?”
“Tom Dellner??”
“Is Tom gay?! I thought he was married??”
“Is Tom having an affair?!”
Avoiding the awkward questions, I rush back to my office with Stephanie to look up Tom’s home address and ship it out ASAP. While trying to move the contents from one FedEx box to another, I see an order form that reads “Fuzzy Handcuffs,” right as Stephanie pulls them out to place in the new box. Not being able to fathom that things had escalated to handcuffs, our co-worker Christy walks by, sees our astonishment, and demands that we tell her what else was in the bag.
Acknowledging that things couldn’t get much worse, I pull out the order form and much to my surprise, a note was attached to it from a company called Quova. “Hello Tom. Relax. Don’t panic. It’s just a joke. We at Quova just wanted to send you a nice little Valentine’s Day surprise we knew would grab your attention.” The note goes on to talk about Quova’s expertise in online data security and privacy. Congratulations to Quova—your guerilla marketing tactics mortified me and certainly got our attention and disrupted our entire office.
Oh, and don’t think I wasn’t above putting the gift bag on Barbara Tulipane’s desk while she was out to lunch with a note that read, “From Your Office Crush- XOXO.”
Pat Cauley, eMedia editor, Electronic Retailer Magazine
Were you at Electronic Retailer’s LiveEdit Lab in Santa Monica on January 30th? If not, you missed out! Enjoy a slide show from the event.
Save the date! Electronic Retailer LiveEdit Lab New York: April 30, 2008
Video is video is video. People are going to consume it on all sorts of devices. They’ll watch on their widescreen TVs, on their desktop computers, on their laptops, on their phone—but watch they will. Why? This text tells you what I think, but only a video really clues you in to how I feel.
You know better than most that people buy from people. If buyers can’t touch it and feel it, they want to watch somebody else touch it and feel it. They want to see how heavy it is, how luxurious it feels, how it looks on a chain. They want to hear—and see—people talking about it. And they can via video.
So think of every video you make as content for the website. Then pay attention to see who is interested enough in the product to watch. It’s surprising how useful that information can be for upselling, cross-selling, product improvement, product extension, and, well, don’t get me started.
I just wish you could see how excited I am about this!
Register for Wednesday’s LiveEdit Lab in Santa Monica where you can pick Jim’s brain in person!
Jim Sterne is president of Target Marketing and Chairman of the Web Analytics Association.
