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New media evangelism in the direct response industry begins to remind me of biblical tales of woe, the Old Testament tales where prophets are slaughtered or exiled or something along those lines. Or at least roundly mocked. It’s part of my personal story and also part of the state of the industry, and it’s truly unfortunate.
For those of us who embrace risk and are joyful and passionate in our approach to new media, evangelism can be the most grueling, frustrating part of the game. Trying to make a twitter proselyte out of someone who can’t figure out e-mail attachments? Yeah, it gets old.
Time after time when talking to DR agency folks, I’ve run into an impenetrable wall of mythology about new media. It’s fear-based, it’s preventing progress for all the worst reasons, it’s causing forward-thinkers to be punished, and it’s simply untrue. The mythology includes the ideas that mobile commerce isn’t functional, that social media isn’t measurable, that R&D can’t lead to ROI, etc.
Recently, an agency CEO quipped about media/tech adoption, “You can lead a horse to water…”
Alright, so publications such as Electronic Retailer are leading the DR horse to water through education. Firebrands such as Marty Fahncke, Dana Todd, and a slew of others are leading the horse through sometimes-rabid evangelism. Research firms publish data saying that consumers are ready for new media. Clients are beginning to ask for more creative digital solutions.
I do begin to wonder: What’s it going to take to get that horse to drink…Damn it.
Jolie O’Dell is a mobile, social and evolving search enthusiast.
Recently, many news outlets have been discussing the launch of Discovery’s new channel: Planet Green. A story from AP’s David Bauder claims the environmentally focused network is not what you might expect. The New York Times ponders if viewers are ready for “eco-friendly” television.
Electronic Retailer proudly boasts Planet Green as its May cover story. To read our exclusive interview with Eileen O’Neill, Planet Green’s president and general manager, click here.
Do you think the channel will be a success?
The term “multichannel” is tossed around in direct response as a casual new buzzword that everyone claims to provide. However, there’s a difference between using multiple channels and truly having an integrated multichannel approach. The strength of a true multichannel approach is in the results that add up to more than just a sum of the various elements.
While you work with partners on different aspects of a campaign—creative, media, response/order take and fulfillment—you need to focus on the complete picture (and work with partners who allow you to do that!). Many marketers stick with what they know works and use traditional metrics to evaluate success. As media is expensive, it is understandable why that’s the case.
But, what happens when your customer sees that spot on TV and decides to purchase via mobile phone or web days after the airing? What about the customer who saw the ad, visited the site and did not buy? Or, what about the client who did not see the spot, but is a potential buyer because of his or her past history? Unless you have a plan to catch all of these opportunities you may not be using a big enough net—and you may not have the data you need to make decisions about how effective the media truly was. Take the multichannel integration test!
Consistency and Coordination
· Do you coordinate advertising events so all channels launch with the same message at the same time?
· Are changes to your DRTV offer or creative simultaneously reflected in online and mobile activities?
Analysis and Media ROI
· Do you view key metrics for all channels together to assess the full impact of your media, as well as the contribution from each channel?
· Do you know how buying patterns differ for customer purchasing via phone, online and mobile (upsell take rates, cross-sell success, etc.)?
· Can you identify how customers who purchase via the phone differ from those who purchase online or through mobile channels?
Revenue Opportunities
· Do you include a call-in option with online and mobile activities? (For example: We see lift of 10-30 percent in online conversion when we allow visitors the option to place orders by phone.)
· Do you tailor upsells to channel?
If you’re not answering YES to the above, you’re leaving sales on the table for someone else to pick up. So get a bigger net to capture ALL the sales generated by your advertising activities!
Mike Ferzacca is CEO of Advanced Interactive Sciences
The following are a few photo highlights from ERA’s recent Government Affairs Fly-In in Washington.
Upcoming ERA Networking Receptions:
June 10: NYC
July 16: Santa Monica
Email Katie White for more information at kwhite@retailing.org
It was supposed to be perfect. It was my birthday week and I had friends flying into D.C. so that we could go see Radiohead live at Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, Virginia. The concert was Sunday, May 11 and I had Monday off. Nothing could go wrong…until Mother Nature stepped in. Cell phone rings. “Are you guys even still going?” Claudia asks cautiously as I maneuver my way around the grocery store picking up last-minute tailgating items. “Of course we’re still going,” I say, somewhat irritated at the mere suggestion of skipping out. Sure, I had heard rumors of some rain, but I was fully prepared with my hooded sweatshirt—it was May!
Flash-forward two hours. We’re situated in lot B. Our other friends are over in lot A. No one in my car wants to get out. People in the cars around us are not getting out. “But Leikin flew here from Cleveland,” I plead, trying to motivate my peers. We finally manage to open the trunk door of Josh’s Toyota 4Runner. We’re happier once the beers start flowing, but it’s imperative to stay underneath the trunk door unless your drink of choice happens to be half Coors Light/half acid rain. It was at this point that things began to get delusional, yet laughable.
“Oh my God! It is seriously raining harder now,” Amber stammers as we watch the rain grow thicker and hear the pounding on the roof grow louder. Another concertgoer runs over to our car. “Can I make a quick call under here?” Yes, it was THAT bad. I begin to think about different products that would make the scenario easier. That’s the beauty of the direct response industry, solving a common problem that a consumer doesn’t typically think about. There was an extreme need for ponchos. What about an invention to protect your beer from the rain so you could still enjoy it? I couldn’t help but remember the umbrella hat I saw last September at ERA’s annual convention. I kind of mocked it then, but I would love having it right now! As we packed up our things to walk to lot A, we decide to leave all electronic items in Josh’s car. No cameras anymore, no cell phones, no iPods—only a credit card and license are deemed reasonable. Josh makes his last phone call, informing our friends that we’re on our way before closing and locking the doors.
During the walk, the sky only gets darker, the rain harder and the temperature colder. We’re literally soaked from head to toe. Amber’s umbrella breaks because of the wind’s severity. As we approach lot A, we realize we can’t keep walking straight because a river has begun to flow right in front of our walking path. We manage to work our way around the river. Walking in jeans becomes arduous as the denim plasters itself to our thighs and calves. Where are our friends? We couldn’t call or text. We just had to keep searching.
“What the hell am I doing here? I don’t belong here…” ~ Creep, Radiohead
“Why didn’t you guys buy ponchos?” our friends in lot A scream, alarmed that we’re so drenched. “They haven’t made it over our way yet,” Josh explains, sounding like a movie line straight from a disaster flick. Byron lights a cigarette under their car roof, which they too were all huddled under. As soon as he steps out to greet me, the rain pounds his cigarette off of its filter and onto the ground. Jokes about Vietnam begin to seem appropriate. We’re now shivering. My entire body begins to shake. Then, out of nowhere, I hear Claudia’s voice. She approaches the group, umbrella in hand, raincoat on. “I have plastic bags wrapped around my feet under my boots and I also have a change of clothes in the car for the ride home,” she says. We all stare at her with jealousy. Some of the girls express interest in just going home. No way. We paid a lot of money and we’ve come this far. The worst of it had to be over, right? Let’s just hear one song and decide.
Onward towards will-call we go. We try to walk faster, but our legs are like liquorice in our soaked jeans. Toby tries to take his ticket out, only to realize his printed ticket is ruined—unrecognizable. Only those in sealed plastic bags will work. Our group unintentionally splits up. We can’t see anything in front of us. “Bruce?! Claudia?!” They’re nowhere to be found, but Bruce has my ticket! Even if someone around me does have their BlackBerry or iPhone, it is no help; no one else has their phones. Byron luckily has an extra ticket, so I make it inside the gates. Off to the lawn we go. People are falling down the lawn’s sloped hill left and right. Radiohead begins playing. The large screens are turned off for electrical reasons, obviously. Shiver, dance, shiver, dance, shiver, dance…
Back at the car everyone strips to their underwear, turning the heat up full blast in an effort to thaw out. What the hell just happened for the past six hours? Was this the worst concert experience ever? Was it the best? It was memorable none-the-less. I began to think of the concert in terms of being a product we bought. It was marketed to us as a rain or shine event, after all. The band had to be fully aware of the conditions outside. As they played one hit after the next, it seemed to me like they were simply using an age-old direct response format: But wait, there’s more!
It’s ironic that the same band that broke technology and industry barriers last year by allowing its new album “In Rainbows” to be downloaded for free on the Internet held a concert that reduced us back to the 1980s technology-wise. Without Byron’s extra ticket, I would have been wandering back to the car before hearing one song. We were all thrown for a loop without the gadgets we’ve become so dependent on. However, for as much as my generation is sometimes too reliant on technology, elements of our parent’s generation were clearly evident as we continued the simple pursuit of live music, much to the detriment of our comfort and health.
“For a minute there, I lost myself…” ~ Karma Police, Radiohead
Pat Cauley is Electronic Retailer magazine’s eMedia Editor
Amazon says it is advertising when it compensates New York-based websites for posting links that refer customers to Amazon.com. New York says it’s soliciting business. The distinction means all the difference in the world for sales taxes, for Amazon, and possibly even print media, television and radio.
Amazon.com sued New York State earlier this month, challenging a newly enacted law that has serious implications for online advertisements. In April, the New York legislature passed a law designed to increase sales tax revenue from Internet sales. The law is known as the “Amazon tax” because of the way it broadens the sales tax law to apply to Amazon’s Associates Program, thereby achieving the necessary legal nexus for New York to force Amazon (and other Internet retailers) to collect and remit taxes on all sales to N.Y. residents.
A little bit of history helps put this law into context. The Supreme Court has held that a state can only impose sales or use tax-collection obligations on an out-of-state retailer if the retailer has a “substantial nexus” with the state (the Quill decision). Nexus occurs from a sufficient physical presence, which can be an office or warehouse, but physical presence can also derive from soliciting a state’s consumers via sales representatives located in the state. However, it can’t be just any sales rep, according to another Supreme Court case—in-state representatives must be “significantly associated with the taxpayer’s ability to establish and maintain a market in the state,” according to Tyler Pipe v. Wash. Dept. of Rev.
Amazon doesn’t have an office, warehouse or other physical presence in New York, but it has thousands of New York-based members of its Advertising Associates program. Per the Quill decision, advertising alone is insufficient to establish a substantial nexus. So New York has changed the definition of what it means to be a sales representative to capture these in-state associates that Amazon says merely hosts its ads. Under the new law, New York has changed the presumption of what it means to be “soliciting business” in the state. (more…)
There’s no denying that the main objective for any e-commerce sales or retail marketing executive is to maximize the total value of visitor traffic on their site, simply put— turning web browsers into buyers and clicks into cash. Search is certainly leveling the playing field as well, so how do companies stand out from the crowd? And why are some sites still failing to deliver compelling and relevant content to their customer base?
In today’s saturated marketplace, retailers can no longer rely on the traditional marketing techniques and media vehicles to manage customer interaction and drive home sales. In order to achieve greater web interaction optimization, e-commerce and retail sites must recognize the inherent value of social behavioral merchandising and effectively increase the relevance of communications by automatically promoting the most relevant products to each visitor, thereby maximizing conversion rates and average order values.
By making websites more customer-centric via these “recommendation engines,” retailers can essentially optimize customer interaction through improved content and messaging based on a customer’s specific needs and behavioral patterns.
We all know who Amazon.com is. Besides the millions of SKUs at Amazon.com, the site is easy to use and “steers” browsers in the right direction when they need help (recommendations, user reviews, etc.). The addition of recommendations from other customers can build a sense of trust and community between new and returning customers—and probably better than any 17-year old working the floor at Border’s Books.
Given the wide variety of tools available in the market, online retailers must familiarize themselves with the different points of customer contact and approaches towards reaching interaction optimization. The Customer Interaction Cycle, shown below, depicts the many different points—from initial landing page through transaction—where collective intelligence can be applied to maximize value.
Rolf Elmer is CEO of Avail Intelligence
