Trust – The Unwritten Agreement Between Brand and Consumer by Kevin Dwinnell

Trust is a powerful tool in the business arsenal. It’s the enabler to the value exchange that a business seeks with its consumer. With trust, businesses can weather some pretty bad situations. Without it, you’re in a very bad situation. Fortunately, we live in an optimistic society and most companies are given a fair chance to prove themselves.

The Internet has leveraged this trust with its beta releases. It’s a way to test a product in the production environment prior to being production ready. There’s an inherent trust for a user to try a beta product that by its beta name admits will have issues. The expectation is that those issues will not be serious to the user. Because of that trust, the user gets a first look at something new and cool, and the company gets to see its product perform in a real-world environment. That’s the value exchange that trust enabled.

Advertising works not because consumers love it, but because the value exchange of free content for viewing ads is apparent. If the message becomes too much about the advertising, the consumer moves on to a different choice. I’ve canceled magazine subscriptions when I couldn’t find the table of content for the sheer number of ads. Digital is even less forgiving.

You’ll find this mantra in social media guidance. You can’t just sell. It’s boring, offensive and you’ll wind up social all by yourself. If you’re interesting and relevant, people will want to hear what you say and hang around more. You’ve earned their trust.

So, how do you earn and maintain trust?

Be True to Your Word

Wal-Mart offers Always. Low Prices. You can always go into a Wal-Mart and get a very good price. Not always the lowest, but consistently in that vacinity so most consumers are forgiving if they’re not.

Admit When Your Wrong

Facebook continues to test the boundaries of their privacy policy. They’ve made some missteps and retracted the changes – keeping the trust of their consumers. The fact that they continue to stumble in this area, based on consumer reactions, will show the strength of that trust overtime.

Be Open and Honest

If you’re open with your customers, that’s an easy way to gain trust and respect – even if you can’t meet their needs.

These are pretty standard things for any relationship. But that’s what builds trust is that ongoing relationship. So, each touchpoint between you and the consumer is an opportunity to build on that trust. The more trust you have, the better the position for the rest of your business.

Posted in Commentary | Tags: advertising, business, Consumer, online marketing, web apps | No Comments »

The Case Against Engagement. Really? by Kevin Dwinnell

An article over on Adweek this week discussed engagement and its misuse in advertising circles. Since Brand Thunder’s Booms! have engagement as a core value proposition, I immediately found myself on the opposing view side. To be fair, some of the points made have merit – but it’s not necessarily a problem with engagement.

Our custom browser experiences prove valuable because they are engaging. The browser is the most used application on the computer. You wrap that in branding, images, content and functionality and you’ve got a pretty compelling product. You put that in the hands of your loyal audience and you’ve got a powerful engagement tool that’s going to strengthen that connection with the end user.

I don’t see engagement as the problem. For advertisers, though, I can see the problem being where the engagement label is applied. If your user is engaged with a web site, the ads only chance is to interrupt that experience which probably isn’t going to get the response you want (though there are billions of dancing mortgage ads that will argue this point with me).

When engagement is within the site, if you’re not a natural part of the site, your value declines. AOL Instant Messenger never really cracked the ad mystery because the high volume of ads and a user’s intense focus on the application. Engagement with the product is through the roof, but with the ads is horrendous. Brand marketers found their integration points however with avatars and skins and you saw users respond.

To claim engagement isn’t valuable to the advertiser or is overhyped, to me, misses the mark. An advertisers interaction with its end user is incredibly valuable, and that’s engagement. Just don’t expect it when their attention is firmly somewhere else.

Posted in Commentary | Tags: advertising, Adweek, brand, Branded Browser, browser boom, custom browser, Instant messaging, Web browser | No Comments »

The Marketing Struggles of Prolonged Consumer Attention by Kevin Dwinnell

Marketing can be a lot like the singles bar — the 15 and 30-second shot, the photo shoot for the magazine spread, the flash banner. It’s all the equivalent of “the look,” “the line” or, in my case, the spilled drink. It’s about attention getting and breaking through the clutter. Despite the splintering of consumer’s attention, brilliant creative can still capture attention.

Unfortunately, marketing is more frequently being asked to do more than create the introduction. It’s being asked to go along on the first date, hang out with friends and commit to the long-term. Marketers can’t just rely on that air-brushed image to do all the work. (If I’m not clear, seek out Cyrano De Bergerac or Steve Martin’s “Roxanne” for clarification.)

Marketers have to show more depth, be interesting and generally be something you want to spend time with. When you’re with that consumer over extended periods of time, you’re going to see the less-than-glamorous looks, the things you wish never got said — you’re going to be in a relationship.

Brand Thunder’s Booms! are in the long-form of marketing since we create a persistent presence between a brand and their online consumer. Here’s what we see working around the web:

News Feeds

You’re giving fans the news as it happens. It’s like calling your friend so you can share.

Twitter

This is a great product to use and great content for your site or application. But it goes beyond the instant updates, it’s about allowing personalities to emerge and represent your brand. They will be their own brands (@THE_REAL_SHAQ) helping their affiliated brand (Cavaliers). They will be people that emerge and positively affect your brand (@ComcastCares). Though you’ll undoubtedly see the occasional slip up.

Images

Photos and videos are an easy way to let your fans keep up with current activity and catch up on what they may have missed. By offering this content, you let them know you wish they could have been there.

Commerce

Seriously. You’re fans want your stuff, so make it easy for them. Better yet, make it valuable. Our sports clients are letting fans know about available tickets, especially during high-demand periods like playoffs, to great results.

We are big advocates of the open flow of information back to your fans. It’s not always going to be pretty or perfect, but it’s going to be interesting and it’s going to build mutual respect. And mutual respect is vital for any relationship — marketing or otherwise.

Posted in Commentary | Tags: advertising, brand, brand thunder, Brand Thunder Boom, Branded Browser, custom browser, marketing, Marketing and Advertising | No Comments »

The Digital Marketing Mix – The Why’s the Limit by Kevin Dwinnell

Last week, Kendall Allen discussed remaining innovative with marketing in tough economic times. See her post “Relationships And The Progressive Digital Mix” on MediaPost’s Online Spin. Andrew Chen, who supplies supporting analysis with most of his posts, covered part one of his thoughts on “How desktop apps beat websites at building large active userbases” in his post yesterday. I think they’ve both made some important points and their posts are worth the read.

While I love to see others endorse the marketplace where Brand Thunder plays, however, it’s not been the value proposition that’s been the most consistent objection. It’s the perceived limitations of how much a company can do and can offer their customers at one time. The most consistent objection we hear is “I’m already doing this. Why would we need that as well?” Because when you can meet your consumer where they want with little expense and time, you should do it. Doing only one thing this year is leaving too much opportunity on the table.

I’m wagering that most companies and customers can handle more than one digital media initiative a year. I understand the issue of resource constraints (believe me! I understand) but there are a lot of low cost options for you to release a bonanza of new media programs without a significant drain on your time or resources. In most cases, if you have your logo digitized and have initiated a handful of common practices, like RSS feeds for your news, you can launch a number of these programs within weeks — and that’s whether you use one of the self-serve wizards available for a number of digital media tools, or a low-cost, low-touch option like Brand Thunder brings. You can bring several tools to your audience in a reasonable amount of time.

If you’re launching one, you may as well launch more. The promotional and hosting commitment is going to be the same. This is where I see potential upside for companies. With the influx of advertising networks, it’s easier to be in a “sold out” position for promotional real estate and house promotions are the general casualty. Leveraging promotions to drive users to a single download destination on your site will make better use of the limited inventory and you can offer them a robust range of applications.

So, as you look at your digital marketing road map, I encourage you to reshape the questions being asked. Instead of why your customer would want it. Ask why you wouldn’t give them what they want. The difference can mean a lot in terms of how often you’re connecting with your audience.

Posted in Commentary | Tags: advertising, brand thunder, custom browsers, Customer value proposition, desktop widgets, Digital media, marketing, MediaPost, toolbars, web apps, widgets | No Comments »

Avoiding Ad Blind Spots by Kevin Dwinnell

Marketers are perpetually trying to break through the clutter and gain the attention of their audience. Consumers, on the other hand, are getting more adept at tuning out the noise. If you’re in online marketing, you know they’re blind to it as well.

It’s creating that blindness we want to avoid. Visitors to your site learn where they can find the information they want. For site owners, it can be tempting to use some of the more valuable content locations for advertising to increase revenue. Any content real estate, however, reassigned an advertising role will quickly see the click through in that location drop. It also takes longer for that space to regain its value once that space returns to offering content. The consumer is quick to learn and slow to forget.

Consumers realize that the ads are a primary reason the content is available, so they’re accepting if its presented respectfully where value is being provided. Viacom is touting they’ve solved the riddle for online video ads. That’s also why the leaderboard banner at the top of many web pages has had such a long tenure. It’s accepted as “the ad I must see before I get to what I want” and the eye passes over this space on its way to the content.

Fortunately, it’s not a blind eye. These placements are guaranteed a certain level of awareness and therefore interaction because the payoff is moments away. Simply by knowing where the eye is going, and where the user is interacting with the page puts odds in your favor. It’s easy to see the fascination with heat maps as they detail specifically where your user’s eyes travel on the page.

Focus on the value your content creates, then integrate the ads in its vicinity. That’s the mix that will keep both your content and advertisements visible to your audience and best serve your business needs over the long term.

Posted in Commentary | Tags: advertising, Click-through rate, internet marketing, marketing, Online advertising | No Comments »

Why Search Advertising Works in Internet Applications by Patrick Murphy

There are two primary ways to make advertising revenue on the internet – display advertising and search. For our browser themes, search is a natural to include, so it should come as no surprise that Brand Thunder is announcing its relationship with Yahoo! Search, a premier provider in this space (view the press release here). But the question you may ask is “why is search the dominant advertising vehicle for internet applications like browser themes and toolbars?”

Available real estate is the short answer. A search box is small and a critical function that launches a full web page. There’s simply not enough real estate to make banners a significant element for advertisers in most applications. Naturally, there’s a deeper answer that can be explored.
Search enjoys heavy use and includes contextual and relevant search advertising. The ad is directly related to the search term used, or at least it should be, and the advertiser only pays when the user clicks on the ad, not when they view it.

With display ads, when the web page loads and the ads appear, the advertiser is charged – regardless of whether any one looks at or clicks on the ad. (Yes, were ignoring the whole remnant advertising category for the sake of this discussion) Now, think about an application that is open all the time. The potential number of ads that can be served is immense. Combine that with the limited space available in the application itself and both of these elements suppress the power of this space.

What helps the advertiser in the case of custom browser themes is knowledge of the type of person using the theme. Since the browser themes are centered on a single brand, there’s existing data on the demographics of that brand making it more valuable to the advertiser. So, we expect our partners demand some form of placement and anticipate it will come first as a value-add to sponsors that are already buy an advertising package (think sports team sponsorships) to establish a benchmark of performance. Fortunately, the flexibility of our product will allow us to meet whatever the next request is.

Posted in News | Tags: advertising, firefox, search, Yahoo | No Comments »

Removing Ego for the Benefit of our Company by Patrick Murphy

How often does your ego get in the way because you say to yourself “I can do it all”? The ego has its role. It probably inspired a lot of entrepreneurial ventures because you believe you can do “it” better. But, does it also give you free reign to do what’s right for the business?

As a start up, we have some notion that we simply can’t do it all and one aspect of that is reaching all client prospects as rapidly as we’d like. So, to broaden Brand Thunder’s business development, we’ve talked with a number of agencies since they’re already representing brand marketers and are used to pitching emerging media opportunities. Coolfire Media offered all that, plus brought an added dimension. Their existing interactive division provided the technical expertise to allow them to extend the browser functionality beyond the portfolio of offerings Brand Thunder currently provides.

This distribution strategy really required setting the ego aside. Aren’t interactive agencies and Brand Thunder both in the business of providing creative, technical solutions to brand marketers? But, there is no one true path for creativity or execution. Each company will offer its own strengths and perspectives. And, that’s why we pursued this path.

We are also confident in platform we’ve created for custom browsers. This gives a company, like Coolfire Media, the foundation against which to develop while still giving them the functional creativity to add more than visual appeal to a browser. They don’t have to recreate the wheel, they just have to enhance the vehicle. And, together we hope to sell more cars (or custom browsers actually, wanted to clarify in case the metaphorical ramblings were getting too vague).

To see the range of Coolfire’s work, go to www.coolfiremedia.com. To see our current client executions, visit www.brandthunder.com/media. To see the press release of the agreement, click here.

Posted in News | Tags: advertising, agency, browser, extensions, firefox, themes | No Comments »