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 »

Why Brands are Still Afraid of the Social Web by Kevin Dwinnell

Skittles made a daring move a couple weeks back and illustrated beautifully why, despite a strong willingness, brands can’t open themselves up from a social web standpoint. Brands are built on trust, and consumers and fans have an expectation of how that brand will treat them. It’s no different than personal relationships.

The web is an accelerator of information, sharing, connecting and lends itself to relationship building. With the rise of social media, why can’t brands insert themselves or leverage the discussions that are occurring? They can, but it has to be restrained because there’s a fundamental piece that remains unsolved about how communication occurs on the web – and communication is key to relationship building.

The anonymity and the lack of physical queues on the web create a significant break in the norms of communication. You don’t see someone’s feelings getting hurt if you write a flaming comment. You don’t have to take personal responsibility because no one knows it’s you (in many cases). This makes it too easy for communication to deteriorate. You’re no longer in a place of trust but somewhere that feels unsafe – a breach of trust.

There are ways to minimize this risk, and that’s why you see moderated discussions, the ability to report “inappropriate” behavior and so on. Some level of oversight can help guide community behavior, but usually aren’t real time so you’ll see inappropriate comments or events surface. That’s why it’s not a good idea to put an open, unmoderated discussion on your homepage if you’re a family friendly brand.

As a result, brands need to manage when and where dialogue occurs. And that’s why we tout we’re the “official” Boom (branded browser). The look, the tone, the message is all sanctioned and controlled by the brand. This doesn’t mean it’s a mechanism to talk “at” the consumer. It’s just a more controlled environment.

Controlled can also be very valuable. The real-time, communication news and content integrated into the browser is a powerful tool. There’s an honor to be on the “first-to-know” list, and brands that make an effort to get the latest news (emphasis intended) to their audience can create a stronger bond and a more engaged fan.

There’s never a single solution that’s right for everyone. The trust/relationship structure will change with brand and audience. But, there’s usually a sweet spot where the odds are in your favor. And when it comes to finding an engaging means to communicate with your consumer, we can deliver a very sweet Boom.

Posted in Commentary | Tags: brand, brand thunder, Branded Browser, communication, custom browser, Social media, Social network, Social web | No Comments »

Can Attendance = Presence at a Trade Show? BT Heading SXSW by Kevin Dwinnell

Like any start up, we need to be cash conscious but sometimes separating the “wants” from the “needs” is not easy. We really want to be at SXSW. But in terms of it reaching the audience who buys our service (the brand marketer needing a branded browser), we don’t know if it’s the right show so we don’t know if it’s a need.

Outlined here is our strategy and thoughts for the show.

1. We’re not buying ads at the show.

This is a marketing spend that may help with awareness but, most likely, won’t drive a sale on its own.

2. We didn’t get a booth at the show.

This is a calculated risk. It’s a big cost driver, but gives the personal connection with a prospect that can deepen the interest and really get close to a deal.

3. We’re sending one of the team to attend.

Here’s the big leap of faith and why we’re doing it.

• We have talent in Austin. Michael Kaply, our lead developer, lives in Austin. But proximity isn’t the real value. Mike is one of those rare talents who is not only an amazing and accomplished coder, but he’s aware and articulate about the needs of the business person – and he’s an extrovert. If you’re going to put this task on the shoulders of one person, he’s the guy. (No, I did not give Mike a chance to edit this blog before publishing.)
• Much of the pre-show preparation is the same. Regardless of how we’re attending (booth or just a body), we want to go into the show with a set of pre-scheduled meetings. We’re contacting our partners and prospects, finding out who will be attending and arranging times to meet.
• The networking in the off hours is half the value of the show. It’s amazing how beneficial talking to the person next to you in a line can be, and if you actually get quality time at an after-hours event, even more so. We’ll find out how high our “half-the-value” estimate is.
• The high-quality leads of people seeking us out at the booth will be partially offset by the value of extended interactions at the networking events.

We’ll naturally discuss the results here. But, we’d really like you to meet Mike there and learn how Brand Thunder can help you engage your audience. So, if your headed to SXSW, drop us a line at our Contact page and we’ll arrange a time to meet.

Posted in Commentary | Tags: brand, brand thunder, Branded Browser, custom browser, Marketing and Advertising, South by Southwest, start-up, sxsw, trade show | No Comments »

Holiday Weekend and Start Up Fears by Patrick Murphy

We’re hoping to clear the long holiday weekend without incident. We’ve had a good run of luck with a growing client list, awards and industry recognition. Good momentum for our branded browsers. And our blog posts, while we hope are substantive and useful, tend to be rosy.

Well, last week we hit our first real hiccup. In the midst of a bunch of great news, and a time when we hoped to be seeing a good influx of new traffic, our site went down. The impact potential isn’t just our site and company. Given that our product represents other brands – the problem could be more wide spread.

Our recent successes revealed a bug in the open-source code behind our site. An influx of traffic and events were triggering an infinite loop that ultimately led to server overload (hope that made sense). We diverted server resources to the more critical components of our company, and let our corporate website take the brunt of the downtime. Not necessarily the face you want to show interested prospects, but the right choice nonetheless.

We feel fortunate our server guy is a staunch believer in open-source code. While we run a lean organization, the ability to rely on the shared intelligence of the open-source community greatly expands his knowledge. In a way, it’s like a virtual team and that team offered the information he needed to resolve the issue. Naturally, we’ll share back as we continue to tweak and improve.

Now that we’re heading into a long weekend, we’ll be a little more attuned to the business than we otherwise might have been. And a stable server will certainly make us thankful.

Lessons Learned/Good Habits:
• Track your site status. We’re using Monit on the server and an external monitoring site to send alerts.
• Have a support escalation plan in place – who to call, where to reach them, both internal and external.
• Avoid a single point of failure – whether it’s the password to get support from your web host, or an on-call contractor to backfill key knowledge positions.

Posted in Commentary | Tags: brand, Branded Browser, open source, server, start-up | No Comments »