Cross Platform Sales is an Optimal Solution
Thursday, May 7th, 2009It used to be when a brand marketer or agency executive started talking about “beyond the banner solutions” it usually meant, “what can you give me for free’ to lower the cost of your advertising. Needless to say, the days of folding an online program into a print campaign as “value add” are pretty much over.
The good news is that, thanks to new and emerging forms of media, the palette of options available to create powerful and cost effective integrated programs is virtually limitless. The trick is to have the discipline to fight the “kid in the candy store” impulse to eat everything in sight just because it looks good. If done well, cross platform and integrated programs forge lasting strategic partnerships that meld the best aspects of your respective brand equities…both media and product/service. The efficacy of your editorial voice is what drives trust, which is precisely what brand marketers want to tap into build brand equity and awareness.
In these days where every ad dollar has to work harder, what better way to do it than to take advantage of all the assets at your finger tips. I always find the KIS (keep it simple) approach best. “Dinner and a movie” is pretty straight forward. You could place a trackable url into a print ad which leads to a jump page hosted by your site offering free popcorn if you sign up to review a movie through your mobile handset and post it on your site’s Entertainment Section. Your popcorn and tickets can be waiting when you get to the theater because your handset already pinged the theater that you are coming. Perhaps the same thing can be done with restaurant reviews which can give away free movie tickets for bringing in the coupon they print by coming to the same jump page. This can create a viral circle which builds on itself organically with you at the hub.
I know many of you are doing these types of initiatives already but it’s also time to connect the dots. “Citizen Journalism” is not going to go away, but newspapers are in the unique position to harness it to become the hub of all things local. Why should affinity groups need to go outside your borders to find what they need? You basically create the source code for this social/viral/mobile bonanza and put it on your readers’ doorsteps or access it through their computer or mobile devices every day.
The game is yours to win or lose and you have a very strong pitcher. The article below outlines an initiative between Unilever and Time Inc. that demonstrates the power of these integrated programs…and this is just the tip of the iceberg.
I would also be happy to facilitate a “virtual” meeting via conference call of like-minded/non competitive BlackBox Media clients to compare notes and best practices. Not being wholly altruistic, I wouldn’t mind if you as a group became the next case study…demonstrating how geographically disparate local media can work together to create powerful and forward thinking brand messaging for Fortune 500 companies.
I welcome and encourage your feedback.
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BrandWeek Unilever Dines with Time May 2, 2009 The strategy is indicative of Unilever’s new approach in dealing with media partners. Like many in the packaged goods arena, Unilever has been challenging key publishing partners to take campaigns beyond their magazines. Publishers must offer advertising solutions that thrive beyond the print world, said Unilever’s North American media director, Rob Master. “We tell them, ‘Don’t just come back with a bunch of insert pages.’ They have terrific assets, whether it be mobile or digital, and we want to leverage those.”Unilever, likewise, wants to capitalize on the eat-at-home trend. An advertorial in this month’s issue of Cooking Light, for instance, positions Ragu as a key ingredient in a recipe called “Mama’s best ever spaghetti & meatballs.” Opposite is a full-page ad for Ragu that reads: “Spaghetti and meatballs for less than two dollars a serving? With Ragu, your kids get more than a full serving of veggies that they’ll actually love to eat.” Issues of Cooking Light also will include in-book, recipe-themed shopping lists. Online, Cooking Light editors explain how to incorporate the brand into different recipes in a series of Web videos. Unilever products will be integrated into recipes on MyRecipes.com. A mobile application launching this week allows consumers to browse more than 30,000 recipes across MyRecipes.com. Meal solutions incorporating Ragu will be integrated into the mobile database later this month. For example, when a consumer searches for a dinner involving spaghetti, a related Ragu recipe may pop up. “It’s essentially a product placement, a perfect fit for consumers looking for recipes with sauce associated with them,” said Steve Zales, Time Inc.’s lifestyle group’s digital president. Both companies say it’s the first time either of them has collaborated with an advertising partner to this extent. Zales calls it the “first fully integrated sponsorship of a [media] property” for his lifestyle division, which was formed last fall. The concept, though, is hardly new. Suzanne Grimes, president of Reader’s Digest Association’s Food & Entertaining division, for instance, formed an in-house sales and marketing team specifically to create these kinds of integrated efforts. “Their sole purpose is to leverage multiplatform opportunities for clients, and we specialize in consumer packaged goods companies,” she said of the group’s function. General Mills, for example, ran an integrated campaign across Reader’s Digest Association’s Every Day With Rachael Ray and Taste of Home food titles. Following a 5.6 percent sales lift for Chex, General Mills has returned as a second-time sponsor, with a promotion timed for the June issue of Every Day With Rachael Ray and a digital campaign launching mid-May. In this economy, Grimes said, “Smart marketers are demanding integrated solutions that meaningfully drive performance.” |