wayfindings

What do sliced bread, American Idol, the Super Bowl, Heroes, Google, The Dark Night, Iron Man, “As I Am”, “Low”, “Lollipop”, the Motorola RAZR, Yahoo! Mail, The Shack, and A New Earth have in common? They’re what America loved in 2008, according to The Nielsen Company, which apparently measures quite a few human activities. If you’re involved in pop culture, you owe it to yourself to check them out. What strikes me is America’s quest for heroes or the transformation of ordinary people into something extraordinary. Here’s some links.

1. Favorite food - Sliced Bread
2. Favorite TV Series - American Idol
3. Favorite TV Show - Super Bowl XLII
4. Most Watched Show on DVR - Heroes
5. Favorite Website - google
6. Favorite Movie - The Dark Night
7. Favorite DVD - Iron Man
8. Favorite Album - “As I Am” Alicia Keys
9. Favorite Single - “Low” FLO Rida featuring T. Pain
10. Favorite Ringtone - “Lollipop” Lil Wayne
11. Favorite Cell Phone - Motorala RAZR
12. Favorite Mobile Website - Yahoo!Mail
13. Favorite Novel - The Shack
14. Favorite Non-Fiction - A New Earth

Marketers are quickly responding to web surfers’ preference for video, according to recent research cited by emarketer. Specifically, more than two-thirds of respondents to a recent survey among marketers showed that online video would be a budget focus during 2009. Suddenly, video is the new darling of marketing on the web, eclipsing last year’s darling, social media, by almost 50%.

This is a direct response to how people are using the web. Comscore.com recently reported that 146 million Americans watched 12.7 billion videos in November, a 34% increase versus November 2007. That works out to nearly 8 out of 10 people who were online watched a video.

As a result, money spent by marketers on online video, which now represents less than 3% of spending online, is projected to become the #3 use of online advertising by2012, when it will account for over 10% of online spending by advertisers. Frankly, that projection seems conservative.

Do your marketing initiatives include online video?

We all know Youtube is a hit. But were you aware that the internet is increasingly the way people watch TV shows?

TVWeek reports that adults 18-34 prefer their TV over the internet instead of TIVO/DVR by almost two to one. The study, conducted by Solutions Research Group, also notes that all online Americans watching television shows has doubled over the last two years from 25% to 50%.

With more people migrating from the difficult to measure world of TV and DVR to the easily measured world of the internet, there is tremendous opportunity for practicitioners of Branded Responsesm. Combining the branding power of TV with the responsiveness of the internet opens up a whole new world of accountable, high ROI marketing.

Could video save the printed word? Readers are fleeing printed media. Those media are migrating content onto the web, but banner advertising support for them has so far failed to satisfy the media, readers, or advertisers.

Video could be the answer. Video sections are increasingly prominent on newspaper sites. Because content is on the web, it’s bite-size, and specifically demanded by the viewer. The format works for the medium even if (or maybe because) it often lacks the polish of broadcast or cable TV.

I respond to faces that aren’t quite TV-ready - as long as the content is there. AND I’m willing to watch a :30 TV commercial in order to watch the content I want. Internet TV is actually watched, as opposed to banner ads that are virtually ignored, and pop-unders and overs that are closed as soon as they open. And even if I don’t click on the ad, advertisers only pay for ads that are viewed.

The result? Content that viewers demand. Advertising that’s actually viewed. And financial support for the ultimate content providers.

Americans consume more video than ever, according to Nielsen. In their report, American’s Can’t Get Enough Of Their Screen Time, Nielsen reports that the average person watches about an hour more TV than he or she did 10 years ago, now totaling 4:45 each day.

And that’s not the only screen we’re watching. We’re spending about an hour a day on the internet. We watch about 2.5 hours a month watching videos on the internet, and those of us with cellphones that get video add another 3.5 hours a month with this very small screen - both activities that Nielsen didn’t even bother to measure in 2007, but up +14% and +12%, respectively in just 3 months, growth rates that, if continued, translate to triple the time viewing videos in these outlets over the next 2 years.

What’s fueling the obsession beyond multiple ways to watch? DVRs, which help people squeeze an extra 6.5 hours a month of “time-shifted” TV (I’m surprised it’s not more. I love my tivo.) And the explosion of HD helps too with 23% of American households having one, up from only 10% in July of 2007. And that # doesn’t reflect the 2008 holiday season.

What’s the takeaway? Say it with video - if you can’t afford TV, make sure you’re developing a video strategy for the web, and mobile devices.

And don’t assume that internet and mobile video are just for youngsters. Adults 35-44 watch more video on their phones than 18-24 year olds.

time.com has discovered the value of lists. Its editorial staff has collected “The Top 10 Everything of 2008″. Read it and you can answer the following 10 questions:

1. How cool is an Optomo Pico PK101?
2. What bank promised/lied “You can count on us”?
3. Who named their kid Harlow Winter?
4. What 4 things were more scandalous than Sarah Palin spending $150,000 on clothes?
5. How long is the world’s longest insect?
6. What was Janet Jackson thinking?
7. Who said “Whatever our differences, we are fellow Americans. And please believe me when I say no association has ever meant more to me than that.”?
8. What was 2008’s most searched term on Yahoo!?
9. Who’s Mr. Kinichee?
10. Who had 2008’s top song - Kanye West, Pink, or Beyonce?

Find your answers here

Yes We Can

This from Feed, the viral video seed company. It’s a list of the ads that tipped into 2008’s viral hall of fame. Is there anything we can draw from these winners to help inspire anyone who wants to create an ad with viral potential? Here’s a quick list:

1. Use someone famous - 4 of the top 10 used a celebrity
2. Stupid human tricks - back flip into a pair of jeans, leap 15 feet to catch a ball, leap over a car, shoot a square peg through a round hole - the trick is to make it almost believable.
3. Do a mash-up - is it the quick cuts for an ADD generation or just getting disparate people to participate in a common message?
4. Make the viewer feel good - Is irony dead?

Enjoy! Here’s the link.

http://feedcompany.com/2008/12/feed-companys-top-10-viral-video-ads-of-2008/

What do pizza, dry cleaning and gift wrapping have to do with banking? That’s a connection TDBank in New Jersey is trying to make.

According to this article on nytimes.com, the bank is tie-ing in with pizza parlors, dry cleaners and shopping malls near its branches. Since its positioning is all about convenience, maybe these friendly gestures allow appreciative prospects to make the connection.

There are two things to admire with this approach.

First, there’s a single mindedness about one attribute - convenience. In the crowded world of financial services, positioning as simply and clearly as possible makes it easy for customers who value convenience to connect to the brand.

Second, they extend the communication into the realm of experience and response. It’s one thing to say you’re convenient. It’s another to engage people all singlemindedly on this attribute. TDBank is as convenient as a delivered pizza, TDBank is as convenient as your local dry cleaner. TDBank offers a sweepstakes with convenience as the prize - limo services, maid services, etc. You get the point.

We admire this approach that generates response that ties back to the brand promise. We call it Branded Response.

Need some last minute gift ideas? Here’s a list of this year’s 22 worst gifts (along with hilarious/snarky commentary) from esquire.com. Enjoy.

Mckinsey & Company, the firm that invented consulting, challenges conventional wisdom about how marketers can do more with less in the current recession. You can get the full article (with some fascinating charts) here. You have to register to access the article, but there’s a treasure trove of good thinking and analysis. If you don’t have time, here are its highlights.

Their most important findings are that:

1. This is a recession like no other in recent memory.
2. Marketers need to abandon techniques that worked in past recessions.

Here are some dos and don’ts:

DO

1. Make sure your brands’ value propositions work in the current environment
2. Fine tune product offerings
3. Get pricing right
4. Make sure your vendors are working with you to be efficient
5. Leverage your knowledge and data to market on a very granular level

DON’T

1. Assume your best markets historically will be your best markets during the recession
2. Hunker down to markets and methods that worked in the past
3. Slash budgets across the board
4. Automatically cut back office staff (and other resources) in favor of salespeople
5. Fall back to core media, like newspapers and TV, by abandoning digital, direct and social media