Some minor issues

I was very intrigued when I saw the following headline on clickZ last week: Joost Signs Major Advertisers.
Seems like a good thing right? Joost is great, so extra money might speed things up and improve the service. So the headline sounded great, but then I read the article, and it said they were going to do 30 seconds spot, among others.
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Question 7 in the new marketing faq: “Does the long tail change anything to the way I should communicate with my target group?”

The obvious answer would be yes. Isn’t the long tail changing everything?
Indeed the long tail can change the way you do business.

But should it really change the way you communicate?
In my mind, the most important thing is the communication itself. If you don’t communicate with your consumers yet, this question isn’t relevant, and you should start doing so in the first place.

If your communication strategy is enrolled, you can finetune it with the long tail in mind. Based on the long tail, you can assume an online message (to narrow it down) keeps living after initiation. You’ll pass the momentum and enter the continuum.

If I look at this blog I see a certain percentage of visitors reading posts I wrote a long time ago. They’ll keep finding it by Google, so this content is relevant for them. Indeed the basic challenge is to keep your content relevant in the long run. In the social web the connectivity becomes a very important factor. Not only in interaction (between social people), but also in content. Content gets tagged, flagged and reused. So in your communication, over time, you’re building credit. Again, to make this work in the long run (long tail) try to follow your basic communication sense. More about that in Question 1.

I think for example, sometimes you have to look back. Reread the things you published before. Are they still relevant? If they aren’t, you don’t have to alter the text, but you might want to link to an update. You can also set the scope. If your readers know in what context (zeitgeist) a certain article/post/text is written, they can understand it more correct. Basic thing: ALWAYS date your content.

Read Philippe’s answer. He points out the conversation is going global, so you have to be remeber humor (for example) is context/country sensitive. What we consider as a good laugh might offend other people.

(BTW: speaking of Q7. I’m an absolute Audi fan. I drive an A3 sportback myself. The Audi Q7 is in my mind the most attractive SUV around! So marketeers at Audi: don’t miss your opportunity to start and maintain the relationship with this brand advocate )

Question number 6 in the new marketing FAQ: “What does interaction rate (only available for rich media formats) tell me about the impact of my campaign?”

So Philippe got ahead again . You can read his answer here.
In fact you should, since he’s pointing to some interesting studies.
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Volgens het recent gelanceerde Gentse MetaTale is Minor Issues nummer 90 op de lijst van meest invloedrijke blogs. Fijn zo, nu heb ik eindelijk een nummer om mee te werken

MetaTale heeft (zoals een beetje te verwachten) weer een storm veroorzaakt in het glas water beter bekend als de Vlaamse blogosfeer (no offence). Basis kritiek is oa “wat is invloed”, “hoe meet je het” en vooral “wat voor zin heeft in hemelsnaam die top 100″. Terechte vragen uiteraard.

Voor zover ik het product begrepen heb is het een analysetool gebouwd op statistische gegevens. Dat zien we natuurlijk allemaal graag. De vraag naar het algoritme zal blijven bestaan, maar het stomste wat MetaTale kan doen is dit vrijgeven. Dan kunnen blogs zich immers technisch gaan optimaliseren. De enige manier om credibititeit te krijgen is dan ook niet zwaaien met het algoritme (“zie eens hoe slim”) maar er gewoon voor te zorgen dat het fucking goede resultaten oplevert. Wel mogen er tips & tricks komen natuurlijk. Vergelijk het met google, maar dan in het klein.

De huidige top 100 kan ik dan ook niet meer dan een PR stunt noemen. Ik denk niet dat ze me dat gaan tegenspreken. De bedoeling van de tool is immers dat je als marketeer gerichte vragen kan stellen. Geef me influencials over onderwerp x. De vraag van de huidige top gaat over de invloed op alles, wat een redelijk onmeetbaar gegeven is natuurlijk. Onzinnig ook.

In ieder geval: veel succes aan Bart en zijn team. Enige jammere voor mij persoonlijk is dat het een Vlaamse tool is. In de top zijn enkel Nederlandstalige blogs opgenomen. En ikzelf begin meer en meer in het Engels te bloggen. Mijn invloed zal dus tanen. Tenzij er snel werk gemaakt wordt van die internationale versie.
Mijn ambitie: minstens top 5 marketing blogs uit Vlaanderen. Wereldwijd nog iets te vroeg om een target te stellen, laat ons zeggen dat ik wel wil meespelen

A few weeks ago, Philippe Deltenre, working as a media strategist at Microsoft Belgium posted a list of 8 questions. These questions are sort of the most asked questions by traditional advertisers. Philippe distilled these questions out of the many sessions he had doing his job.

I decided to answer this questions as well, on this blog. Kris Hoet did an excellent job sending them to some A-listed marketeers, and it’s trilling to see this new marketing faq is kicking off!
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Question 5 in Philippe’s new marketing FAQ: “How intrusive should I be? (expandable formats, videos with sound on by default)”

Good question!

It’s a balancing act. You want to be noticed by your target group, and transform some kind of message. But at the same time you don’t want to annoy, or piss off, people.
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Question 4 in Philippe’s new marketing FAQ: “How can impressions be compared to television GRPs?”

First the terms.
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Question 3 in Philippe’s FAQ: “Are there examples of 2.0 initiatives made by traditional brands that went totally out of hand?”

Why is this such a hard question? Because it’s the only one in the questionnaire that’s intrinsic negative! If somebody explains you new marketing, and your response is “are there examples of thing that went wrong”, you’re not really listening. You don’t seem to give it a chance.
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Phillip’s second question “Is online advertising making sense without a decent website?”. See his own answers, I agree.

So yes, online advertising is making sense without a decent website. If it wasn’t, traditional advertising wouldn’t make sense at all, does it. People tent to forget the traditional goals of advertising, which Phillip listed nicely. It’s not because it’s non-traditional advertising these goals no longer apply, it would ignore the human mind.

But I do believe in interactivity. It sticks the brand. An active prospect is paying attention, and more easy to convert. And I mean conversion in the broad sense: turning people into a customers, but as well getting to know the brand, understand brand values, .. the advertising goals again.

Just make sure to pin down your goals before you start planning and creating online campaigns. You need to figure this out first, because whatever you choose will affect the best practices.

Rich media formats are diminishing the need for a landings page anyway. You can build the interaction in your ad. Look at the eyeblaster examples. It’s less aggressive, since you don’t want to pull people out of their trusted environment. You don’t say: YOU NEED TO FOLLOW ME! You just say: look what I got to offer; you might want to check it out. More about interaction rate in Q6.

But there are other ways to advertise online. Branded entertainment for example. Look for a partner that may benefit from a collaboration (financial, but functional as well) and integrate your brand. Or why not evaluate online PR.
The sky is the limit.

However, if you can create a website, I think you should. Your site (and brand) will benefit from the campaign aftermath. People might remember your brand, and link it to their online experience. So if they want to check you out again, they’re going to look for your website. At that point it would be great to offer them what they are looking for, and if you don’t, your competitor might.

As I mentioned before (you might want to read this post first) I’m answering 8 new marketing questions.

Question 1
“How far should I go in the dialogue with the users? Can I accept controversy on my website? What moderation level is acceptable?”
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