By Meredith Bunche and Brian Lau

Consumerism: the social and economic order that is based on the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase goods or services in ever greater amounts.

If you’ve been listening to what our country is trying to tell you, consumer is on its way out. Sure, there will always be those of us who cannot help but to want (we’re not talking about want for food or necessities, but for MORE, for BIGGER cars and houses, excess). But what we’re hearing is the national collective consciousness choosing what used to be an “alternative” lifestyle that is becoming mainstream: that of less is more. Simple living as it’s also called. Eco-conscious. Buy local. Meatless Mondays. The terms for the choice of many to stop the cycle of simply buying because they can or buying because they feel like they should are increasing as fast as the movement itself. All of the aforementioned movements contribute to what is hopefully just the beginning of a re-awakening of appreciation…of making MORE out of less.

EMG is rooted in this very belief—from our 9/80 Fridays* to our work with the Ecology Center to our approach to client work. At EMG, making more out of less isn’t just practical, it’s a no-brainer—it’s smart. As we’ve evolved over the years and as the web continues to evolve, we’ve honed our skills to be able to take the most strategic and streamlined approach to our clients’ business needs and craft solutions that are versatile, sustainable and efficient.  Efficiency doesn’t just mean impactful (which of course our campaigns are!), it means a solution that maximizes internal and external resources and works holistically and intrinsically within an organization, eliminating the need for extra time, money and resources.

EMG is taking this moment in time as an opportunity to focus on what is important in any marketing: the message and the story, backed by utility. We’ve seen tons of campaigns out there that sparkle and cause oohs and aaaahs, cost a million bucks and barely returned half of that. EMG believes that spending too much money is tantamount to wasting money, which is something by which we can simply not abide. We move forward with the goal of conservation, of everything, which we believe leads to conservation of relationships!

As a business, one would think that EMG would like consumerism, that we’d want customers to buy our goods and services in huge amounts, but we say NO WAY to consumerism , we don’t need it. Consumerism is defined as “the social and economic order that is based on the systematic creation and fostering of a desire to purchase goods or services in ever greater amounts.” The past decade of excessive consumption followed by the major global economic collapse has proven this to be unsustainable. The world is coming to the realization that consumption has to be tempered to a moderate and sustainable level. We want our clients to think about maximization and cost-effectiveness and to those challenges we say “bring it on.” Who knows, maybe the pennies we help a client save could be the seed of something great.

Here’s some additional reading on the subject:

• But will it make you happy?
• Meatless Mondays and Sometimes Vegetarians
• Shoppers on a Diet Tame the Urge to Buy
• Money Can’t Buy You Love

Dear Brands,

The more options that we can find to reach a consumer, we, as advertisers will most likely try if it’s in the right context. Most large brands have leveraged billboards, print, TV Commercials, Social Media, Display, Email or Paid Search at this point, in some way or form. So how can a strong brand ensure effective communication in all of these areas, and streamline messaging effectively and quickly to consumers to the point of purchase? Ideally, without creating any distractions for the consumers.

Try creating a “Brand Board” online for all of your advertisers and partners to access. Brands that can keep the conversation going internally will come out on top. Advertisers need to know what brands are doing across all mediums so that display ads have the same tone as commercials, and commercials have a way to tie consumers back online. Consumers, male and female, young and old, are spending more and more time online. That said, brands need to find a way to connect the dots offline and finish their experience or picture perfect message online.

We know a lot about today’s consumer: their gender, how often they buy, their income, age and where they go before and after they visit your site. We also know that consumers are moving extremely quick today, muti-tasking like we’ve never seen before. Having the right message at the right time is crucial for advertisers – more than ever. Creating a relevant connection from offline to online and even online to online has never been more important. This brings us to our example below.

We clicked on an online ad for Mobil 1 performance oil offering proven performance for up to 15,000 miles. The display ad we found was targeted, simple and clean.  The landing page was VERY text heavy with no connection of the “Next Service Date” graphic from the messaging we saw in the banner ad.   True, the banner takes me to a page where we can read about oil, but it still seems disjointed. The page does not contain the same theme or language as the display ad. Have we lost the ability to quickly reach the 18-34 year old male who may be looking for coupons to quickly print out to run to the nearest store after seeing a very similar ad on television?

Could the “Brand Board” have connected the display team with the landing page team and created a better experience for the consumer? We ask brands to think about this. Big brands that realize they have a responsibility to create a seamless interaction throughout their online and offline campaigns will have a leg up on the competition.

Brands know that their marketing dollars are going to go a lot further with a campaign that takes consumers to an end to end experience.

Today Facebook introduced their new Facebook Questions feature, which allows you to ask questions to the Facebook community and is public to everyone on Facebook and perhaps viewable by search engines too.

Here are some questions asked:

Seems like a nifty new feature that distinguishes regular Status Updates from “Questions” and can be useful for brands on Facebook Pages.

Example look at Questions Feature on Earthbound Media Groups Facebook Page:

It looks like Facebook still has some work to do in terms of publishing options, where currently since I’m an admin of Earthbound Media Groups Facebook Page it’s adopting my personal profile publishing options versus the EMG Fan Page’s custom options. It may be a fluke since I doubt Facebook is now allowing Fan Page status updates to be customizable to publish to Administrators’ friends only.

Here’s a look at the difference between a Status Update from the Fan page versus a Asked Question:

You also have the option of following the Question to be updated on when people respond to it.

What do you think of Facebook’s new Questions feature? Let us know!

By Chris Stark and Bob Soleimani

Over the past few years the automated testing using tools such as Quick Test Pro (QTP) have taken over software Quality assurance by storm.  Now-a-days with such a short application life cycle and fast changing UI (User Interface) the question is, well, is it worth spending on the infrastructure?  Usually the startup cost of these platforms is really high and there is also maintenance costs associated with keeping and updating the scripts. The best approach could be a hybrid system of both manual and automated.   The portion of an application that requires forms and transactions can be automated so in these cases repetitive testing proves to be of great importance.  Normally, the interfaces for forms don’t change that much from the original comp and with a couple tweaks here and there the script is up and ready to run again.  But automating a full application (especially web-based) will take too long and may need frequent updates to the test script.

Automated testing has proven beneficial in a more traditional software development processes such as ‘waterfall’. In methodologies such as waterfall, the software goes through a series of specific phases of development. By the time the “implementation” phase is completed and “verification” starts, the code for the application under test (AUT) is mostly stable, unit tested, and ready to go! It could go through some modifications, but not magnificent ones.  As the result, the script developed for the testing would be stable and require very few changes.  One of the major challenges of the test automation is outdated scripts.  This is a costly side effect of automation.  Basically the time it takes to develop a good test script and debug it is the time lost in testing and bug reporting. The developed script is good so long as there is no major change in the application code base.  Test team can use and reuse the script to the end of time; however, on any minor or major code changes the test scripts must be revisited and updated.

Today, with most firms embracing AGIL methodology and such shorter product life span, could automated testing be as beneficial? Well, it depends. Quality assurance (QA) engineers can still benefit greatly from automation in AGILE shops in CRMs, and applications with heavy data insertion and retrieval, file open and close. Basically, we may want to see if our form front and backend implementation can support 2000 hits without crashing the site front-end or the backend DB.   However, mimicking users’ navigation on a site can be a tedious scripting task to undertake and the value of manual testing may by far outweigh the automation. The biggest benefit will come from a hybrid system of manual and automated testing.  This method allows for very specific, targeted automated testing of critical components, while allowing testers to have time to manually test the application and detect bugs.

Let’s Discuss: The power of combining your brand’s visible assets with promotions to make celebrities out of your audience.

EMG 30-Second Rundown
NASA is currently running an online promotion called “Face in Space” to draw attention and interest to the final two Endeavour shuttle flights, STS-133 and STS-134. The promotion leverages a microsite that allows people to upload a photo of their face to be taken aboard one of the remaining flights and launched into orbit (a nice alternative route into orbit over others that are morbid, costly, or statistically challenging). The campaign has been quite a success so far with over 62,508 total participants from 6 continents (including yours truly representing EMG in space), and a significant amount of global media coverage.

NASA is motivating participation (and driving awareness of its programs in the process) by making available to its audience a chance to be visibly associated with its brand in a significant and meaningful way. Call it “celebrifying” its audience.

Other recent examples of brands employing this tactic:

• To celebrate selling 500,000 Fiat 500 vehicles, Italy’s Fiat Group launched an online promotion that invited the public to submit photos to be incorporated into the paint job of a special edition Fiat 500 showcar (to be known as the Fiat 500 Thousandth). The promotion has received worldwide coverage and all 1,500 spots that were available on the car will be filled.

• In anticipation of the Paranormal Activity DVD release, distributor Paramount invited all the fans that made the movie such a success to submit their name for inclusion in the DVD film credits. Just over 149,000 fans participated, and as of writing this, 823,000 DVDs have been sold.

The EMG Takeaway
There are two dynamics at play here that make this tactic of celebrifying your audience so powerful, Celebrity to the World (incentive) and Celebrity to Us (bonding).

Celebrity to the World is the incentive a brand offers when it creates the opportunity to associate your face or name to the public using a visible brand asset. The prospect of being able to tell my friends my photo is going to be launched into space makes me feel like a celebrity, and motivates me to participate.

Celebrity to Us describes the connection that is formed between a brand and an individual when the brand incorporates them into one of its visible brand assets. Knowing I’ve been included in the launch of a space shuttle makes me feel like a celebrity to NASA, and deepens my bond with the brand.

The real takeaway is that when pairing an incentive to an online promotion, it can be just as effective (if not significantly more so) to appeal to the ego of participants instead of their checkbooks. If NASA created an online essay contest and offered $1,000 to the winner, I’m quite positive they wouldn’t have received the same level of participation or media coverage.

Final Words: When designing a promotion, consider what visible assets your brand can leverage to make celebrities out of your audience to incentivize participation and deepen a connection with your brand.

3 Questions to Continue the Discussion

1. What brands have made you feel like a celebrity?
2. If you’re a brand manager, what visible assets have you used to celebrify your audience?
3. Is your face going to be on board on of the final two Endeavour shuttle flights?

Photo credit: Matthew Simantov / Flickr

Web analytics play an important role in websites.  They allow us to investigate how users use the site and how to improve on that experience. Too often, however, they also hurt the user experience by slowing or blocking the loading of a web page.

Most analytic includes have a form similar to this:

<script language="JavaScript" type="text/javascript" src="http://url.for.the/analytics.script?sometimes=with&other=variables"></script>

When these tags are inserted on your page they attempt load the analytics javascript file.  If the url the script is located at is slow to download, then on most browsers⁺ the page loading waits on this file and the page is “blocked”.   This can be especially problematic with analytics file since they are often hosted at an external server.  The implication here is that if you have the script early in a page, then the majority of the site will be not visible to the user until this analytics file has loaded.

The first step to improving the user experience is usually moving the analytics block to the bottom of the page (or at least far enough down to not affect the user experience).

Note:  there are other methods for loading a JavaScript file without page blocking.  See references.

When the script file is loaded at the bottom of the page, and it hangs, then most of the page is still shown.

There is one more common issue to tackle.  Event based analytics tracking. For example, let’s take a look at outbound click tracking.

If you’re using Omniture for outbound click tracking … you might have a code snippet that looks like this.⁺⁺

<a href="http://www.earthboundmediagroup.com" onclick="s.customTrack('eVar12=page:key|prop12=page:key');" >link</a>

If the analytics file is blocked or still loading … then a JavaScript error will occur on the above link because the s variable doesn’t exist yet.  While this doesn’t always present a problem to a user, you don’t want JavaScript errors when they can be avoided especially because they can affect the processing of other scripts.  So, a modification would need to be made to the above code that checks for the existence of the analytics variable loaded by the tracking module.

<a href="http://www.earthboundmediagroup.com" onclick="if(!typeof(s) == ‘undefined’){s.customTrack(’eVar12=page:key|prop12=page:key’);}” >link</a>

Sidebar:  When pages are blocked, then events that occur when the DOM is finished loading (like the jQuery onReady events) are also going to wait to run.  This has the potential to cause problems  that would exist regardless of what resource was blocked.

Implementing these simple changes can greatly improve the experience for users who reach your page while the analytics file may be loading slowly.

+ Chrome seems to load the page past most of the blocking tests I have run.

++ This is a more recent version of Omniture code.  The basics apply to other versions and other analytics providers.

References:

http://www.nczonline.net/blog/2009/06/23/loading-javascript-without-blocking/

http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55527

Let’s Discuss

Going mobile!

EMG 30-Second Rundown

Shifting customer expectations mean mobile debates will start raging in marketing and tech departments very soon. Past experience leads us to believe that an inflection point will be reached where customers no longer think your mobile site is a novel benefit, but they’ll be upset if you don’t have mobile.

Learning from the Past..

mid 90’s ..Do we need a website? The web is introduced as a functional business channel. Websites provide users a 24 hours means of accessing information when they want it. Some firms (Vegas casinos most notably) jump on this as a way to cut costs and allow customers to book on their own time. It goes from a novelty to an expectation very quickly, and to be taken seriously as a business you’re on the web.

<Time Jump> Late 2000’s - What do we do with SOCIAL media ? The initial “isn’t this cool” growth spurt has come and gone and social media is proving itself to be a powerful tool for connecting people and brands across the web. How to effectively use social media is a post for another time, but I think its safe to say that we as consumers expect the brands we like to have some sort of social media presence that we can interact it with. Social media has become part of the expected user experience within site design & development.

How do we go mobile? - Early 2010’s - The next great expectation. SmartPhones have enriched (invaded?) our lives.. just take a look around the next meeting you’re in. But the great shakeout has not begun yet. How to go mobile and how to represent yourself on these small but powerful tools will prove almost as complex as social media. Do you build an app or a mobile web site? Apps are HOT right now, but apps are platform specific and require specific skill sets to build and maintain. Browsers on phones are BLEEECH at best (seriously Blackberry let’s step it up) but doesn’t that mean that he who improves will own the mobile web? There is research to be done (Gartner are you listening?)  as to whether users want individual icons for EVERY brand that they shop / love / use or if there is more value in a WAP site.

The other big consideration is the user experience. A site is meant to be engaging and informative, helping me to navigate your entire business to find what I need. Doing that in a 320 x 240 space does NOT make any sense. Transactions are what mobile site visitors want, and they want to do them quickly. Page payloads have to be small to account for dial-up level bandwidth and top nav / left nav are rendered useless.

The EMG Takeaway: 

Between now and the next big consumer expectation jump there will be some growing pains with mobile as there were for the first web and the social web. Those who embrace the need for a mobile site or application, maintenance and user experience definition maybe the ones we read about in the not so near future.

Your thoughts?:

Has your company decided on a mobile strategy? Apps vs. WAPS?

When you use your device right now to find info .. do you prefer an app or a WAP? Are you disappointed when you hit a URL on your mobile device and you don’t find a WAP specific site?

What direction do you recommend if the Director of Marketing walks into your office now and asks about mobile?

Let’s Discuss: An article by Advertising Age, Male Call: Marketers Jump On Men’s Grooming Trend

EMG 30-Second Rundown: The men’s personal-care category is steadily growing (up 1% while the rest of the category is down over 5%) and marketers are taking every opportunity to capture share with one of the biggest array of product launches for men in nearly a decade. Brands which have prevoiusly skewed towards women are even vying for a piece of the pie as seen with Unilever launching its new Dove Men’s + Care line.

Key Quote: Marketing actually has a long history of gender-bending brands that have added, changed or developed gender identities long after they were well-established.

The EMG Takeaway: There are major opportunities for brands to develop products that market to genders in which their brand typically does not appeal.  Personal-care has been a category that has seen more of this than most others over the past decade and now with successes and lessons learned from failures, is poised to jump in with both feet.  With all of the brands now clamoring for attention in the personal-care category with new products and marketing messaging that suggests men need to “smell like a man” and “embrace being a man”, success for these brands could mean big changes for other CPG categories and industries.  With the influx of all this targeted messaging to men around these products working together to create the perception in men that all products they use should be this way and convey this message, its only a matter of time before we start to see laundry detergent, suntan lotion, air fresheners or other products start to have men’s lines.

Final Words: Men like to be reminded that they are men and use products that make them feel more manly, especially when gender lines are blurring more and more each passing year. Marketers and brands have proven to be able to cash in on this time and again when they come

Three Questions from EMG to Continue the Discussion:

1. What brands could benefit the most from launching a male or female line of their products?

2. What is the most effective marketing message the men’s personal-care products are using?

A. Using this product will make women want you (example: Axe Body Spray)

B.  Using this product will make you feel like a man (example: Dove Mens + Care)

C. Your girlfriend wants you to use this product (example: Old Spice Body Wash)

3. Do you think more brands will start marketing to men or will it just be a short fad within only the personal-care line.

Let’s discuss: An article from Techcrunch  Saving the World or Another FB App?

EMG 30 sec rundown: During the UC Berkeley Hackathon 128 students “hacked” for 24 hours straight, building some of the coolest websites, games, Twitter stream analyzers, and Facebook apps. One of the categories teams were judged on was “social good.” Does this technology or software contribute to the social well being of our planet? According to writer Vivek Wadhwa there was only one team worthy of receiving the prize. The team built a system for villagers in developing countries that enables them to send SMSs to volunteers who can provide emergency medical advice. Most judges didn’t understand that developing countries do not have a medical emergency system like 911. The team that did win for “social good” developed a polling technology for Universities. Judges felt helping universities was “social good.” This raises the question, can we build a social media app that betters our planet and makes a healthy profit?

EMG takeaway: EMG is a leader in the world of social media and interactive marketing. Companies look to our expertise in these verticals. We saw a new form of marketing and it was up to us to show others how to use it. As early adopters and experts I feel nobody is better suited to show people how social media can better our planet.

Social media is constantly evolving and new ideas are created every minute; however these ideas are usually for personal gain and/or self promotion. It is a challenge to be selfless and an even bigger challenge to be selfless while making a profit. Creating ideas for the “social good” can be as simple as creating a Facebook fan page for trash pickup at the beach. The great thing about ideas to better our planet is that even on a small scale they can do big things.

 Final Words:  Social media has definitely become a part of our lives and changed the way we live. Using it to better our planet and improve the way others live is a great challenge.

3 Questions to Continue the Discussion: Do you have a favorite charity/cause/group? Can you think of a social impact app or technology for them?

Many companies create a product which people want, improve lives and solves problems, is this considered social betterment?

Is it even possible to develop an app that not only contributes to the “social good” of the world, but is also profitable?

Let’s Discuss:
There are many online social networking sites out there and there are many avid subscribers and users of these networks. As popularity increases, so does the number of new social networking sites. Will these survive on Eyeballs alone?

EMG 30-Second Rundown:
In the television heyday there were 3 major networks which split to four with Fox’s move into the market in 1986. Less competition = more eyeballs. More eyeballs = bigger ad spends. The 4 major networks had an airwave monopoly controlling a popular medium that allowed advertisers to reach into living rooms. In the late ’90s through today, cable and satellite television providers have been adding more channels and splitting those audiences between an ever growing list of channels. More competition=fewer eyeballs. Fewer eyeballs=less revenue per network because advertisers have to split their spends across multiple networks to reach the same number of people. Are we currently witnessing a similar event in the online market space?

Google recently released Google Buzz as a social media platform to cut into twitter’s market share, and all before twitter has released a revenue generation model. Smart business move or is Google diluting their product offerings? We know how Google has monetized their search model. They have a whole slew of services around serving up ads on specific key word searches. Twitter on the other hand does not have a proven revenue model, so how will they endure?

EMG Takeaway:
What are the ways that twitter can make money based around their platform?

1. In page ad serve. Ok, one of the easiest to come up with off the top of my head is serving ads on twitter pages or inter tweet ads. Simple, easy, but questionable in effectiveness. They could serve relevant ads based around tweets, but would you click on inter tweet ads or learn to tune them out after you get used to the format? I would liken these to display ad traffic. Not necessarily the highest converting traffic or the best bang for your buck, but with large volume users, they could probably generate revenue from this model.
2. http://search.twitter.com - Follow a Google model and serve up ads based on search terms on their search feature. This is starting to look a little more promising, but still lacks the wide spread value that Google has. This is because twitter searches tweets and there aren’t as many people searching for products through a twitter search. This approach lacks that critical tie in like the pay per click campaigns have on a Google search where people are actually looking for general products and services.
3. http://apiwiki.twitter.com/Twitter-API-Documentation - Twitter has an api that developers can tap into and pull feeds, but more importantly, set up interfaces to search twitter which makes it one of the biggest and arguably the most powerful social barometers around. It could be an invaluable tool for businesses and marketing agencies to interface with this api to research what the general population is tweeting about. This information becomes more and more valuable as the number of Tweeters goes up.

I have searched around and found many proposed revenue models for twitter and similar social networking sites. There is no way for us to tell exactly how they are going to make money until they actually do, but in the meantime we can use them for entertainment, staying connected, meeting new people and those of us in Marketing can use them as valuable tools in our day to day.

Final words:
The next time you are tweeting or reading someone else’s tweets, jump over to http://search.twitter.com and type in the first thing that comes to mind. Now start searching for terms relating to your business, your clients, your industry. At the very least it is extremely entertaining, but quite possibly a very powerful tool to help you shape your business and product offerings.

Questions for Discussion:

• Have twitter, and now Google, figured out a secret way to capitalize on people boasting their current state of mind and they are just waiting to unleash it on as at a later time, or are we going through dot com boom v2.0?
• Will Google’s Buzz cut into twitter’s market share, pulling people away from twitter and diluting the results of their “societal/cultural barometer”?
• What do you think will happen to the online social networking space as more and more ventures release social networking sites? Will people expand the networks they use, will the strong survive and the rest fail or will interest in social networks dwindle as people become over socialized?
• Will these social networks lose the critical mass that they needed to sell products or assemble the collective conscience that is needed to shape a marketing campaign?

…Only time will tell.