Optimize Magazine - Spring 2013

issue 1 • spring 2013

IDEAS FOR MARKETING AND CREATIVE PROFESSIONALS

meet the

millennials The next wave of consumers THINKS differently BEHAVES differently BUYS differently Are you ready to engage Generation Y? Page 8

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HOW TO… Leverage multichannel marketing to boost response levels Use content to create consumer engagement

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WeLCOMe

Spring 2013

Spring 2013

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EXPERT OPINION Read insight from the following contributors in this issue:

always looking for better Introducing Optimize, a new publication from Hopkins Printing created exclusively for our valued customers

W

hether you’re a copywriter looking to craft the perfect tagline, an art editor searching for a typeface that will bring a client’s brand to life, or a direct mail specialist exploring new ways of using data to boost response, one thing all successful marketers have in common is a desire to push the envelope. That’s why we named our new magazine Optimize.

It’s dedicated to all of the marketing and creative professionals who continually strive to do things a little better than before.

communicating with millennials ­– a new breed of consumer that distrusts traditional advertising. We also highlight new trends in content marketing that can help you engage your customers and prospects, and explain how print, digital and social can combine to create the perfect direct mail campaign.

At Hopkins Printing, going the extra mile is part of our DNA. In 2007, we became a 100 percent employee-owned organization under an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. We now have about 100 owners, each of whom is financially, personally and professionally vested in ensuring that our customers are taken care of, and that projects run smoothly and are carried out to the highest level of quality. This ownership model enables us to develop closer relationships with our clients, a factor we believe differentiates us from our competitors and enables us to deliver an exceptionally high level of customer service from within every department.

During the past few years, we have noticed that our clients are working to tighter deadlines, juggling multiple projects, assuming more responsibilities and, in some cases, performing several roles. Of course, an increase in workload inevitably means less time to keep up with a rapidly evolving marketing landscape. Our goal is to help you keep your finger on the pulse of the industry by providing you with a selection of engaging and practical insights into print, digital, social and mobile Roy Waterhouse media. In this issue, we look President, Hopkins Printing at how companies are

I hope you enjoy reading the first issue of Optimize and welcome any comments and feedback that will help us improve the editorial experience for you.

nancy DePalma A freelance writer, Nancy introduces you to the “millennials” and explains how to engage with this elusive demographic

mike allario VP of the Enterprise Solution Group for V12 Group, Mike highlights the latest multichannel marketing tactics and strategies

nick Wright Managing Partner at Fourth Element Creative, Nick explains why relevant content is the secret to engaging customers

COVeR stORY 08 Meet The

04 Insights

13 The Power of Content

Ideas, opinion, news and trends from the world of marketing.

How to use content to build engaging relationships with consumers.

Find out how to reach, engage and sell to the new tech-savvy generation.

12 Multichannel Marketing

14 What’s On My Mind?

How to bring your printed direct mail to life using multiple touch points.

Three marketing professionals tell you what’s happening in their world.

Millennials

Executive Editor Cindy Woods Art Director Alan Platten Contributing Writers Nancy DePalma,

Mike Allario, Nick Wright, Barny Macaulay Produced by Fourth Element Creative and The CMO Team ©2013 All Rights Reserved

Printed and distributed by Hopkins Printing www.hopkinsprinting.com

sPRiNg 2013

insigHTs

NeWS | reVIeWS | IDeAS | OpiniOn |

SUPER BOWL 2013:

A TV HIT…but a mobile miss insight » How the Super Bowl ads failed to connect with mobile users

I DID YOU

KNOW? Mobile accounted for 88 percent of the stream of online Super Bowl chatter – up 67 percent from last year’s event.

f there’s one lesson that marketers, agencies and big brands should have learned from last summer’s Olympics, it’s the value and importance of the “second screen” experience.

A recent study on the digital activity surrounding London 2012 revealed that while the action was unfolding on the TV screen, viewers were Googling, chatting, tweeting and posting on their cell phones.

The BBC, for example, observed that access to its mobile and online services peaked at around 9pm as people used them while they watched the Games live on TV. Further proof? More than 80,000 tweets per minute were sent following Jamaican Usain Bolt’s 200-meter victory, while more than 115,000 tweets per minute flooded cyber space during the Spice Girls’ performance at the closing ceremony.

In total, the Games had the most overall tweets of any event last year with 150 million over the 16 days.

Armed with this knowledge and given that almost 50 percent of the Super Bowl TV viewing audience would have been holding a smartphone or tablet device in their hands as they sat down to watch the nation’s biggest sports event of the year, the world’s most creative minds surely were going to bombard us with a series of ads featuring compelling mobile and social calls to action, right?

Hmmm…not quite. While the Super Bowl yet again presented us with stunning examples of innovative thinking, great copywriting and powerful storytelling, from a mobile perspective it completely underperformed. While viewers were busy sending some 24 million tweets during the game, mobile engagement was conspicuously absent on our tele-

INSIGHTS

Spring 2013

TALKING POINT »

softer colors represent a

warmer approach from brands Traditional thinking in business has always been that you need a powerful and eye-catching logo to be successful. Historically, bright and primary colors have been the first choice for major corporations. Today, however, business is no longer just about being first to market with a huge advertising budget. The internet has made entrepreneurship available to the masses. At the same time, many companies have started to leverage social media in

By Barny Macaulay

order to connect more closely with their customers.

This shift in focus from “he who shouts loudest” to “who can be the most accessible” has been accompanied by a migration towards more subtle and welcoming branding and a more diverse color palette.

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Beyonce’s Super Bowl half-time show generated some 5.5 million tweets, bringing the total for the game to 24.1 million vision screens. The first spot to feature an SMS call to action came at half-time – from the NFL. And it was two-minute warning time before we saw the first and only integrated QR code – from GoDaddy. While several ads enabled Shazam users to tag commercials, only a handful targeted – or even recognized – mobile consumers.

Some may argue that “pure branding” is the name of the game for Super Bowl advertising. But while there may be some truth to that statement, very few companies can afford to adopt such a one-dimensional approach these days. The Super Bowl is one of the few opportunities where brands get to communicate with consumers while they are in a receptive mood. It’s too bad that so few took advantage of the chance to build their audience with a smart cross-channel strategy. n

blue becomes “social” Up until the last few years, blue was a safe haven color for companies seeking a conservative and clinical image. In an interesting twist of psychology, the color has now largely become associated with social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Instagram. Blue conveys the message that a company is accessible, impartial and not overly assertive – key attributes to possess when your primary value proposition is simply to connect users.

“Would Facebook have achieved the same level of global success using a bright red color palette?

Possibly. With a bright red color palette and full-on caps? No chance”

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Accessible typography Color is not the only branding component the major social platforms have in common. The use of lowercase lettering in their logos is a deliberate tactic to appear welcoming, accessible and unintimidating. Would Facebook have achieved the same level of global success using a bright red color palette? Possibly. Would it have done so using a bright red color palette and full-on caps? No chance.

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Comfort in looking back To counteract a general feeling of uncertainty about the future, people are looking back to the simplicity of a bygone era and taking comfort in traditional values. This is reflected in the colors we now see around us in all types of media. Instead of rich reds, yellows and oranges, we’re seeing “earthy” tones like brick and terracotta, and softer pastels.

Barny Macaulay is the founder of The Barn Agency, a London-based design consultancy that works with luxury brands.

BRanD iDentitY: all about connecting the dots A common mistake is thinking that your logo is your branding. Successful branding, however, is a combination of your graphic identity (logo representation and color scheme), your visual identity (photography and imagery) and your tone of voice (the descriptive words and language used to describe your company or product). It’s very important that these three components are aligned to create a cohesion and to convey the correct message to consumers. The key decision criteria is always: “What do you want people to think when they come into contact with your branding?”

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talking points »

luxury Choice Print remains advertising medium of choice for luxury brands

A

s Europe remains mired in an economic slump, luxury brands are directing their media dollars to the U.S., leveraging the upscale consumers’ preference for print, and driving first quarter increases in advertising revenue for major publishers. Condé Nast, Hearst Magazines, Time Inc. and Rodale all recently announced that they expect year-on-year improvement in ad page bookings, while WSJ Magazine recently saw a 34 percent ad page increase in its February 2013 issue compared with the previous year, including a 50 percent increase in travel advertising alone.

Condé Nast, which owns Vogue, GQ, Vanity Fair and Golf Digest, recently issued a press release stating that it expects its strongest first quarter in five years with a five percent increase in ad pages. “We are excited to be starting 2013 with such a strong showing in ad sales,” says Lou Cona, Condé Nast’s Chief Marketing Officer. “Many of our brands are beating their own records in print, in addition to double-digit gains in digital sales, portending a very healthy year in overall brand performance.”

Hearst and Time Inc. both project a first quarter rise in ad pages of six percent while Rodale, which publishes Men’s Health, anticipates a 10 percent jump in ad pages. n

direct mail

“Luxury brands are leveraging the upscale consumers’ preference for print, and driving first quarter increases in advertising revenues for major publishers”

USPS launches 2013 Mobile Barcode Promotions Calendar To help marketers prepare for its upcoming mail promotions, the U.S. Postal Service has published the 2013 Mailing Services Promotions Calendar, which includes six key promotions designed to highlight the benefits of using mobile barcodes in direct mail as well as provide opportunities to develop successful integrated marketing campaigns.

mobile Coupon/Click-to-Call

earned Value Reply mail Promotion

When: March 1 – April 30

When: April 1 – June 30

ReGistratiOn:

January 15 – March 31

Encourages customers to integrate hard-copy coupons in the mail with mobile platforms for redemption.

Also designed to drive consumer awareness and increase usage of mail with mobile barcodes with click-tocall functionality.

January 15 – April 30 KeY BeneFit: Upfront two percent

To register for a USPS promotion, go to: https://gateway.usps.com

postage discount on the integration of mail with mobile technology.

Encourages mailers to promote First-Class Mail as a primary reply mechanism for their customers and to keep the CRM/BRM envelopes in their outgoing mail pieces by providing a financial benefit when the CRM/BRM envelopes are used.

ReGistratiOn:

KeY BeneFit: First-Class Mail Business Reply and Courtesy Reply mailers receive a $0.02 postage credit for each BRM or CRM piece scanned in the postal network.

INSIGHTS

iNsIGHT technology »

Getting

SOCIAL twitter Unveils Vine – new siX-secOnd videO app Twitter’s new video application, Vine, enables users to capture quick snippets of video and edit them together to create a clip of up to six seconds in length and share it from mobile devices.

Some tech-savvy brands like NBC and Buzzfeed have already started using the app, which has been described as “the Instagram of video.”

FacebOOk laUnches new ad trackinG tOOl Facebook has launched a new tool for advertisers that can track the effectiveness of their Facebook ads. Marketers will be able to use the new tool to generate a unique piece of code that can be added to any website page where they want to measure conversions, such as e-commerce pages or registration forms. In addition, when marketers select Optimized CPM bidding, Facebook will deliver ads to users that are most likely to convert. Although some of the social network’s largest advertisers have had access to conversion tracking for some time, the new tool will allow conversion tracking for smaller advertisers that use Facebook to drive traffic to online destinations.

sOUnd bites

OVERHEaRD REcENTlY

“Don’t find customers for your products.

Find products for your customers” SETH GODIN Marketing Guru and Author

“Why do brands need to include mobile? Because their consumers are mobile” Paul Berney Mobile Marketing Association

“It is easier to be repeatedly useful than it is to be repeatedly entertaining” RORY SUTHERLAND Ogilvy & Mather

Spring 2013

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3 hOt marketinG

(probably) tactics you haven’t heard of!

1 Newsjacking

When your company or product becomes headline news Popularized by marketing guru David Meerman Scott, “newsjacking” is the process of injecting your ideas and story angles into breaking news. Going against the PR norm of planning and creating carefully crafted copy, newsjacking requires marketers to respond to opportunities in real time.

When President Barack Obama recently visited the remote town of Darwin, Australia, the Northern Territory’s Chief Minister presented him with a free $50,000 insurance policy covering crocodile attacks during his visit. The company that underwrote the policy published the story on its blog. With the media covering the President’s every move, it was mentioned in almost every news item. In total, the “croc cover” story featured in more than 3,500 websites and blogs – a decade’s worth of traditional PR coverage in just two days.

2 Context Marketing

3 Native Advertising

A key challenge of content marketing is delivering the right type of content to the right person at the right time. Instead of creating “one-size-fits-all” content for your entire audience, context marketing requires you to identify the key buying personas among your customers and prospects, and then create targeted content to address their needs. The ultimate example of context marketing, which leverages social, local and mobile, could be a food retailer sending a customer a personalized coupon for pizza on their mobile phone while they are in-store browsing the frozen food aisle.

Last year, online news site The Atlantic published a feature entitled Where Design Meets Technology. At face value, the gallery of work by leading designers looked and read like a regular story, yet each image was separated by a single line of copy, “A Sponsored Gallery Presented by Porsche.” This tactic, where high-quality branded content is integrated directly into the organic experience of a website in a form that matches the presentation of the content, is known as native advertising.

Examples include video, photos, articles and sponsored stories.

Although there is still widespread discussion within the industry as to what exactly constitutes native advertising, spending is expected to increase by 12.6 percent in 2013.

Delivering the right message to the right person at the right time

Advertising that doesn’t look like advertising!

emerging technologies

Picture Permit

Product samples

mobile Buy-it-now

When: August 1 – September 30

When: August 1 – September 30

When: August 1 – September 30

When: November 1 – December 31

Promotes awareness of how innovative technologies, such as Near-Field Communication, Augmented Reality and Authentication can be integrated with a direct mail strategy to enhance the value of direct mail.

ReGistratiOn:

June 15 – September 30 KeY BeneFit: Up-front two percent

postage discount.

Promotes the use of picture permit imprint indicia, which can improve the visibility and impact of mail.

ReGistratiOn:

June 1 – September 30 KeY BeneFit: A fee of $0.01 per

mailed piece will be waived for First-Class Mail letters and cards.

A $0.02 fee will be waived for Standard Mail letters and cards.

Designed to re-invigorate product sampling via the mail, the Product Samples promotion will raise awareness of the new “Simple Samples” pricing in Standard Mail, which has been effective since January 27.

ReGistratiOn:

May 1 – September 30 KeY BeneFit: Five percent up-front

postage discount on qualifying mail that contains product samples.

Encourages mailers to adopt and invest in technologies that enhance how consumers interact and engage with mail and demonstrate how direct mail combined with mobile technology can be a convenient method for consumers to do their holiday shopping.

ReGistratiOn:

September 15 – December 31 KeY BeneFit: Up-front two percent postage discount.

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Spring 2013

MARKeting: MiLLenniALs »

COOl, Calm anD

COnneCteD Millennials are confident, opinionated and never without a tablet or smartphone glued to their hands.

How can marketers engage this demanding, elusive and tech-savvy consumer? By nancy DePalma

O

n July 25, 2012, a relatively unknown singer and songwriter from South Korea by the name of Psy uploaded a video of his latest single Gangnam Style to YouTube. Although the song had an infuriatingly catchy melody and an outrageous dance routine, there was nothing to suggest that the rapper’s new release would attract any kind of following outside of Southeast Asia.

Within 30 days, however, the song had ranked No. 1 on the iTunes Music Video Chart. And just five months later, it had surpassed Justin Bieber’s Baby as the most watched video in YouTube history with more than a billion views. Along the way, Psy had become a worldwide media sensation, performing at a host of highprofile TV shows, including the MTV Europe Music Awards, the Today Show and Saturday Night Live. As Gangnam Style fever gripped the nation, flash mobs spontaneously broke out in major cities around the world, homemade parody videos of the song created by teenagers flooded the internet, and even the most traditionally conservative of creatures, a PGA Tour

golfer, busted out his own rendition of the dance moves after making an important putt at the Phoenix Open in January.

Who was responsible for this worldwide phenomenon? Millennials – also known as Generation Y or Echo Boomers. This powerful and influential group, now numbering almost 90 million in the U.S. alone, has the ability to propel an individual, idea or brand from relative obscurity into worldwide public consciousness quite literally overnight. And when you consider that millennials are expected to form some 75 percent of the workforce by 2025, it’s easy to understand why everybody from advertising agencies, big brands and entertainment companies to Presidential campaigns are tap dancing and performing cartwheels just to get their attention.

So what makes this new breed of consumer tick? Firstly, millennials are highly driven, focused, self-confident, tech-savvy and motivated by convenience. They’re also obsessive multitaskers, often using several devices and social platforms simultaneously. In fact, a recent Time Inc. report, A Biometric Day in the Life, highlighted that younger consumers switch

f

Spring 2013

“Millennials have the ability to propel an individual, an idea or a brand from obscurity into worldwide consciousness quite literally overnight�

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MARKeting: MiLLenniALs »

“Millennials expect to be

media platforms up to 27 times per hour, or about once every two minutes.

At the same time, while Generation X has widely been touted as the “slacker generation,” many are hoping it will be the millennials who finally put politics and financial self-interest aside to tackle issues such as climate change, pollution and environmental sustainability. This group has also become disillusioned with corporate greed and red tape, as highlighted by the largely millennialorganized Occupy Wall Street demonstrations.

While in the past it was easy for a company to cover up unscrupulous or exploitative behavior with a big-budget advertising or PR campaign, the younger consumer is not so easily fooled or impressed. Whether it stems from over-connectivity or the transparency provided by social media, it is no longer possible for a corporation to build trust with consumers simply because it possesses a successful track record. Things have changed.

Millennials want to know how an organization works – from the inside out. It’s not that they are more suspicious or less trusting than previous generations; it’s simply because it is now possible to access inside information easily through various social media platforms.

For this very same reason, millennials also expect to be able to engage with brands in

able to engage with brands in the same way that they do with friends and family”

the same way that they interact with their friends, family and peers, and with the same level of frequency, too. This obviously creates both opportunities and challenges for companies looking to tap into their buying power and influence. The most recent edition of Edelman’s 8095 – a survey of 4,000 people in 11 countries born between 1980 and 1995 – revealed that millennials want authenticity, entertainment and partnership from brands.

Beyond that, some 53 percent of respondents also reported that, price and quality being equal, social purpose is the most important factor when making purchasing decisions.

It should come as no surprise, then, that millennials also differ widely from previous generations as to what is regarded as success.

According to the 2011 Deloitte Volunteer IMPACT Survey, more than 60 percent of 18- to 26-year-olds polled said they would prefer to work for a company that offers volunteer opportunities, while new entrants into the workplace are placing an increasingly high premium on an employer’s reputation for

COnneCtinG With millennials Millennials take technology for granted, live through social media and expect everything customized. Here are three ways to connect with this demanding consumer.

1. Go Visual or Go Home!

2. Deliver Innovation

3. Build For Speed

Whether it’s posting images to Instagram or sharing videos on Facebook, Generation Y prefers to process information visually. This means marketers should leverage infographics, imagery and charts.

Experiences designed specifically for this group should be highly intuitive and instinctive, and avoid the use of long-winded instructions.

Perpetual connectivity combined with a continual flow of new content, apps and gadgets have created a consumer that constantly expects innovation.

Companies need to be able to demonstrate their commitment to innovation in their products and services, while communication should focus on the brand’s ability to keep its consumers at “the cutting edge.”

Because of their high threshold for stimulation and total immersion in technology, millennials have a shorter attention span and higher expectations than previous generations. This means that everything from website load times, downloadable videos and PDFs to real-time customer service should be optimized for both speed and convenience.

“It’s all about building an emotional connection. It’s all about the conversations that they’re looking for. And it’s not only about supporting a cause, it’s about supporting an idea that they believe in, that they can relate to on a personal level” ANaMaRIa IRaZaBaL, Leader of the Pepsi Refresh Project

social responsibility and its ability to provide opportunities for employees to positively contribute to society.

Inevitably, this more socially responsible outlook on life is also reflected in the corporate DNA of a new tranche of millennialowned businesses. Founded in 2006 by the then 30-year-old Blake Mycoskie, TOMS Shoes has become one of the world’s fastestgrowing apparel companies. For every pair of shoes the company sells, the organization donates a pair of shoes to needy children in third world countries through its One-for-One program. In his book Shake The World: It’s Not About Finding a Job, It’s About Creating a Life, the author James Marshall Reilly predicts that millennials are already transforming the fabric of capitalism and that the economies of the future will be founded upon social entrepreneurship where everyday purchases will yield philanthropic and humanitarian dividends.

In addition to being the most “social” humans to have ever walked the planet, millennials are also the first generation to be truly immersed in technology, which they rely on for everything from research to securing dinner reservations to dating. While the younger consumer may have heard “horror” stories about looking up phone numbers in the Yellow Pages or having to wait in line at the record store to score the latest hit album, they’ve never actually experienced either.

Instead, Google and iTunes deliver a steady flow of information, music and video straight to their laptop, tablet or mobile.

Far from just a research or entertainment solution, however, technology arguably has had an even greater impact as a platform for personal self-expression. Generation Y wants to share everything online – from where they are and what they are doing right now to where they vacationed, dined and what they wore. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Instagram and FourSquare are the megaphones of this generation, while sites driven by peer group reviews have transformed entire industries. And we’ve only seen the tip of the iceberg. As millennials enter the workforce in increasing numbers, we can expect to see an even greater blurring of the lines between brands, media and consumers. n

Spring 2013

Inside the mind of Generation Y

SCOTT GREENBERG, Division VP, Eastern Region, Thismoment, Inc.

Optimize talks to Scott Greenberg, Division Vice President, Eastern Region at Thismoment, Inc., a marketing agency that builds brand experiences across digital platforms.

Optimize: What is so different about marketing to millennials?

Scott Greenberg: The proliferation of media channels and devices means that companies can’t place their bet in one place and expect to differentiate themselves anymore. This generation views content simultaneously on two or three different screens often within the context of a social conversation on Facebook or Twitter, etc. You have to go where the people are to be successful.

O: Can you provide us with an example of a successful campaign or initiative?

SG One of our agency’s most successful ventures was with Coca-Cola for its CokeTV initiative in Latin America. In the U.S., Coke can reach the masses by sponsoring a TV show like American Idol, but in 20 different Latin American countries with three different

languages, it’s harder to obtain scale. Instead of sponsoring a particular show, CokeTV became the experience. They brought in big-name talent like Paul McCartney and Maroon 5 for live performances. What is staggering is that the digital audience of some 500,000 people averaged more than 42 minutes per viewing session. What’s more, that “rich” 42-minute engagement cost less to create than one 30-second TV spot.

O: What lessons can smaller companies learn from Coke’s initiative?

SG: The first lesson is that a younger audience doesn’t necessarily mean a shorter attention span. Regardless of their age, you can hold somebody’s attention if you know what makes them tick. The second lesson is to create valuable and targeted content, and to resist the temptation to include obvious “sales” messages in the experience.

O: How do you think agencies will adapt to engage the millennial audience?

SG: The biggest challenge today for agencies and brands is staying relevant. I liken the millennial audience to ADD theater. You have to do everything you can to stay relevant, which also means you’re always looking for new ways to connect with the audience.

O: Why does this generation distrust or resent traditional advertising tactics?

SG: Effective advertising is intrusive by nature and the tendency is to overdo something that works.

But with advances like TiVo and pop-up blockers, this generation is simply smarter about ad evasion. To overcome this, marketers need to use the full repertoire of media at their disposal – from print to digital to social to mobile – to find and engage this elusive audience.

Scan the QR code or visit http://www.hopkinsprinting. com/index.php/hopkins-solutions/optimize/ to view “7 Myths About Marketing To Millennials”.

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DireCT MArKeTing

How using a strategic mix of media in your direct marketing can triple your response rates

By Mike allario

stRateGies FOR MUltiChannel MaRKetinG The following tools and tactics will help you maximize the success of your direct marketing campaign.

1. Leverage automated marketing platforms Automated platforms are valuable for small-to medium-size businesses since they reduce the number of vendors needed to be managed, and therefore enable the company to focus on campaign strategy and creative.

2. Enlist a marketing services provider with “linkage” capabilities Working with a marketing service provider that can include email addresses, IP addresses, mailing addresses and mobile phone numbers on their consumer databases will enable you to craft campaigns with multiple touch points. Think about the possibilities of posting a direct mail piece to a target consumer, sending an email to alert them that it’s on its way, followed by a text message on the day it’s due to arrive to remind them to look for it.

3. Invest in personalized communications The response by consumers to the DNC registry underscores their continued frustration with intrusive and irrelevant communications. The more personalized the offer, the higher the likelihood you will have in securing a response.

a laYeReD aPPROaCh tO mUltiChannel maRKetinG

D

uring the past few years, we have witnessed a wide-scale exodus from direct mail as marketers abandoned traditional tactics in favor of online and digitalled strategies. While a common perception is that email campaigns are more cost-efficient, effective and easier to track and measure, there’s increasing evidence to suggest that consumers’ email inboxes are becoming as cluttered as their home mailboxes were a few years ago.

With click-through rates decreasing due to the tidal wave of spam and increasing inbox congestion, those marketers who are continually seeking the perfect multichannel marketing solution are reintroducing print into the communications mix. This statement is not founded in pipe-dream sentimentality for the traditional printed piece, but in proven performance statistics. SourceLink’s Client Marketing and Transactional Document Survey in 2012 revealed that direct mail ranked number one in planned channels, while some 69 percent of marketers surveyed in Target Marketing magazine’s most recent Annual Media Usage Forecast claimed that they would incorporate direct mail in their marketing campaign. In the same survey, direct mail also ranked higher than email and

“Research has shown that customers who interact with a company across multiple channels are more loyal and profitable than single-channel customers” search as the platform of choice for acquisition marketing. In the United States alone, marketers spend $167 per person on direct marketing to earn more than $2,095 in goods sold – a 1,300 percent return on investment.

However, even though direct mail is currently enjoying something of a renaissance in popularity and response due to its relative novelty, it is just one of several available solutions.

Recent innovations in technology and business intelligence are facilitating more targeted communications by leveraging data to create better engagement with consumers and to build long-lasting opt-in relationships.

A strategic media mix not only provides more touch points with a target consumer, it also gives a marketer a

selection of strings to tug at those with the highest propensity to act. However, multichannel marketing is not just a tactic to ensure that all bases are covered; it’s a strategy that can complement a traditional printed direct mail piece and deliver a significant boost in response.

In a recent study conducted by MLSDirect.com, results from more than 1,800 case studies spanning more than 30 industry sectors revealed that the average response rate where multichannel marketing was included was 4.5 percent – some three times higher than the expected 1.5 percent response rate generated by traditional methods.

As the barriers to entry for multichannel marketing come down, marketers should not be tempted to place all their eggs in one basket or worry that one channel will cannibalize another.

Customers who interact with a company across multiple channels are more loyal and profitable than single-channel customers. Instead, marketers looking to successfully leverage multichannel marketing should learn more about their customer, their behavior and their preferences – and then execute campaigns using relevant content and call-to-action offers. n Mike Allario is Vice President of the Enterprise Solution Group at The V12 Group, a data and data delivery technology company.

COnTenT MArKeTing

Spring 2013

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Why “serving” Your Consumer Beats “Humanizing” Your Brand Delivering relevant content that adds true value is the best way to create engaging relationships with customers and prospects By Nick Wright

I

f you go on any digital marketing forum these days, you’re likely to find a social media guru of some kind telling you why you should “humanize” your brand. The basic idea is that people are more likely to buy your company’s products if they can experience a meaningful social interaction that makes them feel valued.

Is this really true? Not really. Sure, we all appreciate the helpful call-center operator who doesn’t try to brush us off and who takes the time to patiently solve our problem. But just because we hang up feeling good about our brief interaction with the company, doesn’t necessarily mean we want to go steady with them!

The harsh reality is that, in most instances, customers do not care about your brand. They care only about what your product or service can do for them. Does it make their

lives easier? Does it make them happier? Does it solve a problem?

Does it provide a competitive edge?

Does it make them feel good about themselves? If you can’t answer “yes” to at least one of these questions, you have greater problems worthy of your time than trying to generate warm and fuzzy customer relationships.

People don’t stop what they are doing in the middle of the day to think, “I wonder how the guys at McDonald’s are doing?” They might, however, drive by the Golden Arches and think, “Man, I could just devour a Big Mac right now!” For the most part, people don’t sweat whether Nike’s stock price is up or down. They might, however, lie awake at night thinking how cool they’re going to look strolling through the mall wearing their new fluorescent blue Free Haven Super Natural Speed sneakers.

So how do you go about trying to

create meaningful relationships with consumers that really, at the end of the day, have very little interest in you? A few years ago, “humanizing” your brand meant tweeting, posting and blogging your personal thoughts to the world. However, since so many companies today are active on Twitter and Facebook, marketers need to work harder to create engagement.

The first step is understanding that, in today’s world, you need to switch your focus from trying to “acquire” and “retain” customers to

“serving” them. That means providing content that truly adds value. When I helped launch Callaway Golf Magazine a few years ago, some of the marketing folks were surprised when I recommended including golf travel features in the editorial mix. “How is writing about golf courses going to help us sell more golf equipment?” they asked. My reply was that if we could serve the Callaway customers with content that we knew would help them have more fun playing the game, we should do so.

Whatever industry you’re in, and whatever product you sell, it’s important to show your customers that you like what they like and that you’re interested in what they’re interested in.

The best way to do that is to provide them with relevant content. That truly is the way to “humanize” your brand. n Nick Wright is the Managing Partner of Fourth Element Creative, a branded content agency with offices in London and Atlanta.

3 GReat EXamPles Of COntent MaRKetinG From an all-singing, all-dancing iPad app to a miminalist blog, compelling content marketing can come in a wide variety of formats

The Red Bulletin Magazine – By Red Bull

The Daily Pfennig Blog – By EverBank

Fiskateers – By Fiskars

It is testimony to Red Bull’s commitment to content marketing that the company is almost as well known for its extreme events than it is for the energy drink that “gives you wings!”

The Red Bulletin is a lifestyle mag focused on sports, people, art and culture. The company also recently launched an iPad app of the publication, which includes bonus interactive content that supplements the original print features. www.redbull.com

Proof that you don’t need a huge marketing budget and a team of highly paid creatives to create a compelling content experience comes in the form of The Daily Pfennig – the blog of currency trading guru Chuck Butler. Even if dollar spots and cable trades are gobbledygook to you, Chuck’s daily appraisal of the currency market is an engaging read. Great insight, strong opinions, authority, humor and some nice personal touches make this a great engagement tool. www.dailypfennig.com

Did you know that the trusty pair of orange-handled scissors you keep tucked away in your kitchen drawer could help you unleash a flurry of creativity? Tapping into the current trend for crafting, the Fiskateers site provides tutorials for creating items like handmade cards and gifts. Features include a blog, message board, gallery, project spotlight and Fiskateer of the Week. www.fiskateers.com

14

Spring 2013

What’s On my mind?

Three senior marketers tell us what’s keeping them awake at night

thea Crelin

elizabeth norwood

tracie Jones

Director of Digital Marketing Piedmont Healthcare Corporation

Senior Global Marketing Manager CPA Global

Vice President, Marketing Atlanta Interactive Marketing Association

“The approach to marketing by healthcare organizations has traditionally been informational, relying mainly on reputation or referrals. Digital lead generation, for example, was unheard of.

Over time, though, the sheer volume of purchase choices available to consumers has spilled over into our industry.

Since choice is now such a big factor, we have to create marketing that is truly action driving. We know that consumers are making their healthcare choices online, so the digital space is the hub of our marketing efforts. Of course, we have to leverage a wide range of tools to get them to the website in a ready-tobuy state. We use search engine market-

“Improving our online user experience to increase conversion and customer acquisition rates” ing, traditional media like TV, radio, outdoor and print, and support our messaging with PR and through our social properties. Once we get consumers to our site, we use videos, patient stories and other content to convert that visit into an appointment or inquiry.” n

“Reducing my reliance on email, and focusing on content development and issue-based marketing” “For the last few years, we have relied heavily on email marketing because it is cheap, immediate and easy to keep momentum going without having to worry too much about controlling costs. Recently, though, we have noticed that the email inbox has become a hostile environment for marketers.

Although we still use email, we have been having good success with direct mail recently. Nowadays, if you receive a great piece of direct mail, it’s memorable and catchy, so we’ve been focusing on developing impactful pieces that are compelling to open – like trifolds and booklets. We have also committed heavily to content marketing. We create a lot of thought leadership features and we use all the available channels to distribute that content – through email, via website downloads and through regular mail. Our marketing is very much a layering effect – a lot of successive hits in different ways covering a variety of topics.” n

“The social media landscape changed once again when Facebook recently introduced Graph Search. Although it is still only in the beta phase of testing, it already has implications on local businesses and brands. Right now, companies can be searched by ‘likes’ and how their fans engage with them.

However, Graph Search will trawl through keywords and phrases of your friends, friends of friends and public profiles. The search options will probably change before the official launch, but brands will still need to review their social strategy and decide how many marketing dollars to allocate to ‘sponsored results’ and to paid ads to increase ‘likes.’ Another consideration is how you should prepare for the public launch of Graph Search.

One thing’s for sure: brands will need to keep their social profiles up-to-date, actively engage fans with creative content, and encourage ‘tagging’ of the company in all photos that are posted, while still keeping one eye on what’s coming next!” n

“Figuring out what Facebook’s new Graph Search tool means for local businesses”

CALENDAR SHOWcASE

Featured Designer:

Amanda Brown Client: Vineyard Church of Columbus Printing and Imaging: Hopkins Printing • 614-509-1080 • Printed on a Heidelberg Speedmaster CD, 6-color with in-line coating unit • Designed by Amanda Brown from Vineyard Columbus

Each quarter, Hopkins Printing produces and distributes a quarterly calendar and notepad that has been designed for Hopkins Printing by one of our talented design clients. We are pleased to showcase Amanda Brown, Graphic Designer atVineyard Church of Columbus as the designer of the 2013 Q1 calendar project. Amanda’s specialties include branding and identity, print production, typography, hand lettering and illustration.

Want to receive the Hopkins Quarterly Calendar?

Printing and Imaging: Hopkins Printing • 614-509-1080 Designed by Amanda Brown from Vineyard Columbus Printed on a Heidelberg Speedmaster CD, 6-color with in-line coating unit

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Contact your Hopkins Printing Account Executive today or visit www.hopkinsprinting.com/index. php/optimize/ to place your request.

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