On Tuesday, May 12, the first annual Marketing and Advertising Thought Leaders Summit will be held in NYC. I have the pleasure of joining Rosetta‘s CEO Chris Kuenne to attend what is looking to be a very compelling gathering of industry leaders. From the MATLS website:
“This one-day summit will present a series of dialogue-driven forums on the changing trends in innovation, technology and consumer behavior and their impact on the marketing and advertising industries. Join us and our line-up of more than 25 industry leaders for a compelling day of insights, information and networking.”
I’ll be there both on Twitter and posting here with thoughts and commentary – it looks to be a valuable gathering of CEOs, CMOs and private equity leadership. The attendees have a heavy hand in shaping the future of our industry, it should be intriguing.
Will you be there? Please reach out, I’d love to connect.
Alternate payment methods (APM), in eCommerce terms, are ways to complete a transaction without using the normal credit card authorization process. For the past couple of years Rosetta has completed a quick study of a hundred leading online retailers using the big players in this space. Paypal, BillMeLater, and Google Checkout are the ones we have measured mostly due to marketshare in the large online retailer category. New services and startups continue to crop up, as evidenced by the buzz related to Chris Brogan’s sponsored post around the new service eBillMe.
The major play for each of these payment methods is the additional uptick in conversion – the premise that providing alternate ways to pay will reduce people from abandoning their shopping carts and more broadly appeal to those worried about giving their credit card to a website. Our study shows that both Paypal and BillMeLater have gained retailer adoption in the last 18 months. Google Checkout appears to have maintained ground at the same relative group.
The list of retailers surveyed is the same list from our recent study on Facebook. While not scientific, it shows us some trends in the marketplace. The major points of the APM study this round are that the growth rate is continuing among retailers, and Google Checkout is stagnating. Two major questions have come up:
Why is Google Checkout not keeping pace?
Why are other big name retailers still sitting on the sidelines?
Google Checkout recently dropped their incentive program for AdWords customers, but retailers aren’t typically quick to respond. BillMeLater was recently acquired by eBay from Amazon, who also owns Paypal. I wonder if the ROI is really there, despite low cost to implement these programs.
What I am more interested in is hearing from you. Do any of the online sites you shop at regularly offer these methods? Do you use them, or would they influence your buying decision? Why or why not? Our study was picked by DM News and Storefrontbacktalk.com (thanks!) but I’d love to hear what people use and why.
Every year there is a round of agency e-cards that intend to dazzle – digital holiday cards that serve as a promotion vehicle about an agency’s capabilities and culture. This year’s holiday card from Rosetta, my employer, is no exception. In our case it shows a lot of our core values: work hard/play hard, have fun, and make it count. Throw in a couple of inside jokes too, why not. It gives some insight as to who we are. In a year that saw us merging offices in New Jersey, New York, Denver (all Rosetta) and Cleveland, Chicago, Boston (all Brulant), this was a great way to show off the team working together. Not to mention providing a few good laughs to our clients.
Have a very happy holiday and enjoy our Rosetta eCard… Take a look around the fireplace too.
In late October, I got a first hand glimpse into how the web is taking on traditional newspapers. While in Dallas for Forrester’s Consumer Forum, I was grateful to be invited to drop in at the offices of the Dallas Morning News to talk about how retailers are using Facebook.
A Somber Scene
At first glance, the floor where most of the reporters sit is very much like the stereotypical movie sets. I expected Perry White (Jackie Cooper, in my head, anyways) to come screaming out of his office at any moment. The major differences: PCs everywhere instead of typewriters, and most of the desks were empty. I visited them on a Monday – the prior Friday they had been through a series of layoffs, and the mood was somber. As the paper takes on challenges brought on by Web 2.0 and the shift of advertising online, ironically a blog solely for former employeers of the paper cropped up and has some very passionate people engaged.
Challenges for Traditional Newspapers
Three major challenges for the paper are apparent. First, the cost of advertising. Simply put, ads cost a lot less and are far more measurable online. This directly competes with ad revenue for the paper, and was a deciding factor in the recent Chapter 11 filing at the holding company that owns the Chicago Tribune and LA Times.
The second challenge is the proliferation of other media sources. I heard the phrases “reading blogs” and “did you see the blog post” several times. The lines between traditional media and new media are blurring and anyone who can publish a story could conceivably trump a reporter at a paper. Clearly reporters are paying attention. The lines are blurring between official reporters and passionate folks who like to write.
A third challenge for newspapers is really understanding the digital channel. I’ve seen recent discussion on Twitter with Bryan Person and Aaron Strout around how newspapers don’t understand search engine optimization (SEO). Both have pointed out examples of articles in Boston papers where the authors failed to include links in the online version of the story to either personal blogs or corporate web sites. “Sharing the link love” is a key piece of making the digital channel successful and accessible through search.
Understanding a Slice of New Media
The main purpose of my visit was to discuss my agency’s recent study on retailers using Facebook. Several big name retailers, including J.C. Penney, are in the Dallas area, and the retail reporter for DMN was trying to get a better understanding of Facebook and other tools. I spent a couple of hours with her explaining how Facebook works and gave her a demo of Twitter (thanks to many connections there for helping out). It was clearly an eye opening experience for her, and we reviewed what several local-based retailers were doing with Facebook fan pages. The net result, including much of her hard work looking at viral marketing, interviewing a variety of sources and adding insight to what the companies are doing, is this well-written piece published Tuesday called, “Retailers find Facebook friends in hopes of finding sales.” No doubt the folks who are reporters are talented in their research and writing – she did an excellent job tying in the recent viral successes of J.C. Penney and Victoria Secret’s Pink brand to our discussion on retailers using Facebook pages.
Clearly the Dallas Morning News is getting the digital channel – the page where my article lives had (as of my last view) advertisements for Ford, Cars.com and Netflix. The article also had the ability to share via social bookmarking sites and allowed comments. Unfortunately the article had no link here or to our agency’s site, Rosetta.com. But 2 out of 3 ain’t bad right?
In the end this was a real world microcosm example of how the old media industry needs to adapt in order to thrive. Thanks again DMN for including me in the article and I hope we both continue to learn from the experience.
In May of this year, Rosetta, the agency I am working for, published a study showing that 30% of 100 of the top online retailers had a Facebook page set up. In the last five months since the original survey, there has been a substantial uptick to 59% – including pages added by Best Buy, Kohl’s and Toys ‘R Us. This should not be a surprise and should continue to serve as a wake-up call. Facebook has reached over 150 million users world wide, and Facebook fan pages are quite frankly, an easy way to set up a presence on the platform.
Use Caution, Plan Carefully
I have to caution retailers who just jump in by setting up a page. Facebook is only one sliver of the overall social media space, and it’s very important to have an online strategy that embraces social media as another marketing channel. Here’s a quote from yours truly in our release on the study:
“It’s important that retailers don’t just slap up a page because everyone is talking about Facebook. An effective presence requires that you carefully consider what your customers are looking for, what you would like to communicate, and what role a fan page should play in your overall online strategy.”
I had an opportunity to talk further about this with Albert Maruggi on his Marketing Edge podcast yesterday going into further examples on how retailers can be using the Facebook page as a way to “start small” in social media and adjust to grow. Here is the podcast – take a listen and let us know what you think. Thanks Albert – you make this type of work a lot of fun.
Hot Topic
Facebook is a hot topic to cover right now. Here are some other examples of where our study has been picked up – I’ll try to keep this post up to date with helpful links. If you are interested in a direct copy of the study please don’t hesitate to contact me via the channels on my blog or comment.
Press and blog coverage for the Rosetta October 2008 Facebook Study – thanks to all for including our study:
Facebook pages are just one indicator of retailers looking to embrace social media to engage customers. Do you think they will be successful? Have a favorite fan page to highlight? If your company has a page on Facebook I’d love to hear your story – I’d also love suggestions on how to improve the study for the next round.
How do you build a top digital agency? In July Rosetta announced the acquisition of interactive agency Brulant, where I am a partner in the Consumer Product and Retail practice. The first couple of days since the announcement have been some of the most fun in my career. The two firms build a compelling value proposition when combined, […]
In July Rosettaannounced the acquisition of interactive agency Brulant, where I am a partner in the Consumer Product and Retail practice. The first couple of days since the announcement have been some of the most fun in my career. The two firms build a compelling value proposition when combined, and I’ve spent a better part of those two days calling clients and friends to talk about it.
Acquisitions and mergers have negative connotations to many folks. They can mean personnel conflicts, culture clashes and diluting of the “juice” that makes either one of the parties successful – not to mention distractions to high performing project teams. I have friends who have been through it in the digital industry (think large conglomerates eating up smaller independent agencies), and there are many horror stories. In stark contrast, being a part of this merger is ripe with excitement and promise. We remain independent, and the services each agency provides complement each other.
“We are creating one of the nation’s biggest interactive agencies which will allow us to grow current relationships and build new ones quite dramatically,” said Chris Kuenne, Rosetta’s founder, chairman and CEO. “The interactive marketing landscape is rapidly shifting from mass to personalized targeting and from fuzzy equity measures to precisely measured, managed and optimized customer relationship economics.”
There is a science behind the shift from traditional media to targeted, personalized marketing, and Rosetta has figured it out. Look at their client list– these are advanced organizations where how they market is a key differentiator in their success. Infuse that with the execution capabilities of the teams I’ve watched deliver at Brulant, and it’s a powerful combination.
“You put your chocolate in my peanut butter!”
Rosetta is technically acquiring Brulant, but in reality the firms complement each other. The breadth of Brulant’s interactive services in customer experience, acquisition marketing and technology implementation are the “chocolate” to Rosetta’s marketing strategy and personalized targeting offerings “peanut butter.” The value proposition of bringing those capabilities together, along with the ever growing significance of the online channel and its influence on other channels, is a compelling service offering that puts Rosetta in a unique place in the market. (I’m actually writing that because I believe it; it wasn’t spoonfed by our marketing team, I promise.)
Hey, that sounds great, but we have a lot of work to do. On the first day of the announcement being public, I had the privilege of sitting with one of our top clients and the CEOs of both Brulant and Rosetta. It was very clear in the conversation that the value proposition can be applied right away, and I will be spending lots of time with the “legacy” Rosetta team to understand their offering more in the coming weeks.
New opportunities
For me personally, this provides an opportunity to work with talented people and expand my professional horizons up the value chain. Being in Boston and working on several clients in the New York City area, I am thrilled to see the expansion in the Northeast. This is also the first time I have been through an acquisition and watched an integration team get up and running. I look forward to participating in building the new organization. Can’t wait to see it in action and share what I learn, and I look forward to working with the Rosetta team.
Have you been through an acquisition? What are some pitfalls you’ve seen? How would you advise we keep the momentum going through this exciting time with all of the “buzz”?
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Alternate payment methods (APM), in eCommerce terms, are ways to complete a transaction without using the normal credit card authorization process. For the past couple of years Rosetta has completed a quick study of a hundred leading online retailers using the big players in this space. 
In late October, I got a first hand glimpse into how the web is taking on traditional newspapers. While in Dallas for Forrester’s Consumer Forum, I was grateful to be invited to drop in at the offices of the 
