what marketers need to know: june 2015 edition

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What Marketers Need to Know June 2015 SPARKING NEW IDEAS THAT FUEL MARKETING GROWTH AND INNOVATION.

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What Marketers Need to Know June 2015

SPARKING NEW IDEAS THAT FUEL MARKETING GROWTH AND INNOVATION.

01 Email newsletter as a platform of its own

02 Marketing to millennials

03 Big shifts in media spending

04 Dare to be different in your marketing approach

05 Marketing on #throwbackthursday

06 Instagram’s fully operational ad business

07 Text message to market

08 Brands decode the enigma of emojis

09 Beacons and mobile devices to target consumers

10 Smartphones and tablets increasingly have separate ad budgets

11 Mobile campaigns drive twice the sales of desktop

12 About Sigma

Table of Contents

PUBLISHERS ARE TREATING EMAIL NEWSLETTERS AS A PLATFORM OF ITS OWN

Publishers are scrambling to figure out their platform-publishing strategies, eyeing opportunities on Facebook, Snapchat and beyond.

But many are already treating email newsletters, often used as a way to lure people back to publishing sites, as platform-like publications themselves, designed to be read entirely in email without readers having to click through to the host’s site. That means creating content specifically for the email experience, often more conversation and text heavy than standard email newsletters that act as reproductions of websites.

Source: Digiday Article LinkLucia Moses Twitter: @lmoses Image Credit

LUCIA MOSES, DIGIDAY

Emails have been revamped to introduce the promotion and details of the flavor, dates, etc., right in the body versus leading with a catchy line and making the reader open to learn more about it.  Making the content easier to read and faster to access works well with this audience.

-Tiffany Farhat, Sr. Group Supervisor

Sigma’s POV:

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MARKETING TO MILLENNIALS: GAIN TRUST THROUGH CONTENT

In order to get a message across to Gen Y, you have to gain their trust. And if you want to gain their trust, you have to build an ongoing relationship by providing valuable, relevant and consistent content that they can rely on.

It requires real effort to create content that is valuable, relevant and consistent, but these elements will fall into place once marketers understand two things: content is not advertising, and content can’t be created simply for the sake of it.

Source: Target Marketing Article LinkVictoria Hoffman Twitter: @victoriahoffmanImage Credit

VICTORIA HOFFMAN, TARGET MARKETING

Giving a behind-the-scenes view of what the brand is offering is more important to this group than fluff and pretty pictures. They need to feel the brand is trusted and see full transparency or they will find it elsewhere.

-Tiffany Farhat, Sr. Group Supervisor

Sigma’s POV:

02

BIG SHIFTS IN MEDIA SPENDING?

According to its annual U.S. Media Industry Forecast, global business advisory firm FTI Consulting Inc. forecasts an estimated annual growth rate of 10.3% for digital ad spending through 2018, but only a 4.2% average annual increase over that same time frame for broadcast. Luke Schaeffer, senior managing director and co-leader of the Media & Entertainment team boldly predicts that if digital spending continues to accelerate, spending on digital video advertising could “eliminate much of the forecasted growth in television advertising over the next five years.”

Based on these estimates, the firm’s M&E analysts expect core online ad spending to overtake broadcast and direct mail by 2018. The M&E team expects direct mail spending to remain fairly flat, reaching only $44.2 billion by 2018.

Source: Direct Marketing Article LinkGinger Conlon Twitter: @customeralchemyImage Credit

GINGER CONLON, DIRECT MARKETING

Virtually none of our clients use print advertising anymore. We focus almost exclusively on digital, including rich media and digital video units, as a way to tell our stories and build relationships with potential customers. They are more dynamic mediums that allow us to create an emotional connection with viewers and provide more information on a topic in a single location, immersing them in our message, rather than sending them elsewhere to learn more.

- Diane DeCastro, VP of Account Strategy

 

Sigma’s POV:

03

While it is human nature to follow the path that offers the least resistance and to try and replicate other’s success, it is those who dare to take a chance that have breakout success. Of course, when they do have that success, others replicate it, creating more me-too campaigns that get lost in all the white noise. That’s why taking a strategic approach rather than simply a creative angle makes much more sense in marketing today, especially with the ability to delve deeper into data analytics faster than ever before.

Be different and use data to help uncover your stories and lead you down the strategic path to prospecting gold, rather than the clever, creative-laden path to mediocrity or failure.

Source: Chief Marketer Article Link Grant Johnson Twitter: @grantajohnson Image Credit

DARE TO BE DIFFERENT IN YOUR MARKETING APPROACH

GRANT JOHNSON, CHIEF MARKETER

I am a big proponent of test, fail fast, iterate and test again. The methods used to engage with customers are expanding on a daily basis. Unless you take some chances by testing out new tactics in addition to those that are tried and true to see what is resonating with your customers, you risk losing your relevance and competitive edge.  

- Diane DeCastro, VP of Account Strategy

Sigma’s POV:

04

Some leading marketers have been masters of using the popular #ThrowbackThursday. And it’s one that most any company—whether B2B or B2C—can use. In fact, according to a recent study cited on Entrepreneur.com, nostalgia makes people value money less and spend more.

The best throwbacks stir up feelings of nostalgia, so somewhere between five and 20 years ago is a great benchmark. You want a reference that people will remember but that’s far enough in the past that your audience will begin to reminisce. Or post something that even surprises people how much things really have changed over time.

Source: Direct Marketing NewsArticle Link Natasha D. Smith Twitter: @natashasNYCImage Credit

NATASHA D. SMITH, DIRECT MARKETING NEWS

MARKETING ON #THROWBACKTHURSDAY

05

Instagram is launching ads with “Shop Now” buttons and other messages that link outside the app so users can take marketable action. Also, there’s a new API – software platform – that lets marketing partners automate the advertising process.

The API comes polished – able to manage, track and measure marketing campaigns – thanks to borrowed technology and lessons learned from Facebook, said James Quarles, Instagram’s global head of business and brand development. Advertisers can reach users based on more than just their ages and genders, targeting interests gleaned from Facebook profiles.

Source: Ad WeekArticle LinkGarett Sloane Twitter: @GarettSloaneImage Credit

GARETT SLOANE, AD WEEK

INSTAGRAM JUST UNLEASHED A FULLY OPERATIONAL AD BUSINESS

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A new study says text messaging is the most effective way to reach consumers in real time with time-sensitive information.

The study shows that SMS is preferred for the delivery of priority information, such as order status alerts, with 85% of respondents saying they would prioritize unopened text messages over emails and push notifications from apps. Furthermore, 53% of respondents cite text messaging as the preferred method of communication when on the go, and half say they’d choose the method for day-of notifications.

Source: Direct Marketing Article LinkImage Credit

DON’T TEXT AND DRIVE; DO TEXT AND MARKET

ANDREW CORSELLI, DIRECT MARKETING

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Characters now make up 40% of messaging on networks like Instagram and Twitter, according to a Business Insider Intelligence report.

Digital marketers say the more emojis, the better. “A vast majority of emoji usage is positive,” said Noah Brier, CEO of Percolate, a marketing software firm.

With an estimated 12,500 emojis tweeted every minute, there’s little doubt that advertisers will want to continue to glean meaning from them.

Source: Ad WeekArticle LinkGarett Sloan Twitter: @GarettSloaneImage Credit

GARETT SLOAN, AD WEEK

SMILE, WINK, PRAY: BRANDS DECODE THE ENIGMA OF EMOJIS

One of our clients uses emojis very well in social media.  They have a larger following on Instagram (more so than other platforms).  They often share photos from customers with their product and use emojis on their re-post.  This client also has about seven different emojis in their profile (ice cream cones, smiley faces, fruits, etc.).  It keeps the customers engaged with the brand because they speak the customers’ language and have fun with the platform at the same time, just like them.   

-Meghan Boyd, Sr. Associate

Sigma’s POV:

08

The promise of beacons is that the mobile signals create an understanding around physical location. But marketers can get a similar 360-degree view of the consumer using cross-device data and targeting.

Although beacons show how consumers have responded to location-specific messages, focusing on mobile data and using it in a desktop advertising strategy actually gets much closer to a closed-loop system.

Beacons have a lot of promise, especially in the retail sector. But most marketers will have to wait for clearer use cases and well-defined protocols. They can wait, or they can use mobile as a fairly accurate proxy to understand consumer behaviors, and tie that data back to mobile and desktop marketing efforts.

Source: Ad AgeArticle Link Image Credit

CHRISTOPHER HANSEN, AD AGE

YOU DON’T HAVE TO WAIT FOR BEACONS. HOW BRANDS CAN USE MOBILE DEVICES TO TARGET CONSUMERS

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“I’d say at least 80%, maybe higher, of clients today are creating separate budget lines for smartphones and tablets,” said Jeremy Lockhorn, VP of emerging media and mobile lead for Razorfish North America. “Generally speaking, when this generation of tablets first launched, they got bucketed in with mobile. But as we’ve gotten a better sense of how people use tablets, it’s clear that it is a different and distinct use case from smartphones. Now, nearly all of our clients are treating them separately.”

Tablets are actually grouped with desktop budgets rather than mobile spend “more often than not,” said Aaron Shapiro, CEO of Huge.

Source: Target Marketing Article LinkChristopher Heine Twitter: @Chris_Heine Image Credit

CHRISTOPHER HEINE, AD WEEK

REDEFINING MOBILE: SMARTPHONES, TABLETS INCREASINGLY HAVE SEPARATE AD BUDGETS

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Ad platform 4Info found that mobile campaigns drive more than double the sales that desktop campaigns do. Mobile executions produced about $30 in sales per 1,000 impressions versus only $13 for desktop, with average return on ad spend for mobile hitting 257%. The study focused on 83 mobile campaigns in seven CPG categories over the entire duration, with the average duration being 11 weeks.

Tim Jenkins, 4Info CEO, says the study addresses the two most pressing needs of mobile advertisers – how to scale addressable audiences across mobile screens and how to calculate resulting offline sales.

Source: Direct Marketing News Article LinkAl Urbanski Twitter: @AlUrbanskiImage Credits: smartphone, desktop

AL URBANSKI, DIRECT MARKETING NEWS

STUDY: MOBILE CAMPAIGNS DRIVE TWICE THE SALES OF DESKTOP

>I've seen the same with engagement as well. Results from some of our campaigns show that almost twice as many people engage with our content on mobile devices than desktops, especially video. We are trying to engage with potential customers at the top of the funnel in the awareness stage when they are researching, and many times research happens away from the office with non-stop day-to-day activities to keep the business running. The time many have to think and research on a challenge, solution or product is away from the office on the train, at home, etc., and they are searching on their smartphone, not their laptop.

- Diane DeCastro, VP of Account Strategy

Sigma’s POV:

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We set brands free.

About Sigma

Sigma is an independently owned, fully integrated agency that creates work that works. We develop uncommonly creative stories that people love and love to share. We bridge brands with people and connect companies with their customers to drive business forward.

We believe that everything we do can change the way the world works. Our work has the ability to change the course for a small business; it can change up categories, it can change the life of a consumer and it can change the game for businesses.

Sigma sets brands free to connect to be more than the products they make and the services they sell. We set them free to connect with people in unexpected ways through innovative and fully integrated planning, media and creative programs. We create uncontained, unprocessed, unfettered, unmatched creative products and ideas that connect companies with their customers and drive bottom-line results. We transform them from products and services they sell into stories that connect with a human truth.

Let us help set your brand free,

Shannon [email protected]

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