Toddlers and Technology

I guess I should have seen this coming when I saw my 3-year-old nephew sit quietly and play games with the iPad. Or when he says, “Aunt Tab, I’ll show you how to do it!” when I am trying to figure out an app or looking at his games.  And my own 1-year-old reaches for my iPhone to press the “buttons”, puts the phone to ear and has a very intense conversation with the dial tone on the other end.

The Parenting Group, the publisher of Parenting, Babytalk, Parenting.com and the Blogher network released a survey that shows that the Gen X and Gen Y moms are greatly influencing their children with technology.  The sweet spot of technology usage for children is around 11 for mobile phones, 16 for smartphones, 4 for laptops, and 5 for digital cameras. Other interesting clips from the study were:

1.     75% of moms with internet access cant go a day with out it.  Being a mom who uses internet access, I would say that I’m on the internet an average of 15 times a day on my days off of work. 

2.     25% of moms let their kids use their mobile phone by age 2.  I am surprised that this statistic isn’t even higher.  I guess the other 75% of moms are more concerned about their children dropping the phone.  Mine gets dropped all the time but thankfully no cracked screen yet!

3.     The study also concluded that moms that do not allow their children to use a smartphone, most likely don’t have a smartphone themselves.  Obviously this makes perfect sense – if the child isn’t influenced, they aren’t going to use the product.

The major concern comes when we begin advertising to these toddlers.  How are we going to cut through the clutter and really make an impact?  What other technological advances are going to stand in the way of the advertiser and the consumer?  The media landscape has changed.  And like it or not, its digital, its social, and its more complicated then its ever been.

Source: Adage.com

A Few Simple Tricks to Make Your Old Media Plan, Your New Media Plan

With current trends and media evolving into a living being, it’s impossible to compete in the market with your old plan.  So anything that has generated you massive return, let’s keep.  Everything else lets fix.  Here are a few items that you need to take a look at while reevaluating your media.

Integrate Social Media

I recently was forwarded a case study by one of my media reps that a rather large hotel / casino conglomerate participated in.  I clicked on the corresponding links, dutifully reviewing the information.  I immediately noticed that the splash page for this hotel had no social media affects present.  I went back to my rep to confirm that their particular medium didn’t allow social media integration.  To my surprise, his response was “Nope, I just don’t think that thought about social media.”  Yikes.  

Also, while you are negotiating with your particular media outlets, ask them to include posting event information, sales, contests, etc on their social media platforms.  This will drive their fans to become your fan. 

Don’t be afraid to link back to media outlets that have written about you, either.  If you are tagging them, they may get the hint to tag you right back. 

PR Piggyback

We are all bombarded with reps that call when the editorial is relevant to your product, destination or what have you.  Its life or death to them – you MUST place an ad, because we are discussing your thing-a-ma-jig!  Is that the best strategy though?  If they are already giving you exposure, is it worth the $X to spend?  Or is it possible for them to link back to your website in the online article, and include your URL in the printed piece? 

Don’t settle for the Thirty

Sometimes a thirty second radio spot or a quarter page black and white newspaper ad does the trick.  Sometimes it doesn’t.  What else can you do to make your program POP!?!  Oh I’m so glad that you asked. (Note that I’m only giving you a few ideas, I can’t give away everything for free. J)

Radio

·      Live Radio Remotes

·      Contesting

·      DJ Live Reads

·      DJ product placement

·      DJ trips to your destination, store, theme park

·      Top of the hour traffic or weather report sponsorship

·      Website and social media integration

·      Interviews

·      Email blasts to stations email database

·      Utilize another of the radio stations regular advertisers to create a cross marketing promotion

Spy on Your Neighbors

You know the old adage; keep your friends close and your enemies closer?  Keep your thumb on the pulse of your competition.  It’s only going to help you.  Clip newspaper ads, save inserts, write down as much as you can remember of their radio spots, DVR their TV commercials.  Note the formats of the radio stations, the sections of the newspaper and the networks that you are seeing the ads on TV.   Are they running :30 ads or :60 ads?  Catalog all of this research.  Now you can compare to your own media, find the holes and punch the mediums that they are missing or the dayparts in which they are slim. 

Make Your Reps Work

While working on the national ESPN media buy with my client Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, I knew we were making an impact because I was immediately bombarded by sales reps asking for additional budgets, by people in the community talking about the campaign, and by my friends and family “letting me know” that Myrtle Beach golf was on Mike and Mike.  Its crucial to make sure that your media is impacting people.  And if it isn’t, its time to go back to your media reps. They are sales people and should be on our team.  Go back to them if its not working…. If you have ever sent food back in a restaurant, then you should be ok with going back to your media reps. Make sure that you are maximizing you’re reach potential with enough frequency for the consumer to recall your ad, if not – send it back. 

Never Settle

Once your plan is complete, negotiated and placed – it’s now time to rest to sit back and rest on your laurels, right?  Ha-ha, don’t you wish.  Now is when the hard work starts.  For pete’s sake, integrate some type of tracking into your campaign.  If you don’t – how do you know what is working?  Have realistic goals in place that you can look back at and compare on a weekly, monthly, yearly basis.  A/B test your creative, dayparting, and placement.  You can always do better.  And better is good.

Celebrity Endorsement

One of the Brandon Agency’s clients, Myrtle Beach Golf Holiday, incorporated a national media buy with ESPN Radio and espnradio.com that included celebrity endorsement by the hosts of Mike and Mike in the Morning, Mike Golic and Mike Greenberg.

“The Boys” touted Myrtle Beach from the lush greens, outstanding weather, and pristine beaches.  The online and on-air campaign runs from January 17, 2011 to April 8^th, 2011.  Golf Holiday also incorporated a contest to spice up the media buy – winner and his guest participates in the 17^th Annual Hootie and the Blowfish Monday after the Masters and even get to meet Greeny and Golic.  In this case, we would shout success -contest entries totaled 34,468 with 57,735 views to the contest page.  The campaign will conclude on April 11, 2011 when Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic host Mike and Mike in the Morning Live from Barefoot Resort’s Dye Club.  All in all, Greeny and Golic did an amazing job and brought awareness and credibility to Myrtle Beach as a golf destination.

It also worked out that the celebs selected had relevance to the marketing plan.  Sports talk show.  Golf.  Makes sense, right?  It also helps that Golic is said to have some skills on the green.  We also reviewed key markets that the show airs, and copy split our message to ensure that we were hitting direct flight markets strongly.  It all worked out.

There are downsides to celebrity endoresement, however.  Celebrities are human.  They make mistakes.  They cheat on their wives and ALLEGEDLY get chased and hit with a golf club by the betrayed spouse.  They operate dog fighting rings.  These mistakes can take your companys credibility from the top of the mountain to the bottom of the dogpile. So be careful who you select.  Luckily, the game of golf in Myrtle Beach booms because of two stand up guys that host a small little morning sports talk show M-F 6a-10a on ESPN Radio!

Smart Use of Packaging

I went out of my comfort zone and purchased a hair product that I don’t usually purchase, all because I had a coupon.  Women around the world, I'm sure, can appreciate the trepidation in moving out of the box in the hair care department, but also understand the temptation of saving $1.50.  While I was using said hair product, I read the directions on the back.  On the back of the product I noticed it had a topic that interested me.

“Need to make some room in your closet?  Purchase Herbal Essence Conditioner and Find out”.

I immediately picked up the conditioner to find out the answer.  As I was reading the answer, I thought how genius this marketing tactic was and how far you could really go with it. 

First of all, if I hadn't purchased the mate as well, it would have bugged me until I found out the answer.  So there was immediate product recognition and a potential sales increase because I would have went out to buy the conditioner if I didn’t have it already.  Also, I'm very tempted to purchase a different type of the same brand, to investigate other tips.

I also thought, you could really take this strategy to a whole new level, as there are many things that you purchase in groups.  And you can push your brand above others, with this type of connection.

For example, around 4^th of July it would work for hot dogs, hot dog rolls, and ketchup.  What an added twist to partner and add a trivia question and answer to the different brands to encourage people to purchase your brand above others.  Once they have it in hand at the store, I would imagine that its pretty tempting to throw your product in the shopping cart, especially if they are in the market for it anyway.  You could even extend the promotion to relish, pickles, plates, napkins, tablecloths – all of a consumers picnic needs.

This strategy could work with a variety of different items: brand specific pants and shirts, pre-bagged lettuce and salad dressing, crayons and coloring books, dog leashes and collars, hammer and nails, fishing line and hooks, the list is extensive and really could hit any product.

Good job Herbal Essence.  Smart use of your packaging to potentially increase sales and extend product recognition.