Recently I was asked by a European news media group to comment on the success of Sarah Palin in the United States as a marketing brand. Politics aside, you have to admire how fast she has expanded her marketing presence and the value she brings to her followers or in this case, her consumers. When examining the Sarah Palin brand it is clear she has done two things very well in order to create greater success around her name, messaging and overall business. The following points work well for any brand, not just Sarah Palin or politicians.

First, Sarah Palin has done an outstanding job of building a virtual community online where she can express her points of view, allow her followers to interact with her brand, and exploit hot topics to her benefit by commenting on current affairs. Over the past year Sarah Palin has built a community of over 150,000 followers on Twitter and over 1.5 million on Facebook. This steady attention to her online community has positioned the Sarah Palin brand front and center on the topics her followers care about and want an outlet for their self expression. She is capitalizing on a consumer passion for a political point of view through her online community.

Next, Sarah Palin has successfully extended her online brand into the tangible world of speaking events, book tours and television appearances. Consumers enjoy all the benefits of an online community but they also want to touch the brand or experience it in a way that makes it come alive. Sarah Palin’s non-stop tour of live event promotions fulfills that requirement and has helped accelerate the popularity of her brand among her followers.

Again putting aside her politics, the success of the Sarah Palin brand indicates the value of building an online community but it also shows the importance of making sure your brand has some tangible outlet into the world where consumers can “touch and feel it.” Combining these two elements will enhance the value of proposition to consumers.

At Red Bricks Media we guide clients through the right digital strategy for their business but we also know that marketing is a 360 degree experience which includes offline communication channels. We are firm believers that digital thinking needs to be integrated within the entire media plan and we help facilitate this integration wherever necessary. We are starting to see more and more examples where the digital strategy leads the overall communication framework for advertisers and Sarah Palin is just one small example of how this can be successful for advertisers.

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By Kate Anderson, Associate Account Manager (and Hong Kong transplant)

When I first arrived in Hong Kong for a month long rotation in the Red Bricks Media Asia office, I was struck by the newness of many things.  I was amazed by the sheer number and size of Hong Kong shopping malls and it still seems to me as though there is one on every corner – much like the ubiquitous coffee shops of San Francisco.

Digital marketing, and particularly digital performance marketing is itself fairly new in Asia.  There has been a substantial reliance on outdoor media and creative campaigns whether in the form of print or email. However, with the expansion of broadband in areas like China, it seems that everything is going digital. 

With all this change and innovation, I have taken comfort in the things which remain the same.  I am still surrounded by smart, funny and dedicated people in our Hong Kong office.  Little did we know that my one month sojourn would become a six month Tour de Hong Kong.  Another constant is the reception of companies here to Red Bricks Media’s take on embracing new media.  Much as in the US, social media is the buzz word on everyone’s lips. 

In the US, this fixation has been focused primarily on Facebook and Twitter.  However, I have found the landscape in Asia Pacific is much more fractured and in some sense more exhilarating.  Before coming to Asia, I was unfamiliar with Cyworld, Mixi, Sina, or Douban. But much like language is a window into culture, so too are these distinct platforms a gateway into the cultural and political influences of a nation. 

In internet and mobile savvy Japan, ‘new’ happens quickly.  Morgan Stanley recently found that 72% of page views on social networking site Mixi were from mobile devices; mobile contributed just 17% three years ago.  Mobile will also likely play an increasingly large role in China where US social media giants Facebook and Twitter are blocked. 

Although some foreign companies have embraced Chinese social media platforms such as Sina microblog (Dell for example), there is the constant knowledge that posts deemed “inappropriate” can be expunged at will.  It will be extremely exciting to see how global companies interact with the social landscape in Asia.  What will be new and different about the way they reach customers and interact?  What elements of their communication must remain the same? 

I believe Red Bricks Media is poised to help companies find the answers to these questions and many more.  Working in the Hong Kong office has given me the opportunity to experience many new things – new malls being built, new search engines, new friends and new cuisine.  Just don’t ask me to give up the comfort of a good old American cheeseburger.

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April 19, 2010 – Red Bricks Media, San Francisco- This week Twitter announced its new advertising platform, Promoted Tweets, which is officially still in beta. As the beneficiary of massive traffic growth, it seems that Twitter has chosen this moment to introduce a monetization strategy through advertising.

The news was broken by an article in The New York Times, and bloggers such as John Battelle have been following this story closely. Media people everywhere are excited about this product if only because of the opportunity presented by Twitter’s impressive user base—which appears on track to include … everyone.

There are two successful cases for Twitter’s advertising play: Google’s AdWords and AdSense programs and Facebook’s performance advertising service. While repeating Google’s magic advertising success seems unlikely, Facebook has been able to generate a significant revenue stream in just under a year. The blog Inside Facebook estimates that performance ads will account for over half of the network’s estimated $1B in sales for 2010.

So what are Promoted Tweets? Promoted Tweets are ads that brands can buy at the top of Twitter search results, just like AdWords places text ads on top of Google search results. Advertisers will be able to buy these ads via an auction model. Whoever is willing to pay the most per thousand viewers gets priority. Depending on how many people view and click on the Promoted Tweet, it receives a “resonance” score that predicts how frequently it will appear in the future. Resonance is calculated using nine variables such as viewers, click through, retweets etc. The greater the user engagement with a Promoted Tweet—and thus its “resonance”—the more likely it is to appear. Like Google’s Quality Score, resonance is intended to keep ads relevant and positive.

 The marketing value of Promoted Tweets remains to be seen, but there are valid reasons for the initial excitement:

1. Promoted Tweets Rise Above the Fray
   A host of marketers, including some Red Bricks Media clients, communicate with their audiences via Twitter. However, Twitter’s egalitarian publishing model means that most subscribers receive a cacophonous flood of tweets all day, and only a minority of these is interesting. For brands that tweet, many posts have only fleeting value. Often they go unseen amongst all the other tweets in a user’s stream. Promoted Tweets allow brands to hold and maintain top position, just like AdWords or Yahoo Search Marketing ads do.  

1. Promoted Tweets Are the Spark that Lights the Fire
   We believe that good Twitter strategy is critical to a complete social media program.Yet, a significant base of Twitter subscribers is as difficult to grow as a house email list or a Facebook fan base. Twitter subscribers can wither or flourish slowly over time or like wildfire. But they behave unpredictably in any case. Promoted Tweets give brands a launching pad from which to ignite an active subscriber community, although at a cost.

1. Promoted Tweets May Provide Massive Reach
   Because Twitter is nearly ubiquitous on the Web, Promoted Tweets create an avenue to reach a huge number of people. That scale reminds us of Google, where it’s possible to message to almost everyone interested in almost any subject, such as shopping, finding a vendor, or researching life choices. Almost everyone uses Twitter to listen to the pulse of current happenings: events, entertainment, news, product launches, and so on. Imagine being able to message reliably to all those people.

When Should Brands Consider Promoted Tweets?

Promoted Tweets will provide an opportunity to brands to engage with any topical, trending subject on the Web. That broad condition applies equally to consumer and B2B marketers. Here is a short list of marketing objectives we believe Promoted Tweets could accomplish:

1. Build New Channels. Promoted Tweets would be a great way to publish promotions, contests, or sweepstakes, earning new followers in the process. As we mentioned, creating a Twitter subscriber group provides low cost, evergreen, loyalty brand communications for the future.
2. Drive Traffic. Similar to StumbleUpon, Promoted Tweets will allow online publishers to advertise content specifically to interested audiences.
3. Increase Awareness. We’ve already seen how advertising on search results increases brand awareness for qualified groups. With Promoted Tweets, brands will be able to introduce themselves, at scale, to people interested in their offerings.
4. Manage Crises. During crisis, customers and other stakeholders love to tweet each other with opinions and pronouncements. With Promoted Tweets, brands can offer their side of the story authentically, sincerely and instantaneously.
5. Manage Launches. Product launches generate buzz on Twitter. Promoted Tweets allow advertisers to build and capture that buzz while directing members to relevant links. This goal could apply to new products, software and entertainment such as books, movies, or plays. Imagine how James Cameron could have used Promoted Tweets to message to Avatar fans and detractors.

Scale, relevance and authenticity are equal ingredients in Promoted Tweets possible success. We await this product anxiously on behalf of our clients and their customers. Happy Tweeting!

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By Scott Tieman, Head of Client Services

Recently, my clients have been beating a path to my door to run social media contests and sweepstakes. They’ve read the buzz about companies unlocking tremendous value through these programs and want to get in on the action.

My original intention for this article was to outline the key considerations I talk to them about: differentiating the concept, keeping the participation simple, integrating cross-channel, promoting the heck out of it, and aligning incentives. Each of these warrants its own discussion, but the one that seems the most obvious and yet is the least intuitive is the latter, aligning incentives. So, I’ll start there first.

Too often, contest and sweepstakes planning focuses heavily on logistics without regard for the incentive structure. The reason is obvious. Marketers care about their return – increased awareness, sales, etc. But, participants only care about what they’re going to get out of it. Without this value exchange, these programs fail.

Below, I outline three key considerations when planning contest and sweepstakes incentive structures: choosing between cash and prizes, using incentives as a promotion vehicle, and targeting the incentive to your desired audience and outcome.

(1) Cash may be king, but it costs more than you might think.

People barely notice anymore when marketers offer the chance to win $1,000, or even $10,000. They’ll gladly take the money if it’s given, but won’t go through the effort of contest participation. Cash prizes only start to cut through the noise at $100,000 or more. However, at this incentive level, the program must be far reaching to earn back the investment in awareness, participation, or output.

As an alternative, consider incentives that would be valuable to the intended audience, but would require less cash. Focus on noteworthy, unique prizes that people can’t get elsewhere or can’t afford. This might include tickets to the Olympics, producing your next commercial, or even digital brand badges. When you do a cost comparison between cash and these types of prizes, the prizes are usually cheaper and stand out more.

(2) The incentive should help promote the program.

Noteworthy incentives generate buzz which helps further promote the contest or sweepstakes. When planning the incentive structure, consider how buzz worthy the prize is — will it help promote the program?

State lotteries are great examples. Participation grows as the prize pool increases – not only through increased investments from regulars, but also from people normally on the sidelines. The odds of winning don’t change. The expected payout may be higher, but even that isn’t guaranteed given the additional participation. Yet the bigger prize pool generates increased participation despite little additional promotion. The reason is that as the prize pool rises, more buzz is generated by media outlets that normally wouldn’t promote a lottery.

(3) Offer bamboo to the pandas, eucalyptus to the koalas.

In planning contest incentives, consider the audience. Look at the audience research you’ve done and ask what would motivate your target consumer to participate. Thinking “who wouldn’t want cash or a trip to Vegas?” isn’t enough.

Below, I’ve included an example that I think illustrates all three points very well.

Recently, a well known tech blogger took advantage of the hype surrounding the launch of the Google Nexus One by using the frenzy to increase his own online influence. Immediately following the product release, he snapped up 10 devices for $6,000. He then offered to give away one device randomly for each 10,000 followers he collected on Twitter. The only requirement to enter was retweeting his offer. By the end of the first week, he had given away five devices; by the end of the second week, another 3.

Several things strike me about this sweepstakes. It was simple. Participants only needed to retweet the offer. The timing was impeccable. His prospective audience wanted to get their hands on the product, but few had $600 lying around. Had he launched the sweepstakes a month later the response rate would have been far lower. The incentive was relevant to his audience. The people he wanted to collect were precisely the ones that would be most interested in the Google Nexus One. He astutely listened to the chatter and used it to his own benefit. The economics are astounding. Each additional follower cost him $0.06 – that’s it! You can’t even get one paid click to your site for that amount. Had he chosen to instead give away $600 for every 10,000 followers, no one would have noticed. The value generated is substantial. Now that he has collected this audience, his megaphone is supercharged and each additional communication is “free.” What would you be willing to pay to get your message out to 100,000 customers and prospects?

Scott Tieman is an Account Director at Red Bricks Media. He is an experienced internet marketer and certified search professional. In his role, he has directed online marketing programs for SanDisk, Nestle, LA Times and more. Scott can be reached at stieman@redbricksmedia.com.

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We are happy to announce our latest panel discussion and networking event: “St@te of the Feeds”, a review of the social media landscape—where it started, where it stands today, and where it is headed in the future.

This evening of drinks, appetizers and insights will take place during AdTech SF, on Wednesday, April 21st, from 6-9PM at Roe, 651 Howard St, San Francisco.

We have secured a fabulous team of panelists, all of whom are experts in the social media space. They come from a wide array of backgrounds and experiences, and will come together at St@te of the Feeds on April 21st.

Paul Ollinger, VP of Western Region Sales for Facebook, had extensive knowledge of the monetization and benefits of using social media in one’s marketing efforts.

Sean Blankenship of CODA Automotive knows the potential of social media first-hand. As VP of Digital and Social Media Experiences, he is using social media to bolster his marketing efforts for CODA’s new evolution of the electric car.

Diana Cartwright, now the VP of Corporate Marketing at Kaleidescape, was most recently a social media thought leader at SanDisk.  SanDisk’s social media strategy has been very fruitful, and Cartwright is now bringing her knowledge into a new environment.

The panel will be moderated by Sandy Grushow, a veritable social media rockstar.  His current company MediaLink is at the forefront of the social media space, and Grushow’s knowledge and expertise make him the perfect moderator for this in-depth discussion.

You are welcome to attend! Please RSVP at: www.redbricksmedia.com/party

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The value agencies bring to clients is changing dramatically in the marketplace and I am happy to say that it is heading in the right direction.

Historically advertising agencies would bring value to clients through their big ideas and strong ability to lead flawless execution. That part is still true but now in the ever-changing digital landscape we are bringing clients campaigns that have enormous ROI and long-term value potential. We are living in a world where generating a 30% lift in website traffic can create millions of dollars in short-term sales and even more value in long-term consumer satisfaction.

At Red Bricks Media we continue to focus on creating this level of value for our clients and we are doing it with social media, search expertise, creative thinking and outstanding web development. I am very excited that we are working with Coda Automotive and Plastic Logic as they get ready to launch new and exciting products in the marketplace this year. Creating this kind of value for clients is critical and it requires innovative thinking and strong leadership from us.

Creating enormous value also requires having a strong voice in the marketplace and I am happy to report that this month Red Bricks Media is hosting a panel discussion on social media called “State of the Feeds” on April 21^st. The panel consists of client marketers, a Facebook executive and a leader in the branded entertainment industry. We will explore the roots of social media, what trends will impact the future and what will happen next in this critical communication space for advertisers.

Coming out of the recession our theme at Red Bricks Media will be about maximizing value for clients and for ourselves across the board. It is the age of digital marketing and both clients and agencies should take advantage of it!

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By Vincent Ma, the Product Guy

Even if you’ve never heard of APIs or web services, there is a good chance that you have benefited from them. If you ever posted a tweet from an iPhone app, used Google Maps outside of Google, or found a lost cow while playing FarmVille, you have used a service that takes advantage of APIs. Wikipedia defines an application programming interface (API) as “an interface that a software program implements to allow other software to interact with it.” An API is essentially a bridge that allows an authorized 3^rd party to programmatically interact with data and features of a particular web application.

Why would a company like Twitter want to provide API access to 3^rd party developers?

Having a good API is a great way to extend a company’s brand visibility, foster innovation, and ultimately drive underlying business success. APIs have been a major reason why companies like Twitter and Facebook have experienced such tremendous growth over the last few years. As documented by the programmableweb.com Twitter mash-up directory, there are at least 350 web applications that use the Twitter API. It is no wonder why more and more web applications are implementing APIs as a strategy to gain users and spur growth. Recent news of services like Foursquare (a location based social network and game) and Bump (a mobile data exchange application) announcing new APIs indicate that the trend isn’t going stop anytime soon.

Why should we as marketers be excited about this API trend?

APIs offer marketers and their agencies a quick and easy way to build and deliver compelling and engaging branding experiences and to integrate useful data/services/features into their existing websites or marketing campaigns. A great example is the partnership between Foursquare and Bravo where users of the television channel’s city guides app can access the “check-in” Foursquare feature through Bravo’s own mobile app and earn Bravo themed Foursquare badges.

In addition to opening up the creative possibilities for advertisers and their agencies, APIs also provide the plumbing required to connect, automate, and optimize campaigns across your multi-channel digital marketing strategy. For example, Red Bricks Media use many channel specific APIs in our suite of workflow and management tools, including promotion scheduling and automated SEO audits that allow our client teams to work more effectively and efficiently. Beyond the streamlining of marketing operations, APIs allow us to more easily collect, process, and act upon the mountain of data marketers receive on the weekly if not daily basis. Our marketing intelligence platform, Kunu, utilizes a host of APIs in order to provide the analytics and deep insights required by our clients and account teams. As more marketing technologies and platforms offer APIs, we’re getting closer and closer to the development of a centralized marketing engine for creating, managing and optimizing truly integrated marketing campaigns.

How can marketers leverage APIs to drive content sharing that takes less than an hour to implement?

If you regularly update your corporate blog, send out press releases or have marketing content that you would love to have shared across social media platforms, considering adding a content posting and sharing button (like the one you see at the bottom of this post) to make it easier for your readers and customers to share your content with their friends. Marketers can either add the sharing functionality provided directly by each social networking site or use 3^rd party providers, such as sharethis.com and addthis.com, which have packaged solutions that make it even easier to add sharing functionality across all the top social networking and social bookmarking sites. If you have another hour or two to spare, think about integrating commenting functionality from social media sites like Facebook to your content that will allow your customers to not only leave comments on your website that can be easily posted to their profiles but also discover content on your site filtered by your user’s social network.

As the digital worlds continue to integrate and move towards an integrated seamless experience, developers and marketers are challenged to create experiences and solutions that take advantage of this ever changing services landscape. It is an exciting time and I’m personally anxious to see (and use) the next great web service or mash-up to make the headlines. In the mean time, what are some of your favorite web services or mashups that you’ve come across? Feel free to leave a comment at our blog about your favorites.

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By Craig Hordlow, Co-Founder and Chief Search Strategist

The Apple iPad, introduced by Steve Jobs in San Francisco on January 27, 2010, is unusual for Apple products in that the media knew most everything about it before Jobs’ presentation, and could only speculate for whom the device is meant and why they would use it.

The iPad is not filling any pressing unmet need, nor is it introducing us to any new technologies.  The iPad is an evolutionary step towards device integration.  If this step had been made by a less significant company, like Sanyo or Casio, it would have received little attention.  But Apple’s brand capital creates media fanfare, and its cultish following provides a forgiving consumer base.

There is speculation that the iPad will compete with e-readers. But the iPad has a computer screen that is hard on the eyes and while its portability may make reading easier, it is simply not an e-reader.

Apple knows that many people use computers primarily for getting on the internet and sending emails, and it streamlined this device for those people. The $700 price tag is welcoming but nothing more than that, especially in this economy. The virtual keyboard, while meant to simplify the device, is unorthodox, meaning it will be met with everything from confusion and frustration to satisfaction and joy. 

The risk that Apple runs with the iPad is cannibalization of its own products.  In his keynote address, Jobs said that “netbooks aren’t better than anything”, which was his inspiration for the iPad.  But having little more functionality than the iPhone, Seth Jayson (Senior Technology Analyst of The Motley Fool) quipped that the device reminded him of pictures in The Onion a year ago with Jobs telling his faithful following, “You must buy a large iPhone.”  The iPad, being something of a cross between a netbook and an iPod Touch, is not positioned to convert any segment of the consumer base to its theocracy.

Despite all of this, marketers and advertisers must be alert because anything Apple introduces to consumers has the potential to be a game-changer or at the very least, another opportunity to market to Apple’s faithful following.  The iPad will host the next generation of Apple-approved applications.  While the iPad has more processing power and memory than the iPhone, one might think that the next wave of apps will consequently be more robust.  The problem with that logic is that iPhone apps are either designed to be streamlined for the very limited capabilities of the iPhone, or for the mobile, location-aware attributes of the device.  Therefore it is difficult to imagine why a new catalog of iPad applications will be a game-changer.

If the iPad doesn’t sell an impressive number of devices, marketers and developers may dutifully build iPad apps for consumers who feel entitled by the explosion of them on the iPhone. The absence of a clear, de facto sense of purpose for the iPad among industry analysts has created confusion where excitement was expected.  Unless Apple can create a large customer base, marketers and advertisers will curb their enthusiasm, waiting for either another evolutionary step (such as a comparable Google product) or mass adoption of the device.

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Be Human. Get Personal with your Customers

Take time to get close to your customer base, because in 2010 customers will continue to dictate your marketing efforts. Take care to polish up your company’s blog and social media channels, like facebook and twitter, and keep them healthy by posting regularly. If your communications are sparse, users won’t respect you as an authority. It is necessary to participate in conversation and contribute valuable content to be respected in your marketplace. Providing direct and timely responses to customer feedback is a powerful and effective marketing tool.

Follow the Search Funnel

In-depth conversion tracking and analysis can shed light onto the profitability of search campaigns. Just as some keywords or ads may provide a great number of clicks but low conversion levels, high-converting keywords and ads provide different levels of customer engagement and revenue over longer periods of time. These sorts of ‘deep dives’ into conversion tracking will provide more customization, optimization, and ROI in the long term.

Analyze and Synthesize

Research and invest in new tracking technologies and tools in the marketplace which will benefit your marketing campaigns. Social media tracking, for example, gives concrete insights into what your customers are saying about your brand. This newfound ability to listen to and adapt to customer trends in real-time is a valuable resource. Likewise, a comprehensive and properly configured analytics platform is probably the most important tool that a marketing team can have. If your marketing data isn’t interpretable and actionable, it isn’t useful.

Diversify and Integrate

Your many marketing channels should be working as one. Integrated campaigns consistently perform better than campaigns running separately. When insights are shared among functional marketing teams, a comprehensive strategy may then be developed which incorporates findings and best practices from each marketing channel.

Audit and Update

Everything has a ‘Best By’ date, and your website and marketing collateral are no exception. Consumer tastes change as quickly as the seasons, and the images and copy which will generate positive responses need to be refreshed frequently as well. Update your paid search ad copy – revamp your homepage! Optimization of imagery and messaging are often overlooked, but the results are valuable marketing assets.

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New service offers complex, comprehensive performance assessment and monitoring solutions.

San Francisco, CA – November 3, 2009 – Red Bricks Media, a full-service digital marketing agency, announced its new Analytics & Insights practice. Offerings will help clients better utilize marketing and website data to make more intelligent business decisions.

In order to meet the increasing and varied demands of digital marketers, Analytics & Insights will provide solutions that are both highly customized and platform independent. From defining analytics requirements to ad-hoc report development to generating robust data visualizations, the new service focuses on providing the data needed to make informed marketing decisions on budget and resource allocations.

“While a lot of agencies offer one-size-fits-all reports, our solutions focus on determining exactly what drives the success and failures of our clients’ digital marketing campaigns,” said CEO Elliott Easterling. “Whether we are analyzing the performance of a single channel or pulling together complex information from multiple campaigns, our goal is to provide custom, data-driven recommendations that will improve performance.”

The first offerings within the new practice will address the core elements digital marketers need to get analytics configured and intelligence uncovered:

• Analytics Platform Implementation Consulting
• Customized Reporting Solutions
• Deep Dive Analyses
• Cross-Platform Analysis Tools

For more complete information please visit www.redbricksmedia.com.

About Red Bricks Media:

Red Bricks Media is a full-service global marketing agency headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in New York and Hong Kong. Since 2003, they have offered services in search engine marketing, interactive media planning, email campaign management, creative, web design, and social media marketing. Their client list includes top brands like Microsoft, Hearst Magazines, THQ and the Los Angeles Times. To learn more about Red Bricks Media’s Web Analytics practice, please contact sales@redbricksmedia.com.

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