December FTC Guidelines: Are You Compliant?

December 7th, 2009
Marketers, beware! As of December 1st, revised Federal Trade Commission guidelines are in effect. The FTC Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising include the first changes made since 1980.

Under the new Guides, advertisers may no longer use the phrase “results not typical” in their campaigns. Instead, advertisements must disclose the results that consumers may typically experience.

 

Paid or gifted endorsements must also be disclosed in advertisements, and this extends to bloggers and ‘word-of-mouth’ marketers as well.   This means that bloggers may no longer accept payment or free products in return for promotion without disclosing that fact. If your company is providing material or monetary compensation in exchange for promotion by bloggers or celebrities, this exchange must be communicated to the consumer.

 

Furthermore, if compensation is provided to a research organization which is cited in an advertisement, this fact must be made public within the advertisement as well.

 

Interestingly, the FTC Guide now holds endorsers more accountable for their statements. As of December 1st, endorsers and advertisers may both be held liable for false, unsubstantiated or misleading product statements.

 

While the FTC Guides are not officially binding laws, they are part of the Federal Trade Commission Act, which is included in federal legislation. For more information, visit:

http://www.ftc.gov/multimedia/video/business/endorsement-guides.shtm.

 

 

 

Kelly Olson in the Bricklight

December 7th, 2009

Your name, sir?

Kelly Olson.

 

And what is it that you do here, at Red Bricks Media?

I am the COO and CFO at Red Bricks. The CFO side is pretty self-explanatory. I deal with all the company finances and make sure we have money in the bank. On the COO side, I work with all of our service lines and functional managers in a supporting role as well as working closely with The West Coast Client Services group to help manage client relationships as best as possible.

 

It’s not common that you run into someone with the dual roles of CFO and COO. Some might call you a Superman as you seem to be tasked with a Herculean degree of responsibility. Do you see yourself as Super?

Well, if I had to choose a superpower, it would be the ability to not have to sleep, because you could always be spending more time on the business to improve things. But no, I don’t view myself as a Superman and I couldn’t do what I do without having a solid management team in place, which I’m glad to say we do.

 

If you weren’t doing this job, at this company, at this time in history, what different career path could you see yourself in?

The things that would most interest me would be teaching and coaching, which I think would be pretty attainable. [At this point in the interview, Kelly launches in to his world famous football metaphors. I never know what he is talking about when he does this, so I have stricken it from the record.] And the other path that has always interested me has been film directing.

 

Interesting indeed. I was not aware you had a bit of the old creative yearning. Nice one. Desert island, three films, go!

‘The 3rd Man’. I’m a big Orson Welles fan. ‘Rear Window’ or pretty much any Hitchcock film for that matter. And ‘Fargo’, a Coen Brothers masterpiece.

 

Wow. Who knew? Okay one last work-related question: How would you describe the aesthetic style of your office?

Pretty poor.

 

I completely agree. I might even go so far as to call it awful. Moving on, can you describe an ideal Saturday for Kelly Olson?

Hit a local college football game. Do some tailgating before hand. Head home for a nap afterwards. Meet up with friends for a good meal in the evening and then if I’m up for it, maybe hit a club or two and do a little dancing.

 

 

On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you describe yourself as a dancer?

A 5 or a 6.

 

How modest of you. Will we be seeing you and your stylistic moves at this year’s holiday party?

There is a definite possibility of that happening. However, I can tell you with complete certainty that you won’t be witnessing any pole dancing.

 

Will you save a dance for me?

Only if it’s a slow one.

 

As told to Russell Bongard, RBM Creative Director - 2009

Why Web Analytics Often Fails Online Marketers

December 7th, 2009

 

By Micah Fisher-Kirshner, Search Strategist & Resident Analytics Guru

 

What would we do without Web Analytics? They provide the data necessary to make performance marketing possible. This allows for more efficient campaign optimization and higher ROI for businesses large and small. For most marketers, however, getting to that point is not an easy process. Most marketers will jump through hoops in order to pull the data they need to analyze, and merely end up with results which are confusing or difficult to interpret.

 

Web Analytics has evolved from log server files and stat counters into software packages whch provide a wealth of valuable data about website usage.. As such, Web Analytics as a practice began mostly as an arm of web development and developed in importance to the point that most companies now require an additional division to understand online profitability. However, the fundamentals of Web Analytics software which were originally built for website audits have yet to fully escape their roots in web development.

 

When one launches one of the well-known Web Analytics software packages today, whether it be Omniture, Google Analytics, or Coremetrics, the question that drives the user is usually “How is my website doing?” rather than “How are my online marketing campaigns doing?” These Web Analytics packages are structured by the process one would use to audit specific pages or searches, and how they are performing concerning website usability.

 

This is not to downplay the importance of these kinds of views and metrics, but rather to point out that Web Analytics should play a larger role in online marketing, rather than merely providing information about a website’s usage. There are changes afoot within Web Analytics that are providing deeper, more insightful, and more useful information to online marketers.An example of this is Coremetrics’ user-interface tagging or Google Analytics’ new ‘Analytics Insight’ section.

 

Yet, Web Analytics packages truly need to go through a full restructuring in order to avoid feeling like an add-on of an add-on, charging by the number of users or by the number of reports one creates. When an online marketer logs in to a Web Analytics interface, the first thing available should provide an overall view of performance by marketing channel, allowing any online marketer to dive into their own data and gain insights into their specialty without having to navigate through multiple areas in order to get data that is relevant to them.

 

 Web Analytics should be about web marketing analytics, not an extension of website server audits, based on a web conceptual framework from the 1990s. By not focusing on online marketing, Web Analytics today still creates an incentive to work outside the system and keeps each marketing channel in separate silos rather than combining them into an integrated marketing effort. In the end, this failure to integrate works against companies or interactive advertising agencies seeking to create comprehensive online marketing campaigns and doesn’t provide for efficient performance marketing campaigns.

 

 

 

 

Understanding the CRM Value of Social Networks

December 7th, 2009

By Elliott Easterling, CEO

 

Many marketers are missing the point with Facebook and social networks. The complexity of managing company profiles, the risks of user-generated content, and the lack of control keep many marketers away from creating a robust social network presence.

 

Social media represents a sea change in the way that brands project and broadcast themselves. Traditional models of web advertising start from a website that is broadcast out to the public. Historically, advertising was placed to bring people back to this channel.

 

With the advent of social networks, blogs, and micro-blogging (Twitter), brands have had a whole new spectrum to broadcast their brands through, and in most cases, these are not contained within the safe and controlled confines of their site. These new advancements have required that marketers reinvent their digital marketing efforts to consider the nuances of these new media. Creating and managing a presence on Facebook involves a unique set of considerations that are not native to traditional web publishing.

 

One of the most interesting considerations is that marketers must not just “project” their brand through their website, but rather must make their brands “converse” through these new forms of media. The way that brands are now fragmented through these new channels and must now become animated and have a voice is completely changing the ground rules for digital marketing. Silent films now have sound, and the brands that do not have a voice in this new media will not reap its vast rewards.

 

I wrote last month on the opportunities that exist for acquisition marketing in Facebook. Now I’ll address retention marketing on Facebook, which warrants its own discussion (and a lot more beyond this).

 

The benefits to building a fan base in Facebook are akin to developing an electronic direct mail (EDM) list. Unlike EDM lists, on Facebook you can not only market to your customers but they can interact among themselves and do the marketing for you.

 

Marketers need to start to treat their social network fan bases as marketing assets and need to measure their effect on their sales. So when a promotion is dropped to an EDM list, a similar message should be dropped to Facebook fans. Ultimately the revenue generated from a Facebook fan base should be uniquely tracked within web analytics systems and reported back to senior marketing management just like every other key marketing channel.

 

What is amazing about Facebook is that it is an incredible value for the associated costs. Marketers spend significant amounts managing their EDM campaigns, and get much of the similar messaging capabilities and the benefits of an integrated social network “free” from Facebook. Facebook is in essence a Hosted Social Network for corporations, with very low marginal cost to touch consumers. Eventually Facebook may find new ways to charge corporations, and the risk of having your fan base hijacked with high marketing fees are very valid and need to be considered as you make your investments.

 

Let’s take a quick look at Starbucks. At last check they have over 5MM fans on Facebook. That base of evangelists can be activated through promotion and coupons to drive retail sales, which is likely having a very healthy effect on Starbucks’ bottom line.  Starbucks has a concerted and active paid Facebook fan recruiting program. It has yielded a base of fans that has nearly doubled in the last 4 months.

 

So when our clients ask us whether they should be advertising on Facebook to build up a fan base or to drive traffic to their site, my answer is usually “try both.” To successfully manage a Facebook fan base and a social media profile, you do need to have a concerted investment of resources within your organization — so that is a prerequisite to a fan building program. Facebook is not for all brands, but it is for more than have given it a real chance to play an integrated role in their digital communications.

 

 

 

 

 

Mobile: The Game-Changer Marketers Should Beware

November 9th, 2009

by Craig Hordlow, Chief Strategist

With so much excitement about the iPhone amongst both businesses and consumers, as well as the vertical market share growth charted by the device (from 5 to 10% between 2008 and 2009), it’s puzzling to see a recent Gartner Inc. report predict that Google’s Android, currently at 2% market share, will leapfrog to 14.5% by 2012, making it the second-largest mobile platform at the great expense of the iPhone’s market share.                  

The Gartner report predicts that the iPhone’s growth will become stagnant, growing a few points to a whopping 12% by 2012.  Why such a slow-down for the iPhone? And what does this mean for marketers who are just now catching onto the surge of client interest and investment?

Most of the projected growth is attributed to Google’s own ability and efforts to promote the Android, as well as its own apps and the large number of manufacturers making the open source device, which will make it a cheaper option than the iPhone. Additionally, the iPhone, not being open source, has limitations, whereas an open platform allows developers to implement functionality the platform providers haven’t gotten around to yet, are not good at, or simply put: other people could do it better

What should marketers be doing?

  • Follow Android’s market share growth and start talking to your clients or in-house teams about the emergence of Android so they are comfortable with the change if and when it happens
  • Study the mobile apps already on Android, and what your competitors are doing on the platform
  • Get your technical teams up to speed on Android by downloading the SDK:
    http://developer.android.com/guide/index.html
  • Create your demo project long before anyone else does!

Red Bricks Media Launches Analytics & Insights Practice

November 9th, 2009

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.

The Facebook Revolution Commeth – Targeting the Brand of One.

November 9th, 2009

by Elliott Easterling, CEO

I recall the first day I opened up AdWords almost 6 years ago to test out the self service functions. That feeling of bliss came to me again when I explored Facebook’s self service tool for the first time last December.

Joy came to me with AdWords because I encountered the tool as a data driven marketer. I spent 3.5 years at Digital Impact (now Axciom Digital) learning the ins and outs of database marketing before I started Red Bricks Media. At the time, we were working with algorithms to process large amounts of user behavior and self-profile data to predict the best products to put into individual emails. This behavioral targeting experience is what got me excited about AdWords. I quickly realized that search queries were in fact behaviors that could be used to present targeted ads to potential consumers. I was amazed that I could tap directly into the flow of demand. The combination of powerful targeting and scale is what made Google such a useful tool for marketers.

Excitement came to me with Facebook because I recognized the same opportunity to build marketing programs with amazing targeting capabilities supported by significant scale. Facebook allows marketers to target users based on the content of their profiles. Rather than being fueled by behavioral data, Facebook campaigns are fueled by profile data. This data is incredibly clean and accurate because, in general, people do not lie about their interests on Facebook. They might exaggerate but they won’t likely lie because peer pressure from Facebook friends creates a system of accountability. The profile data in Facebook is especially powerful because it represents the brand of Facebook users. The things you put in your profile represent the things that are most important to you and also the way you see yourself and want to represent yourself to the world. Facebook profiles are the sum of passions, interests, and make up the brand of one. Facebook also provides a separate targeting axis - one that surrounds demographic data. Where you live, where you went to school, and every piece of data collected in the registration process is targetable on Facebook. This matrix of interest data and demographic data make for great user segmentation and targeting. See chart below.

paidsocialtargetingmatrix

Since users are not actively seeking out information on Facebook as they are doing on search engines, the click-through rates (CTR) tend to be lower. This limitation can be overcome using the sheer scale of available inventory on Facebook, which can yield great click volume even with low CTRs. From our experience, Facebook campaigns can realize good conversion rates because our campaigns heavily segment users into tight interest groups and then present compelling messages to those users. Our background in database marketing has given us an edge in developing and designing successful Facebook campaigns.

Is Facebook right for your business? It is, to the degree to which interests in Facebook correlate to an interest in your product or services. If, for example, you are in the business of selling tissues online, you may not get much out of Facebook’s targeting capabilities. No one is likely to wax poetic on the virtues on a clean nose on their profile. Alternately, if you sell tours of India, you will have access to the more than 2.8MM 18 and older Americans that that show “travel” as an interest in Facebook. Matched with demographic data, a campaign could even target users in San Francisco with customized messaging – “Explore our tours to majestic India, flights leaving from San Francisco daily.”

As performance marketers, we tend to focus more on media that drives conversions. Facebook also has the amazing ability to drive great branding, so let’s not rule out the campaign for the tissue company quite yet. Facebook branding and fan development warrant a separate discussion, which is forthcoming next month.

Why Your Search Engine Marketing Campaign May Be an Underacheiver

November 9th, 2009

By Andrew Leinicke, Senior Director and Joe Van Remortel, Vice President

Chances are good that your search engine marketing program is an underachiever. The growing complexity of search engine marketing can often result in higher costs and lower conversions. If your paid search campaigns have not accounted for the 20-25 variables that influence results they are likely candidates for reassessment.

Deciphering the root causes of search engine marketing performance is not easy. In fact, many seasoned search engine marketers miss opportunities for campaign improvement because they stray away from core performance-enhancing principles and fail to migrate campaigns through the dynamics of efficiency and volume.

Performance Enhancing Principles

The upshot is that marketers can boost the performance of their search engine marketing and PPC campaigns by 30%-50% or more by acting on four fundamental tenets of PPC advertising.

1. Simplify the Inherent Complexity of Search Engine Marketing

Search engine algorithms, policies and functionality are in a continuous state of evolution. And with 20-25 variables (such as match type, messaging relevancy, bid strategy) influencing search campaign performance, your PPC program becomes a complex, dynamic system that requires insightful management. Success is earned through finding the unique set of performance variables that drive efficiency and volume.

2. Iterative Campaign Management Influences Performance

There is no magic wand to wave over a search campaign to generate immediate, breakthrough success. A common pitfall in search engine marketing is an over-reliance on technology and automation. Automation can create process efficiencies, but too often campaigns are auto-piloted right into mediocrity, as the value of insightful human intellect is discounted. Cultivating new opportunities are what sophisticated PPC strategists do. Keyword universe segmentation as well as testing and landing page optimization are never complete.

 3. Messaging Relavancy is a Critical Performance Factor

In the beginning, there was keyword research: a means to build a semantic foundation for your PPC campaign. Visitor quality and conversion rates are directly correlated to the consistency of the relationship among keywords, queries, ads and landing pages. Thus, “messaging relevancy” greatly influences conversions, ROI and quality score. Get control of your messaging relevancy and you will go a long way to improving performance. 

4. Focus on Relative Value to Optimize Yields

Don’t become mesmerized by the most obvious metrics. Develop a portfolio of high-yield campaigns based not on click-through rates, but on customer value generation. Measure and optimize the highest order campaign metrics—customer acquisition, revenue, cost savings to make true ROI optimization decisions. Investigate relative campaign performance at the adgroup level, and then apply a performance-tiering approach to restructure the campaign to give you more control over feeding the winners and starving the losers.

Efficiency-Volume Matrix

When working with existing campaigns, Red Bricks Media applies these methods through the looking glass of our Four Quadrant PPC Analysis™. This approach is designed to identify the core drivers of PPC success and develop strategies based on the advertiser’s industry and location on the Four Quadrant diagnostic grid. Our Four Quadrant methodology assesses PPC campaigns along two critical dimensions: efficiency (cost) and volume (conversions). All PPC campaigns strive to be in Quadrant 1 in the matrix below—a state of maximized volume and efficiency. Our diagnosis places each campaign in one of the four quadrants. Depending on its location in the matrix and campaign parameters, we prescribe a specific set of strategies and tactics aimed at migrating campaigns to Quadrant 1.  

chart2

For example, in the matrix above, a company in a highly competitive, mature sector—consumer banking, mobile phone services, or retail — is likely to have PPC campaigns constrained in Quadrant 4.  

As depicted, our approach uncovers the key performance drivers and inhibitors, and then conceives an improvement program built on moving the campaign to Quadrant 1, with expanded volume and improved efficiencies. One must first analyze past and current performance data in light of current inventory and CPC rates in order to properly locate a campaign on the grid. Experiential knowledge of PPC campaigns and rigorous testing and optimization scenarios expose the success drivers and inhibitors that power the migration to greater levels of success.

The benefits of this approach can be significant. In a recent case when Red Bricks Media adopted an existing search program for an entertainment client, we applied the methods described above. The program had been deemed optimized, but, in fact, was languishing in Quadrant 3. Within six months, the Red Bricks Media team reduced the cost-per-click from $1.24 to $0.19, while more than tripling campaign volume. In order to achieve such results under the old campaign regime, our client would have been required to invest an additional $2.8 million. That is found money.

Search engine marketing isn’t getting more simple, but rather more complex. The way to penetrate that complexity—and simplify campaign management—is to focus on the four principles described above. Structuring that analysis within the Four Quadrant model enables campaign strategists to identify a powerful set of performance-enhancing strategies and tactics that can turn the underachieving campaign into an overachieving success.

chart1

Elliott Easterling named CEO of Red Bricks Asia

September 21st, 2009

Hong Kong – September 21, 2009 – Performance marketing agency Red Bricks Media today announced that Elliott Easterling has been named CEO of Red Bricks Asia. Easterling currently serves as CEO and co-founder of the interactive agency’s U.S. offices. With this new role, he plans to lead a higher level of integration between the U.S. and Asia offices to better serve clients’ global marketing needs.

“I am excited to take on this leadership role and am strongly committed to growing, innovating, and strengthening our global footprint,” said Easterling. “We are aggressively growing our office and hiring new staff to provide our clients with the highest level of pan-Asian campaign support.”

Easterling replaces previous CEO Ed Kim, who will be leaving Red Bricks Asia to pursue new professional opportunities.  Previously the agency has managed international marketing campaigns for major U.S. brands as well as Asia-based companies. Red Bricks Asia provides search engine marketing and media campaign support, as well as regional language and localization capabilities.

About Red Bricks Asia
Red Bricks Asia is a full-service global marketing agency specializing in search engine marketing and interactive media planning. We take a performance-driven approach to our campaigns and measure our success by our clients’ successes. Red Bricks Asia is a branch of Red Bricks Media, an independent agency that creates world-class advertising programs for top brands like Microsoft, Hearst Magazines, THQ, and the Los Angeles Times. Visit http://redbricksasia.com/cht/index.html to find out more.

What the Inc 500 Means for Red Bricks Media

August 31st, 2009

by Elliott Easterling, CEO / Co-founder

It was a pleasant surprise this month to discover that we made the Inc 500 list of America’s fastest-growing private companies. There are few times in the blur of a growing business that you can sit back and reflect on where you‘ve come from, and where you are going. The Inc 500 notice was one of those times.

Red Bricks Media began when Craig Hordlow and I met in an art gallery in 2003. Shortly thereafter we made plans to start “New Co”, an SEO agency that focused on the needs of global brands and sophisticated marketers. Our first task was to untangle the mass of speaker wires in Craig’s kitchen so that we use it as an office. Not long after that, we were moving into a real “office” above a gym with four employees and a roll of boutique clients.

Our first big account was Adobe. For that I want to thank Kate Warner and Joan Bodensteiner. Because she had begun her own career at an agency that started in a house a couple blocks away, Joan had the courage to give a trial PPC project to a startup agency. I have learned that success in business is just as much about luck as it is about execution. And apparently, it’s also about your mother. Joan took the meeting because Kate Warner, my mother and Adobe employee, called Joan’s boss on her cell phone on the road and said, “You don’t know me but you need to meet with my son.” Adobe has a very good culture, and my mom has a presence, so we got the meeting…and the rest was execution.

Execution is a powerful word. As a startup its dual meanings hang over you like, well, an executioner’s blade. Each new project is both a chance to execute impeccable work, and an opportunity for failure. In a marketing service company, your team is the deciding factor between these two fates. Our people got us to where we are today and our people will get us to where we want to go. It is to those people that the Inc 500 list placement is credited to.

For me, the last five years can be summed up in one number – 354. It is a number that I am proud of and will never forget. It is funny to derive joy from three digits. It’s funny what makes a person tick.

But as a data-driven marketer it is not just numbers that make me tick. I am also a competitive person who hungers for the next challenge. The number 354 is a great milestone and now I want to see what is beyond it. At Red Bricks Media, we like benchmarks because we like to beat them. So please excuse us for not resting on our laurels. We have work to do.