A Digital Agency Specializing In Online Strategy, Creative, and Campaigns that Engage Consumers
New Loyalty App for PinkBerry Yogurt. Customers can download the PinkBerry App and get a FREE yogurt with unlimited toppings. The app includes several unique features including:
Consumers can also instantly share ideas and comments with a promise from PinkBerry to respond in 24 hours.
Scan for the APP.
When you think about it photos are a great way to engage consumers. Whether it’s through contests, experiential marketing or social media, photos are king. When a consumer includes your product in a great photo it’s the ultimate complement for your brand. Try this experiment, go to any products Facebook page and click on photos, then click on photos of……. and you will see the sometimes “very interesting” ways consumers are engaging with that product through photography. With the growth of Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest a photo can now have a much larger audience. It’s also gotten much easier for the consumer to add a quick hashtag or tag your product on Facebook. Check out this YouTube video of how shoe brand Aldo is using Instagram to vastly enhance the visibility of a street team promotion.
ApolloBravo offers branded photo sharing solutions for your contest, event or social media campaign. We create campaigns that maximize photo sharing across multiple platforms and encourage consumer check-ins with photos.
Show-rooming points to big troubles for brick-and-mortar stores. Recently while shopping for a new refrigerator I thought I would give showrooming a try. It’s pretty easy to do, you can use an app like Amazon or Red Laser and quickly scan barcodes on appliances other items in any store for a quick comparison. To capitalize on this trend many online retailers are offering free shipping and set up for large appliances. My results – I could’ve saved $250 online. However the retailer was prepared and offered free set up, haul-away and a gift card. Lesson learned if you’re going to showroom give the salesperson at least a shot at matching the price. For retailers think about embracing show rooming with your own scannable codes and price match offers. Make sure you remind consumers about services and guarantees you may not get from online retailers. More about growing show rooming trends.
VIA WARC
CouponCabin, the deals website, and Harris Interactive, the polling firm, surveyed2,361 adults, and reported that 43% of people owning a smartphone or tablet participated in this activity.
Upon being asked if they were worried that this might cause bricks and mortar stores to go out of business, some 44% of the panel proved “not at all concerned”.
A further 41% were “somewhat concerned”, while 12% were “very concerned” and 3% were “extremely concerned”, the study found.
By category, the uptake of such behaviour was highest when considering home electronics, hitting 50%. Entertainment products like books, DVDs and CDs logged 40% here.
These figures stood at 31% for the apparel segment, as well as 29% for footwear, and 24% for desktop PCs, the analysis revealed.
Overall, a 97% majority had ultimately bought an item researched in this way at a lower price than was available in stores.
Within this group, a 28% share of shoppers either “always or often” did so, and another 68% “sometimes” adopted the same strategy.
“Consumers are using technology to find as many ways to save as possible, and showrooming is a prime example of that,” said Jackie Warrick, president of CouponCabin.
“As showrooming becomes more widespread, some stores are concerned and are changing their strategies, offering new incentives and providing special offers to keep shoppers buying at their retail locations.”
Research from Deloitte has suggested that over 50% of consumers were likely to be carrying smartphones when Christmas shopping this year, compared with 40% last year.
“Those [chains] who adjust and are able to be nimble with their customers will have a great holiday,” said Alison Paul, retail and distribution sector leader at Deloitte. “Showrooming is a phenomenon, but it will not end retail as we know it.
“Retailers recognise that having the customer in the store is nine-tenths of the battle,” she added. “There’s nothing like the immediate gratification of walking out with what you came to get.”
Data sourced from CouponCabin/Chicago Tribune; additional content by Warc staff, 22 October 2012
The following post originally appeared on the Google Mobile Ads Blog.
In this world of constant connectivity, consumers expect to find the information that they want, when they want it – especially when they’re on the go. We know that this applies to their web browsing experiences on mobile, so we took a deeper look at users’ expectations and reactions towards their site experiences on mobile. Most interestingly, 61% of people said that they’d quickly move onto another site if they didn’t find what they were looking for right away on a mobile site. The bottom line: Without a mobile-friendly site you’ll be driving users to your competition. In fact, 67% of users are more likely to buy from a mobile-friendly site, so if that site’s not yours, you’ll be missing out in a big way.
This is something we see a lot and it is part of the reason there is such a big opportunity in mobile. With many companies devoting less than 1% of their total marketing budget to mobile the door is wide open to reach consumers in this category that has arrived.
NEW YORK: via WARC US marketers should increase their spend on mobile marketing by a factor of seven, according to a study commissioned by the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA).
The research by Marketing Evolution, a marketing measurement and analytics firm, concluded that the optimized level of spend on mobile advertising for US marketers in 2012 should be 7%, on average, compared to the current budget allocation of less than 1%.
“Finally, we are able to give marketers a level of empirical data that takes out the guesswork,” said Greg Stuart, CEO, MMA Global.
He added that the research “offers a baseline for further discussions on what a rebalanced marketing mix should look like to achieve a stronger ROI on every dollar they spend.”
The precise level of spend will of course depend on the marketing goal and industry category. The study also indicated that mobile’s share of the media mix will only increase in the future, to at least 10% by 2016 as more people use smartphones.
Rex Briggs, CEO of Marketing Evolution, said: “It’s clear that marketers, on average, are spending significantly less than they should on mobile and are losing out on sales and profits by settling for a sub-optimal media mix.”
The information was welcomed by B. Bonin Bough, vice president of Global Media and Consumer Engagement at Kraft Foods.
“We’re committed to making a difference in mobile innovation,” he said, “so I’m very pleased that the MMA is leading the industry with this valuable data.”
The MMA estimates that mobile marketing in the US is currently worth $26bn.
Data sourcd from MMA; additional content by Warc staff, 31 August 2012
Contact ApolloBravo for a free mobile + social readiness evaluation.
Excellent article on 3 must do marketing investments shared in Tech crunch. Before making the investment companies need to explore how mobile, social and content can be linked and delivered efficiently. With over 50% of search now conducted via apps and mobile devices is important to put mobile 1st in this trio.
Summer signals the beginning of budget season. Before making marketing investment decisions, analyze this year’s three marketing must-haves: social media, content marketing and mobile. While aspects of these marketing formats may not have direct costs, they all require budget and resources.
Social media provides platforms, enabling marketers to interact with their target audience. Social media involves more than a Facebook page or Twitter account. It requires an integrated social media strategyincluding a social media persona to ensure it’s an integral part of your marketing.
Content marketing is promotion-free information that fuels social media and overcomes purchase decision hurdles. (Here’s an outline of content marketing’s basic steps.)
Mobile is a must-have for every business with a retail presence or that competes with a business that has a retail presence since mobiles and tablets go shopping.
According to IBM’s State of Marketing 2012, marketers face an array of challenges. Top on their lists are channel and device choice expansion and customer collaboration and influence. This is no surprise given social media’s exponential growth, increased smartphone usage, and the quick adoption of tablets. These elements require new ways of engaging and selling prospects and customers through content marketing and social media delivered via various mobile devices.
At a time when marketers need additional funds to test these emerging channels and platforms, more than a quarter of those surveyed believe their biggest challenge is financial constraints and ROI accountability. This is to be expected in light of weak economic growth. Many businesses using social media, content marketing and/or mobile are still testing these strategies and haven’t developed effective tracking yet.
via Warc.com
According to the advisory firm, smartphones are due to impact 5.1% of all retail store sales in the US in 2012, equivalent to $159bn in revenues. Such a total can be compared with an anticipated $12bn in pure m-commerce returns.
The influence of these devices should also grow “exponentially” between now and 2016, shaping 17% to 21% of sales, or $628bn to $752bn, by 2016, when mobile commerce attains a value of $30bn.
Based on a survey of 1,071 nationally representative consumers and 1,557 smartphone users, Deloitte reported 48% of people own a smartphone.
Some 58% of this group use their mobile for “store-related” shopping, climbing to 68% for 25–34 year olds.
The analysis also stated uptake of this activity rose 40% after the first six months of device ownership, and people using phones in this way are 14% more likely to convert in store.
Similarly, 49% of smartphone users had engaged in this pastime when buying electronics and appliances, doing so on 60.9% of shopping trips. This gave mobile an “influence factor” of 8.3% over category purchases.
A further 46% of this audience used these gadgets in general merchandise outlets, department stores and warehouses, typically on 52.5% of visits, yielding an “influence factor” of 6.7%.
Elsewhere, 38% of smartphone users employed their handsets while making acquisitions in the clothing and footwear segment, with a 56.2% frequency. Wireless devices thus impacted 5.9% of sales in all.
Additionally, 35% of this audience turned to smartphones in the food and beverage category, generally on 58.2% of shopping occasions, results meaning they played a role in 5.7% of decisions.
Overall, 61% of people participating in this kind of activity accessed their handset in store, while 52% did so on the way to these outlets, 45% on the night before, 17% two days earlier, and 10% a week prior to attending a bricks and mortar vendor.
Alison Paul, Deloitte’s retail and distribution sector leader, said: “Mobile is an important tool for retailers to incrementally drive traditional in-store sales, strengthening the relationship between retailer and consumer to increase engagement and loyalty.”
Data sourced from Deloitte; additional content by Warc staff, 29 June 2012
Our official entry into the social media explained with, craze. We think it’s best explained over a cold beer.
Brands have a great opportunity to close the consumer engagement gap via social media. Brands are spending millions of dollars to reach consumers via traditional outbound marketing while many customers are already knocking at their door. Great survey.
Via WARC LONDON: Marketers in the UK are failing to engage consumers making comments about their brands on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, new research has revealed.
Marketing Week, the trade title, and Maritz Research, the insights provider, polled 1,000 adults, 81% of which had uploaded opinions about goods specific and services on the web. A further 77% expected to do so in the future.
Some 85% of the participants who had entered comments on the net concerning a brand did not receive a reply. In all, 47% would be “happy” to hear back from a business in such a way, and 32% would “love” this kind of response.
“The large percentage of people who had never been contacted after posting a complaint is a real example of where companies are missing a trick,” said Maya Robert, content editor and social media manager at uSwitch, the price comparison website.
When discussing the 15% of consumers who had received a message from a brand, 32% “loved” it and 47% ranked their engagement simply as being “OK”.
“I think we will always be surprised by how much people want you to be visible and step in and give help,” said Stuart Handley, EMEA director of communication for Dell, the IT group.
Nearly half of the panel had utilised social media to air their views relating of companies, with 24% providing favourable feedback in this way and 23.5% “venting feeling” to friends and family.
For 14% of interviewees, this medium had been a “last resort”, and 8% opted for such an approach in anticipation of achieving a rapid reply from the organisation involved.
Overall, 74% of contributors who had mentioned brands on Facebook generally adopted a positive tone and 26% complained, figures hitting 17% and 5% respectively for Twitter, and falling to 10% and 2% for YouTube.
Among those shoppers making remarks about goods and services online, 58% would have a “higher opinion” of corporations that responded, the analysis added.
When complaining, 74% of customers were seeking an apology, 39% sought offers or vouchers, 34% wished to be thanked by a firm and 29% hoped to gain financial compensation.
“More than 90% of the incoming traffic on our social media channels is customer-related comments or issues,” said Jakub Hrabovsky, head of web relations and social media at Vodafone, the telco. “The vast majority just want a solution and don’t care whether you apologise or offer them compensation.”
Data sourced from Marketing Week; additional content by Warc staff, 2 April 2012
contact ApolloBravo for consumer engagement strategies.