Market View

Queen Rania reaches out to YouTubers

Queen Rania has engaged YouTube to help reach out to opinion leaders.  In her exclusively made for YouTube video, she is hoping to dispel some of the negative and biased views of Arabs and the region.  She is encouraging discussion and connection to help bridge the communities.  She has asked YouTubers to send in their stereotypes, in the hopes of her being able to dispel and reveal the real and unedited Arab world and lifestyle.  Recognizing the power of YouTube and how this can reach the youth and opinion leaders, this is a perfect forum for such an appeal. 

Read some of her responses.

 

Dubai metro and adverting

One of the fastest growing cities in the world, is about to embark upon a journey most other seasoned cities began decades ago..a metrorail. The metro is clearly in mid-construction, confirmed by a glimpse out of my office window, which reveals large sections absence the main metro line and no built metro stations to be seen.   In the true Dubai fashion, advertising space on the metro is already being negotiated as a closed meeting session held yesterday. 

This new era of travel in Dubai, also opens up new marketing opportunities.  In this new city, there are very few areas where a full cross-section of the public congregates.  There is no ‘down town’ to speak of, but rather new and disconnected mini-communities (Dubai Marina, Arabian Ranches, The Greens).  These areas are highly regulated, fragmented and policed to ensure no advertising is done without explicit permission of the authorities.  The main road strip has become so pricey that only the big players can afford outdoor space.  The metro, however, presents some opportunity for creative guerilla, non-intrusive, marketing activities.  This will allow creative and often not heavily funded companies to have an area to draw awareness via clever guerilla tactics.  For now we wait (1.5 more years) until the vision of a mass transit system becomes a reality, and then let’s see where it can go. 

First ever Midde East Social Media and Blogging conference

Finally, the first ever Middle East conference on blogging has been announced.  It is planned to be held in Jordan in June (exact dates have yet to be released) and it will discuss topics such as how blogs and wikis can work and become effective tools in the Middle East.  It will also begin to publicly tackle some of the thornier issues such as how governments legislate for the new media, the new rules of the game and defining what is “acceptable, unacceptable an tolerable in the new global context”.

Hopefully, this is the beginning of a bigger social media movement in the Middle East.

Advertising online in 2008, getting it right

emarket.com has predicted online spending to grow 10% in the US market for 2009.  Even though this growth is less than in the past few years, possibly due to the US recession, it still will exceed the growth in all the other major media.  (www.emarketer.com), and the lion share of that online marketing spend goes to online ads.  MarketingSherpa 2008 Online Advertising Handbook & Benchmarks study gives some great insights into increasing ROI for online ad campaigns.  As online continues to be a growing force in ad spend, it is incredibly important that companies are fully assessing the effectiveness and efficiency of their campaigns, by questioning and monitoring, simple yet often overlooked considerations such as:

Is the online ad creative effective for the targeted online audience?

Consider studies done on different creative routes to test effectiveness or using an online focus group.

Where is the ad placed on the page?

This is an incredibly important factor in any online campaign.  Based on a recent eyetracking study from EyeTools, that of the ads are placed above the page fold (those that can be seen without scrolling) only 60% of them are seen.  Only 25% of the ads placed below the fold are seen by viewers.  This downward visibility trend continues as the ads are placed under the fold and further left of the center. 

Is behavioral and textual targeting being used to better target audience?

Technology has and is rapidly improving in this area, making more real-time ad serving possible, thus eliminating an incredible amount of wasted impressions.  Targeting is the key to achieving an efficient campaign and focusing the online spend on the most receptive audience.

Is the campaign frequency too high or too low?

Too much frequency = advertising burnout

Too little frequency = underexposure

Frequency capping is the key to ensuring that your advertising campaigns gets the formula just right.  If the frequency is not capped, then the heaver users will consume the majority of the impressions (getting overexposed) and the remaining audience will be underexposed.   

Is Video Advertising being used effectively?

This is not the ‘next big thing’, this is the ‘current big thing’.  InsightExpress ad effectiveness studies indicate that instream ads that force exposure have an incredible impact.  Video messages are more likely to be understood.

Technorati Profile

from Status Symbols to Status Stories

Status brands have made an art out of carefully constructing and communicating their brand stories.  They are fully aware that the value of their brands are partially quality-based and a whole lotta perception-based…mostly around the perception that others will have of you, when you carry that brand.   Therefore, their story (real or fabricated) sits at the heart of their offering, their positioning and the association purchasers desire to buy into.   Armani=Italian style, BMW=German sports engineering, Rolex=Swiss perfection.  While their stories are interesting, the stories are owned and primarily told by the company itself and you are associated with it, buy owning it. 

Status stories, on the other hand, allow you to share the story and indulge your audience in the glorified details.  By owning the experience, you are telling more about yourself than just…I can afford it.   You gain status through telling the story. 

As noted by Trendwatching.com,

“STATUS STORIES: As more brands (have to) go niche and therefore tell stories that aren't known to the masses, and as experiences and non-consumption-related expenditures take over from physical (and more visible) status symbols, consumers will increasingly have to tell each other stories to achieve a status dividend from their purchases. Expect a shift from brands telling a story, to brands helping consumers tell status-yielding stories to other consumers.”

  t-shirts that display the wearer's favorite travel routes from Hubwear

   DNA 11 creates custom artwork from your DNA and fingerprints

More on this topic..

how to get an honest opinion

What does a Google product manager, a law professor, a New Yorker staff writer and a division VP of Best Buy have in common?  (Hint: this is not a joke)  They all believe in the power of prediction markets.  They were the attendees at a McKinsey hosted round table discussion that took place in Dubai, UAE. 

Prediction markets are basically markets created for the purpose of making predictions, where a final reward (cash or otherwise) is tied to the occurrence of a particular future event (i.e. likelihood of a company project being delivered on time, or the estimated % sales increase for next quarter). 

What makes prediction markets to appealing to companies, is their ability to create a forum for ‘everyone’ to weigh in their true opinions on the probability of a particular event.  Historically, opinions/predictions like this were left to experts and division heads.  However, they may not always have all of the information; they may not be aware of important influencers; they may be inherently biased, or apprehensive to give unfavorable opinions to senior management.  All of these aspects influence their accuracy in predicting an event (future sales, success of a new product’s release, etc). 

However, prediction markets give equal voice to everyone, anonymously, regardless of rank or role.  The aggregate forecast of all then gives the ‘group opinion’ on the future event.  Google and Best Buy are both using this.  Best Buy wanted to know what people thought the sales generated for their gift cards would be for Feb 2005.  They gave the same data to everyone to consider in their predictions.  As it turned out, the aggregate estimate was 99.5% accurate.  The paid expert forecasters were off by 5 percentage points.  Proving that ‘crowd opinion’ was more accurate.

Giving an equal voice to everyone is also what blogging and social media is about.  It is about removing corporate biase and formal publishing filters, and allowing the masses to comment and offer their true, often anonymous opinion. 

We can all imagine thousands of uses for this, especially in the middle east, where distance between decision makers and those closest to the end markets can be great.  Needless to say, this is catching on as management sees the benefits of accuracy and honesty.  A couple interesting takeaways from Google’s experience with prediction markets:

·         employees’ geographical vicinity (region, office, and how close your desks are) creates bias

·         the closer you are to the CEO, the more disadvantaged you are for accuracy

·         crowds get smarter and more accurate over time and experience

·         market optimism (i.e. and increasing stock value) result in overly optimistic forecasts.  The same works for market pessimism.

see full round table discussion

look out dollar...bartering is back

BookMooch is like an online bartering site for books.  It allows you to give the books that you don't want anymore and request the books that you do want.  So you are able to give away books and obtain books, without ever exchanging currency.  Not really a novel concept, but it is interesting.  So the success of this site is wholly dependent on others to participate and also buy into the concept, not unlike ebay or current TV, where the entire business model is based on others participation in the marketplace of selling, trading, or supplying something...content of some sort.  So, who said bartering was a thing of the past.

the new marketing force...stay-at-home Moms

85% of all consumer good purchases are influenced or made by women, so it is no surprise that marketing to women captivates the minds of many marketing agencies.  The real kicker, however, is that most Moms are so insanely busy that they are not receptive to the traditional marketing channels.  When they are not running to soccer practice, doing homework, going to doctor appointments, or attempting to make a nutritious meal for their family in under 15 minutes; they are generally trying to get some shut eye or the occasional book in.  It is the odd night that you actually watch an entire television program (commercials included) or take the time to read a magazine (press ads intact). Penetrating their busy worlds is a real challenge.  A company by the name of Miles of Marketing is taking on that challenge by using Moms to market to other Moms.  This works well given that most Moms are inclined to trust other Moms, and Moms find themselves interacting with other Moms throughout their busy days.   

This close-knit Mom's world is even more inpenetrable here in the Middle East, and a program like this would work extremely well.  Consumers in the Middle East are much more trusting of brands and have a higher brand loyalty measure than westerners, making a program like this a 'must have' for large consumer brands.

It will be interesting to see if that trust of other Moms remains constant even when they reveal that they are a hired marketeer.  The concept is great, and as long as th Mom's only market brands and products that they truly believe in, then this word-of-mouth approach will certainly succeed.      

choose your granny

I love this site...this idea...these grannies.  Now you can order hand knitted socks and muffs from a granny online at netgranny.  And you get to actually choose the granny you want. 

Simply love the fact that technology is being used to retain handmade workmanship and make it even more intimate.  This is one small example of the bigger trend of consumers seeking reprieve from mass production and seeking out niche brands.  Like when you travel to Ireland and search for the hand knit sweaters from the Aran Islands, the connection, memory and story behind that sweater, is really what you fell in love with.  The sweater then just becomes a symbol of that experience, a conversation prompter, for you to share your experience around that sweater.  Compare that to the emotional connection you get from buying a sweater at Zara.  And mind you....I love my Zara.  However, there is simply no comparison.