september 2007

I have just finished reading the book by Ishmael Beah, a child solider in Sierra Leone, who shares of the horrors of war and the impact to young kids. Gut wrenching stuff which had me surfing the net at the finish of it wondering what I could do to help. I came across a couple of  “causes groups” on facebook.   Now maybe there are other factors going on like mistrust but what surprised me is the low level of donations given the number of members: 

 Invisible Children has 228,146 members and only $12,671 donated  

 Help the Invisible Children! 6,415 members and only $110 donated  

 Mothers Against Drunk Driving has 47,568 members and only $222donated

Facebook has brilliant mechanisms to automatically opt in friends which of course help drive up the numbers but really how active are those members. As any Direct Marketer knows quality not quantity has always been key to success. I think I read somewhere that members of facebook are not very committed. Do these donations suggest a rather passive involvement - or maybe it is just lacking credibility of cause. Either way be great to see web 2.0 help causes such as child soldiers achieve greater exposure and funding. By the way if you haven't read the book I'd highly recommend it - but be prepared to be "blue"  

I came across this interesting comment in AdWeek -

"Hallerman said that while economic conditions will, naturally, impact ad spending, Internet should be relatively safe in '08. "The Web is not going to be the first thing they cut," he said. "When times are tough, brands tend to gravitate to something they can prove to their bosses. Cover your ass becomes more important."

According to the article "Pure-play online advertising was the fastest-growing sub- segment of the pure-play Internet market, surging 36.3 percent last year to $15.11 billion, driven primarily by the national online ad market, particularly search advertising, per VSS."

The article points out that while there is a lot of discussion around digital and web 2.0 - the bread and butter is in search and display advertising.

What do we do with the 90% plus of traffic not converting!

An interesting interview in econsultancy today...many have probably heard of Bryan Eisenberg's view on Persuasion architecture, which he defines as "besides being focused on the results, metrics and so on, is focused on empathy - understanding what people need and want and how to take care of them properly" pretty fancy title for explaining good old customer journey and empathy but hey it caught my attention.

He makes the point that often when we look at web metrics we study the last step "the check-out" and in fact the reason why people don't proceed at the checkout is more likely due to the previous experience  - he says they are not CONFIDENT enough to proceed.

Wasn't the old ad process - Attention, interest, desire, action.... interesting concept that CONFIDENCE is now a new step before Action. So if this is true how do we increase people's confidence?

I saw a similar concept recently conversion path another great way to look at the journey prior to the sale.

Both have merit and definitely worth seeing more work in this area as so much traffic is wasted. I totally agree with Bryan's comment, "Too many people look at these big numbers of visitors and forget that these are their neighbour, cousin, father, daughter and so on, and went away dissatisfied".

 

I have been looking at this blank canvas for a week now - not sure what to write - trying to work out why 10 years ago I was full of advice and now not so much. I can't help thinking the more you observe in life the less sure you are that you have the answers.

But I have had a crack at it and have found a niche I'm going to follow  up "secrets for product launch success with online marketing" with new product launch analysis - who knows maybe one day I can create an ebook. Its a bold vision and now I have made it public so I've made a 1st step.

End of big week - and how satisfying to welcome new Founding Gooruze. I'm learning from the Gooruze already. Hubbie is watching the Eagles try and beat Collingwood (Australian rules football) and I'm poking around gooruze with a glass of red wine ....my my how life has changed. Welcome all and keep those bugs and tips coming...i just picked up a few more to

I just came across this via one of our Founding Gooruze blog posts. Called branding wire they invite businesses to post their problem and then guest bloggers write a response. Of course not a new idea but nonetheless a neat execution and hats off to them. So of course I was just thinking maybe a neat idea for gooruze we offer every month a business the opportunity to present their online (digital) marketing challenge and we invite the community of gooruze to provide comment.

Thanks to Matt McGee (Founding Gooruze) - i was just reading his blog and came across a very interesting blog by a guy called Steve Chazin, former Sales & Marketing Exec of Apple.

What a clever consulting niche - he is "apple marketing".

Check out his great snappy little ebook on 5 best secrets of the worlds Best Marketing Machine. Ok to summarize doesn't do it justice so I recommend have a read... 1) People buy lifestyle not products - tick , 2) fix something - you dont have to be a category leader fix something (well Wii would agree with that one), 3) empower early adopters (that's of course where web 2.0 plays a big role), 4) make your message simple, memorable (you know the lift message 30 sec what do you do) 5) I love this - suprise and delight.

Thanks Steve great checklist. Mental note next step - contact Steve and invite him to join Gooruze.

I read recently about "conversion path" - I agree a very simple but practical concept by ioninteractive . I was surfing yesterday and discovered an approach by Homestead - I'm not sure if it qualifies as true conversion path but I love it all the same. Check it out And yet it seems to be burried on the site so maybe it doesn't work that well.

The National Union of Students (NUS), organized a protest, against bank collecting overdraft fees. More than 4,000 students badmouthed the bank from a Facebook group called "Stop the Great HSBC Graduate Rip-off". Beats standing on the pavement waving flags. HSBC had planned to collect overdraft fees for Brits leaving university this summer, but after thousands of students mounted an online protest via Facebook, the big-name bank has scrapped the plan entirely, The BBC reports.

I managed to have a brief escape from testing tonight and hooked up with some collegues over from LA at a fashion show. Ok so I was there to buy clothes not talk shop but of course couldn't help myself. Anyway was speaking to Adam who suggested I contact his Gooru mates in LA who run a "specialist in-game advertising agency". Of course I will follow that up as too good to miss.

But I was also left thinking...in between buying clothes;

1. What a complex world marketing/advertising is when we have specialists to infiltrate games.  And we are not talking kids - the average age is 36 years old.

2. Is that online advertising or not?

Anyway back to testing...

 

I can feel the blood pumping around my brain. How cool is web 2.0 you create this template for others to build a community. I remember the days when launching a website required everything to be ready before the big launch date. It is now all about find the broken links. So I have a big agenda for tonight....get the kids to bed quickly so I can fill this blank canvas with inspiational, compelling reading.