Tag: digital marketing

How to fight Ad Blockers? More Quality Content and Native Advertising

Mary Sawyer
Vice President of Public Relations

How to fight Ad Blockers? More Quality Content and Native Advertising

Branding

While in the past, some companies and publishers have scoffed about advertorials, or sponsored content that is designed to look like editorial, now there is a renewed interest in native advertising. Ad blockers are changing the entire equation of how to reach consumers.

According to a report commissioned by Adobe and conducted by PageFair, the number of consumers using ad blockers in the U.S. increased 48 percent during the last year. There are 198 million active adblock users around the world.

With Apple announcing that they are allowing ad-blocking apps, digital advertising is on the verge of being turned upside down. Consumers want to avoid advertising as they listen to music, stream videos or check their mobile devices. They’ll download apps and pay extra for services that block ads.

PR and social media practitioners have been counseling companies that “content needs to be a priority” for all marketing efforts. Now, ad blockers are driving home the necessity of producing entertaining or educational subject matter that provides a positive end user experience.

With native advertising, the ad experience follows the natural form and function of the user experience. The intention is to invite the consumer to be engaged.

Native advertising is everywhere online, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, YouTube and Buzzfeed. Good native advertising, like good public relations, should be informative and relevant to the reader.

A consumer might be more than happen to read a story sponsored by a consumer packaged good company if she can obtain an easy dessert recipe. Likewise, a pet owner looking for grooming tips might gladly watch sponsored instructional videos. Whether you have a B2B or B2C company, you will need to be promoting your product or service in a new way to effectively utilize native advertising.

For years, online marketers watched as banner ad clicks plummeted and then disappeared. Marketers followed up with a variety of other methods to squeeze their message onto a given page, but consumers became fed up with cluttered websites, obtrusive videos and interference to what they want to see.

It’s time for marketers to realize that if they want to get their brand message through to these folks, native advertising presents great opportunities. It is a combination of PR and advertising that can be tremendously leverage through social media. Content that is engaging, enlightening and/or entertaining can be shared with ease, and provide the marketer with huge audiences.

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How G/L and Union Pacific are getting teens’ attention on rail safety

Tim Leon
President/Brand Strategist

How G/L and Union Pacific are getting teens’ attention on rail safety

Advertising

Most people underestimate the speed of a train and don’t realize it can take up to a mile for a train traveling 55 miles per hour to come to a complete stop.

The frightening truth is that deaths from walking on train tracks are up almost 10 percent this year, killing nearly 500 people in 2014.(source: Federal Railroad Administration). Many of these deaths are teens. This is, in part, due to the popularity of photos being taken on tracks by the teens themselves or by amateur and professional photographers. Believe it or not, train tracks are being used as a backdrop for senior photos.

The Union Pacific Crossing Accident Reduction Education and Safety (UP CARES) public safety initiative reminds both drivers and pedestrians to stop, look and listen when approaching railroad crossings and to always expect a train. As part of the initiative, G/L collaborated with Union Pacific Railroad to launch a campaign focused on raising awareness about the safety concerns and legal implications associated with taking high school senior photos on or near railroad tracks.

Playing on teens’ desire to look “cool” and not foolish in front of their peers, G/L created two videos that liken railroad tracks to busy thoroughfares (such as highways and busy downtown streets) and ask teens a simple question: “You wouldn’t get your senior photo taken here…so why would you do it on the tracks?” The videos, shared socially and digitally by Union Pacific, have been featured in articles on popular photography sites including SLR Lounge, Fstoppers, and PetaPixel, and were also included as part of a Nightline ABC story.

Changing behavior and perceptions through a campaign is no easy task. It needs to truly resonate with the viewer to make them think differently about what they’re doing. In this case the social media content and videos are connecting with both the teen and photographer audience thanks to the efforts of our client and G/L team.

Contact us using the form below if you have a public safety or internal safety program that we can help you strategize and implement.

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Get your Marketing Score Report and Assessment

Tim Leon
President/Brand Strategist

Get your Marketing Score Report and Assessment

Advertising

It’s time to assess how your marketing department performed in 2015, and how you are going to achieve your marketing goals for 2016.

I was at the Fuel Lines conference in Nashville last week and heard a fantastic presentation from Paul Roetzer, president of PR 20/20. His agency published the Marketing Score Report which provides some valuable insights on how companies rate their marketing performance.

The report evaluates marketing areas including:

  • Audiences
  • Social media marketing
  • Content marketing
  • Marketing technology utilization
  • Marketing team strength

and so much more.

As you develop your 2016 plans, this could be a useful resource in helping justify investments in technology, creating realistic and defendable budgets, and aligning measurable objectives with strategies that will produce the desired results.

One of the key findings that Geile/Leon has observed with many clients is that the majority of organizations have aggressive growth goals and conservative budgets, creating a potential misalignment of expectations. 

Another key finding is that despite lead generation and lead-to-sale conversions being the two highest priority goals, organizations are failing to tap into the power of social media to achieve those goals. Many companies don’t have a cohesive content marketing plan which supports their lead generation and branding efforts.

How does your organization’s marketing efforts stack up?

PR 20/20 has developed an online assessment tool to help marketers rate their marketing programs and identify weaknesses. Check out this valuable tool by clicking here: What’s Your Marketing ScoreTM?

Marketing Score

This report and assessment tool gives you plenty to think about as you evaluate 2015 and plan for next year, such as:

  • Does your organization have the right marketing talent and technology in place to achieve desired performance goals?
  • Are your expectations for growth aligned with your potential?
  • What can large enterprises do to stay on top when nimble organizations develop more modern marketing teams and quickly adapt to marketing technology advancements?
  • Do you have the right agency partners to fill internal marketing team gaps, and provide the skills/expertise needed for critical growth areas?

Fill out the assessment or just review the report. I have found them extremely beneficial for our agency and clients.

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Display Advertising on the Decline? Well, yes and no.

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Display Advertising on the Decline? Well, yes and no.

Branding

As marketers, we have the occasional tendency to overreact. Whether it’s a particular news story, an emerging trend or a new platform to try, we want to immediately immerse ourselves in the new info. It’s in our curious nature.

In the excitement, though, that “next big thing” can overshadow what’s currently working. So instead of taking a previous approach and adapting it for the current landscape, we can end up opting for completely new solutions. And with so many digital marketing avenues to choose from, it’s definitely easy to feel overwhelmed.

So when a number of people make the claim that display advertising is dead, or at the very least, is sharply losing its effectiveness, it’s bound to grab some attention:

“The banner ad is now (two decades old). It has become a symbol of all that’s wrong with online advertising. It is more often than not devoid of creativity; it stands out as an intruder on webpages; and it is mostly ignored by readers.”

While it’s true that banner ads from the 90s probably wouldn’t be all that effective if they ran today, it doesn’t mean that display isn’t still incredibly effective:

“Even with these predictions of doom and gloom from some marketers the investment in display advertising continues to grow. Ad blocking software isn’t slowing that down. One of the reasons why is simple — targeting, retargeting, machine learning, and programmatic approaches to serving up ad units is creating a much more efficient system. This helps increase brands’ return on investment.”

At the same time, a number of marketers are diversifying their digital advertising with a combination of site-direct buys; programmatic opportunities, social media distribution as well as a strong push from sponsored content and native advertising.

This is even before considering different types of mediums, including images, video, infographics and other digital properties and how they plan to continue adapting to reach a wider, yet more targeted audience.

If you’re trying to figure out the best digital marketing mix for your brand, we’d be happy to chat and share what we know. Just drop us a line anytime.

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Trending from G/L: Parallel Parking made easy and the flying car of tomorrow

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Trending from G/L: Parallel Parking made easy and the flying car of tomorrow

Advertising

When we envision the future, there are certain things that seem to always come to mind. Teleportation. Time travel. Virtual-reality video games (maybe that’s just me so I can finally be good at playing soccer).

A big part of that futuristic vision is in the realm of transportation. Planes are different. Mass transit is different. Oh, and cars can fly. Have to have that one.

One thing many people will hope to see in the near future is parallel parking becoming easy. Not everyone can be raised in Chicago and be accustomed to street parking as well as yours truly, so this is something that causes problems for plenty of people.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGDFWl81nYE

So SmartCar in Portugal found an awesome way to tap into that frustration while showcasing their product and earning some much-deserved buzz. The company created normal-sized cars that contract in order to show the flexibility of driving one of their main vehicles. It’s a fantastic concept and we can see the facial expressions of those who see the exhibit as it’s happening. The campaign is probably more effective in Europe, where road space is so limited compared to the United States, but it would be interesting to see if something similar could work stateside.

But when we think of the future, that idea of the flying car is one that’s instilled into most kids’ imagination at a very young age. It’s something that we’ve imagined for so long. Unfortunately, it’s appeared to be nothing more of a fantasy in the short-term.

Terrafugia is trying to change that.

TF-X™ is Terrafugia’s vision for the future of personal transportation. A four-seat, plug-in hybrid electric flying car with fly-by-wire vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capabilities, TF-X™ is designed to bring personal aviation to the world. The design will make use of the high power density and reliability of modern electric motors in combination with parallel power and control system architectures to achieve a higher level of safety than modern automobiles. TF-X™ will provide true door-to-door transportation combined with the freedom of vertical takeoff and landing — creating a new dimension of personal mobility.

Translation: O.M.G. FLYING CAR AHHHHH!!!

Flying Car

Before I get too carried away, there are certainly some obstacles to overcome. First, will it actually work as advertised? It’s going to take the better part of a decade before it will be ready for mass production. That’s a whole lot of time for something to go wrong that could potentially cause a massive delay.

The other major factor is aviation regulations. With the current debate on drone technology, there are already major questions about safety and security. It goes without saying this concept is much larger than a drone and the Federal Aviation Administration will likely have some questions before the product is rolled out for good.

Still, we can start dreaming right now, right?

Have any thoughts? Let us know and we’ll keep you posted as we move closer to the day when this technology is hopefully a reality.

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Trending from G/L: The Future of YouTube Advertising

Luke Smith
Senior Account Executive

Trending from G/L: The Future of YouTube Advertising

Branding

We have all seen the pre-video commercials on Google’s YouTube that play before your chosen content starts up. And we all probably wait for the very moment that we can click the “Skip Ad” button . While YouTube has been around for over 10 years, commercials have only really been prevalent for 5 years or so.

With anything relatively new, there is a learning curve and marketers are beginning to understand that this format should not be treated like a normal TV spot. It requires a different thought process.

“Storytelling has changed. With television, there is a beginning, middle and end. A digital campaign- there is no real end. Once you put it out there, what it becomes is another part of the idea…” stated David Droga, Creative Chairman of Droga5.

Emily Anderson, Creative Director at Ogilvy added, “The number one thing would be, who do you want to watch it? And then start there and work backwards.”

As the storytelling aspect of YouTube advertising is refined, it should be noted that the formats are ever evolving and marketers will need to adapt as new technologies emerge.

New Advertising Technology Coming to YouTube

Standard YouTube commercials may quickly become a thing of the past as new formats are developed. Jaunt is working with Bud Light to introduce experiential, 360-degree video ads to YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-Wl9jAB45Q

As Virtual Reality becomes mainstream, Google’s YouTube is at the front of the pack of early adopters. The new technology allows viewers to not only view the video but also interact and experience it by enabling them to drag and view the entire scene in a 360-degree radius.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79uA-gHvw18

YouTube Ads product manager JR Futrell states that the new 360-degree format is “a truly mobile-first video ad product,” – something worth noting considering half of YouTube’s views come directly from smartphones and tablets.

Major consumer brands are jumping on-board and gradually perfecting the art of storytelling through these new, unique formats. Nike, A-B InBev and Coca-Cola are examples of some of the brands leading the charge.

But what’s next? As VR headsets become more prevalent, brands, and content providers alike, will be able to provide even more immersive and interactive experiences. Google already has a cardboard VR headset that you can place your phone in to get the full experience and it costs next to nothing to obtain one.

As VR hardware like Oculus Rift becomes more readily available (and cheaper), the possibilities for delivering VR content are truly endless.

If you’re interested in learning more about the newest advertising technologies and how they can help your brand, shoot us a message.

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Trending Now from G/L: Jet.com wants to change the online retailers landscape

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Trending Now from G/L: Jet.com wants to change the online retailers landscape

Branding

The way we buy things is changing so fast that it’s nearly impossible to keep tabs on the recent trends. Companies like Uber and AirBNB have changed the way we travel. StubHub changed the way we buy event tickets. Amazon changed the way we view retail and shifted the focus for so many brick and mortar stores.

A decade from now, will Jet.com have a similar impact on the way we buy?

What is Jet.com, you might ask? Well, it’s kind of like an online version of Costco without having to buy everything in bulk. The site claims to offer prices cheaper than anywhere else on the web, as well as discounts for buying additional items. Also, free shipping at a certain threshold and free returns.

The only catch: much like a warehouse club, it costs $49.99 a year to get access to these deals. One industry insider said that “they’re spending a ton on customer acquisition” as a way to make sure they hit the ground running.

Regardless, it’s an interesting premise that seems to be equal parts Amazon and Peapod. Initially launched online in 1996, Peapod was one of the first sites to make grocery shopping accessible without leaving the house. After some initial growing pains, the company seems to be stable.

Now, back to Jet.com. Their marketing so far has included offering stock options to users to promote the site, interviews with top business publications as well as (potentially) viral videos, a la Dollar Shave Club.

One of their latest videos, which launched last week, features actor and comedian Kumail Nanjiani. It’s a pretty awesome walkthrough of how the site works with high-quality humor thrown in as well. While the video may not make or break the site, it seems like a pretty good start.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TlrSKnMrI10&feature=youtu.be

And no, I’m not just saying that because I’m a huge Portlandia fan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NLggaPjDj8

What do you think? Can Jet.com take on Amazon and other online retailers heavyweights? Or will it flame out like Pets.com? Send us a note or tweet at us with your thoughts.

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Find Your Why: Why Do You Do What You Do?

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Find Your Why: Why Do You Do What You Do?

Advertising

What makes a company successful?

That is a question that start-ups and longstanding businesses alike find themselves asking when times get tough.

This complex question has a very simple answer. “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

In 2009, Simon Sinek released “Start With Why,” a book outlining exactly what makes companies who are concrete in their purpose so prosperous.

“Very few people or companies can clearly articulate WHY they do WHAT they do. When I say WHY, I don’t mean to make money—that’s a result. By WHY I mean what is your purpose, cause or belief? WHY does your company exist? WHY do you get out of bed every morning? And WHY should anyone care?”

These questions are not something that many companies have truly thought about. There are so many different brands fighting for the top spot in the same industry; to stand out seems nearly impossible. It takes an organization that has a clear vision for what they are trying to achieve, and that vision needs to be valued from the company president all the way to the office intern.

Once an organization has established their core belief – one that defines everything that they are doing everyday – it is time to share the message. Consumers are going to choose the brand that they can believe in. When they can relate to and understand a company’s “why,” there is a certain level of trust established – in quality and service. The customer is going to remember that brand and become loyal to it.

When you find your why, success is simple: believe in your business and others will do the same.

Are you looking to inspire people to believe in what you are doing, but can’t quite define your “why”? We’re always here to help out.

WIN A FREE WHY BOOK

Plus, if you fill out the form below, you’ll be entered to win a copy of Simon Sinek’s book Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action.

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Trending from G/L: Does YouTube have a legitimate online video competitor in Vessel?

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Trending from G/L: Does YouTube have a legitimate online video competitor in Vessel?

Advertising

Since 2006, YouTube has been the go-to site for online video streaming and in the past decade, the attempt to throw YouTube from its streaming throne has been feeble at best. Sites such as Vimeo, yfrog (yeah, it does video, too) and Flickr exist, but simply can’t boast the multitude of traffic YouTube can. With high traffic comes a strong marketing presence, so how can anyone expect to compete with the ad-logged, Google-owned giant?

Former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar believes he has an answer in Vessel, a new video hosting service that offers early access to new releases for just $3 per month. So how does Vessel gain early access to highly sought vids? By offering higher pay to top creators who agree to post to Vessel first.

YouTube stars make their cash from marketers that advertise before their videos. In turn, YouTube gets paid, and the video creator gets a cut.

Felix Kjellberg, also known by his YouTube moniker, PewDiePie, reportedly earned $7 million dollars making videos in 2014. The guy has nearly 38 million followers and 9 billion views—that’s more than Taylor Swift.

How’d Kjellberg get famous? Playing video games and hollering at the screen, of course. As it turns out, Kjellberg’s gamer-style antics attract the youth and young adult market. As young people watch less and less cable television, marketers have fewer and fewer qualms spending dough online.

So if Vessel officials could convince the likes of Kjellberg to transfer from YouTube, they’d pull a chunk of viewership as well, right? Theoretically, with each subscriber jumping the YouTube ship would bring $3 a month to Vessel.

That means if just half of Kjellberg’s subscribers were to sign up with Vessel and pay for early access, Vessel would gross close to $60,000,000 monthly from subscriptions alone. Accounting for outdated, underwhelmed, or accidental subscribers, bringing half of Kjellberg’s following is a lofty goal—maybe even unrealistic. But this example indicates the absurd amount of money that can be made by, with, and from these online video stars.

Anna Akana, a 25-year-old comedian with 1.2 million subscribers, is already on board with Vessel. According to an interview with NPR, YouTube takes about half of Akana’s revenue from advertisements.

“YouTube revenue has been tanking… I’m making 20 times more with Vessel for doing the same amount of work, if not less, than with YouTube,” Akana said.

It appears Vessel is doing exactly what needs to be done to compete with YouTube—headhunt top earners by offering a pay bump they can’t refuse.

While I find it hard to believe that Vessel, or anyone else, can replace YouTube entirely, I predict it’s only a matter of time before someone finds a comfortable spot in the “premium” online video hosting niche.

And yes, I realize “premium online video” is a bit of an oxymoron in itself, but that’s where we’re at these days.

The online video landscape has been changing dramatically in recent years. Want to make sure you’re not falling behind? Contact us and we’ll be happy to chat.

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Trending from G/L: Twitter Ads Get More Personal

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Trending from G/L: Twitter Ads Get More Personal

Advertising

If you asked me what my current favorite social media platform is, I’d probably have to go with Twitter. Once you find all the feeds you’re interested in, it makes finding info so incredibly easy. Plus, when it comes to breaking news, Twitter search is the best way to figure out what’s going on, in my opinion.

In fact, a cool story I heard recently about Twitter involved an awesome Father’s Day present. A friend’s dad lives in St. Louis, but is originally from the Pittsburgh area. As a present, my friend created a Twitter feed for him following all the media outlets and blogs related to Pittsburgh sports as an alternative to Google. Not going to lie, I kind of wish I had thought of that first.

One of the drawbacks to the platform, however (at least from an advertising perspective), is how it can be difficult to target an audience based on personalized data. You could target based on the accounts that those Twitter handles follow and narrow it down based on DMA info, but beyond that, the platform lacked some of the robust features available via Facebook. For that and other reasons, Twitter Ads haven’t always been seen as being as powerful as Facebook Ads.

Earlier this month, though, Twitter may have closed that advertising gap. On July 2, they introduced new audience insights for brands as well as new “personas” to target more effectively.

Twitter is able to do this by working with a pair of third-party data companies, presumably to reconcile profile info with that added information to create more precise targeting. The personas include college graduates, users with more than $100k in income and “business decision-makers” among others. Pretty cool stuff.

Of course, the flip side is, the more advertising there is on Twitter, the less of a direct “feed” users will have. By adding promoted content into the feed, the linear structure has started to change. And some users aren’t happy.

It’s a bit reminiscent of the old days of Facebook when news feed content was organized in an exclusively chronological order. With changes to Facebook’s algorithm as well as simply too much content between personal and brand accounts, the news feed changed to, in theory, highlight the most relevant content. Whether that’s truly the case or not is still up for debate.

Regardless, these new options from Twitter will definitely be a part of how the user experience for the platform will continue to evolve.

Interested in social media advertising or digital marketing in general? Feel free to contact us using the form below…or you can always tweet us at @GeileLeonSTL.

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