We in the digital marketing industry spend far too much time whining about why advertisers are not pouring more than a sprinkling of their budgets online, and we spend far too much time debating whether Second Life, Facebook, and Twitter are alive or dead as marketing media.
My mission is to elevate to the bigger barriers in our business plans and deliver a framework for digital strategy that delivers real value in people's lives.
Save the date! Hear more from Bob Gilbreath during his iMedia Brand Summit keynote, "Stop Annoying Your Customers: Evolve to Marketing with Meaning Instead," Sept. 15 in Coronado, Calif.
Request your invitation today!
We are in the midst of the second burst of excitement around the potential of digital marketing -- and we are also in the midst of its second failure. In the late '90s, we rode the bubble of opportunity around this new way of selling products and services to consumers, but we failed to notice that habits change and broadband penetration takes time.
This time around, our target customers are actively online and embracing all manner of new digital media habits -- from social networks to smartphones. But digital marketing has been mainly unable to benefit from this shift. The reason is simple: What we're giving people stinks.
Much of the small sliver of ad budgets that is moving to digital goes to a bevy of banner ads and traditional TV commercials re-packaged as pre-roll video. As click-through rates drop even lower, websites unveil even bigger banner units like "The Pushdown" and "The XXL Box." The promise of digital relationship marketing has mainly led to email programs that continuously spew sales messages.
As new digital media forms pop up, there is a predictable rush to apply the same sad tell-and-sell business model. Ad networks have quickly arisen to populate mobile phones and video games with tiny banner ads. And your brand can now pay its way to positive product reviews on blogs and tweets.
Despite our giddy excitement for the next-next best thing, our customers aren't buying it:
- More than 75 percent of people will abandon a video if they are forced to watch a commercial first.
- Google executives admit that they have found no real advertising success model for their $1.65 billion buyout of YouTube.
- Despite the torrid growth in social network use, most prominently among the "women 35-54" that advertisers covet, eMarketer predicts ad spending on them will decline 3 percent in 2009.
The digital marketing world that captured the imagination of so many of us in the industry today has mainly soured the customers we claim to serve. A recent Nielsen Online study shows that the least-trusted forms of advertising are online video ads, online banner ads, and text ads on mobile phones.
But in the trash heap of "traditional digital", a new and improved model is starting to show signs of life.
Southwest Airlines realized that its frequent flyers will travel more often at the right price points, so it created a desktop widget that alerts people when fares to their favorite locations are on sale. By its second year, the tool drove $150 million in revenue, and in the third quarter of 2008 alone, it drove 10 million site visits.
Kraft's iFood app for the iPhone includes 7,000 recipes, a store locator, and instructional videos. It is marketing that is actually sold for 99 cents, and it met the company's three-year download goal in a matter of weeks. The app has helped the brand build new relationships with young couples.
These examples are all working for these leading brands at a time when the most traditional marketing is not. Many marketers have realized that, at long last, when all forms of interruptive advertising have failed, the only decent thing to do is create marketing that people find valuable. I call it "marketing with meaning" -- and digital is often the best way to deliver on this new standard of business success.
There are two key requirements to deliver marketing with meaning: First, it must be marketing that people choose to engage with. This is a high bar, but intentional attention is the currency of the new world of ideas and brands.
Second, it is marketing that itself improves people's lives -- whether people purchase your product or service immediately or not. It is no longer enough to create a product that improves people's lives and use annoying advertising to push them to buy it. Rather, we must provide something of value first to earn their attention, trust, and loyalty beyond reason.
Marketing with meaning is an approach where digital is uniquely suited to win. Digital technology is radically improving industries and people's lives in countless ways. It allows marketers to provide services, hold conversations, adjust to preferences, and create experiences. Marketing with meaning is a strategy worthy of our digital revolution, and it should be the starting position as your business looks to move marketing online.
To help brands find their place, I created a guiding framework called the Hierarchy of Meaningful Marketing. It is loosely based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, which continues to be the strongest model for understanding what is meaningful to consumers.
At the base level is what is called "meaningful solutions." At a minimum, your marketing should offer valuable information, incentives, and services.
One example of meaningful solutions is the Domino's Pizza Tracker. This was launched in January 2008, mainly as a cost-savings tool to assist the surprisingly high number of people who call back to ask how their order is coming along. Despite no advertising (but a ton of PR coverage), and only being available in half its stores, the tool was used by more than 1 million people in its first two months. Today, online orders account for 28 percent of all Domino's sales, and the tool is used by 75 percent of these customers. The Pizza Tracker has been expanded to all stores, and it is accessible via Facebook, Twitter, TiVo, and mobile devices.
From here, some brands are able to graduate to a higher level that I call "meaningful connections." Brands that win here are able to create entertaining experiences that people wish to share.
For example, the Healthy Choice brand at ConAgra Foods realized that 60 percent of office workers regularly eat lunch at their desks, and they spend much of that time surfing the web for fun. Maximizing on this trend, the brand decided to add value to this time by creating live lunchtime entertainment dubbed "Working Lunch." It was a cross between "The Office" and "Who's Line is it Anyway?" in which actors from Second City in Chicago staged improv sketches where the viewing audience could vote on what happens next. This program was viewed more than 5 million times, and it helped drive the success of the new line of Healthy Choice Café Steamers.
Finally, a few rare brands are able to reach the highest level of meaningful marketing -- what I call "meaningful achievement." Here, the marketing is helping people improve themselves, their families, and the world they live in.
Cause marketing can fit very well here when it is done well. One much-loved example is that of the Innocent brand of juices in the U.K. The company learned of a little-known tragedy that more than 25,000 older people in the nation die from cold-related illnesses each year. So it created a promotion in 2003 called "The Big Knit," in which small knit hats were placed on bottles in Sainsbury. For each bottle sold, the company contributed the equivalent of $1 to an organization that provides hot meals and blankets. It used the internet to help customers participate in the event -- videos and diagrams show people how to knit caps at home, and a Flickr account and blog track the fun and success of the campaign.
Many of us who left the world of traditional marketing for the digital realm did not go solely for fame and fortune. Rather, we saw the opportunity to be a part of something bigger -- to help shape the world into a better place. Managers who have adopted a meaningful marketing model are reaching this highest level of personal success, and I invite you to join our cause.
Come learn more at my presentation at the iMedia Brand Summit, Sept. 13-16 in Coronado, Calif., and at marketingwithmeaning.com.
Bob Gilbreath is chief marketing strategist at Bridge Worldwide.
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