This month’s Middle School Marketing was a discussion on saying “no” to clients. It’s probably not surprising that individuals from professional services firms were the most vocal/passionate contributors to the conversation. It was an interesting time to have the discussion - the start of a new year and on the heels of financially challenging times, which have impacted all of our companies in one way or another.

“Try to see it my way. Do I have to keep on talking ‘til I can’t go on?”

The concept of “no” or maybe more often times, getting a client to say “yes” is complex in the marketing/design arena for myriad reasons. Here were some of the big points of discussion/takeaways:

Continue reading "MSM: “I said No!” or at least I tried (with a little help from the Beatles)"

1. Both are super into raising awareness about stuff that others need to be made aware of
2. Both love blue-collar work. Neither have done more than three minutes of it
3. Both recycle other people's creativity and pawn it off as their own
4. Both love their low necklines - especially the dudes
5. Both are 100% incapable of being swayed by advertising
6. Both suck at parties - one won't shutup, one won't talk
7. Both like old crap, but neither have any idea why
8. Both could do a better job at whatever it is you're talking about 
9. They're the first person to hear about everything that you have ever heard of
10. Both love something more than life itself until someone else finds about it. Then, they are both really, really over it
11. Both spend enough on coffee (organic coffee, mind you) to feed a small nation
12. "What's that Apple thing called again? Yeah, that. I love that thing"
13. Giant, black rimmed glasses are a requirement. Prescriptions are optional
14. Both love the idea of smoking
15. Both use as many large words as possible (especially "post-modern"). Neither know what those words mean (especially "post-modern")
16. Somehow or another, both wear New Balance's. This still befuddles me
17. Both care about the environment so much they watched "An Inconvenient Truth"

And for the record, I probably fall into both of these categories, making me the worst person alive.

Continue reading "What Advertisers and Hipsters Have in Common"

You've seen the "Drive-Thru Diet" commercials from Taco Bell, right? It's a perfect example of what happens when a company loses its brand focus. What is it that people love about Taco Bell? Words like "late night," "delicious," and "guilty pleasure" come to mind. According to Zeta Buzz, the most common words surrounding Taco Bell in the online space were once "favorite," "delicious," and "love." (AdAge source). Then the Drive-Thru Diet happened.

Continue reading "Brand Focus: What Taco Bell is Teaching Us"

Those of us who have iPhones had a few favorite apps over the last year (I sort of count, I got mine at the end of the year, but I've been living vicariously for quite some time now). We laughed, we cried, we sang, we shot each other. While some of our favorites are new in 2009, some of them are oldies-but-goodies that keep getting better. I thought I'd share the list with you. As a point of full disclosure (because, as you know, bloggers are transparent), I haven't used every single one of these apps (almost every one, though), but someone here has! Enjoy!

Continue reading "Our Favorite (45) iPhone Apps of 2009"

NOTE: If you are using the standard tracking method (ga.js), please see the post entitled How to Track Internal Links in Google Analytics. This post is intended for Asynchronous Tracking. 

What do you do if you want to track how often a link on your site is clicked? How do you see those links in Google Analytics (GA)? What filters and profiles should you create to accurately track this information? Hopefully, I can accurately answer these questions -- some of them in this post, some in the future. *Warning* if you don't care about web analytics, reading this post may produce seizures and a strong desire to fall asleep on the job.

First, why in the world would you want to track internal links? Isn't that stupid idea?

• If I click the "go here now" link on my site, and it takes me to another page on my site ( www.example/go_here_now.html ), why do I need to track the link? Wouldn't I just check the navigation path report for /go_here_now.html? Yes, you could do that. But what if you have multiple links on Page 1 that link to Page 2? How do you know what links brought someone from Page 1 to Page 2? Was it the blue link? Or the green button? The navigation path simply tells you what page people came from and to, it doesn't tell you exactly how they got from page to page

Second, which method of link tagging should you use?

• _trackPageview or utm?

Continue reading "How to Track Internal Links in Google Analytics using Asynchronous Tracking"

As 2009 comes to an end, we decided to use our last Middle School Marketing of the year to review our predictions for the past year and discuss our new ones for 2010. Here goes...!

Predictions for 2010

1. The Internet Will Be Less Free: Users will be more comfortable paying for services they love rather than being pestered with annoying ads, or seeing their favorite services go bankrupt. Pandora has begun charging if you reach a certain number of listening hours, and Hulu will almost be a paid service in 2010. Additionally, there are examples in the news industry such as the NYT Reader built on Adobe Air and Rupert Murdoch announcing he would charge for online content by July 2010.
2. Mobile: This is a no-brainer. Yes, Android consumption will increase greatly; yes a new iPhone will appear; and yes, my Mom now has a Droid. The average Joe and Jane will pick up smartphones on their favorite network, thus forcing marketers to more thoughtfully engage in an application-based digital economy (and please, God, let that not mean more ads). We hope that networks will stop holding things back, but that seems overly optimistic (unless Nexus One sells unlocked at a reasonable price; that could change things). 

Continue reading "Middle School Marketing: 10 Predictions for 2010"

As you know, Facebook recently changed its privacy policy. What you may not know, is this seeming act of goodwill is actually a pretty sketchy effort to make user information even more public. There is definitely value in the change; but the roll-out of those changes, and the accompanying spin, is (for me) disconcerting. 

Continue reading "Why Facebook Privacy Changes are Disconcerting"

We're hosting another Google Analytics 101 training on December 10th, 2009. This time, there's one small change to the program that we're really excited about! 

We're reserving five spaces for those of you who have been hit by the economic hurricane that is otherwise known as "2009." We're hoping this will be a great way for you those of you who are job hunting to broaden your skill set, and perhaps fall in love with a new industry. We promise we won't try and sell you anything, cause you to fall asleep, or otherwise annoy you. So, if you are unemployed, or know anyone who is, sign up and get to know the powers of Google Analytics.

For more information and to register, visit our Google Analytics Training page.

If you're unemployed and want to take us up on our offer, please email training[at]viget.com. It's first come first serve, so email right away if you're interested!

Join us on December 10th!

This morning's Middle School Marketing discussion centered on Augmented Reality. For those unfamiliar, I found this definition on Augmented Reality from Gary Hayes helpful:

Information, 3D models or live action blended with or overlaid onto the physical world around us, in real time. A camera & attached screen is used to view the combination of real world and metadata or rich media. Devices or systems commonly used for AR include:

• Mobile devices with inbuilt cameras such as iPhone, DS Lite, PSP or Android

• A head mounted display HMDs (eg: glasses or futuristic contact lenses) attached to a wearable networked computer

• A PC or Mac with webcam

• A games console with camera accessory

• A large TV screen with advanced Set Top box and Web cam

• Others in development

Continue reading "Middle School Marketing: Augmented Reality"

Last week I got the opportunity to attend Day 2 of the PPC Summit in Chicago. The PPC Summit brings together experts in the pay-per-click industry who cover a number of B2B and B2C search marketing topics.  Topics include keyword targeting, ad copy strategy, landing page optimization, lead generation, ecommerce, third-party tools, social media, and analytics integration.

My favorite session was the first one I went to – Expanding Advertising Coverage: Local Search Opportunities. The talk started off with the benefits of local search and quickly moved into Facebook advertising. Unlike many of the other sessions, this one evolved into more of a conversation than a talk; the audience started asking questions, which we tackled together as a group.

Continue reading "PPC Summit Chicago"

PSFK (my favorite "blog", hands down), has teamed up with Redscout to create a video series entitled "Spur", the focus of which is to look at the digital planning industry/career.

In their own words:

Over the next two months, PSFK will be hosting Redscout’s SPUR video series. It will explore the intersection of brands, strategy, innovation and the world of account planning. We hope to spark a lively discussion, and inspire those working in the field.

Check out episode one, Is Planning Impotent?", it's got some very interesting remarks:

Looks like the Go Google campaign is working.

Despite heavy lobbying from Microsoft, L.A. City Council voted to outsource email and other apps to Google. Wow. 

LA is the second major city behind DC, who signed up last year, to go with Google in the larger struggle for the estimated $20-billion market for email and office software that Microsoft now dominates.

Under the deal with L.A., Google will provide e-mail, calendar, online chatting and other services to the nation's second-largest city. In terms of numbers, that's 30,000 city employees! Many of whom (I'm guessing), probably didn't even know Google had such services. Aside from the press and the money, this win goes a long way at legitimizing Google's enterprise solutions.

One can't help but feel slightly bad for Microsoft who seems to be taking hits from two of the web's biggest players: Google and Apple.

Ever since the announcement that Bing and Yahoo! will fold into one search engine, there have been a lot of questions as to when exactly this will happen, what it means for advertisers, how it will affect users, and whether it will hurt Google.  I have spent some time trying to find answers to these questions, and thought I’d share what I found.

Most important to note is that the transition from Yahoo! to Bing will take anywhere from 12-24 months, starting in the US and then expanding to other regions. Therefore, advertisers’ and users need not worry about it just yet! When the transition is finally complete, here are some key points to know.

Continue reading "Yahoo! and Bing Search Marketing Agreement - What’s the Deal?"

Yesterday's Middle School Marketing meeting focused on something we talk about a lot: social media monitoring. Long-time attendee Wendy Scherer of The Social Studies Group kicked things off with a brief presentation that highlighted pros and cons of various monitoring tools.

No one argued that there are a number of tools available for monitoring brand(s) on the web. The trick, however, is find those that work best for you.  Key take aways from our discussion included:

• Set Up is Key: Regardless of the tool, time is required to set tools up so they're meaningful. The old, "junk in, junk out" phrase seems to apply; the time invested upfront will surely pay off later.  
• Time Commitment Required: As with any monitoring tool, time is required to review and analyze data. Similarly, it's not just about the information tools provide, it's what you do with the information that sets you and your social media strategy apart. 
• Sentiment Stinks: Overarching consensus was that no tool does a "great" job getting sentiment right. Human review is still needed. Tools like Open Amplify seem to be making headway, but we weren't convinced it replaced good ol' fashioned human review.
• No Tool Does Everything Well: Each tool has strengths and weaknesses. Some might be great at blogs and Twitter, but lacking on general media clips; others might provide in-depth data, but not sexy charts and graphs. Long story short: you'll likely need more than one tool to get all the data you need. 

Continue reading "Social Media Monitoring Tools"

Last year, after attending the Google Analytics Authorized Consultant's Summit, I blogged about wonders such as advanced segments, the API, and custom reporting. This year, there are some pretty cool additions once again, including:

• Multiple goals
• Engagement goals
• Mobile tracking and reporting
• Advanced analysis
• Multiple custom variables
• Analytics intelligence
• Custom alerts

Continue reading "Google Analytics Improvements - Site Engagement Goals, Mobile Reporting, Multiple Custom Variables"