According to IBM Coremetrics Benchmark Reports, 2011 was a huge success for Thanksgiving weekend shopping. Online spending and mobile traffic took the cake with big increases from 2010. 

Black Friday 2011 saw a 24% increase in overall online spending from 2010. Not surprisingly, 4% of traffic and 9% of sales came from mobile devices, up from 5.5% and 3%, respectively. Leading the charge in mobile usage was the iPhone and iPad, with the iPad leading conversion rates at 4.6% versus the 2.8% for overall mobile devices.

Cyber Monday fared even better with a 33% increase in online spending from 2010. Mobile traffic and spending didn't shine as brightly on Cyber Monday as it did on Black Friday 2011, but were each up almost 200% from Cyber Monday 2010, at 11% of traffic and 6% of sales. 

Continue reading "Black Friday and Cyber Monday Numbers Are In"

"Pivot." It's become a buzz word among startups thanks to Eric Ries and his lean startup language. It can often be overused and in the process be stripped of its meaning. But the principle remains invaluable for startups, and large companies for that matter, to constantly embrace change. What you set out to do will probably look nothing like what you will be doing in 3-5 years. Embrace it.

This post will take more of a case study approach, introducing three "graduated" startups that started as something very different than what eventually made them big.

Continue reading "Lean Startups: Part 3 - Startups That Pivoted"

As discussed in Part 1 of Lean Startups, learning quickly is imperative in bringing an idea to a productive and successful product. An important piece of the learn, measure, build loop is learning from the very start of any idea. The question is, how do you test your idea and learn from potential response? Enter: The Magic Test.

The Magic Test--a recipe designed and supported by Eric Ries--entails attempting to sell your idea as "magic". Before jumping into discussions about features and functionality, think of your product as solving one or two major pain points magically. You don't need to tell people how you're going to solve their problems just yet--at least not until you know that people are interested in that problem even being solved. Simply put, if people won't buy magic to fix their problem, then they won't buy your product.

Continue reading "Lean Startups: Part 2 - The Magic Test"

"Buzz buzz buzz" goes the lean startup movement. This ideology, led by Eric Ries, focuses on learning from potential users and iterating through quick builds, and has been in the spotlight recently. I will spend a couple of posts explaining the most important and useful shifts in thinking that could shape your startup.

One of the most unique contributions that Ries makes to startup methodology is a flipping of the normal "Build, Measure, Learn" loop.

Continue reading "Lean Startups: Part 1 - “Learn, Measure, Build”"

A question that plagues startups from day 1 is: how am I going to pay for anything? There are numerous different capital structures and forms of investment, but it seems like the hot topic is making the case for IPOs. While it seems like the next best thing to sliced bread for many, I sought to answer the question: is going the IPO route really worth it for startups?

Most of my college education was focused on econometrics and statistics, so instead of attempting to provide anecdotal case studies (which can vary drastically), I sought to collect data and provide empirical evidence that would provide insights on whether the act of an initial public offering (IPO) would increase or decrease operating return on assets (a measure of efficiency) and revenue (a measure of growth). This post summarizes my findings.

Continue reading "New Study: IPOs Now More Attractive for Startups"

I recently tweeted about the New York City DOT's new anti-speeding campaign. The campaign has the NYC DOT electronic signs turn a standard pedestrian icon into a rather frightening skeleton when drivers speed through the 30-mile-per-hour speed limit. This campaign got me thinking - do these ads ever work? Over the years we've seen numerous creepy, horrifying, and sensitive ads across various marketing channels. But how effective are these campaigns? Have there been any actual positive (or negative) results? I took a deeper dive into one of these campaigns to find out.

Continue reading "Are Creepy Ads Effective?"

I recently came across the 2011 CMO's Guide to The Social Landscape. I think this is pretty on target when it comes to figuring out how to best align your goal with the right social media channel. However, with multiple goals and channels, it can get tough to maintain a consistent brand. Your brand may come off as disjointed or fragmented, leaving customers filled with doubt about what exactly your brand stands for and where the value is, thus negating all your hard social media work. Mashable posted their 5 Tips for Maintaining Brand Consistency Across Social Media. I agree with a couple, but not sold on all of them. Below are some additional tips that can help give your brand one voice.

Continue reading "Brand Consistency and Social Media"

Latest reports on iAds tell us that Apple recently slashed the minimum ad buy for an iAd from $1 million to $500,000 in an attempt to make the platform more appealing to advertisers. What exactly does this mean for Apple's iAds? Are they hurting that badly? Is this a move to attract advertisers in lieu of the new iPad 2 release this week? Several explanations exist and there's much speculation as to how well iAds are actually working.

Continue reading "What Does the Future Hold for Apple’s iAds?"

As a fan of both the NFL and good advertising, I'm usually glued to the TV come Super Bowl Sunday (though the "good advertising" part is questionable when it comes to Super Bowl ads). In any case, I was delighted to read that this Sunday we'll be seeing the return of some big name brands that were out-of-sight last year. The return of ads from Pepsi, GM, and Best Buy are sure to provide some entertainment if the actual game fails to do so this year.

Continue reading "Super Bowl Ads are Back Baby!"

Google just re-launched it's realtime search results with a new look, URL , and features. Some key improvements include the ability to search by location or source (Twitter-only, for example), conversation view - giving you the all the buzz from start to realtime, and realtime alerts based on your chosen search terms and delivered up to the minute, daily, or weekly.

Continue reading "Google Launches Improved Realtime Search"

During this month's MSM meeting we discussed the current state of blog coverage for products and services and how to shape stories to fit tech bloggers’ appetites. As blogs have transformed into more of a mainstream news source, it has become harder to gain the attention of the tech bloggers whom you wish to cover your product or service.  We came up with answers to common questions you might ask when figuring out how to sell your product or service to bloggers

Continue reading "Middle School Marketing Recap: Getting Blog Coverage"

During this month's MSM meeting, we discussed the surge of geo-location services into the marketplace. As it stands, geo-location applications such as Gowalla, Foursquare, and MyTown are rapidly gaining users, with MyTown recently hitting 1 million installs in April. Will these apps ever be as widely used as Twitter or Facebook? Maybe, especially when we reach the day where smart phones are as ubiquitous as computers.  However, until then, we continue to ask, “What is the motivation behind using geo-location services, and how can we, as business owners, use that knowledge reach prospective customers?”

Continue reading "Middle School Marketing: Motivations Behind Using Foursquare (and the like)"

On Monday, Facebook launched Community Pages, and with this launch I noticed the subsequent change in the look and feel on some of my friends' info pages. There are minor design changes like bigger fonts and sections moved around, but what is most obvious is the new linking to Community Pages for your Activities and Interests and Fan Pages for your favorite Music, Movies, and TV Shows. Previously, if you clicked on someone's favorite activity, interest, or TV show, it would take you to a generic search results page. Now, it takes you directly to the Community or Fan Page (which you can now "Like" instead of becoming a fan).

Here's an example for one of my favorite TV Shows, Modern Family.

Favorite TV Shows on old Info Page:

Goes here:

Continue reading "Facebook Profiles Now Link to Community Pages"

This month's Middle School Marketing we set out to talk about geo-based marketing, but instead found ourselves discussing gaming and its long term viability. 

One thing is certain: gaming isn't going anywhere. In fact, it's growing and it's growing fast. And it's not just black-t-shirt-and-square-rimmed-glasses-wearing-with-dirty-facial-hair-stuck-in-their-mom's-basement-playing-WOW nerds. Gaming is invading reality, and everyone is playing:

• As of today, Farmville has 83,105,118 active monthly users and Mafia Wars has 25,080,678. Seriously?
• Farmville has more players than Twitter has accounts
• Two and a half years ago, Disney purchased Club Penguin for $350M - a game which at the time boasted 12 million accounts, 700,000 paid subscribers, and $40M in annual revenue. I'm sure the numbers are exponentially larger now
• As of February 20th, PlayStation has 20M users worldwide and Xbox Live has generated $1 billion dollars since its 2002 launch
• MyTown recently hit one million users after only two months in existence. And let's not forget about Gowalla and Foursquare, and Causeworld
• Gameloft brought in $170M in iPhone App Store revenue - and that's just one company

Continue reading "Middle School Marketing: Gaming Is Growing"

Have you played with this yet? It's sort of like Twitter + Facebook + FourSquare / Gowalla. Interesting concept, it's built on the back of the "like" and "share" integration with Google Reader that was introduced awhile back.