GenDigital

Facebook Pulls Back on Beacon, Effective Marketing Tactics on Social Networking Sites Remains Up For Debate

It didn't take a rocket scientist to see this coming. After a tumultuous couple of weeks since announcing what was heralded as a breakthrough in online and word of mouth advertising, social networking kingpin, Facebook, has announced changes to its Beacon advertising program. In case you're unfamiliar with Beacon, essentially, the system utilizes the platform to send a Facebook member's friends a message on what they are buying from a variety of partner sites ranging from Fandango, the movie ticketing site to the online discount retailer, Overstock. The controversy from the member base stemmed from confusion and difficulty with respect to opting out of the service. What has been documented so far includes member accounts of having their holiday purchases"broadcast" to the friend base unknowingly and then of course having the boyfriend and girlfriend find out about the surprise a few days or a few weeks too early (depending on your religious beliefs). A lot of people this morning are comparing the pullback and adjustments to Beacon to the challenges the Newsfeed application faced earlier this year, but I don't really see the similarity quite frankly. Luckily for us, we were in Chicago conducting client focus groups at the time Facebook announced the launch of Beacon so we were quickly able to get a sense of what the target audience thought of it. To keep it nice and p.c. on this beautiful fall Friday, let us just say we saw this coming. Here's the deal. A lot of supposed "experts" have been talking up the power of marketing on social networking sites. The problem comes up when these experts talk about the tactics of doing so. This is where Beacon ran into problems.  First, the notion of "personifying" a brand or product in a social network like Facebook is...well bullshit. The audience, especially the college audience sees right through it and most likely with some disdain. Second,  the whole notion of "friending" a brand or product works only when the brand or product is contextually relevant, key word really being contextually. We have to throw out the bullshit flag again when we read or hear folks talking about how much the youth audience loves to enter into conversations with brands and products. The statement is made far too often and is only remotely accurate for a very, very small percentage of the overall audience. If brands and products want this two-way conversation to begin, typically, the best chances of success start with a contest/sweepstakes (it's fair to say that almost all members of the audience love to win or at least have a chance to win free stuff), doing a live event (teens and college students respond and respect the fact that brands and companies visit them live, in-person on campus or at school), or create a tool or service that is deemed relevant or thoughtful and will add some sort of immediate value to members of the audience. After one of more of these "intro" tactics are executed (successfully, of course) then you can go into the other stuff. I apologize, I know I got a little off topic from the start of the post, but I believe it's imperative for all readers to know and understand the realities of the current social network marketing space, because there is way too many people out there saying just flat out incorrect things with respect to best practices for marketing. Ok, rant done, have a great weekend. 

Product Watch: Will Amazon's Kindle Be A Holiday Barn Burner?

When you get a chance check out Amazon.com's new electronic reader they're calling Kindle. According to Amazon, Kindle has been nothing short of a labor of love taking more than three years to develop, a lifetime and a half in the Internet and Technology industries. It's not a market first, Sony has had an electronic reading device on the market for a couple of years now, though you don't hear a lot of buzz about it. Our initial thought here was the device would be a nice academic tool and perhaps there was an opportunity for Sony or whoever was marketing the device to push some sort of institutional sell to schools and universities. In the case of Amazon's new Kindle device though, it seems like more of a calculated risk. There are only 90,000 of them for sale right now. They have already cut content partnership with blue chip providers i.e. NY Times, Time Magazine, etc. The only thing standing in the way of pushing out the first batch of 90,000 is price, the device costs $400 smackers, not exactly a drop in the bucket. So, is this appealing to the youth market? Probably not, as more teens and college students are more likely to own multimedia smartphones, the need for another reading type device goes by the wayside pretty quickly. Still, reading the product specs, it is definitely a cool little device, it weights less than a pound, has a large hi-res display and a fast wireless chip.

Estee's Aveda Brand Sets on a Green Path

Estee Lauder's Aveda brand will undergo a shift in marketing strategy in 2008 moving away from product-focused marketing executions towards a larger themed branding campaign around the company's green credentials. Unlike some other companies who have dipped their toes in the world of green marketing, Aveda actually has a pretty good story behind it. Beginning in January, Aveda will feature its factory in Blaine, MN as a back drop in their ad creative as a successful example of a building, or even a factory in this case operating thanks to windmills and the wind power they generate. They'll switch it up in February (although, I think they should keep the whole wind creative going at least for a couple of months) to their packaging efficiency highlighting their use of 100% post recycled packaging materials. Aveda always had that "earthy" or "crunchy" equity associated with it to some extent, it looks like this new campaign will only re-energize it and authentic it to a higher level. The brand, still very much in the middle of the pack when it comes to cosmetics and beauty product purchases made by teen and college aged women, has steadily gained share over the past three years--basically going from the bottom middle closer to the top section of the middle. Not great English, but hopefully you get the point...

MTV Moves Ahead With Mobile Social Net For Tr3s

MTV announced plans to launch a new mobile social network that will be called Con3xion (Connection) to support its fledging Latino youth targeted channel Tr3s (Tres or Spanish for 3). It's nice to see that they are sticking with the concocted naming hybrids. Anyway, the new mobile social network is expected to launch in a couple of weeks. Per the release, network executives noted the "huge consumption of mobile content" by Latino youth. They went on to say that Latinos are significantly more likely to own multimedia phones compared to non-Latinos (63% vs. 46%). Those numbers seem a little bullish to us, but they could certainly be referencing a wider demographic range. Based on our latest general Lifestyle and Latino youth Lifestyle Report, 36% of teens and college students owned a multimedia phone compared to 29% of Latino youth, granted this data is from our Spring wave, but it is doubtful that ownership levels doubled in less than six months, so I would have to think they are talking about twentysomethings as well. The Con3xion network will enable users to view photos, send and receive messages, search profiles and post comments, all of which will be accomplished through the user's mobile device. The company partnered with San Diego-based Intercasting for the launch. It will be interesting to see if this new program is able to gain traction quickly, we are a bit skeptical based on the relatively narrow audience target.

Product Watch: Y Water: One Part Beverage, One Part Toy

You could hardly call the beverage industry boring lately. Ever since last year when the major beverage companies including PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and Cadbury Schweppes voluntarily began pulling their sugary soft drinks out of schools, the industry heavyweights have been on an non-stop product innovation tear. At the same time, we have seen some critical market consumption trends take shape. For a zillion years regular soft drinks like Coke, Dr. Pepper and Pepsi were the most consumed soft drink type among the youth market. Even before the voluntarily pullout, bottled water outpaced regular soft drinks to become the most purchased and consumed beverage type among the audience. Clearly, there is pressure on the leading companies to focus on healthier products or face a backlash from consumer interest groups. Not wanting to go down the same road of multi billion dollar lawsuits, activity in the space has been nothing short of extremely robust via new product intros, lots of acquisitions of specialty companies to round out product portfolios and a new focus. We are keeping an eye on a new beverage that will hit the shelves early next year that will be aimed at the kids and tween market that is one-part beverage and one-part toy. The beverage, called Y-Water, will be carried exclusively at Whole Foods, also known in some suburbanite circles as Whole Paycheck. Y-Water seems to click with all of the relevant lifestyle trends of the moment. The beverage falls under the organic category. The plastic containing the beverage is completely recyclable. The ingredients and flavors are non-traditional and unique using things like rosemary and black carrot juice for starters. (I never even heard of a black carrot until reading about it). Really, at first glance this product seems to hit all of the major touch points of the moment. The initial challenge will be distribution, but if they can gain enough traction from Whole Foods customers, we think it won't be too long before it is carried at other competitive chains like Trader Joes and even some larger more generic supermarket chains.

What's In Store For Facebook And Their SocialAds Initiative?

Ok, so we all know that Facebook, the current category killer and number one social networking site among college students, made some bold announcements on Tuesday afternoon. Like so many others who follow the industry we are still formulating an opinion on the validity and promise of their SocialAds program. However, we have a little secret weapon, access to our 37,000+ proprietary panelists for an insider's point of view. Much the same way we called out potential issues when Facebook started their news feeds free-for-all earlier this year, the wheels are already in motion for gathering feedback and opinions from a select portion of our panelists regarding SocialAds. The notion of extending positive word of mouth to the online advertising space seems plausible enough, but at the same time, I think everyone involved in the process (the advertisers, their agencies, and Facebook sales/client services) has to be smart enough to realize that they are a ton of fluid moving parts...this is not your father's integrated ad buy. Anyway, feedback has been coming in since yesterday morning from panelists and we just started looking at some of the posts. In what can always be expected to some extent with this audience, their feedback and opinions have been mixed. Some panelists expressed doubt and frustration with the increasingly "commercialized" Facebook platform, while others seemed indifferent in becoming brand evangelists. Some panelists (ones we should probably be extending job offers to) really got the whole thing without us having to go into great detail explaining it. One panelist was smart enough to put some concepts together to realize that SocialAds could be a beneficial for some brands but clearly not be a solution for all brands. In his example, the panelist pointed out he would have no problem endorsing an endemic brand that reeks of coolness like Red Bull, but would have a hard time being associated with indirectly endorsing or being of a fan of his deodorant brand. This panelist was able to make a distinct separation against an underlying theme Facebook's SocialAds is working with...that is, the notion that peer to peer influence and recommendations are stronger than any type of branded display placements. The panelist went on to say he wasn't so sure that all of his 350+ friends on Facebook would take him seriously if they saw them show up on their respective profiles touting his deodorant, if anything they might find amusement in it, but certainly not something that we push them down to the drugstore and open their wallets. Has Facebook cracked the code for social networking advertising? Is this the long awaited secret sauce that we have all been waiting for? Honestly, I don't know, but we will know more in the coming months as big name blue chips make a run of it.

Another HS Sports Site Gets Snatched Up

Wow, talk about a red hot category. Dealmaking in the online high school sports space has been on a tear since the start of this year. The latest announcement comes from beRecruited.com. The paidcontent blog reports that beRecruited has been acquired by the privaty equity firm RVS Ventures, headed up by former Student Advantage CEO Ray Sozzi. Financial terms of the acquisition were not released. As part of the acquisition, Sozzi will become CEO of the high school sports site. Not unlike CBS-owned MaxPreps or Hearst-owned High School Playbook, beRecruited attempts to connect student athletes and high school coaches with college coaches. Yes the field is crowded with different players and their will most certainly be some sort of shake out. The site with the best value proposition, not to mention target reach will win the game. As one of the smaller players, beRecruited says it has more than 125,000 registered student athletes to go along with 8,000 registered college coaches and 3,000 registered high school coaches.  It will be exciting to see what happens next, but clearly there are several options available in the marketplace for brand marketers and media companies targeting the college-bound high school demographic.

Site Watch: Yahoo Kickstart

Yahoo is the latest Internet giant to join the social networking game targeting the youth market. Check out Yahoo's new social networking site for college students and recent graduates called Kickstart. In a not so subtle way, on the front page of the site they take a few jabs at rival and current category killer Facebook. And I quote (under the 10 reasons for signing up for Kickstart) "Uncle Ron may work for IBM, but it doesn't mean you want him writing on your wall or poking your friends." The only place you write on walls and poke is on Facebook, unless a new copycat launched in the last 24 hours, which of course is totally feasible. Alright, kidding aside, what's the deal with Kickstart and why would students start using it. For one thing, Kickstart is pushing a professional/career-related agenda, leave the fun for Facebook, and when students are serious about networking for jobs, they should come to Kickstart. So perhaps, this is more of a challenge to Monster and their MonsterTRAK service more so than Facebook. Ultimately it all comes down to share of time. Are the 90+% of college students going to make additional time or cut something else out to use Kickstart? That's the $15 billion dollar question. Gut reaction would be no for now, but things could change. Again, we would have to ponder that Kickstart represents more of a direct challenge to career-related resources and services rather than social utility services like Facebook. Speaking of Facebook, many sets of eyes will turn their attention to a presentation the company is making this afternoon in New York about their new advertising offering and programming initiatives. The "SocialAds" push, based on limited information, will feature an e-commerce tie-in with user profiles, among other attributes. More to come on this tomorrow. In the meantime, check out Kickstart and let us know what you think.