In January 2007 HP launched the first iteration of the Blades Community, a new permanent demand generation area that represented a shift in their approach to marketing programmes in Europe.  Prior to the Blades Community, HP dipped in and out of the market with demand generation campaigns. These more than often relied on a single landing page to convert respondents through a call to action.  The temporary nature of the landing pages meant that the campaign, message and call to action were soon lost as the traffic drivers dried up and the traffic with them.

Underlying the Blades approach was the notion that there should be a permanent presence in the market place that would exist beyond the demand generation campaign.  After all, with a sales cycle of up to 18 months, not everyone is ready to buy when the demand generation campaign is in market.  Further, by putting a permanent platform in place with its own update service, people driven from demand generation campaigns could sign up to RSS or email and keep up to date with the latest news, information, technology, etc on Blades.  The Community could begin to take on its own life outside of the demand generation activity, which it has proven to do.

Over the past 18 months the community has gone through 3 iterations as it expands to keep up with the demands placed on it. It has become more sophisticated in how it perceives the conversation within the audience and how that should be managed.  In tandem the site has been developed as the repository for the latest information on Blades. It has regular articles and opinions published on Blades technology and its market. It hosts tools and services and has even been tied to events, competitions and polls.  In essence the humble landing page has grown up and is blossoming as a young adolescent.

The best evidence for its coming of age is in the results.  For the community a good measure of success is how many people have returned to the site. Currently, the figures show that a healthy proportion comes back once or twice, some even 10 times or more.  So, a permanent presence, that can be revisited, is valued by customers.  It has also been localised for use by over 15 countries so far, a testament to the changing requirements of the markets for a more permanent cost effective presence.

www.hp.com/eur/bladescommunity

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Our online conversion rates have reached a peak and are now decreasing as our competitors have improved their online presence, how do we turn this around?

The answer “Always on optimisation”

When you look at your site, you may start to wonder where changes can be made to optimise a journey. You’ll probably start this thought process by discussing potential changes with your marketing colleagues. The discussion may be extended with your digital agency. You may also look at your competitors to evaluate best practices. Finally, if budget allows, you’ll organise qualitative or quantitative research to get insights directly from your users.

Though this process provides a solid foundation, it leaves too much uncertainty. Any changes coming out of this process cannot be seen as the panacea to start lifting your conversion rates.
- Firstly, this process is time consuming and by the time it’s completed, your market place has probably moved on and the proposed changes will not create the same impact
- Secondly, qualitative research will not carry the statistical evidence confirming that findings apply to your whole audience. Whilst quantitative research will be statistically robust, its explicit nature (e.g. asking users to confirm issues) creates a natural bias.

So, at this stage, it’s important to step back and start formulating the process around your audience. It’s the place where any successful marketing usually starts. Put aside best practices for the time being (you’re probably already very close to achieving them)…

It’s time to set up an “online lab environment” where you can make changes and test them in real time and on a scale which provides this robust statistical evidence.  These “online lab environments” can be created through the implementation of a number of software solutions provided by companies such as Interwoven (Optimost) or Omniture (Test and Target). Their solutions will allow you to test site variables (e.g. size of buttons, length of copy, mention of customer support, etc…) in a multivariate testing environment. Very quickly, you’ll be able to test a number of permutations of your homepage (hundreds of versions in some cases) or key landing pages and see in real time which journeys are helping consumers fulfil their needs more effectively.

After all, they’re interacting with you so listen to them and learn from their behaviour. These solutions, in turn, will optimise their journey and increase overall customer satisfaction.

This customer centric approach for onsite optimization is continuously evolving and new entrants such as Baynote offer a new approach which goes further than simply analyzing onsite behaviour by leveraging the wisdom of the crowds: click through analysis then becomes complemented by the knowledge of what other people have found useful and helpful. Hundreds of people have performed certain tasks before you. So why not let learn from them. You in turn can ensure that your next visitor benefits from this added knowledge. Your online experience just got smarter…

Well, is it time for you to move into this world of “Always on optimisation”? You won’t be the first one, as Forrester reported back in 2006 that testing is becoming a growing piece of the marketing mix. 76%, of marketers researched, expected a significant increase in spending for testing. It’s time to start testing and optimising your journeys?

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Yes, especially when they talk back.

Earlier this year Thomas Curwen asked if  “… brands listen their way to loyalty?”. Well they can certainly answer their way to loyalty. That may sound tautological as listening should be implicit in an answer. But Dell don’t always bother to answer the participants in their IdeaStorm website. One post received 151,860 votes and 1,824 responses. This time Dell listened. They responded by offering a version of Linux pre-installed on some of their range.

So what’s the big outtake here? IdeaStorm is nothing new, it’s not so very different from the list serves that proliferated in the mid-90s. As a matter of fact the benefits of listening to others’ opinions have been known for years. Does it increase loyalty? Of course it does. If you respond to an opinion that someone has about your brand, you’re responding to an interest in your brand. Ironically you’re gaining control, even if that opinion is negative. After all negative opinions can be expressed elsewhere. So why let opinions fester somewhere else when you can answer them.

Three more points here.

First, it’s an easy way to humanise your brand (something else that Thomas was talking about). Advertising and marketing agonises in the attempt to give brands a more human tone of voice.

Second, it’s a cheap way to get qualitative and sometimes quantitative research.

Third, what are you giving to customer? What they want. And that’ll make them more likely to buy your products.

Finally, how can something like this help HP? Probably more than it can help Dell. It can help HP in all the ways that it helps Dell. But the solutions that HP offers with its products really would benefit, particularly in the commercial sector. Imagine how the perception of HP would benefit from an open forum on issues around, for example, Single Imaging Software. Somebody in IT solutions told me recently that he thought HP, with its solutions, was probably about the best, but he didn’t use them because they were at the back of mind. They weren’t talked about so much, so a rival had the edge.

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Charles Leadbeater is the author of We Think – The Power of mass creativity. In a talk he did for TED he spoke about the rise of the professional amateur (PRO-AM). Many things we take for granted today came from users. Users who became producers way ahead of corporations that simply didn’t have the foresight or capacity to drive new innovation themselves. The two examples he gives are Mountain Bikes and Rap music. Mountain bikes are the product of enthusiasts who were dissatisfied with existing racing bikes but didn’t want the heavy cumbersome bikes that their parents rode. By taking the gears off racing bikes, matched with motorcycle brakes and frames that let you go tearing down hills, they created a concept that would now be responsible for 65% of all bike sales in America. Likewise rap music came from the street, where users created, produced and distributed their music via cassette tape, a genre which is, now, the dominant form of music in our culture. Either way corporations would never have invested in these formats that clearly would have gone against the tried and tested formulas of the past.

So who are the PRO-AMS? Well they value their spare time and will learn new skills and are driven by a passion to get things right, often at the expense of corporations who put out products that don’t meet their exacting standards. They represent the open, collaborative crowd of people brought together by the internet, things like Wikipedia and Linux. To corporations who are generally closed (with technological innovation kept behind closed doors), they represent the open opportunities of what your products could deliver in the future if they were given to users to find out what they really could do.

Charles provides a great example of the Chinese games company SHANDA. It’s the brain child of Timothy Chen who in 2000 decided to take his internet company into online gaming. With 250 million subscribers and 4 million players at any one time, Chen’s model is simple, 1% of his audience are creators on the platform that he gives people access to. He gives them the platform and the tools, and he orchestrates the conversation – all with just 500 employees.

So the closed worlds of corporations and the open source culture of collaboration are meeting. The question is, are you? The recent development of Google’s Android is an interesting one. Andy Rubin’s (Director of Mobile Platforms at Google) vision is that Android will have the spirit of Linux with the reach of windows. The best part of it is that many of Android’s killer apps haven’t been invented yet. With $10 million up for grabs for the best ones, step forward the PRO AMS. The question is, when it comes to your business, will you?

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Few things provoke emotions of awe and wonderment more so than space travel. So it was no surprise that when HP ProCurve was chosen by the European space agency Astrium Gmbh Space Transportation to equip the International Space Station (ISS), Publicis Modem was approached to communicate this unique story to a wider audience.

Insight had revealed that the target market for HP ProCurve networking products responded well to case studies, regarding them as concrete proof of brand credibility and competency. The fact that HP ProCurve’s 2524 switches were the first commercially available Ethernet switches in space, offered a powerful endorsement of HP ProCurve’s reliability and build quality. The campaign would prove the ideal vehicle to continue to close the gap to Cisco in end-user awareness and consideration within the networking market.

Designed to coincide with the launch of the Columbus module carrying the switches into space at the end of 2007, Publicis Modem developed a strategy to bring this story to life, whilst simultaneously offering avenues for deeper engagement. The result was a campaign that stretched across print publications, online, outdoor and mobile channels throughout EMEA. New media may be fragmenting the traditional broadcast landscape, but they provide new opportunities to communicate with consumers.

Outdoor billboards at the key business sites in Heathrow and Frankfurt airports were a key element of the campaign. High quality NASA imagery of the ISS was well suited to the grand scale of the outdoor installations but the engagement didn’t end there. The call to action at Heathrow encouraged users to visit an exclusive mobile site whilst they were at the terminal or on the move. Here they could select their home town and receive the time of their next opportunity to actually see the ISS with the naked eye as it orbited earth. This experience (which relied on the latest NASA flight path data) was designed to both notable and memorable and would likely be discussed with colleagues and friends.

A rich media banner starring an astronaut on a space walk delivered a suite of high quality NASA wallpapers, and a white paper detailing how HP ProCurve switches were chosen for the mission over competitor brands. The landing page itself offered users a chance to see inside the Columbus module and understand better the on board activities that HP ProCurve networks were enabling.

Results from the campaign were impressive, click through rates were as a high as 1.70% and the number of unique visitors to a landing page exceeded those than that were observed in past campaigns.

This campaign was successful because it set out to offer a real experience to the user. Anticipating that this subject matter would provoke an emotional as well as a more rational interest within our target market, the media channels employed allowed the end-user to get closer to the brand and gain a new appreciation of HP ProCurve’s achievement as the first switches in space.

http://www.procurve.eu/iss

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The Acer Aspire Gemstone Blue Notebook Website. “Beauty”, we are told by Acer, “is in the eye of the beholder”. You’re not wrong Acer. It’s more than I want to behold. Glowing bits of neon blue oscillating left to right. An unattractive laptop dancing right to left.

It continues, “…What we see and how we see it determines the intensity of the emotion the image transmits”. Err, ok… In the next paragraph we realise they’re talking about a Blu-Ray Disc^TM. The third paragraph states that this Blu-Ray Disc^TM holds five times the data of a DVD. Finally, in the next paragraph, we are told that it’s the first notebook “to come with a choice of 16:9 screens and 1920×1080 high definition resolutions” (sic). I’m confused, the two proportions have the same ratio which can be primarily reduced to 16×9.

Anyhow it’s all been an “experience that” has left me “breathless”. I think I better take a walk.

http://www.acer.com/gemstoneblue/uk/

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Developing “actionable” insights from reporting has a number of ideas embedded in it and it’s worth exploring these before diving down into the detail if they get developed. The overriding theme of it, when looked at the words actionable and reporting, suggests something that becomes a regular activity – a constant cycle.

When we develop and create something, whether a piece of creative or a programme of activities and launch it out on to the market it’s essential to know how it is progressing – in layman’s terms if it works or not. The answers to that question can be grouped roughly into; if it isn’t working we need to change it, if it is working, could it be working better? In most situations it’s probably a blend of the two - there are aspects that do and don’t work. Fine-tuning or blinding revelation either can make a huge difference to final results of the work.

Insight is a term used frequently in conjunction with creative briefs and often represents the one “universal truth,” or a new way of looking at a problem in order to derive a proposition or idea for the creative team to work with. In this context the Collins Essential English Dictionary definition “the ability to perceive clearly or deeply the inner nature of things” tends to suggest something almost spiritual in nature. In truth, these kinds of insights are very powerful for a creative team to work with because they are often very emotional.

There is, however, a second definition from the same dictionary “a penetrating understanding, as of a complex situation or problem” which I think casts a subtly different light on insight and suggests something that is more analytical. In this context I think it works better as a definition to explore what we mean. This is especially true today with the transparency of the digital landscape where there are huge amounts of data available.

A good starting place to make sense of this mass of data is to go back to your objectives and your understanding of the customer. Developing “user scenarios” can help you arrange the data into something that is more readily digested. For example, client A has a web site that sells televisions and currently collects a range of measures from their web reporting tools and their sales team. They could use 2 basic scenarios to describe customer activity, A) people researching and looking for product information B) people looking to buy. These two activities will have a different interpretation of the most basic data - page views, visits, and duration of stay to inform us of the different behaviours.

In most instances there are a wide range of performance indicators at hand and no single metric points to an insight. It’s only when we have done something with it to build a picture that it becomes useful. For example looking at monthly visitor figures on a particular site there was a seasonal trend with nothing unusual. The visitors were then split out into to first time visitors and repeat visitors – showing a very small number of repeat visitors. When media spend was added to the same line graph there was a direct correlation between that spend and the first time visitor count.

The insight from this was that the site was completely dependant on media spend for traffic. Any change in spend directly affected traffic and hence sales. The response was to look at what would drive return visits and reduce the reliance on media spend. Both the interpretation of the data to derive the insight and the decision on what action to take relied on the experience of the people involved. In essence the metrics can only do so much, the rest is up to us.

At Publicis Modem we’ve undertaken a number of analytical exercises to gain insight into a campaign or programme of activity. The great thing about digital is we don’t have to wait long until we can start looking at the data and developing insights. For normal campaigns we strongly advocate reviewing traffic drivers (banners, search etc) with our client and media partner within the first 2 weeks in market. This allows us to highlight any underperformance, monitor it and then act on before too much inventory is wasted. Moving the inventory while the campaign is under way is one of the great advantages of digital.

Better results are what we all aspire to. To help drive better decision-making we need good insights driven from our data and reporting in a timely manner – i.e. “actionable”. It’s something we’re passionate about, and ready to talk to you about how we can help.

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Are you worried that your product is becoming just another commodity? Another screen to watch, another black box to help with office work, or just another service amongst a list of others? In a seminal work entitled The Experience Economy
B. Joseph Pine II and James H. Gilmore argue that if you are competing solely on the basis of price then you’ve already been commoditised, and businesses that give customers something back in the way of experiences are not only more successful, but can also charge a premium for the privilege.

So why is it that a cup of coffee in a trendy high street café costs almost as much as lunch these days? The answer lies in the way that brands such as Starbucks have created a total experience, going beyond the simple cuppa we used to get in the local café to creating an event that they can then charge admission to experience.

In their book, Pine and Gilmore talk about five ways of marketing a product. Moving from a commodity business, which charges for undifferentiated products, to a goods business which charges for distinctive tangible things, to a service business, which charges for activities you perform, to an experience business, which charges for the feeling customers get by engaging in it. To finally a transformation business which charges for the benefit customers receive by spending time there.

Let’s take the journey of the humble coffee bean to show how brands have been able to exploit the value of experiences. If you are a commodity business then you probably just sell unbranded coffee beans to customers. Moving on from that you might process the beans and sell them pre-packaged like Nescafe. If you are a service business then you’re charging to make people cups of coffee, but that’s probably all you do, think of your local café or sandwich bar. If you’re an experience business then you’ve created a comfortable space where people can linger, meet up, read books or simply relax while they drink their coffee. Now we are in Starbucks territory and not only is the experience better for the customer, the business can now charge a premium for it. A transformation business is the natural extension of this in that the time spent in said Starbucks now offers you even more lifestyle experiences. One of the latest examples is a joint venture between Apple and Starbucks to let customers buy music tracks that they hear in the coffee shops via iTunes, enabled by Wi-Fi internet access provided by joint ventures with ISPs.

So we’ve moved from selling coffee beans to what Starbucks call the third space, a place that you spend most of your time in outside of home and the work place. From a commodity to an experience that ultimately transforms the relationship between customer and product.

So what does this mean for marketers? Well simply put, to be successful and beat the competition in an ever more commoditised market we need to think about how we can deliver experiences that go beyond the marketing messages that people simply see. Could a joint venture with another provider help deliver that better experience as in the case of Apple and Starbucks? Can we use digital to enhance the experience that you currently give consumers? A notable example of this is Nike+ the joint venture with Nike and iPod. Or can we use a campaign to let people engage with the product, brand or service through a unique experience? As in the case of Publicis Modem’s campaign for HP Personal Palmistry.

At Publicis Modem we are interested in generating experiences rather than messages. Because we understand that it is the value of the experience that determines the value of the brand in our world today, we have to go beyond the marketing message.

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As much of our PSG work focuses on creating demand for HP products, it was refreshing to be approached to do a brand awareness campaign, specifically targeting the youth segment in the fast emerging MEMA (Middle East and Mediterranean African) region.

The strategy behind the project was to bring the brand closer to 18-25 years, to cause a positive impact to brand perception. The idea was to develop a music competition site which facilitated users to participate in a way that suited them and which encouraged self-expression thus reinforcing the Computer is Personal brand.

As we had a lack of actionable insight into youth perception of the HP brand within this region it was clear that a secondary objective should be to capture such insight to inform future campaigns.

Publicis Modem developed an online banner campaign, taking over music and entertainment channels on Yahoo to target and drive youths to a microsite where they could listen, vote and upload their own original music into the competition. 5 finalists from each of the four participating countries were asked to perform at a live event in their country which was streamed live and simultaneously on the 4 participating country microsites.

The audiences at the live event voted for their country winner and the 4 country winners received a video banner campaign driving to their profile page on the microsite.

As part of the campaign Publicis Modem put together a measurement strategy including weekly reporting on web analytics plus an Awareness Consideration Preference survey to measure against the key campaign objective.

In total 79,638 users visited the 4 sites more than once which exceeded our expectations. The average click through rate from the banner to the microsite was 0.72% a fantastic result when compared to the industry average 0.20%. Weekly reporting enabled us to shift media inventory quickly from non-performing sections of Yahoo to high performing sections. 11.41 mins was highest “Average time spent per visit” in a given week, this as one might expect was achieved in the week prior to when the voting closed and there was a flurry of activity on the site.

The highlight ratio of unique users to page views was 11:1 which, given the site has only 6 pages tells us we had compelling content and tools (and shows size isn’t everything after all). A whopping 635,005 tracks were listened to, 232,722 votes cast against 313,870 registered votes, a 74% success rate which is good considering users were asked to confirm votes via email. A total of 753 original music files were uploaded against 3,009 confirmed registrations, despite the drop off from intention, 753 original music files is priceless content.

The ACP survey revealed a positive view of HP prior to exposure to the campaign, HP scoring high against competitors and higher than Apple on quality and equal in terms of design. Over 80% already owned HP PSG products, the majority being notebooks.

Response to the advertising was really positive and in general participants said that the competition improved their perception of HP as a brand: “HP normally seems plain and boring; this introduces another spontaneous side to the HP brand”. The campaign is a case in point for how we should look to create ideas that move advertising beyond messages into experiences, or as we refer to it creating value exchange. It also shows the benefit of centrally managing country campaigns from a measurement perspective.

https://www.designyourpersonallife.com

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The line. Some were above it, others below. After that they went through it.

These days you can take a rubber to that line. Most campaigns have to converge on that essential digital element where a one-to-one dialogue with the customer can take place.

The Army Pathfinder Campaign is a good example. Add to that, it won a BIMA, a Campaign Digital, an IMIA and an NMA Effectiveness. If you happened to see one of the TV spots (there was also press and radio) you’d be left with a cliffhanger and a voiceover that said, “this film continues at armyjobs.mod.uk”. After going online and watching the complete film you’re invited to “discover more about yourself with the Army Pathfinder”, a quick psychometric test. I turned out to be a highly cultivated natural born leader, who likes good food. They seemed to like me and I felt this to be a fair assessment. So I was tempted to interact further to find a suitable job, only I’d lied about my age.

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