Measuring media spend…the million dollar question with a multitude of answers.

Buying Sandals. A thrilling subject of course – but on recent experience, a valuable insight into behavioral media targeting. It also highlighted the still impossible task of defining exactly what media spend drives a purchase online or in a shop.

Media agencies and media owners now draw their handbags at dawn to put their best case forward on who should have the biggest media spend from the clients budget. As a social media agency, we know that more than most.

And measurement is still vital – after all, measuring and proving the effectiveness of a campaign will affect how your next set of spending is distributed.

The journey

Back to the sandals. It started out with a very basic need: summer shoes. Being a tall lass with size 9 feet my choices are limited, so I had already omitted the decision to buy shoes online after previous disastrous experiences. Oiling ones calves to get into riding boots is not a good look. They remain in my cupboard.

Office, a shoe shop based in Brighton, is generally packed at lunch time and I will avoid Saturday shopping at all costs. So a couple of weeks ago, I prepared myself by looking online at their shoes, prompted by the first touch point email.

Ooooh! 50% off, click through, have a look around. Yes these are the ones that I want. Something for every occasion and a size 9. Hooray.

Since first visiting that page on the Office site I experienced a few PPC ads on various sites including The Guardian. All good, I am impressed with their PPC efforts and I love it when media works well.  But I have been to the site already, so I don’t click through.

Pay day arrives, I see an update from Office on Facebook telling me that there is now 60% off shoes. This is even better. Armed with the knowledge of what I want this should be a quick and easy process.

Kerching. The purchase was made and the shoes are on my feet.

So what made me do this?

Did I already know what I wanted and would have bought them anyway or was this due to advertising/social media?

The answer is a blend of it all, which leaves the million dollar question answered but highlights the fact that a tipping point to make a purchase comes from all directions. In an ideal world, the chap in the shop that took my money would have asked me “How did you hear about us and what made you buy those shoes?” which would have warranted a lengthy response from me. “Well, I saw your email, I know that you do size 9, then I saw a Facebook update and an advert on The Guardian…. Does that help?”

What is important is that Office were with me every step of the way, I had both concise offers directed at me on Facebook and email as well as unavoidable PPC advertising on mainstream news sites that I visit every day. The opportunity to see, I would guestimate at 15 times per day.

How this can work:

If I had bought my sandals online, Analytics would have tracked my journey to the check out, insight may have shown that I was on Facebook then clicked to Office to buy shoes. But as online browsing habits are frequently erratic (I generally have at least 12 tabs on the go at the same time) there is no certainty that it happened this way. But, it’s a good indicator.

Where it failed:

I purchased my sandals in the shop: for the few days following this I have still been shown adverts for said sandals repeatedly on sites from PPC.  I have them now; I don’t need any more thank you! So what was at first a great example of some Paid Search is now frustrating and a waste of their money.

This is not the Paid Search managers fault- how are they to know I have already bought them? Do I need to take a picture and update that I have them? Would that be picked up? In an ideal world perhaps but as we know you can not manipulate the masses to behave how you want them to.

What we can learn from this:

All departments need to work together, set KPI’s that are relevant to each other and share benchmark data at the start of a campaign. This needs to be a process that constantly evolves (and is shared) to get better with not only each campaign but each DAY of a campaign to make the marketing budgets really work for the client.

(This is where PPC and Social Media work brilliantly together- daily analysis and changes reflecting behaviour.)

Only when the bigger picture is considered will we be able to better understand the overall paths taken to make a purchase and get closer to answering the question: “What half of my marketing budget works?”.

“But we already do social media” is a phrase we often hear from games companies when we talk to them. And most of you are doing some Social Media.

But are you:

• Going beyond your core audience
• Building long-lasting ‘evergreen’ communities
• Monitoring the buzz of you game and your competitors
• Tracking trends and discovering new audiences
• Uniting your fans and allowing them to be a part of the development process.

The reality is, while many games companies we talk to have community managers and some social media activity, they aren’t maximising their full potential and seeing the bigger picture.

Going beyond the core

Most community managers manage their existing community fantastically well – and this is the job they’ve been charged with. But they often aren’t given the tools or scope to go beyond this and try to expand the reach of their titles.

It is very easy for games companies to fall into the same old routine of only releasing trailers, behind the scenes interviews and making of sketches. These are things that excite the core and die hard fans, but do nothing for people beyond that. So where are your new customers and new blood?

There are plenty of casual players out there who would love to play your games, but they aren’t interested in how it is made or interviews with the developer. They have different trigger points.

Do you or your community managers know what they are? Do they know how to find out?

By doing research online to see the other online spaces your customers and potential customers go online, you can see find ways to spread your message and excite more communities.

Look outside the games industry at how the likes of Vogue and Johnsons are building communities around their audiences common interests and not just their products.

Make your community evergreen

Often communities are built around one particular title in the run up to launch and then are quickly dumped. This means you lose all of those fans you spent so long gaining. Start looking at how you can join up your social media and how you can cross-pollinate your communities.

Games will come and go but you don’t need to start building your communities from scratch every time. Try bringing similar communities together and finding ways to build over arching strategies, just like Capcom does with their Unity site.

Buzz Monitoring

Are you monitoring what people are saying about you beyond just your own communities? Regularly checking and using tools such as Brand Watch and Radian 6 can give you valuable insight into what your community are saying and thinking in real time. These tools are only as good as the words you put into them, you can gain a lot of valuable insight by monitoring not only what people are saying about your company and games but what they are saying about your competitors and the industry at large.

• What movies are they watching?
• what websites are they visiting?
• What other games are they playing?

This kind of market research can really help you shape your own marketing and portfolio.

Ultimately what all of this comes down to is treating Social Media as a way of enhancing everything you do. Think beyond marketing and community management, think about how you can use Social Media to its fullest and get that edge over your competitors.

A look at how Lucas Arts uses Twitter and Facebook to help promote Monkey Island. With a community over 20k fans on each platform and hundreds of comments a day this has proven to be a great example of social media and community management in games.

One of Lucas Arts most loved games series is Monkey Island. The swashbuckling pirate adventure began in the early 90s and after almost a decade of radio silence Monkey Island is back. Games marketing and the online world is a very different place to that of the early 90s where home modems were almost non-existent. So how are Lucasarts using this new landscape to unite fans old and new?

For a start the majority of their Facebook activity is contained within one page. After recently releasing 2 remakes and an episodic series, multiple pages for each game would have created a fractured and time limited community. Communities built around a single product usually have a short shelf life, once the game has launched you can already hear death rattle shaking as fans move on to the newer games communities.

But by creating a community around a specific franchise the community has a reason to exist beyond any one iteration. It means the community can grow over time and not have to stop and start as it tries to lurch between games.

The most important feature of any community is a reason to exist. Sometimes a common interest is not enough to keep people interested.

The guys at Lucas Arts have kept the community engaged and involved with a variety of competitions, tasks and importantly exclusive content for the die hard fans. By being members of this community fans get to see behind the scenes in a way that just isn’t possible in any other medium. Fans can talk directly with the people creating the game, they can request more behind the scenes sketches and be the first to see new trailers and images. Not only that they are surrounded by people as fanatic as they are which reinforces their excitement.

A recent example of an engaging campaign on their page was a set of picture tasks for the community. Fans had to send in photos for each task to help create the “Guybrush Voodoodol” an item that would be later given out in competitions. This set of tasks shows how engaged the community is that without any incentive Fans responded in their hundreds with all manners of pictures.

Different platforms have different strengths and weaknesses and Lucas Arts has shown a great understanding of this by focusing Facebook more on sharing rich media and community discussions where as Twitter has been used for shorter and more frequent updates.

Unifying all of the Lucas arts games under one Twitter account also allows for a high level of cross pollination from the other Lucas games communities. However it doesn’t allow for as much focus and attention as the individual Facebook page can.

In combination this allows fans to become more aware of other Lucas Arts games in a way that makes sense. Fans are not forced or coerced into joining the Twitter but it is a natural progression for the communities to revolve around it.

These communities are more than just sales channels they are providing great content, feedback and a place for fans to meet like-minded people.

Saatchi & Saatchi has chosen Qube Media as their social media partner for the new Wall’s brand campaign starting in July.

Qube Media is a strategic social media agency expert in understanding audiences in social networks and building engaged communities around brands on the web.

The new campaign for Wall’s  – Bring it on Britain – places social media at its heart with a Facebook application and community fan page where users can apply for a bursary to help achieve their dreams. Winners are voted for by fans.

Qube will provide research, engagement and measurement services. Firstly, to understand the consumer and marketplace online  – identifying, mapping and monitoring the target audience in social networks. Then secondly, to build and manage an active online community around the new campaign.

Qube MD Andrew Seel said: “Many FMCG brands struggle to build sustainable relationships with their customers on the web. Using social media for the Wall’s campaign is a bold move which will allow consumers to engage directly with the brand in new and exciting ways.”

Qube is one of the original social media agencies in the UK. As a strategic agency, we have helped our clients understand and engage in this space for over 7 years. We work with major brands and organisations including Virgin Atlantic, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and Sony BMG to deliver significant business return.

For further information on Qube Media contact: Andrew Seel

Tel: 01273 689 672. Email: andrew@qubemedia.net

www.saatchi.co.uk

www.wallsbringiton.co.uk

Sorry for the lack of 3 of the Bests! I have just returned from a lovely holiday (thanks for asking). Hope you enjoy this weeks 3 best social media stories and 3 other things to get you giggling. We have the government trying to use an online social platform to give them ideas, Twitter trying to find a revenue stream and a psychic octopus. What more could you want!

3 of the Best

Top World Cup Players on Facebook, Day by Day

I spend a lot of time looking at graphs and tables of statistics, so when I see a great visualisation of data it always grabs my eye! The NY Times have been tracking all of the World Cup players mentions on Facebook across each day of the tournament. They have then visualised it with this player graph, the bigger the player the more they were mentioned. Really interesting stuff and as this is the first World Cup since the mass popularity of sites like Facebook and Twitter I would be interested to see if anyone has managed to pull out anymore interesting information.

Twitter @Earlybird

It looks like Twitter may have finally found a revenue stream of sorts. They have launched @EarlyBird a Twitter account to get exclusive timed deals and offers. It looks like Twitter will be trying to partner with big international brands to offer a few big deals a day.

It will be interesting to see how this takes off, there are currently no offers on it but it already has over 10,000 followers. In theory Twitter could expand this out and have separate Twitter accounts for music tours or clothes shopping discounts. Perhaps Twitter is finally starting to find a way of making money!

Nick Clegg calls for ideas on to laws to be repealed

The government is asking for our help and ideas on if any laws need to be repealed or abolished. Anyone can submit an idea to the Your Freedom website and the users can rate and comment on them. The idea is the government will take some of the most popular ideas and use it to inform their judgment later in the year.

They wont out right appeal the highest voted idea and in many ways that wouldn’t be the best idea. One of the highest rated suggestions is to decriminilise cannabis, it will be interested to see if the government looks at this issue or ignores it just like President Obama did when he asked for questions from the public.

I’m not saying cannabis should be re-classified but if these forms of public participation want to show they are more than just paying lip service, they will certainly need to show at least some sort of due-diligence on the most popular suggestions. Equally I hope people realise that this is to help the government make an informed decision and find potential new ideas, it is not a referendum!

3 of the Rest

Paul the psychic octopus predicts World Cup defeat for Joachim Löw

Clearly the biggest news this week was Paul the psychic octopus predicting a loss for Germany! He has been wrong before though, ironically it was also in a Germany vs Spain match. This time however he learned his lesson and backed Spain! Check out this video of how he made up his mind!

I started using a new online financial management tool a few months ago and it has been more useful for me than anything my bank has pushed my way in years.

Lots of tools like this are popping up in the digital world and most of them have social elements which make them even more relevant and more useful again:

Love Money

Mint

Xero

A new tool that i came across yesterday is called bundle.  This takes this type of information being gathered on a personal level to a national one, enabling users to see how the spending habits compare to everyone in their local city (if you live in the states). Behavioural economists would say that social comparison is a powerful way to influence shifts in our spending habits – kind of useful in the current climate?

I only use my online banking now to make payments, I ‘manage’ both my personal account and my joint account through this third party tool.  I find relevant information and advice from others like me and set goals, budgets and alerts that keep my spending in check.  These tools are an active way to help people manage their money.  They offer a genuine usefulness and function, and they are all there for me, with my needs in mind.

Is this not the kind of services my bank should offer me?

Like most people. I have had an argument with my bank recently about overdraft charges only to be told at the end of the call that all they could do was set up a text alert service for me when my balance reached a certain level.  That’s useful – even more useful if they had told me about it before i went overdrawn – but what about a bit of support?  What about finding out WHY i was overdrawn and tailoring the incessant direct messages to not keep selling me loans but other more useful services?    It seems a missed opportunity to me.

Banks spend thousands on developing unique ‘propositions’ that better fulfill customer needs. Bundles of product and promotional features that play to a savvy shopper making comparisons (ooo this account has mobile banking and free gig tickets!)  but ultimately, like any sales promotions, they don’t go too far at building a long term trusting relationship. In a buzz monitoring project we recently did for financial regulator CFEB, we found the biggest driver of conversation online was customer services, so not only are services where loyalty is grown but it is also where word of mouth fosters.

I suspect the reasons why banks can’t develop services and tools like these come down to regulation and compliance, the enemies at bay for social media evangelists in any financial organization.  At the end of the day these types of open and collaborative services may just be too much of a risk to set up.  Or is it because they don’t see a clear line of profit?  It would be a shame if that was the case but i guess a lot of the money banks make is by selling products that we probably could do without.

I wonder if this resistance will prove futile as online tools and communities start adding on banking services too. It’s not completely impossible, peer to peer lending company Zopa are by all accounts a success story in online social banking, even recently awarded status of the most trusted loan provider in recent money wise awards.

I know if my new online financial management tool offered me a current account i would seriously consider switching.  They are here for me, my bank are not.  Simples.

Estimated Reading Time: 2.5 minutes

I just came across a really interesting article from the Dailymail online from yesterday (via @abisignorelli) that (mis?) informs readers of secret new software that allows companies such  as BT to spy on disgruntled users.

The “secret software” they are talking about is a kind of buzz monitoring tool, which monitors particular keywords across Social platforms and feeds this data back to the brand paying for it. This allows brands to keep track of how they are perceived, but also provides the opportunity for them to engage in conversation with their customers.

This “secret software” is nothing new, buzz monitoring tools have been around for a while, and before this people were able to use services such as google alerts, and even the built in search functionality of many of these platforms (ie Twitter search).

The big questions is: Should people worry about this?

Well the first point to make is that surely people would like help with their problems, no? If I can’t get through to BT customer service, I rant about it on Twitter and someone from BT customer service gets back to me, then they have opened the dialogue. This lets me know that my problem is at least being heard.

Secondly, if you are scared that brands are watching your every move, maybe you need to think a little bit harder about what you share online? Open social spaces are open, and anyone can view your comments, photos, videos etc. You should bear this in mind and change your privacy settings if you want to be more private.

Thirdly and most importantly is that yes, people will use what you say online to try and sell things to you, but people have been doing this for years anyway. It is called targeting, and it is why when you watch a commercial during a football match you get advertisements for beer, shaving cream and sports equipment. Men watch and play football, men drink beer, men shave = targeted ad. If I am complaining about how hard using a pestle and mortar is on Facebook and someone from Magimix gets in touch with me to let me know about an offer they have on their blenders then this is surely a good thing? If I’m not interested I don’t look at it, the same way that I don’t look at the hundreds of adverts I get in my email inbox for Viagra and cheap medicine. When something is highly targeted to a specific concern of yours, is it really spam?

Not everyone has time to sit on hold or find the email contact form. Smart brands know that people are talking about them online and are using buzz monitoring tools to help embrace customers in the conversation. Smart consumers should welcome this opportunity to have their voices heard. The more feedback and suggestions a brand takes on board the better. This pro-active customer care is helping to shape a service that is ultimately better for the customer.

If you just want to rant and don’t want a brand to get involved in a conversation with you, then either don’t post it on social networks, or change your privacy settings.

3 of the best social media stories from the past week, and 3 other things you might find quite interesting .

3 of the best

Ambassador of Lifestream

AOL are looking for a well connected social media aficionado for their summer internship program. It’s an interesting position and certainly and interesting job ad. It seems to me that it is AOL’s attempt to connect with the “digital natives”. What do you think, great and interesting opportunity or AOL trying to turn someone into an online billboard?

90+ Essential Social Media Resources

Everyone loves a good list and this one is particularly comprehensive! From the useful to the useless. At the very least it is worth a flick through.

Movieclips

With the likes of Spotify music lovers are able to quickly share their favourite songs and new discoveries with their friends and social networks. Movie clips looks to try and make it easier for people to share and mashup their favourite movie clips in a legal online way. One to watch I think.

3 of the rest

They Draw and Cook

A very cute selection of recipes with some lovely drawings to go with them . It’s making me hungry just looking at them.

What Dyson Does With All Those Unsold Bladeless Fans

A Rube Goldberg-esk set up to show off the snazzy Dyson airblades. Was it only me thinking how much it would cost to set that up in my own home!?

The Love 40

The music industry is constantly trying to keep the charts relevant since the once loved top of the pops died. Digital downloads have been included in single sales and there is now a midweek chart. Here is another invention from the BBC to keep the charts current and social. I’m not sure if it just doesn’t make sense, or I am just to old to understand. If anyone can enlighten me to what is going on here that would be much appreciated!

I came across this blog today from a fellow worker in the world of social media and i think its a neat idea to share around.  Quite simply, he starts each blog with an estimated time for how long it will take you to read:

Simple but effective.  Setting the expectation and required commitment from the start is good practice as most of us will suffer from online content fatigue after the 1,335 minutes spent online each month

3 of the best social media stories from the past week, and 3 other things you might find quite interesting .

3 of the best

Social Media Generation Taking Online Privacy Seriously

Sounds as if not all young people are reklessley posting every last detail about themselves in easy to access public networks. I still think people in general need better education in just who can see what they are putting online, and how easy it can be to create a dossier of information on you. Lets hope the much needed Facebook privacy changes make it all easier to understand for everyone.

irkafirka illustrated tweets

There is something very endearing about these illustrations of often quite mundane tweets. What I like most is it is a very simple way of showing how messages and ideas spread online. One persons innocent innocuous tweet being picked up and turned into a lovely drawing which is then sent back out into the world. What do you think, pointless or poignant?

Be careful what you tweet

A look at some of the faces that have fallen foul to a mis-tweet or two. Learn from their mistakes! Building your online reputation takes a lot of time but it can all come crumbling down very quickly!

3 of the rest

Who You Gonna Call?

Improv Everywhere spend their time making everywhere just that little bit more fun Watch them inject a much needed dose of enjoyment into a day at the New York library.

Daily Stack

Like most people it seems I am always trying new time keeping methods. Constantly changing my to do list programmes and methods in the hope I will find something that I can stick too. This is likely just another of those things but I love the idea of making my time keeping physical and digital. Great concept, now where can I get one!

Is Parade

A very cute visualisation of your Twitter account. Watch all your followers avatars march along in honour of you…their leader. I could watch this all day .