What’s the future of marketing? If this question had been asked in the 2000s, the answer would  have been “mobile phones”. So, what will be the next revolution? It seems that business people have a pretty clear answer for it: the so called “Internet of Things” (IoT). With these words people refer to a wide range of devices (computers, vehicles, clocks) able to gather information and data from different platforms or applications (social media, online systems, databases). The very interesting thing is that the variety of platforms is rapidly increasing and surprising new combinations of technologies are unrelentingly coming out. To have a better understanding of the extent of this phenomenon, just think that the expected growth of IoT is from the $33 billion in 2013 to $71 billion in 2018.

IoT revolution will obviously have a tremendous impact on the entire marketing world, affecting consumer decision journey, purchase funnel, marketing research, data collection, advertising campaigns and so on. This is why it is so relevant for every company to understand what’s going on and get ready to enter effectively and competitively in the new technological era. Here there are the most relevant tips for a business that wants to begin its adventure in the mysterious and amazing IoT world:

1)      Serve a specific need

Customers should be provided with a clear vision of what is the utility embedded in the product, in order to make it more desirable. In other words, the value proposition must be plain and easily understandable.

2)      Be compatible with other devices

Be careful that your product has the technology standards enabling it to connect with other trending services, since customers won’t be interested in dead-end items.

3)      Protect data

Be sure to guarantee the proper privacy level to you customers’ data and information, since it is a very crucial field. A step in the wrong direction here and the consequences for your business will be very bad.

4)      Be user-friendly

The vast majority of consumers is not aware of this new kind of complex technology and, more importantly, is not willing to spend a lot of time on learning how to use it. For this reason it’s crucial to make the device interface as simple as possible. Then, a more advanced and customized configuration could be offered to techies.

The following are some examples of innovative and useful IoT items that have been produced so far:

Belkin WeMo Switch to turn on/off any plug in device from your smartphone

Shopperception system for in-store advanced analytics based on a set of sensors and cameras

Sight Machine uses sensors, cameras and lasers to analyze a manufacturing process and guarantee its quality and consistency

At the early stages of a new technological era, companies should be at the same time very cautious about everything they do, being careful not to take anything for granted, and brave enough to experiment innovative ideas. Even though the risk is surely high, the opportunity of achieving a great first mover advantage is really appealing for a business.

Sources:

http://http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/239811

http://postscapes.com/internet-of-things-examples/

Brand is probably the most valuable asset for an organization and one of the best ways to enhance it is to find the right advocates, people that really love your company and have the genuine desire of sharing their passion with friends. In fact, customers don’t really like having a relationship with a brand itself, they rather have a relationship with other people. Thus, someone who is totally into your brand, believes in your organization and feels to have a connection with your values, represents an incredible source of value for your company.

The question is: how can customers feel this deep attachment to an organization if its employees don’t? This is why a wise manager should work in order to transform all the employees in the very first advocates of the brand. Nowadays, the great majority of people working for a company talks about their employers through social media anyway, so the point is to train them to do it in the appropriate way. It’s not simple, since of course employees cannot be forced to become ambassadors or to share a certain kind of content, but it completely worth the effort: having delighted employees creates a hard to replicate competitive advantage.

Employees cannot become brand advocates if they don’t have a clear picture in their minds of what the brand values and culture really are. They need to understand the brand and the goal of a good manager is to help them to do it. The first requirement for a company is to have a well-known, strong, and distinctive vision. This should also help to obtain a good consistency in the messages spread by the employees. A good practice is to establish a communication team sending to all the people employed in the organization messages regarding brand, objectives and initiatives. Other communication channels as meetings and speeches are also very effective.

                           Dell employees at a regional meeting

Another important step is to clarify what does make the brand valuable and helpful for the entire society. Employees want to be part of something big and good; they love to feel that they are contributing to make some difference in the world. If they perceive that what the company is doing does actually matter, they will spontaneously share it with friends, family and other colleagues. What is fundamental is to generate a feeling of pride and gratification associated to the brand. For this reason, corporate social responsibility initiatives are the most appreciated and promoted by employees.

              McDonald’s employees taking part to a charity event

The top leadership should be the supreme example of brand advocacy: the CEO needs to be the most proud ambassador of the brand, if he wants to see all the other employees doing the same. Companies should also try to recognize and prize employees who share positive content regarding their brand; perhaps through small but meaningful actions, as commenting, retweeting or liking employees’ posts.

To conclude, here there’s a link to a video of Starbucks president Cliff Burrows talking about how the company deals with serious topics as diversity and inclusion. Notice how he calls employees “partners”, fostering their sense of beloning. According to me, it is a valid example of what a manager could do to make people working for or with him aware and proud of what they are doing:
http://www.starbucks.com/responsibility/community/diversity-and-inclusion

Sources:

http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/60-million-employees-social-media-advocate/295823/

http://www.jrsconsulting.net/freearticles_12.html

If you are a bit active on social media you have probably watched the new John Lewis’ “Monty the penguin” video. The British department store has created this two minutes ad for the upcoming Christmas holidays and its success has been immediate. The number of views and shares was already incredible after the first 24 hours since it was uploaded: 7 million views and more than 200.000 shares. Thus, it was not surprising when it reached about 14.9 million views after the first seven days. The ad tells the very cute story of a young boy and the relationship he has with his best friend Monty, a pet penguin. In the very unlikely case you haven’t meet Monty yet, this is the famous video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iccscUFY860

This Christmas-centric campaign has clearly gone viral and the digital success has noticeably led John Lewis retail stores to actual revenues: the Monty plush toys sold out in few hours. What did ensure this amazing popularity to the video? What can people learn from John Lewis on how to create a viral video? Even though the conditions making it possible for a content to become viral are very variable and often unpredictable, Monty can give digital marketers some important tips. The following are the main features that can help a video to be easily shareable:

Being reasonably short
The video lasts almost 2 minutes. The point is that every video should be short enough to keep the interest and the attention of the Vine videos generation. Given this, it’s clear that the very first 30 seconds of a video play a crucial role: managing to be interesting and also a bit mysterious is fundamental to make people stay glued to the screen.

Sharing a cheerful content
What can be more upbeat than the inspiring story of a little boy helping his penguin friend to find true love for Christmas? It’s proven that positive emotions make it more likely for a video to be spontaneously and passionately shared by digital users. Thus, touch the heart of the audience and they will surely want to share the feeling with their friends.

Being timely
Halloween has just passed and people start to feel the Christmas atmosphere in the air: Monty has been able to perfectly harness the Christmas magic power. Generally speaking, except for the obvious season-related occasions, a good video should always be connected to current events or popular trends.

Linking the online and offline strategies
John Lewis department stores have been filled up of penguin toys and other kinds of related merchandise, enabling the phenomenon to spread even more, also through non digital channels. A full consistency between online and offline strategy is essential for a campaign to be effective and to obtain the desired returns on marketing investment.

Using social media
A Twitter account for Monty has been crafted just for the occasion. Through this channel the penguin shares additional information, updates and other details regarding the story told in the video. Using various social media as a support for a campaign helps increasing the video resonance and interacting with followers is very useful in creating a stronger engagement. As always, a well-planned digital advertising campaign involves the use of proper hashtags and the creation of an ad-hoc one, as it is #MontyThePenguin in this case.

Sources:
http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2380274/monty-the-penguin-breaks-records-wins-christmas
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ilyapozin/2014/08/07/6-qualities-to-make-your-videos-go-viral/

             Snapchat logo

Snapchat, the viral photo sharing application for smartphones boasting a 100 million user base, has recently and deliberately entered in the world of advertising. This decision has given rise to a double challenge: on the one side Snapchat has to help marketers to figure out how to deal with the app and why expiring ads could be a good investment for them; on the other one, companies need to rapidly find the best way to harness this brand new channel, accordingly to their target audience.

How does the Snapchat advertising actually work? First of all, the sponsored content appears in the “recent updates” section of the app, not invading the personal communication among users, and people are able to choose whether to watch it or not. The advertising snap is not individually targeted and it disappears after the reproduction or, in any case, after 24 hours. Thus, it is pretty clear that the marketing approach to be used in this channel should be different from the one suiting other kinds of social media. The aim is to provide the users with an advertising experience that is both “fun and informative”, as Snapchat has plainly stated on its official blog. It seems to be an attitude which focuses more on creating satisfaction and enjoyment for users, rather than pleasing advertisers.

                           Screenshot displaying the Ouija ad.

Notably, companies deciding to invest on a Snapchat advertisement run the risk of spending money on something that the audience can simply refuse to watch. This means that the marketing effort should be oriented on the ability of to offering a really appealing and catchy content to users. Marketers creativity will surely be the main driver of success in the world of vanishing ads. Thus far, the feeling is that companies don’t want to miss this opportunity, but still they don’t know how to exactly do it. Here’s the video of the first Snapchat ad, a trailer promoting the “Ouija” movie:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwqhExxwRU0

We have to give credit to Snapchat of its attempt of pushing the digital marketing through the path of producing a mutual value-adding content, benefitting both customers and companies. In fact, Snapchat ads seem to be a fair deal for everybody: the app will raise some money, the customers will watch just what they care about and the companies have a new digital channel to reach their target. Let the challenge begin!

Sources:

http://blog.snapchat.com/post/100255857340/advertising-on-snapchat

http://blogs.wsj.com/cmo/2014/10/28/advertisers-mull-where-snapchat-fits-while-prepping-to-move-fast/

McDonald’s international marketing strategy is famous for being one of the most relevant examples of glocalization. The video below provides you with a nice and brief explanation of how this fast food giant has been able to successfully penetrate so many different markets during the years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCG7ScRP1ws

Now McDonald’s glocalization strategy is landing in the digital marketing world, with a brand new and intriguing challenge. Mr. Martinelli, the US digital marketing manager at McDonald’s, has announced that the company’s new goal is to roll out about 14.500 Facebook pages before 2015, with the aim of getting as close as possible to customers. Moreover, they are planning to launch Twitter accounts for all the main restaurants to improve the quality of the CRM. The local marketing teams will take care of the pages using a program called Salesforce Social Studio.

This ambitious plan is supposed to give to McDonald’s the possibility of thoroughly monitoring all customer conversations about local stores and considerably increase the one-to-one engagement. In fact, the digital manager recognized the outright relevance of being able to deliver “a relevant content at the right time to the right people” and also to play an active role in their conversations. They aim to establish a constant and immediate interaction with the customer base. This is particularly relevant for a company like McDonald’s, that is constantly fighting against rumors regarding the quality of the food it sells, since it will enable them to stop the diffusion of harmful buzz very quickly.

This is not the first time that an international brand has used a similar approach with Facebook. For example, WalMart launched 3.500 pages on the social network for its local retail stores in 2011, but the results in terms of engagement didn’t meet the expectations. Even though McDonald’s claims to have a deeper understanding of the situation and of the related risks, an hyper-localization strategy as this one could end up to be incredibly effective, but it surely entails various risks and difficulties. It will doubtlessly require high investments in staffing and a significant dose of trust between headquarters and local management.

These are the main challenges that the international burger retailer will have to face:

1. Be consistent in the content
2. Produce tailored messages
3. Don’t cannibalize themselves on social media
4. Don’t let the customers feel confused
5. Have a very well-prepared local marketing staff

Sources:

http://www.brandrepublic.com/news/1320152/mcdonalds-14500-facebook-pages-will-us-closer-customers-says-digital-manager/

http://www.campaignlive.com/article/three-challenges-mcdonalds-will-face-deploy-14500-facebook-pages/1319119