Scan our barcode linking to Losasso.com

Almost everyone knows what a barcode is – it is used to collect information via a scanner into an internal system that then tracks the price, as well as other information, of a particular item.  Recently, barcodes have began to evolve into a way to quickly and easily share and transfer information about yourself (or whatever you may be scanning) with others, in the form of mobile barcodes, also known as QR codes.

According to Wikipedia, a mobile bar code, or “QR Code is a matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code), readable by QR scanners, mobile phones with camera, and smartphones.  The code consisting of black modules arranged in a square pattern on white background. The information encoded can be text, URL or other data.”

Mobile barcodes are currently being used in advertising campaigns across the globe (they have been using them in China since the mid-90s).  From billboards to print advertisements, QR codes are showing up in a number of traditional advertising mediums.   This concept also has great potential as a networking tool.  Imagine walking into a conference or trade show where each person’s name tag displays a mobile bar code that when scanned links to their virtual business card or company landing page.  Take that a step further and each booth could have a mobile barcode that links to a PDF about their products or more information about their company in general.

Although this is not new technology, it is just beginning to show up in the US as a mainstream form of information exchange.  Mobile barcodes are a very interesting concept, but only time will tell how useful this technology will prove to be in the world of marketing and advertising.

*To download a free mobile barcode reader application, click here.

As an interactive agency we pay close attention to trends and statistics that relate to web usage and user experience. It is important for us to know that the sites we design and the user experiences we plan for our campaigns will be in step with the technological capabilities of the target market we are communicating with. A good example of this is the vexing browser compatibility issues that can cause websites to display differently on different computers. The biggest problem in this arena is with Internet Explorer version 6 and older. Inevitably, there will be some report of a customer or client that has some wonky issue when they look at a certain page on the site. This sends the account team into a panic and the developers to the medicine cabinet.

The proper question here has to do with frequency. If you are taking advantage of newer technologies that allow your sites to look and behave the way you want, you may have some old timers that run into issues. So how much time and money do you spend on finding the “fix”? The answer is a value judgment you need to make while looking at your web analytics.

Because we have a concentration of accounts in the metalworking industry we have fantastic data related to the web usage of this market. One of our clients is the Practical Machinist www.practicalmachinist.com – it is a manufacturing forum that is probably the largest and most heavily trafficked social media site specific to the metalworking industry. Within the first few months of 2010 we have had more than 685,000 absolute unique visitors to the site. This provides a clear snapshot of certain statistics that we need to develop sites targeted to that industry. Here are some we can share:

These are top-line statistics that represent just the tip of the iceberg. The web world is constantly evolving, which provides an incredible opportunity to bring you closer to your customers. Making your company findable, friendly, and informative requires a lot of focus and commitment. But if you develop this capability and build a new set of skills, you can learn how to understand your market better than ever before.

LoSasso Advertising is Chicago interactive marketing agency that combines competencies in advertising, direct marketing, branding, online marketing, and public relations to build integrated programs that drive measurable response.  For more information, contact LoSasso Advertising at 773-271-2100.

2009 wasn’t a good year for businesses but thankfully 2010 is looking up, but to make the most of it, you need to be creative, innovative, and above all, adaptive. The tools of sales and marketing continue to evolve and companies that are changing their marketing strategies with these trends are reaping rewards. Online marketing and digital media can be highly effective ways to engage a larger audience on a lower budget.

For advertising agencies, this adjustment requires that they reinvent themselves. They need to retool their staff, add different core competencies and recognize that they need to provide a different type of service and value to help their clients succeed. They need to take an active role in helping clients understand the opportunities and navigate the changes in the marketing landscape. There is more opportunity than ever for agencies to include metrics and measurement to show that their work is producing results.

Many clients are shifting budgets away from larger advertising firms that are having a hard time changing their business model. They are engaging smaller and more specialized firms or even in-house talent to help create online media and marketing that is in step with today’s trends and technologies. They are taking a more grass-roots approach to connecting with customers through social media and other electronic marketing outlets, taking advantage of the Internet’s constant connectedness and unparalleled opportunities for personalization.

The CMO Council, who’s 5,000 member base accounts for $150 billion in annual marketing expenditures, conducted a survey of about 600 members for its seminal report: “The State Of Marketing: Outlook, Intentions and Investments for 2010.”  In the 46 question survey the council found that:  46 percent of the respondents are investing in digital demand generation and online relationship building, 38 percent are exploring alternative media and new routes to market, and 62 percent will be crunching customer data to improve segmentation and targeting.  Most of this will be undertaken by specialist firms, in-house talent and outsourced service providers.

“Globalization of markets and new channels of digital engagement are causing senior corporate marketers to seek new internal skills and capabilities, and re-direct spend towards more inventive and localized go-to-market programs,” notes Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council. “The transformation of marketing organizations, practices and functions is well underway. This is being driven by the need to engage at an individual level, create more content relevance, and leverage a new world of crowd-sourcing Internet communities, omnipresent connectivity, and pervasive mobile device ownership.”

When it is all said and done, the future of marketing lies with those who are willing to not only accept, but embrace change.  It is those who can bring fresh and innovative marketing tactics to the table, allowing for a more personalized and relevant connection with consumers that will ultimately succeed in this new era of marketing.

Click here to read more details on the report and download the PDF summary.

Domino’s Pizza puts negative customer commentary front and center in its new “Pizza Turnaround” marketing campaign. The TV commercials feature clips of focus group participant commentary on the pizza’s quality: “bland,” “boring,” “bad,” “the worst imitation of wheat crust,” and the list goes on. The CEO of Domino’s and a variety of Domino’s “employees” address the harsh feedback, turning the product’s negative perception into a challenge, and The Pizza Turnaround campaign is born. It’s an honest and bold marketing approach that may just help the 50-year-old brand defend its status as leading pizza delivery company in the U.S.

Pizza Turnaround promises customers an improved dining and delivery experience, with a reinvented sauce recipe, better dough quality, and fresher ingredients. It also promise a full refund if you’re not satisfied. Add that to the $5.99 promotional price for 2 medium, 2-topping pizzas, and Domino’s makes it easier to give the product a second chance. The TV commercial spot contains some hokey lines like, “We’ve put 40% more herbs and seasoning in our sauce,” but overall, Pizza Turnaround was an intrepid step.

The campaign is fully integrated into the brand’s Facebook page and Twitter account, and the Pizza Turnaround landing page features the full-length campaign documentary. Video links to Stephen Colbert Report’s “rip” on the campaign and #newpizza Twitter trending topic (he named Domino’s his Alpha Dog of the Week) and to the CBS Morning Show “Pizza for Breakfast” review.

Domino’s encourages customers to engage in the conversation, and the feedback ranges from cheers: “Tried the new Domino’s Pizza yesterday…Remarkable Improvement” to jeers: “We tried the new pizza last night. Grade: C-.” The company plays an active role in the social media campaign by engaging in the negative and positive commentary. Whether or not the product is truly improved is a matter of personal preference, but Pizza Turnaround succeeded in placing the company into the social media stratosphere.

Chain Reaction

As a social media marketer, the recent spat between behemoth HP and struggling Kodak underscores how a small player can leverage this space to draw attention and possibly even draw larger competitors into a place that benefits the little guy.

Basically, HP is claiming that Kodak cannot stand behind its marketing claims – this complaint doesn’t draw a lot of ire from consumers, we are well-trained skeptics. Other than the iPod and The Clapper – there are precious few technology products that are truly as advertised.

So now the two companies are trading swipes on Twitter and getting covered on the newswire and the head of HPs social media effort is being quoted with comments such as “You have a fight you can’t possibly win. I am HP.”

The irony of all of this is that this from is the head of social media strategy for HP. This is sure to draw a lot of social media coverage, but not the kind she wants. In a fight like this, the underdog holds the advantage in public perception. To me it looks like Goliath has taken David’s bait and leaned down with one eye open.

On the marketing front this seems to have gone badly as well, it appears that the two have allowed things to spin into a price war. HP can surely weather this more easily than Kodak, but in the long run, it is not good news for either.

It is hard to know what sort of ill will sticks to a brand when it behaves like this, but one thing is for certain, it is better to stand up for your brand and speak proudly of what you do well. If you have to address a competitor directly, do it with challenges that play to your strengths and attack their weaknesses with benefits, not insults – you just look like a bitter, old bully – and bullies don’t do well in the social space.

Augmented Reality (AR) is gaining more recognition in the industry and will revolutionize the way marketers reach consumers. If you’re not familiar with the term, you may have heard of AR-based projects like Xbox’s 360 Project Natal and Yelp’s Monocle iPhone app.

AR technology is defined as a “live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are merged with (or augmented by) virtual computer-generated imagery, creating a mixed reality.” This intuitive technology can apply to both AR and Mobile AR applications.

So what does this mean for marketers? Let’s get to know AR better.

The latest interactive technology will change online media, shopping and entertainment as we know it. The December 2009 issue of Esquire magazine cover features Robert Downey Jr. But beyond this 2-D realm, it offers an “Augmented Reality issue” experience for readers—downloadable software makes Robert Downey Jr. pop into 3-D life onscreen, interactive with the physical magazine and webcam, while other elements start talking and moving. Watch the video for the full experience:

Retail-based applications like Zugara’s Webcam Social Shopper allow customers to try on clothing virtually and shop online, take pictures of their new looks, and share with friends on Facebook. If they like what they see, they can make the purchase virtually using both AR and Motion Capture technologies—all with the wave of their hand.

And in mobile games like the zombie shooter ARhrrrr, players interactively shoot zombies with their phone, using a real-life map as the battle grounds. Products like Skittles candy can be physically placed on the map and simultaneously used as bombs in the game—an entirely new realm of interactive game playing and product placement.

Mobile location-based AR marketing in applications like Yelp’s Monocle allow users to find area businesses via GPS navigation by simply holding their phone in any particular direction. Nearby Yelp business listings will pop up on-screen, complete with ratings.

AR continually evolves each day, and these examples are merely the beginning of what it may become. The technology looks to bring an entirely new experience to interactive shopping, games, social media marketing, and the consumer buying process.

Creating a robust web presence is important now more than ever. A website with top of the line graphics, enough flash to slow even a 15mbps download speed, won’t do you much good if you can’t target clients and increase qualified traffic.

So how do you do this? Create a client-serving site rather than a self-serving site

Start by developing relevant content. Providing value through your content will keep users on your site and show them your worth to their business. Research and get inside your potential client’s thought process.

What are they looking for? How can you solve their problems better than your competition?

Too often, companies focus on what they can do rather than what they can do for potential clients. There is a subtle but important distinction between these statements, and clients can tell the difference.

Next, make your site less complex. Focus on site functionality rather than flashy, complicated set-ups that look cool superficially, but ultimately distract viewers from their purpose. A site that is easy to navigate will result in more page views and more conversions than their flashy counterparts.

Finally, connect with potential clients in the environments they already frequent – like social media sites. The website is no longer the center of the internet universe. It is merely a part of a larger – more fluid – structure where social media sites and search engines connect users to valuable content.

Use this to your advantage by bringing potential clients to your site through social networks. One way to do this is by using social media sites to distribute your site’s content. Create daily blog posts and use Twitter, Facebook, Digg, etc. to deliver traffic to your site.

Be sure to deliver valuable content and not a transparent sales pitch. Again, clients can see the difference. If the content you create is valuable and targeted to potential clients they will view more pages and – hopefully- invest in your services or buy your products.

Your Google Adwords Quality Score can not only dictate how successful your campaign will be, but also how much money you need to spend to be successful.

So what is Quality Score? (as defined by Google)

“The AdWords system calculates a ‘Quality Score’ for each of your keywords. It looks at a variety of factors to measure how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to a user’s search query. A keyword’s Quality Score updates frequently and is closely related to its performance. In general, a high Quality Score means that your keyword will trigger ads in a higher position and at a lower cost-per-click (CPC).”

How is it used? (as defined by Google)

“Quality Score helps ensure that only the most relevant ads appear to users on Google and the Google Network . The AdWords system works best for everybody — advertisers, users, publishers, and Google too — when the ads we display match our users’ needs as closely as possible. Relevant ads tend to earn more clicks, appear in a higher position, and bring you the most success.”

This diagram demonstrates how an ad with a high Quality Score can place above an ad with a higher bid and a lower Quality Score

Quality Score influences your keywords and actual cost-per-click (CPC), estimates the first page bids that you see in your account and determines if a keyword is qualified to enter the ad auction that occurs every time a user enters a search query. Basically, the higher your Quality Score, the lower your costs and the higher your Ad Rank (or ad position.) To see how Google does this, watch our recent SEM Minute on Quality Score.

How do you get a high Quality Score?

One way to ensure a high quality score is to create relevant keyword lists, ad copy and landing pages that work together to create a fluid, search-engine-friendly campaign. All of these aspects come together to create a high Quality Score. For a great visual representation of this, see a great blog post on SearchEngineLand.

Let’s start with relevant ad copy. Ad copy is the content that appears below the headline of your ad in the SERPs. It should be uniquely adapted to each Ad Group and targeted to include relevant keywords.  Google will see that the ad copy is relevant to the search terms and will rate it accordingly.

In the same way, keywords need to be relevant because they link the search terms to the ad copy and the landing page. If Google does not see the inherent connection between the different parts of the campaign, it will be reflected in your quality score.

Another important thought to remember is that Google Quality Score is a robot; it does not think like a human. It cannot connect terms based on innuendos or superior-thought. It is based on algorithms and relevant terminology.

That being said, you should build your landing page to reflect this fact. The landing page should contain words found in both the query and the ad copy and it should be built out in a way that is easy for Google to understand. Use proper headings and h1, h2 and h3 tags. Search Engine Journal recently wrote a great article on landing pages—definitely check it out if you need a more detailed description on landing pages.

One way to test that your site is built properly is to try the W3 semantic extractor. This will pull out content from your site in the same way that Google Bots do, so you can verify that the bots understand your site structure.

Another important way to guarantee a high quality score is to link to a targeted landing page rather than the homepage of your company’s site. Homepage’s often contain genera company information, whereas landing pages reflect unique search terms and Ad Groups.

A PPC Campaign is the sum of all its parts and this is best represented in the Google Quality Score. If you design your campaign thoroughly and follow up with continual optimization, a high Quality Score will take care of itself.

Razorfish recently released “Fluent.” The report discusses social influence marketing (SIM) and the influence various peer circles have over customer purchasing decisions. They define Social Influence Marketing as, “employing social media and social influencers to achieve the marketing and business needs of an organization.”

The report also featured a study conducted by Razorfish that demonstrates how trust plays a crucial role in influencing a consumer’s interest in purchasing an item.

The study analyzed peer influence and networks in conjunction with a more traditional media mix of expert reviews, search listings and advertisements to determine how and where trust comes into play during the purchasing process.

Findings:

#1: Where’s the trust?

When asked whom they trust most when making specific product purchasing decisions, participants indicated near or complete trust with offline friends (73 percent) followed closely by TV ads (52 percent) and expert online reviews (47 percent).

Social network ads come in next with 42 percent of respondents indicating some level of trust, while online friends and online video ads only register around 10 percent over complete distrust.

Online banner ad data reflects an almost equal distribution between distrust, neutrality and trust, while search engine results lean almost entirely toward strong to complete distrust.

#2: What factors affect trust?

When making purchase decisions, respondents indicated they turn to peers when looking for product information and recommendations rather than specific brand recommendations.

This was followed by general reassurance about their purchasing decisions and merchant recommendations. 86 percent of users concluded that whom they trust is dependent of the type of product, and 72 percent stated the cost of the product is the biggest factor affecting whom they trust.

#3: How authentic or believable are brands in various advertising media?

A majority of respondents felt that TV and print (magazines and newspapers) represented brands the most authentically, while all other media advertising categories (radio, mobile, online banners, blogs and social networks) were inauthentic.

While radio and social networks were on the border of authenticity, mobile and other online sources lagged far behind. A high level of indifference is also of significance among respondents.

This data indicates a huge chance for brands to redefine various mediums of online advertising and create new opportunities for consumer trust and engagement.

#4: Small numbers visit social shopping sites, but they have a big influence

While only 18 percent of respondents indicated they have visited a social shopping site, 69 percent of those have made at least one purchase based on a recommendation they came across on the site. In fact, nearly 25 percent of social shopping site visitors made at least three purchases based on site recommendations.

Study Implications

• As the lines blur between the online and offline spheres of influence, brands must stop viewing the role of influence as fragmented by the channel, platform or location of that influence and see it in a holistic light.
• Influence revolves around products and services — not necessarily brand affiliation. This means that brands should practice SIM, and focus on the influence customers have over each other when making product purchasing decisions.
• While the digital space holds an infinite amount of possibility for marketers, currently brands lack significant credibility in this realm. That being said, it also gives marketers a lot of room to develop the space and utilize creative techniques to enhance their influence online.

The goal of SIM is to recognize, account and tap into the sphere of influence that affects your customer base. As customers make purchasing decisions, they are constantly being influenced by those around them — both online and off— so an effective SIM marketing strategy requires a campaign to reach out to each individual’s social influencers throughout the purchasing process.

Today Facebook Developer Ray C. He announced that Facebook page administrators can now embed the latest Facebook Fan Page activity to their own website.

Essentially, this means that users can connect with brands, celebrities, companies, etc. whether they’re on or off Facebook.

The technology is called the Facebook Fan box and it allows developers to simply copy and paste the code into their site and—voila!—they can display the page’s latest updates on their main site.

The Fan Box takes a minimum of 200px width and 64px height with all features included, so it can integrate easily into a website.

This has the potential to be a great tool for online marketers because it makes Facebook even more accessible for web users, which will undoubtedly increase traffic to both sites.

Already, industry leaders are jumping on the Fan Box bandwagon. Companies like Newsweek and Coca-Cola have begun streaming Facebook from their sites.