A few months ago, Room 214 worked with one of our clients (I’m not naming the company for competitive reasons but they are in the real estate industry) to create a series of promotional videos to be used on their website, blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts. Since we also manage a Google advertising campaign for this client, a logical place to utilize a small advertising surplus was with a one-month YouTube advertising “test” campaign. I call it a test because no one at Room 214 had ever tried a Promoted Video campaign on YouTube and, while we were optimistic that the campaign would work well given the visual nature of real estate, had no real benchmark in mind for what the results would be. It went well – we decided to allocate 20% of the monthly advertising budget moving forward to YouTube – and I walked away with a few learnings…
Show Notes: Room 214 Co-Founder, Jason Cormier, interviews best-selling author and online marketing thought leader, David Meerman Scott.
In this podcast, we discuss:
Old-school measurement for ROI: What is really a “lead?” People want to apply same measures to social media. Traditional measures are being applied to social media marketing when so many other aspects of business simply don’t. Example: What’s the ROI of the receptionist, or even the accounting department for that matter?
We can measure how many people are exposed to our ideas, downloaded our YouTube video, etc. but these are very different measurements compared to traditional ROI measurements.
David states that ultimately, the ROI argument is used as an excuse based in fear. Many companies are simply afraid of social media.
David’s new book, World Wide Rave: How ideas spread and why people talk about you and your company. The first step in the formula for success is very counter-intuitive to marketers: Nobody cares about your products except you. To create something that has potential to spread, you can’t talk about these things. As soon as your product is brought into the equation, nobody cares.
Key take-away: Doing lots of activities in online marketing as opposed to one or just a few, should be the expectation when it comes to increasing your chances of success.
Marshall Kirkpatrick, of TechCrunch, posted about a recentHitwise finding showing MySpace is driving more online retail traffic than MSN search. First of all this is great news for MySpace, and all indications are that MySpace will continue to grow in presence and influence over the next two years. Where they'll be in terms of influence after that is still to be seen – come on we're talking about the Internet here. Other social media sites like YouTube are picking up tremendous speed, plus YouTube is not under the ominous ownership of Fox like MySpace is.
Personally the most interesting line in Marshall's post was the summary of The Financial Times article on the belief that the shortage of marketers skilled in negotiating sites like MySpace and YouTube is one of the biggest barriers to the growth of advertising online.
We can attest to the truth behind The Financial Time's position, as the largest and most sophisticated brand and marketing…
Online video continues to grow at a shocking rate as illustrated in the latest comScore Media Metrix analysis of consumer activity at top online properties for July. For the first time Youtube.com was ranked in the comScore Media Metrix top 50 with 16 million visitors last month. Traffic to MySpace Videos doubled last month, and Yahoo Video was up 28% compared to June.
As the popularity of online video grows, you can expect truckloads of advertising dollars to come rolling in. Online video is arguably the most compelling medium for advertisers and as always the challenge will be targeting the right audience and alignment with appropriate content. Advertisers will also be challenged with thinking of crafty new ways incorporate product placement and promotional campaigns into user generated content.
As high speed broadband becomes more standard and the quantity/quality of content improves, the line between my TV box and computer monitor will definitely continue to blur.
bencastelli:
What the Frack is Fracking? http://bit.ly/9zEtLu note - nothing to do with #battlestar 8 hours ago
JasonCormier:
Hi @rackspace - Anyone that can discount pricing beyond what the cool sales guy on the phone is telling me? If no, ok - but I'm ready to buy 10 hours ago
BrandonSings:
@Whygeezy Sonicbids did? lol Hope they hooked you up with a free premium membership. 12 hours ago
peterahall:
Really impressed with @skullcandy customer service. No questions asked. New shit on the way. Boom! 12 hours ago
dominicdimarco:
Asked iTunes to check for updates. Was told that 9.X was up to date....fail. Downloading iTunes 10 directly. 14 hours ago
AndyinColor:
Alright, let's give this a go: Link to my Ping profile on iTunes. If you stalk me across the web, try this as well... http://bit.ly/abMTzm 14 hours ago
JamesOClark:
RT @Room_214: It's a Hello Kitty day at the office! Check out the Facebook application we created for them: http://bit.ly/b2Uwqy. 2 days ago
Room_214:
It's a Hello Kitty day at the office! Check out the Facebook application we created for them: http://bit.ly/b2Uwqy. 2 days ago
lpmaynard:
@mich8elwu re: Google Wave, you mean pretty, shiny, and useless. Real question for me is how does @diaspora play out on mobile? 6 days ago
bencastelli:
JasonCormier:
BrandonSings:
peterahall:
dominicdimarco:
AndyinColor:
JamesOClark:
Room_214:
lpmaynard: