LaughlinOutLoud

We hear a lot about mobile advertising. eMarketer projects mobile advertising spending to top one billion dollars by 2012. Opportunities are expected to come faster and more furiously than ever before. Many will undoubtedly provide a healthy ROI and should be taken advantage of.

But, I think, mobile offers a bigger opportunity than advertising. Great brands provide value. And mobile is a phenomenal channel for doing so. So as budgets get ratcheted up, rather than thinking about mobile advertising, let’s start with what I’ll call mobile branding. Less emphasis on pushing a message, more on delivering a value.

I know that we all know “there’s an app for that.” But those apps are getting more powerful and more valuable. Just look at what is happening in the world of healthcare.

MIT has developed a snap-on lens that allows smartphones to provide mobile eye tests (via @MarkFairbanks). iStethoscope lets you record your heartbeat and email it to your doctor. And Google has bolstered its Google Health, allowing for more visualization of your health – from cholesterol to coffee consumption (via @PSFK). Just connect to integrated mobile apps to plug in more information automatically.

Brands of all shapes and sizes are faced with an unprecedented opportunity when thinking about how to have a presence in a mobile channel. The starting point shouldn’t be mobile advertising. It should be mobile branding.

A few months ago, I wrote about how we needed to rethink the words traditional advertising. I’ve got another word that I think needs some work: Salesperson. This time, though, I’m not suggesting we give the word a gold watch and send it on its way. Instead, I think Salesperson is ready for a re-birth.

Last week, I had the opportunity to speak to our account service department about what creatives think makes a great AE. It was a fun presentation. To research, to organize, to give. I thought the creative department gave good input. I saw the account service team take the input and run with it.

Heading into the presentation, I was preparing for a firestorm. I was going to have to bring up the dreaded S word. Salesperson is a polarizing word in our profession. It is too often associated with the prefix “used car.” But some of the most talented people I know are great salespeople.

The argument against being a salesperson is that nobody wants to get sold to. I would argue that, in fact, nobody wants to be taken advantage of. And a good salesman would never take advantage of anyone – because they understand how essential trust is to their business.

When I asked our creative department what makes a good AE, the word salesperson kept coming up. When I asked what that meant, I was given four general guides to being a great salesperson. They said:

Demonstrate expertise. Know everything, from strategy to specifications.
Be proactive. Go beyond service – which is still important – to solutions. Be a thought leader.
Find your passion. Believe in the product and service. Be a fan of the brand. An investor (of thought capital, if not real capital) in the business.
Make others believe in you. Earn trust. Then back it up. Again and again.

Those don’t scream used car salesman to me. Each is a basic of good business practice. Steve Jobs is a great salesperson. So is Sally Hogshead. So was Tommy Boy… at least at the end of the movie. Being a salesperson isn’t a bad thing.

So we don’t need to stop using the word salesperson. We need to de-stigmatize it. One interaction at a time.

The concept of our culture being one that is “Always On” isn’t new. It was around long before we consumed 34GB of info a day. It was a household name long before 20% of voicemails went unlistened to. Weʼve just continued down the path at a rather incredible pace.

And in the sea of incredible statistics…

1. According to Visible Measures, there are four webisode series that have audiences of over 20 million
2. Nielsenʼs Three Screen Report found that time-shifted TV watching is up 14.7%… from last year
3. 65% more American cell phone owners access the internet from their cell phone this year compared to last

…we lose track of the incredible-ness. There are now (4.) 500 million Facebook users? Yawn.

But we can’t lose track. Changes are still afoot. So much so that I propose that “Always On” will no longer suffice. In that Darwinian way our species has always depended on, weʼve evolved. We are smarter. Faster. More powerful. Consumers have fought back.

Our world can now best described as Always On… Demand.

Always On is still mass. Always On Demand is niche. Always On means constantly searching. Always On Demand means taking control.

Control is the new luxury. Being savvy has badge value. I want what I want, when I want it, where I want it.

Those are important distinction for marketers. Communications have to evolve too.

We, as marketers, are accountable for value. Measured. Assumed. Attributed. Demonstrable. Everything we do should have a basis in moving needles. Two weeks ago, I wrote about brand community value. Asking “What’s the ROI of marketing?” seems to be the equivalent of breathing.

What’s the ROI of social media? Of TV? Of PR? Of a successful customer service program? I once heard someone observe that one of the cruel ironies of advertising is the number of people who chose the profession as a way to avoid math. On a related note, I have an urgent announcement to college juniors struggling with Accounting. Advertising is no longer as clear a career path.

Which brings me back to math. High school math, to be specific. One of my most clear memories of Algebra is as applicable a lesson to the ROI of marketing as I’ve heard. The more variables you know, the easier the equation.

The same goes for the ROI of your marketing program. What’s the ROI of social media? It depends on a number of factors, including but not limited to: What’s the value of a visitor to your website? What’s the value of a qualified lead? What’s the value of positive customer experience? What about the lack of negative buzz?

When you understand the value of your variables, the ROI equation gets a lot easier. As you walk slowly to the chalkboard, start by figuring out what you already know.

I’ve always thought the phrase “math problem” was a misnomer. The only math problem I know of is if you think you don’t like math. Math is a tool that can help prove your worth.

Farecast Technology is pretty incredible. Type in your itinerary and Bing Travel recommends whether you should buy your tickets now… or hold tight just a bit.

They’ve aggregated data, developed algorithms and built predictive models. All towards the end of understanding what the airlines are going to do with their prices before the airlines actually do it.

I have a feeling that airline fares are just the beginning. Case in point, Murphy USA just released an app that helps you find the cheapest gas in your area (something Progressive has been doing with insurance for years). This type of technology can fundamentally change how Price Wars work. Your next move depends on what kind of brand you have.

Scenario One: Cutting prices is a necessary evil of the sales cycle. Things just got worse. The old adage – If you offer a sale, consumers will learn to wait for a sale – is taken a step further. “When is the best time to buy this? Wait, let me check.” And if I can predict if and when you will lower your price on that widget, your brand matters more than ever. And my bottom line is this: Can you justify your higher price or should you just skip to your final offer?

Scenario Two: Sales are a part of the brand experience. Things just got better. Bargain hunters have acquired another tool and the game just got more fun – a new study from Deloitte shows just how fun it is to save. “How can I stretch my dollar the furthest? Wait, let me check.” And if I can predict that next Saturday is the day where I’ll be able to work my most magic, your brand becomes more important to me than ever. Because you offer me the ability to succeed on whatever measure I choose. It’s no longer just about a sale, it’s about a brand experience.

The oft-cited Theodore Levitt marketing axiom goes like this: “People don’t want to buy a quarter-inch drill, they want a quarter-inch hole.” Said another way, consumers don’t buy features, they buy benefits.

I was reminded of this when I saw a recent study by Chadwick Martin Bailey that found Americans are more excited about “the prospect of content delivery than they are about the devices the content may be carried on.”

A real world example: The World Cup discussion at our office last week focused as much around the fact that @laughjon watched the game in the backseat of a car on the drive up from Chicago as it did around Donovan’s goal.

These are our OnDemand Lives.

There is an important lesson here for marketers – one that goes beyond “focus on the benefit.” In an age where brands win by providing utility, how the utility is delivered makes a big difference. Is it simple? Intuitive? Noteworthy? Memorable?

For content creators – and we’re all content creators – the days of people beating a path to your door for the better mousetrap are over. Great content will always be an essential. But now its context and delivery are competing for attention.

One of my favorite definitions of creativity is “not knowing where you’re going to end up when you start.” By that measure, it’s easier and easier to be creative these days.

And creativity matters. It cuts through clutter. It touches emotions. It solves problems. A new report out from The IPA found that, overall, campaigns that had been rewarded with the greatest number of accolades for their creative work were more successful in delivering positive results in the area of effectiveness (boosting market share, sales, profit and loyalty). Creativity delivers results.

And, just like everything else, creativity is evolving. The cover story of June’s Fast Company reports on its 100 Most Creative People In Business. The first thing I was struck by was the amount of very non-creative job titles (Research Director, Senior Software Engineer). But my big takeaway was that  – from the Fast Company perspective – a full quarter (27 of 100) had the title CoFounder or Founder. Creativity isn’t just “not knowing where you’re going to end up when you start.” It’s having a vision and executing on it. Knowing who (and who not) to involve and how to get things done.

Having ideas isn’t being creative. Recognizing and activating the game changing ones is.

You may have seen the story a few weeks ago of Armando Galarraga. A pitcher for the Detroit Tigers, his perfect game was lost on blown call by the first base umpire. The play (and its subsequent hundreds and hundreds of thousands of replays) caused a media firestorm. Should The Office Of The Commissioner reverse the call? How should the umpire be held accountable? And, if we have the technology to make sure calls – especially important calls – are accurate, why aren’t we using it?

That last one is a relevant question for marketers.

If we look critically at baseball, we may not need umpires any more. At least in the roll they’ve traditionally played. Cameras can determine whether the pitcher throws a ball or a strike much more consistently and accurately than any human being. Sensors can measure the relative impact of a foot hitting a base and a ball hitting a glove. Why not take advantage of these to make the game better?

But if we stop for a moment – and look at our own corners of the world – we are often guilty of overlooking the same types of progress.

Baseball keeps umpires on the field because it’s the way things have always been done. We don’t have that excuse in marketing. And just like baseball, some of the technology we would need to rethink how we do things already exists.

Unilever is using facial recognition software to help make low-fat ice cream more appealing. The United States Postal Service uses augmented reality to help you ship your package successfully. Google’s Goggles program let you search not only with words, but with pictures.

A question worth asking and, with the speed of new advancements, asking often: What technology aren’t we using?

What perfect game might you be erasing from the history books?

I tweeted earlier this week: “Okay, Soccer. You win. I’m all in for the World Cup. Don’t let me down.” And I meant it. For a sport I’ve barely watched before, I couldn’t be more excited for what a good friend calls “a month-long celebration of awesome.”

But I find how I got here interesting. I’ve always known about the product of soccer. I played it for more than a decade. Marketers take note, it’s not the game of soccer that sold me on the tournament. It was the technology and the advertising.

Technology Changes The Game. It was just announced that AT&T Uverse will be launching ESPN 3D in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. I don’t (yet) have a 3D TV, but  HD already makes the experience thoroughly enjoyable. It makes things that were previously uninteresting to me imminently watchable. Case in point, I have recently enjoyed both hockey and curling for the first times ever. Technology, quite literally, changes the game.

The Power of Advertising. From McDonald’s to Nike, big brands have drawn me in with emotional messages. Especially Nike. The “Write The Future” campaign is so good, I think it could redefine the role a corporate sponsor plays – I hope FIFA paid Wieden + Kennedy handsomely. [Update: Nike is not an official sponsor. Which doesn't change my feelings about FIFA paying them.] Before I’ve watched a minute, I know some players and I am emotionally invested in the fates of not only the athletes, but their fans. That’s the power of advertising.

Until the technology and advertising changed the game for me, I was never a fan of the “product.” We’ll see how the next month goes. But fanaticism (and its ensuing loyalty) does not seem out of the question.

Being customer-centric is not a luxury. The empowered consumer is well-documented. So understanding his or her needs and motivations is more important than ever before. But that’s only half the battle. Most businesses are for-profit. So meeting – or exceeding – the consumer’s expectations can’t only be done on their terms. It is essential to tie consumer insights to business strategies.

One of my favorite recent examples of a job well-done is Ace Hardware and their ship-to-store model.

Study after study shows that consumers want free shipping. That’s not so much an insight as an observation (really, who wouldn’t want free shipping?) But rather than (a) biting the bullet and taking a lower margin, (b) upcharging the purchase to cover costs or (c) saying “no, it’s too hard,” Ace makes an offer that seems to work for everybody. FREE shipping… when you choose to Ship-to-Store.

And it’s working. In a recent eMarketer webinar titled, “The Advantages of Multichannel Marketing,” it was reported that 73% of Ace Hardware’s web orders are shipped to stores and these orders account for 80% of its online revenue. So, the numbers indicate it seems to be working for the consumer. And a noteworthy 33% of those customers who pick up an order in-store make an additional purchase. So Ace wins, too.

Ship-to-store isn’t rocket science. It just isn’t the way most marketers think of ecommerce. But the process to identifying this as an option isn’t a complicated one. Start with a consumer insight. Develop solutions that tie to both consumer needs and motivations your business’ strategic objectives. Execute. Win, win.

Addendum: In addition to free shipping, “ship-to-store” also addresses another consumer motivator – protection of time. Customers no longer have to be concerned of whether the product will be in stock when they go shopping – it will be, they made sure of it. Every week 25,000-30,000 Borders customers reserve online and pay in-store. A customer need is clearly being met. And Borders reports a similar figure to Ace Hardware – saying 35% of customers who pick up an order in-store make an additional purchase. Another win / win.