Influence Marketing & The Sagrada Familia

I was lucky enough this week to be able at address 400 or so marketers from Europe at the Forrester Consumer Marketing forum in Barcelona (beautiful city). So apart from getting back to Europe for a bit which is always nice, my presentation and discussion afterwards focused on Influence Marketing. I discussed the consumer trends that are the "channel of me" and the "channel of us" and the need for marketers to give serious consideration to building constituents as opposed to focusing only on building customer databases. We discussed further how social media marketing and CRM are really expressions of the same desire - to better know and therefore better converse with your customers and future customers.

The Forrester blog is here...

Marketers Slow To Adopt New Paths

A study by Forrester Research (Interactive Marketing Channels to Watch in 2007) has again pointed to a reluctance to innovate in marketing departments. The research finds that while email, banners and search are still a firm favourite, and blogs, podcasts, RSS, social networks, and online video are making inroads -mobile and in-game marketing are left on the side of the road. The most significant gains have been made in the social media space. In 2006 less than 13 % of marketers were experimenting with blog advertising and around 10 % with RSS, while the 2007 report found; "Today, 40 percent of marketers are using or piloting RSS while 34 percent use or are piloting blogs".

The agencies have a key role to play here in bringing these digital paths to their clients and creating the environments in which small scale test and learn strategies enable marketers to see the benefits of opening conversations with their consumers in more enlightened and interactive ways...

Pay Per Post - Blog Advertorials

(Not Sponsored)

Over the last year a new form of Blog Marketing has developed - Pay Per Post. Essentially, this means a client can now pay to have articles about their product or services written and published on a group of relevant weblogs. The ethical implications are obvious and the FTC stepped in in December 2006 with the observation that relationships with sponsors must be disclosed.

ReviewMe, CreamAid and PayPerPost and Blogsvertise are the leading players in the field.

Bloggers are generally required to write between one and two hundred word pieces (not always necessarily positive, depending on the service....) for which they are paid between 25 and 1000 USD. The cost is based on the importance of the blog as measured by Technorati etc.

The Increasing Reach and Influence of Blogs

The direct link between user-generated content and people’s intentions to purchase a product or service is again demonstated in a Hotwire / Ipsos MORI European study . The research shows that more than 25 million adults in Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain have changed their minds about a company or its products after reading comments or reviews on a blog. Furthermore third (34%) of Europeans say they have not purchased a product after reading comments on the internet from customers or other private individuals.

Other key findings from the research include:

• Blogs are now a near second to newspapers as the most trusted information source: A quarter (24%) of Europeans consider blogs a trusted source of information, still behind newspaper articles (30%), but ahead of television advertising (17%) and email marketing (14%).
• High spenders are most trusting of blogs: Of those who spend more than 145€ (£100) online every month, the proportion of people who trust blogs rises to 30%.
• France leads European blogging; Britain lags: Across Europe, six out of ten (61%) internet users have heard of blogging, and one in six (17%), have read a blog. France is the most blog-savvy country in Europe, with 90% of respondents familiar with blogs. The British are the least blog-aware, with only 50% having heard the term. In Germany, 55% have heard of blogs, 58% in Italy and 51% in Spain.
• Blogs are now driving purchase decisions: More than half (52%) of Europeans polled said that they were more likely to purchase a product if they had read positive comments from private individuals on the internet.
• They also block purchases: Nearly 40 million Europeans have not bought something after reading comments posted online.

Results based on research conducted by Ipsos MORI in Europe. The research polled a representative sample of 2,214 adults aged 15+, in Great Britain (526), France (440), Germany (485), Italy (378) and Spain (385), who use the internet either at home, at work or elsewhere. Interviews were conducted face-to-face at their homes during September 2006, using the Ipsos Capibus services.

Blogvertising for Beginners

Another attempt to reach the golden 18 to 35 year old demographic.

According to a new report, “Blog, Podcast & RSS Advertising Outlook,” from PQ Media, combined blog, podcast and RSS ad spend by the end of 2005 totaled $20.4 million, a 198.4 percent increase over the 2004 levels for user-generated online media - and is projected to climb 144.9 percent in 2006, reaching $49.8 million. Total spending on user-generated online media is forecast to grow at a compound annual rate of 106.1 percent from 2005 to 2010, reaching $757.0 million in 2010. The blogvertising market is the largest of the three, at $16.6 million accounting for 81.4 percent of total advertising in 2005.
Technology, auto and media brands are the most active in user-generated media advertising, accounting for more than half of total advertising spending in 2005, the, with the food and beverage and apparel categories rounding out the top five.
The most common and simplest blogvertising method is to accept targeted banner advertising. However, some bloggers have been hesitant to use this because of negative reader response to the ads. A more discreet form of advertising is for bloggers to promote merchandise from other sites, receiving a commission when a customer buys the item after following a blog link. Click here to buy a great book on the subject….
Fairly new, and highly controversial, is the pay-per-blog model, in which the blogger writes a set number of words on a topic (usually a web page or product) provided by an advertiser. The post always includes at least one link to a web site relevant to the topic, as a way of creating "buzz" and helping the advertised page's rank in search engines. In return, the blogger receives a small amount of money, usually no more than 10 US dollars.
Blogging by numbers
147 Million Number of American adults who use the Internet
57 Million Number of American adults who read blogs
12 Million Number of American adults who keep a blog

Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Blogger Callback Survey, July 2005-February 2006. Margin of error is ±7%.