Revolver

Are you a follower?

There are many theories that circulate in industry circle over consumer behaviour but of particular interest is one of recent which suggests that people are more likely to buy brands their friends like. And from this, is tracking their social interactions the most effective way to target them accurately?

Let’s face it, if you need it it’s probably out there. The web has become so profoundly social and consumers share increasing amounts of information across various websites, that you can forgive marketers salivating at the power that’s possible.

Now, it would seem, a new sort of US companies have emerged who feel they have finally found a method of tapping into this wealth of data through a process of licensing data from third parties, largely social media sites, and tracing consumers’ social connections in order to target ads towards those most powerfully connected to brand fans (as touched upon in the last blog update).

It’s pretty easy to work out what they can then do. Marketers have begun to let the data tell them who to target, as opposed to past methods of them telling the the data who to target. They have apparently proven that by understanding who’s purchasing and who’s a fan of the brand, people strongly connected to it socially are highly likely to share the same interests, to purchase those same products and have the same gender, income etc. It appears that the social connection could be a very powerful predictor indeed.

However, unlike current ad platforms offered on the likes of Facebook, where companies target individuals based on their profile, social targeting focuses on targeting people based on their friends, not their interests.

Nevertheless, there is a certain amount of skepticism that surrounds this. There are those who feel that 99.9% of what we browse on the web does not fit into any commercial or behavioural category, meaning attempts to scale that inevitably include a load of irrelevant information.

Irrespective of either of these standpoints, what nobody can deny is the fact that online engagement can be extremely beneficial and enlightening for companies who wish to develop or maintain a strong brand culture. Don’t shy away from an online presence, understand and engage with it by developing a well-thought out digital pr strategy for the future.

The year of the digital citizen.

Whether it be news, entertainment, work, lifestyle, a large percentage of people’s lives now incorporate aspects of the digital world and really can’t be without it.

With that in mind, it comes as no surprise that Facebook is now the top mobile service on smartphones.

Facebook is the app most popular with American smartphone owners, according to a report by Nielson. In fact, Facebook is the most popular app even for BlackBerry users who are typically seen as more business-focused.

Nielson’s mobile application report found that Facebook was the most used app on iPhone and iPod Touch, BlackBerry and across all other smartphones, other than devices running on the Android platform.

More than 4,200 people were surveyed who had all downloaded an application in the last 30 days, with 58% who own an iPhones and iPod Touch, use the Facebook app on their device. This was closely followed by Google Maps, which 47% of iPhone OS users use the most after the Facebook app, and then the Weather Channel – a forecasting app.

The report also found that the average number of installed apps on a BlackBerry device was 10, while this nearly quadrupled when it came to iPhone’s average of 37, and doubled when comparing to Android’s average of 22.

21% of American wireless subscribers now own a smartphone – which is up from 19% on the previous quarter. 14% of mobile subscribers have downloaded an app in the last 30 days.

Overall, social networking, maps, weather and music were the most popular app genres across all platforms. Thus, also highlighting the ever expanding areas of opportunity for companies to reach out to consumers, especially through successful forms of digital PR.

Music needs to spread their word digitally.

With the Digital Economy Bill passing through the House of Lords, a survey has warned that legal online music providers have not promoted their brands sufficiently to the public.

This week the final details are being made to the UK’s Digital Economy Bill in the Lords, which will aim to drive consumers away from online copyright infringement  and towards legal services.

Yet it seems these legal services are not so well-known, with a recent survey from Consumer Focus revealing that the public has a extremely low awareness of these legal alternatives and more is required to communicate their services to the public. With their focus so heavily falling on online music distribution, you’d think the natural partner would be digitally-enabled public relations, which would work to target their desired consumers.

Of the 2,000 or more adults aged 15 and above, 85% of those aware of such services could only name iTunes and Amazon, despite there being more than 20 services in the market.

Jill Johnstone, International director, Consumer Focus, said: “The music industry is shooting itself in the foot by not promoting legal legal online music services. If file sharing is causing the damage the music industry claims, why aren’t they putting more effort into promoting the legal alternatives? Before we go down the enforcement road it is only fair to ask the music industry to do more to make people aware of the legal options.”

Its all about online and not to be left out, Sony Music have now announced their phasing out of the mailing of physical stock and switch to a digital e-card systemfor the distribution of promotional music.

Chairman of Sony Music, Ged Doherty, explained that “digital promo is set to become an industry standard as other major and independent music companies also make the switch. Physical stock is expensive, difficult to store and environmentally unfriendly.”

Miss Scotland strikes a pose.

Reigning Miss Scotland and Miss UK, Katherine Brown, a fitness ambassador for the Scottish Government and former Scottish junior tennis player, was out enjoying the ever-changing elements of Glasgow’s climate last week, jumping around with Marco the Monkey and one of the weewalkers’.

Miss Scotland was pledging her support and lending her name to the upcoming Glasgow WeeWalks event in aid of the Wildhearts charity.

The Scottish charity aims to help Glasgow youngsters get fit and healthy this Spring by holding a sponsored walk event in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow on Sunday May 23rd. The WildHearts’ WeeWalk will see toddlers and primary aged children and families from across the city completing a 1 or 3 mile route around the Garden, tackling a host of fun activities along the way.
The WildHearts’ WeeWalk in Aberdeen last year was a resounding success. 250 kids took part in the fun-filled sponsored walk event and raised £5000 for the charity’s micro-finance projects in Ghana. The £5000 fund was enough to set up an entire Trust Group which provided initial loans and business training for 25-30 Ghanaians to start up their own businesses and work their way out of poverty.
Each loan affects the lives of 7 people initially, and the money is recycled 3 times every year. As a result of this process, the WeeWalk in Aberdeen last year has already made a dramatic difference to up to 630 people in Ghana, and will continue to do so for more and more people every year.

Inbetween photo opps, Katherine expressed her enjoyment of being part of this excellent cause, “I am thrilled to be able to lend my support to a cause such as the WildHearts’ WeeWalk which not only encourages healthy living among children in Scotland, but also empowers women in Ghana to work their way out of poverty and improve theirs and their children’s lives exponentially.”

Utilising the powers of social media, Wildheart’s digital PR team have the footage up on YouTube. Some may say, the perfect opportunity to check out Miss Scotland in her shades.. and her high points to date http://www.youtube.com/revolverpr#p/a/u/0/d_K8eHFpVKU.

Digital pushing for kids interaction.

They are more educated and efficient in their online usage than most, putting parents to shame along the way. Youngsters have grown up in the digital age and consider it a natural function surfing around social media channels.

Alongside this, today’s mobile phones are not just phone’s but gateways to the social media phenomenon. Indeed, social media is an enabling framework for brands, parents and educators – its on demand, interactive, sensing and connected, and adds expression and sharing capabilities. A vast menu of web and mobile tools have been developed to facilitate information sharing and commentary on the web, with applications having kept the pace as consumers rush to populate blogs, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, forums, message boards and online communities.

In digital PR, the buzz is all about consumer-generated media. Companies have discovered that no paid-for communicationcampaign has the impact of campaigns driven by consumers grounded in relevant, first-hand experience. Their influence is immediate, highly viral and authentic.

Mobile devices represent a major impetus behind the social media movement, and teens represent 19% of the 12.3million active social networkers. Consider that the average 13-17 year old sends more than 2,000 text messages per month. Compared with the total mobile internet population, teens are much bigger consumers of social media, music, games, videos/movies and technology/science, which is why a company’s digital pr team must be conscious of the possibilities in reaching certain demographics.

Innocent, as in Innocent Smoothies, has tapped into this with a positive intent by launching an integrated campaign targeting children and parents to promote its kid’s range of drinks and encourage them to be more interested in eating fruit. Web advertising focuses around an online magnet swap-shop, where children can register magnets won from on-pack promotions as well as on-pack codes to gain points.

It’s the first time Innocent has created a significant online element for the advertising of its kids’ range. The website includes content specifically for children, including games, competitions and a My Magnets collection area.

Interestingly, MD of their digital agency Public, Rhydian Fisher said, “This kind of integrated campaign is precisely how FMCG brands should be using digital, by engaging with their customers on an emotional and relevant level but tying that activity in directly to sales, brand recognition and sampling.”

Digital PR taking advantage of the viral web

With the advent of digital we see a fundamental shift in media and news consumption. We are moving from information push to information pull. Information consumers can now use search engines and RSS readers to filter, manage and control the content they see. Thus, to succeed in today’s world PR leaders must engage both traditonal media influencers and the new influencers like bloggers, forums and communities across social networks.

Therefore, an effective PR strategy must incorporate Digital PR. Digital PR takes advantage of the viral nature of the web to expand visibility and message syndication across traditional media, new and the end customer audience.

With this, the benefits are encouraging. It is possible to optimise press releases and distributionstrategies for organic visibility and inbound links. It also makes it possible to support campaigns for new influencer outreach through a blog, community, wikisphere and broader mediasphere.

Not to mention, produce creative content including innovative video – documentary branding, explainer videos, impact creative – whilst also using a more native social media style and content to engage new audience and increase transparency.

Further, the highly accurate real-time measurability is a must, enabling rapid evolution of Web marketing campaigns.

The many benefits of the ever evolving phone industry has yet another enticing offer in the form of the new online restaurant booking site Toptable, which has launched a free app for the iPhone.  It allows users to find and book restaurants near their location and uses augmented reality to show where the restaurants are.  Other features include a tip calculator to help with leaving a gratuity and a My Sommelier tool, which suggests which wines go with different foods.

This shy’s in comparison to Microsoft’s announcement of its mobile operating system Windows Phone 7, which features integration with its own search engine Bing, connected gaming service Xbox Live and media player Zune.  The computing giant wants to turn around its fortunes in the mobile industry with the launch of a range of phones this year.  This is exciting when you know that HTC has already committed to building devices which use Windows Phone 7.

Interesting to note when according to the American Mobile Association, total spend on mobile marketing will grow from $1.7 billion this year to $2.16 billion in 2010 in the US alone.  Google’s $750 million purchase of mobile ad network Admob reinforces that 2010 will be a significant year for mobile.  From this, many expect to see much more consolidation in the mobile sector.

All of this may well mean that mobile may start to take advertising $$ which would previously have been spent online.  Since it is a new medium however, there remains consumer resistance to mobile advertising, so perhaps it is best for advertisers to favour the soft-sell approach of providing useful information in this space through tactful digitally enabled public relations, rather than pushing hard-selling messages.

For instance, this will work with social media and help to evolve search functions.  Search will become increasingly real-time as users take advantage of Google and Bing search results including Twitter and Facebook updates, or use Twitter Search as a stand alone application to be accessed on your phone.