Challis Hodge’s UXblog

Lots of juicy stuff in this May 2007 iProspect study conducted by JupiterResearch.

A few highlights:

• One out of three internet users turns to sites with user-generated content to help make a purchase decision.
• The majority of visitors to social networking sites (90%) don’t post comments on the sites they visit.
• 25% of internet users frequent popular social networking sites at least once a month (primarily arriving through direct navigation and bookmarking.
• 72% of YouTube visitors primarily seek entertainment, while 49% of FaceBook users and 35% of MySpace users primarily seek networking opportunities.
• 56% of TripAdvisor visitors, 39% of Yahoo! Answers visitors, 39% of Craigslist visitors, and 32% of iVillage visitors actively research products or services.

Check out the study there’s lots more to glean.

For some time marketers have recognized Influencers as experts who offer credible reach into niche audiences. Their challenge has been figuring out how to leverage those Influencers to meet marketing objectives.

A recent CNET Networks study “Understanding Influence, and Making it Work for You” sheds new light on the Influencer psyche. Far from supporting the ‘expert’ position, the research suggests that “influencers are individuals who gain self-worth by giving good advice.”

Influencers build large social networks and interact with 100 or more people each month. Moderately-connected individuals report connections with between 11 and 99 people each month, while less-connected individuals have 10 or fewer connections with close or casual friends, neighbors, family members, co-workers, and church or civic organization members. The study finds a correlation between network size and self-reported influence activity. Fewer than half the less-connected group is asked for opinions or advice, versus 75 percent of the highly-connected cohort.

The research shows a direct correlation between the size of the Influencer’s network and thew role of technology in their ability to stay connected. According to the report, “Technology enables the maintenance and frequency of connections…”

In this breakthrough video the “Girls Of Miller” are protesting the freezing of their pensions. This is the first I’ve seen of a social media site being used as a virtual union picket line. The video is dedicated to Norman Adami, CEO (SAB) Miller Brewing Company from the Union Women of Miller Beer. It’s not very well done by the message is clear. You go girls…and two guys!?

A recent marketing campaign turned Boston bomb scare exposes the fragmentation and generational divides that modern day marketers are confronting. There intent is to cut through the noise in an effort to present relevant messages to people who care. To do this successfully they must increasingly find ways to reach smaller and smaller niche audiences with more and more relevant content.

Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim is a pipeline into the hearts, minds, and wallets of the 18-24 and 18-34 adult population coveted by the advertising industry. Aqua Teen Hunger Force, one of CN’s shows has been so popular it supported a recent spin-off movie.

And that leads us back to a clever idea for a Gorilla Marketing campaign gone bad. As part of a larger campaign to promote the new ATHF movie, light-up signs of the show’s characters were placed around the city of Boston.

At first it appeared that the campaign was set up for success but a fragmented audience responded in ways the marketers hadn’t anticipated.

The Boston Globe exposed the fragmentation in its piece “Marketing Gambit Exposes a Wide Generation Gap.” The author pointed out that people like Todd Vanderlin, a 22-year-old design student, were photographing the signs and blogging about the campaign just as anticipated.

“I knew it was art, and I knew it was part of the Adult Swim ads, because I saw a billboard for the same thing,” said Vanderlin, referring to a series of cartoons on cable television. “I see it in New York all the time.”

Unfortunately on the other end of the market spectrum a subway worker less hip to the ways of gorilla marketing and Adult Swim called the police after spotting one of the “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” cartoon characters on an overpass in Charlestown Massachusetts. What followed was a terrorism scare and a massive police response that practically shut down the city of Boston.

Once it was discovered the electronic boards were part of a viral marketing campaign the dichotomy was again exposed. One one side serious condemnation flowed from officials in Boston and Washington while it was clear the 20-somethings had a different take. one 29-year-old from Malden Massachusets blogged it this way:

“Repeat after me, authorities. L-E-D. Not I-E-D. Get it?”

Nothing could have illustrated the schism more than the press conference held by Sean Stevens and Peter Berdovsky, the two men responsible for posting the signs, following their release on bail. Referred to as artists by their attorney they agreed to make a formal statement to the press. As they described it, they preferred it to be more of a conversation than a statement. The topic? In there own words:

hair cuts in the 70s–we really want to discuss the style of them”.

In his post Social Networking Users ≠ Marketing Bait my good friend Matt MacQueen shares some thoughts on Google’s recent purchase of YouTube. He writes:

“Social networking sites are not the place for marketers to be intrusive,” [MacQueen] said. “These communities are there for people to network for the common good, not to be marketing bait. They are not loyal to the social networking site, they are loyal to their friends.”

The attractiveness of YouTube is not that it’s a great place for marketers to serve up ads. YouTube is the marketing tool. The medium is the message.

“The old mass marketing model, which is pushing the message out to a passive group of sheep,” doesn’t work for these sites, MacQueen said. Rather, the marketing, like the interaction among users of the site, needs to be “more one-on-one,” he said.

“It’s user-centered marketing. You have to look at a customer need or problem, and then have the brand give the customer what he wants.”

I think the message here is that my sermons from 10 years ago have finally come to fruition. :) Control has shifted from business to consumer and as such consumers are demanding products and services that meet their specific needs. This isn’t marketing. It’s the cost of entry to offer a product or service in todays markets.

Matt also commented on Helio’s service allowing users to post pictures directly to myspace from their phone.

MacQueen said Helio, a mobile phone company, has the right idea.

“They are offering an experience that is unique. You can publish the photos you take with your phone right on your MySpace page,” he said. “Helio figured out that the social currency on MySpace is through sharing media with other friends.”

MacQueen called this marketing as a service, not pushing a product.

I agree with Matt’s assessment that helio is offering a service though I think it’s a stretch to define it as marketing. In my view marketing the means to an end. The end being a sale or some other desired outcome that provides value to a business or entity. Helio is simply giving consumers what they want and need.

If Helio plays its cards well it may see the day when its most powerful marketing tool is the very customer it serves. If Google’s bet on YouTube is correct, YouTube it may well be the next paradigm in online marketing–anyone for Google VideoSense?

BoldMouth just released an interesting new study on WOM Marketing (PDF). It’s worth checking out. The report is good. Judging from their website they just skipped right past online marketing!

Social networks and community sites have changed the rules of marketing. The thing is, most of your competitors just don’t know it yet.

Businesses of every size from large enterprises like Microsoft and Panasonic to small companies like MyKumari.com and Verity Blue are, or soon will be, adopting word-of-mouth (WOM) marketing at an incredibly fast pace. The implementation of WOM marketing may be enthusiastic, but it often results in ineffective or misguided campaigns.

The rules for marketing are changing at such a fast pace—and that fact was reinforced—when 65% of organizations that participated in the study told us they did not have a formalized word-of-mouth marketing plan.

We believe that industry stakeholders need formalized processes to assess how referral conversations are initiated, modified and terminated, and to better understand the relationship dynamics that develop as a result of individuals making independent referrals.

The study includes a comprehensive overview of where the word-of-mouth industry is now, and shows you how to create a word-of-mouth marketing strategy for your own organization that will help you avoid missteps than can detail your success to build buzz and revenue.

Andrew Bernsteinhas a short piece on Wombat Blog with a couple of good points to consider when monitoring WOM.

As PR becomes more strategic, and campaign time shortens, you can’t wait six months to do a focus group,” says Andrew Bernstein, President and CEO of Cymfony. He suggests tracking the conversations taking place online. “By tracking a variety of areas, you can get a good sense of what people are thinking about your product, brand, and company.

Click here to read Andrew’s five tips

P&G is now asking Moms to spread the word through its new venture, Vocalpoint. But not just for P&G brands as you might think. P&G is leveraging it’s role as a trusted broker to offer an instant WOM network to its clients. P&G reports 225,000 teens and 500,000 moms have signed up to date.