Online Sales Projected to Rise this Holiday Season

eMarketer released a report yesterday predicting that online sales will be 5.4% higher this holiday season than in 2008. While this growth is not as high as in years past, it is still a sharp increase over the 5.7% decline during last year’s holiday season. This is good news for all e-commerce businesses and a trend that will hopefully continue into 2010.

While consumers will spend more this year, they will also shop around more and spend time looking for the best deal. There are a few changes you can make to your site and interactive campaigns to take advantage of these behaviors.

First, it is very important to make sure that the offer in your ad is clearly and easily seen on your landing page. If someone clicks on an ad for 20% off and doesn’t see that same offer on your site, they won’t bother searching around the site for it. They will leave and look for a deal from your competitors.

Next, you need to keep a close eye on your cost per conversion (or whatever your key metric is). Especially with search engine marketing, an increased number of shoppers results in increased clicks. This can be great for web traffic, but can also drastically increase your costs. It is important to make sure that the increased traffic is resulting in increased sales.

Finally, make sure your ad/email/site stand out from the crowd. Just today I received 10 different holiday sale emails, most of which I deleted immediately. I only opened the ones with the most intriguing offers. Add to this the number of ads I would have seen if I was actually shopping and you can see how overwhelming the online shopping experience can be for consumers. However, for companies that are providing great deals and a simple buying process, there is much to gain during this holiday season.

Leno – The Results are Coming In

Back in late May, I blogged about NBC’s decision to air the Jay Leno show Monday through Friday at 10pm. I asked whether this was a genius move or a recipe for disaster. While it’s still fairly early in the game, it appears that NBC’s bold move is turning out to be closer to the latter.

We in the world of media are proud of our lingo, acronyms and media terms that are foreign to the non-media world. One of the new terms being coined in 4^th quarter 2009 is the “Leno Effect”.  This refers to the effect that the 10pm airing of the Leno Show has on the local affiliates’ 11pm news, which is a very important daypart for local stations.

For the first week, Leno seemed to be holding his own. The main reason for this was that the other networks had not yet rolled out their new prime lineups. Once that happened, Leno’s ratings began to fall and with it the local 11pm news ratings. Hence, the Leno Effect. As Leno goes, so goes the 11pm news.

WBAL-TV, the NBC affiliate here in Baltimore (owned by Hearst) had been sitting on top in the late news ratings war – or if not on top, in a tie with WJZ-TV the CBS-owned and operated station.  Usually we would have to wait until mid-November to know for sure how things were faring for Leno and the late news. We would be able to get overnights, but they would show only household ratings. We would not have known for sure what was going on with specific demographics until the October Nielsen book came out. But enter LPMs (local people meters) and we now have access to the information instantly, and it hasn’t been a pretty picture here in Baltimore.

Media Works Makes Headlines

Media Works is happy to announce the addition of our newest account in the Baltimore Sun Business section early Friday morning.  After a fast and furious pitch process we were selected as the new agency of record for the Van Tuyl Automotive Group based in Phoenix, Arizona.

We are excited to work with this new client in a variety of markets across the US and have already begun our market trips and planning process.  This has been a great win for Media Works and we thank our client Mile One for the wonderful recommendation!

Please check out our recent press in the Baltimore Sun.

braVo!

Today, Mandy, Jennifer and I had the pleasure of attending the Jay Strongwater breakfast at Regalo to support braVo!. It was such a nice event. Creations from Jay Strongwater were beautifully displayed at tables based on the Jay’s collections. For instance, the table where we sat was called “Charming” as the center piece incorporated the charm jewelry collection. Another table was called “Meadow” and displayed that collection.

A portion of all the proceeds from the items purchased at the event benefit the braVo! Financial Assistance Fund at Lifebridge Health. Established four years ago, this fund helps patients in need obtain services that are not covered by insurance such as breast prosthesis, wigs, transportations to and from treatments and utility bills. Media Works is happy we could help support such a great organization.

FTC Issues Updated Guidelines for Endorsements

This week, the FTC issued updated guidelines governing how companies use endorsements and testimonials in their advertising and marketing. The FTC press release cites three specific groups that will be most affected by these changes. Let’s take a look at these groups and how the changes may affect certain businesses.

Testimonial Advertisers:
From the FTC , “Under the revised Guides, advertisements that feature a consumer and convey his or her experience with a product or service as typical when that is not the case will be required to clearly disclose the results that consumers can generally expect. In contrast to the 1980 version of the Guides – which allowed advertisers to describe unusual results in a testimonial as long as they included a disclaimer such as “results not typical” – the revised Guides no longer contain this safe harbor.”

This change will have a significant and immediate impact on diet/exercise/weight loss advertisers. Where as before they could include the simple disclaimer of “results not typical”, they now have to tell you the average results that you can expect.

The headline will go from, “Becky lost 40 pounds in 2 months!” (Results not typical); to “Becky lost 40 pounds in 2 months!” (You can expect to lose 5-10 pounds in 2 months based on average user results). As you can see, this is a change that could have a serious impact on businesses in this industry.

Media Works Makes It Big!

Media Works is proud to announce the addition of our newest client, The Big Screen Store. They have 13 locations in three markets, Baltimore, Washington D. C. and Norfolk. The Big Screen Store is also locally owned and operated and their retail locations offer brand name HDTVs from 42″ to 85″ in size. In addition to TVs, when you shop at The Big Screen Store, you can build your own home theater that is complete with a sound system and a large selection of cinema style furniture. They will even match competitors’ pricing and include installation of their products with great service.

Media Works is excited to help Big Screen implement new media strategies in their markets and help a local business compete against the large national big box chains. We are implementing a male-targeted plan that includes sports marketing on television and radio, interactive, as well as new media strategies in all their markets to kick off the 4th quarter retail season.

Media Works launched Big Screen’s first Google search engine marketing campaign and quickly saw click through rates that are 3-4 times higher than the industry average. More importantly, when Media Works combined the search campaign with a targeted television campaign for Big Screen’s Labor Day sale, we saw a significant boost to the results. Using Google SEM combined with our television strategies, Media Works has managed to drive thousands of qualified, interested visitors to thebigscreenstore.com in a very short time.

Beyond just running spots and digital ads, Media Works is helping The Big Screen with promotions that combine digital and traditional media.  Media Works helped facilitate a brand new promotion with ESPN 980/Redskins Radio in Washington D. C. called the “Big Screen Score Contest”. Listeners can register their prediction for the score of the next Redskins game online to enter to win a complete home theater system. The Big Screen Store is engaging its potential male consumers through traditional radio and asking them to actively participate for a chance to win their products. Media Works’ strategy of using a traditional male broadcast vehicle is helping drive traffic to Big Screen’s website and in turn helping us evaluate success of the promotion and ROI through digital vehicles.

We have coordinated similar sponsorships with the Baltimore Ravens for the Baltimore market and are also using Monday Night Football and broadcast NFL television games to reach consumers that are home watching THE reason they want a bigger, better TV: Football! Media Works understands the importance of helping clients reach their target creatively through multiple media outlets and it is our big media ideas that are generating big results and maximum exposure for The Big Screen Store!

What I Learned as an Intern at Media Works

When I came to work as an intern for Media Works, I had very little knowledge of the media business. Media Works was a great place to work and I learned a lot over the past few months. It was a little overwhelming at first, going over invoices and scanning buys, but after tons of help from Monica I got the hang of it. The team at Media Works made me feel a lot more comfortable with everything because they were really open to answering all of my many questions. Asking a lot of questions helped me to learn more because I got definite answers instead of guessing and worrying.

Everyone in the office was extremely helpful and taught me all about media and what is most effective when planning and buying media for their clients. I learned it is rare to buy TV times within the 12a-6a daypart because that is the least popular time for people to watch TV. I learned to read invoices for print, radio, and TV, and actually understand them. Answering the phones and talking to clients and representatives was also a good way for me to loosen up and will help me be more confident in an office situation in the future.

In addition, I learned how to use SBMS, which is a program used to electronically enter the TV spot times, dates, stations, and spot length for each invoice for specific clients. It is a collective database that I had never heard of before working here, and now feel comfortable using.

Before Jennifer left on maternity leave, she taught me how to do pre-logs. It was very interesting to compare the differences in spot prices and see how they increase or decrease depending on the time.

Comcast Spotlight Partners with Verizon TV

Effective August 31, advertisers will have the ability to reach their target viewers through one cable company.

Comcast Spotlight announced that the cable company has partnered with Verizon FIOS to sell local and regional ads in the 10 cities where they compete. The 5 1/2 year agreement will only pertain to the advertising portion of both companies and Verizon will not lose their customers. This contract will present advertisers with an opportunity to reach all viewers who subscribe to either cable provider and will effect the Baltimore, Boston, Fort Wayne, IN, Harrisburg, PA, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, OR, Richmond, VA, Seattle and Washington, DC markets.

However, this is not the first agreement of this kind for the Comcast company. The cable provider has a contract with DirectTV to sell local ad inventory. Comcast shares ad sales with the 10 regional sports networks that DirectTV offers in the Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco markets.

The Baltimore Interconnect will increase its household universe by 22% which is about 145,180 households. A commercial bought on the interconnect will now have the ability to reach almost 99% of all cable households in the area and 75 % of all TV households.

Outdoor Advertising Introduces New Measurement

In an effort to combat the question of who is really seeing those outdoor billboards and other advertisements a new measurement system has been introduced called Eyes On Impressions. The days of Daily Effective Circulation (DEC’s) will become a thing of the past as new methodologies will allow media buyers to measure outdoor against other media.

Eyes on Impressions (EOI) will measure the number of people likely to notice an ad. This will be based on several factors including unit format, size, side of the road, angle to the road, street type, and distance to the road. Impressions will be delivered on demographic audience segments as well as income, ethnicity, and education. These will be compiled using MRI research conducted during travel surveys. Traffic counts will still remain the foundation of the system making it possible to report the number of people passing the board.

We constantly struggle in the world of media to integrate our media plans with common metrics. This move in the outdoor advertising industry to impressions will certainly help deliver more reliable metrics and overall campaign level impact in our media plans. I am excited to work with the new measurement and see how it impacts our media recommendations.

Washing Hands is Important to do Every Day

The calendar may say it’s the middle of Summer and the thermometer may be sitting in the 80-90 degree range, but people are already ramping up for the upcoming flu season and preparing for the worst.

Media Works’ client, LifeBridge Health Systems, will be instituting a public service announcement (PSA) encouraging the people of Baltimore to WASH THEIR HANDS!! Hand washing is the most effective way to prevent the spread of disease and is one of the best ways to avoid swine flu. LifeBridge plans to tweet one reason per day every day over an 8- week period to spread the word.

Media Works will be securing out-of-home advertising for these PSAs from some of the local outlets. In addition, the TV stations will be running a PSA which will feature local people washing their hands as they sing the alphabet. The city of Baltimore has gotten behind the effort as well. As we all know, a city whose citizens are washing their hands is a healthier city.

One would think the technique of proper hand washing would be commonly known – not so. Only yesterday the Baltimore Sun found it necessary to run an article on “Hand-Washing: A Refresher Course”.  What they report is that even though people may have hand washing knowledge, they are not practicing proper hand washing behavior, at least not on a consistent basis.

Perhaps in the name of a healthy work place, businesses should require a refresher course of their own. A healthy work place is a more productive work place.