Improved online media efforts and increased awareness for Carlsbad, CA lead to extended partnership.

San Diego, CA – September 29, 2010 – Following recent successes with a new website and increased online marketing efforts that have helped make Carlsbad, CA a top family travel and spa destination site in the United States, Visit Carlsbad has resigned with San Diego-based digital media firm, Mindgruve.

Through improved search engine marketing, a user-centric website experience and a streamlined visitor conversion process, Mindgruve has helped guide curious travelers to Carlsbad, CA. Focusing on improved messaging and information-rich content, the updated Visit Carlsbad brand has become a recognizable online destination for valuable southern California travel tips and insights.

“We have been extremely happy with the efforts that Mindgruve has put into our online marketing initiatives. We are confident they will continue to promote Carlsbad as a premier travel destination as we extend efforts into social media,”  said Sam Ross, Visit Carlsbad Executive Director.

Mindgruve has already started to increase Visit Carlsbad’s social media presence through website integration of Facebook “like” buttons, as well as a Facebook ad campaign and increased interaction across multiple social channels including Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. Future efforts will include online travel giveaways, custom travel applications and increased community connectivity for other Carlsbad businesses.

“Our partnership with Visit Carlsbad has been very successful thus far and we are excited for what the future holds. Extending our online efforts into social media, Visit Carlsbad’s website will become the hub of local content and useful travel insights ranging from weekend getaways to group-based travel,” stated Chad Robley, Mindgruve CEO.

About Visit Carlsbad
Visit Carlsbad is the Convention and Visitors Bureau for the Carlsbad area. It serves approximately 30 area hotels ranging from beach bungalows to luxury accommodations by presenting and promoting vacation ideas, packages, attractions and deals for the area. VisitCarlsbad.com.

In honor of National Coupon Month, we tip our hats to the rapidly growing trend of digital coupons. With constantly evolving technology and multiple communication channels, the delivery of digital coupons is quickly becoming key in creating customer loyalty. Companies that provide coupons to consumers and foster relationships across channels including email, online hubs, social networks and mobile messaging, increase their chances of gaining loyal brand advocates.

The foundation of any good coupon strategy is engagement. Customer engagement starts with providing all of the deals in one convenient location. As Kroger Co. found with their digital coupon library, a simple coupon marketing strategy delivers “more value and convenience to the consumer” as they are able to find and upload savings to store loyalty cards for future use. By providing an online savings hub, companies lay the groundwork by making a connection with consumers, while the consumers become familiar with the brand and what it offers.

Once the groundwork has been laid and brands have engaged a core audience, expanding their digital coupon program becomes an important factor. By going to the online channels where customers spend the most time, brands can encourage consumers to connect for additional savings on a more personal level. Contrary to how moms of the past waited for the Sunday paper to receive coupons, coupon-savvy moms of today (who seek out new coupon technology) are actively engaging with brands to receive deals through emails or Facebook pages, such as Target’s My Target Weekly. In support, 37% of Facebook users “Like” a Facebook page specifically for coupons, making this point of connection one that should not be overlooked.

Finally, advances in digital coupon technology, such as location-based services and mobile coupons, give brands yet another avenue to increase loyalty and provide value when consumers are in a “purchasing frame of mind.” The targeted messaging taking place here not only provides customers with useful coupons, but does so through a hyper-personal channel (mobile phones). Making it safe to say that many customers are comfortable welcoming a brand into their lives and eager to hear what they have to offer.

For each aspect of a couponing program, large amounts of information can be gathered to track the engagement and success. This information provides brands the opportunity to continually refine their messaging for buyers by focusing on shopping habits, which coupons are redeemed, search terms and where the deals were used.

In an increasingly fractured media market, many brands struggle with how they will remain top of mind to their consumers. By utilizing digital coupon programs that factor in consumer wants and behaviors, brands can provide a welcome service catered to customer needs. Taking advantage of these opportunities to connect and engage through digital couponing is a great first step to increasing customer loyalty.

Apple has recently announced its venture into the glut of social media networks on the internet – Ping. Ping is an iTunes-based community where users can list their favorite bands, follow some of their favorite artists and discover new artists through their friends. This new service was extremely popular at its inception, registering 1 million users in its first 48 hours. However, we see limitations that will likely prevent it from becoming a widely used social media tool, both from a marketing and user standpoint.

As a marketing vehicle, Ping has some work to do. Apple has leveraged its built-in audience of dedicated users as a base for future growth, but with 160 million people using iTunes, only about .006% of iTunes users are on Ping. For the music industry, there are few promotion opportunities to be found with no on-page advertising, a closed environment and little potential for sponsorships or co-branding. Marketers would be better off concentrating on a larger, more open audience such as Facebook, which features over 500 million users. Apple is clearly trying to create an opportunity to market both its own brand and the artists’ brand, but has done so with haste. While Ping has shown limitations in terms of marketing, even if corrected, poor user experience will halt any substantial growth opportunities.

What will determine future growth of Ping are its features and Apple has brought nothing new to the table. Ping has put itself in competition against better established services such as Last.fm (40 million users) or MySpace Music (71 million users) as well as a host of other services for niche music interests. The features that Ping has hung its hat on, including the ability to follow artists, recommend music to friends, and make comments on songs and albums have already been done effectively through these competitors. By taking this approach, they have chosen tried and true over innovation and done nothing to differentiate themselves. Ping has also ignored popular key features such as playlists and song play counts which could also limit future adoption. This could be forgivable if the service were executed well, but there are some issues there, too.

From an execution standpoint, Ping again lags behind. Apple has chosen to integrate their service with the iTunes interface. While this is understandable and an obvious way to leverage iTunes, it fails from a usability standpoint. Services such as MySpace music run through your browser, allowing anyone to see and hear what their favorite artists are doing. Ping, on the other hand, requires users to navigate the often clunky iTunes interface in search of artists who may or may not be in the iTunes library.

Ping has the potential to be an effective marketing tool in the future, but suffers from several flaws that need to be addressed in the present. Apple must take steps to differentiate Ping from similar services and do what they do best, be an innovative technological leader. Ping could also benefit from a more open interface that allows any artist or user to sign up. This way, Apple won’t be limiting its growth to previous users and can grow their brand more organically. Given time, Ping could become an effective social media platform, but right now it hasn’t given us a reason to use it.