There is no doubt that digital media is becoming more and more prominent every day. Everything has a website, it’s all about fans and followers, there’s an app for “that,” and tablets are making print feel irrelevant. However, despite rumors and myths, digital is not replacing traditional media; it is enhancing it. While advertisements have shifted from “buy now” to “follow us,” traditional media is being forced to learn how to play with digital media to create a more well-rounded, powerful campaign. Because of this, companies are starting to take digital media more seriously realizing its importance in creating value for consumers. It’s this user value that provides the most powerful impact.

Thanks to the Y generation, traditional media now plays a different role when it comes to a campaign. It hasn’t lost its power to reach masses, in fact that’s where its strongpoint is. Traditional media’s ability to reach masses is used for “introducing” a campaign and driving consumers to digital media. Digital media in return, ultimately turns into brand loyalty and conversion rates. It is suggested that 70% of budgeting should be spent on traditional media to ultimately drive consumers to digital media. Thus, to be popular online, offline advertising is still key.
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As 2010 comes to a close, we’re recapping Mindgruve’s Top 3 Predictions for 2010 and looking forward to what 2011 will bring.

First, at the beginning of 2010, we said SEO and social media would be huge and they were. In addition to Google and Bing’s search results that feature Facebook and Twitter posts, Clickz notes that link building through social media can help generate leads, while the recent Facebook-Bing partnership indicates the growing importance of social media’s relationship with search.
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In 2008, President Obama’s presidential campaign changed political marketing in various ways, but as a digital media agency we were intrigued with his use of social and mobile media to connect and garner support from the American people. After witnessing the overwhelming amount of success Barack Obama had with his voters, 2010 midterm election candidates on both sides of the aisle are embracing the power of new media, such as geo-targeted mobile ads, social websites and appealing designs that evoke a sense of sociability and openness, to connect with voters in time for election day.

Similar to President Obama’s mobile marketing efforts, candidates running in the 2010 midterm elections have stepped up their mobile advertising through geo-targeted mobile ads. Rep. Michele Bachmann used this tactic to target Minnesotans specifically at the state fair this past summer and as the Star Tribune notes, “campaigns are spending more of their budgets on sophisticated web ads that zero in on specific locations and demographics,” and rightly so. As we discussed in a past blog, mobile phones are a hyper-personal medium. Targeting smart phone users based on age, location, gender, search terms and residence can create awareness among groups of voters that matter most to a campaign’s overall success.

In addition to geo-targeted mobile ads, political parties have increased their social media use (of note, Republicans now hold eight of the top ten Capitol Hill Twitter spots, while 300 members of congress have turned to Facebook to stay in touch with the voting public) and taken steps to create community websites for constituents to interact with the political party and fellow voters. This past May, the GOP did this very thing when launching America Speaking Out. Its purpose is to solicit policy ideas from community members, who then vote for their favorite policy idea in order to create the GOP’s “Pledge to America.” The integration with Facebook and Twitter take this concept a step further as community members are able to share a policy idea and/or vote with their network of friends.

Finally, it doesn’t just end with new media channels. Design now plays an integral role in making sure the brand of a political party is open and inviting, encouraging a stronger social relationship. America Speaking Out moved in this direction with their website design and color palette in order to speak to voters who are unhappy with current leadership. Another intriguing web design change came from the Democratic National Committee. Armed with a new logo (reminiscent of Facebook and Twitter icons) and website redesign, the party’s new look was created to reflect what the DNC wishes to represent to America – “a community.”

Based on our observations of the new social media and mobile methods being used for the 2010 midterm elections quickly approaching, it’s obvious that new media is changing the face of political campaigning. With that said, we are confident that the new media tactics and strategies used today will empower politicians and political parties to expand their social reach by creating a network of supporters who will help spread their message to the American people.

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.

The past few years have seen many innovations in the world of mobile marketing, one of the biggest being the use of digital barcodes. Digital barcodes, or Quick Response codes, are barcodes that, when scanned using a mobile device’s QR code reader, lead users to promotional information designated by the creator. We believe digital barcodes will help mobile marketing finally break into the mainstream. They create a more intimate experience for users as well as increase the effectiveness and response time of opt-in marketing campaigns.

The biggest advantage to a digital barcode campaign is an increase in user engagement. Digital barcodes create a more enticing, personal experience for users that is hard to replicate in other mediums. They also have the ability to quickly show the success of a campaign based on the number of scans per location, which can be measured at any time. Additionally, digital barcodes can drive quality traffic to a company’s website or landing page, allowing for targeted marketing. Finally, consumers that use the bar codes are showing an immediate interest, making it easier for companies to get visitors to interact with their product or service.

This is perfectly demonstrated by a digital barcode campaign that was recently launched by Calvin Klein to support their new lines of X jeans. Billboards were placed in New York and Los Angeles with a digital barcode on them in place of the normally racy billboard. If scanned, the ad promised an uncensored version for private viewing. With the campaign, Calvin Klein enticed consumers to visit its site under their own volition and to engage with their new product in influencer markets.

QR Codes have also been used for other types of campaigns. The nonprofit group Women of the Storm used digital barcodes to rally support for restoration of the Gulf Coast after the BP oil spill. The Be the One Campaign, with the assistance of ScanLife, created a digital barcode that leads to their website. This barcode was then put on display in Times Square as well as printed on stickers and T-shirts. To date, it has resulted in over 120,000 people signing up to support their cause.

While there are many advantages to a digital barcode campaign, there are some drawbacks to be considered. The technology is still very new and in most cases requires a smartphone. Marketers will also need to make sure they have a significant web presence. With this type of campaign, companies must ensure that consumers will remain engaged once they hit the landing page or the campaign is destined to fail.

This technology is an exciting look into the future of marketing. We are currently utilizing one on our building for our Google business listing and believe that digital barcodes offer many options for engaging the audience with creative, versatile opt-in marketing campaigns. While there are still some issues to work around, this technology offers the ability take mobile marketing to a whole new level.

If you or your company is interested in learning more about the potential for digital barcode campaigns, please contact Michael Garten by phone (949.698.2983), on Twitter or through Linkedin.

For years, television has seen a steady ratings decline for prime time slots and major event broadcasts. Naturally, the consistent surge of websites (especially social ones) has been blamed, but the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics may be proving that trend incorrect. Earlier this year, televised events coupled with online campaigns and social media engagement, such as the #SB44 tweet grid and socially-influenced Grammy site, WereAllFans.com, saw a ratings spike when compared to the previous year, revealing a shift in media user behavior. This shift leads us to believe that 2010 will be the year that we finally see social and traditional media working in unison to carry the experience from one medium to the next and improve engagement/ratings.

Though we were less than thrilled with NBC’s West Coast time delay, the network took strong steps to create a cohesive online marketing campaign that pushed us to tune-in for the final results – whether or not we already knew them.

Considered “the first social media Olympics” by Alex Huot, head of social media for the International Olympic Committee, NBC kept pace with the development of features, including the “Athlete Twitter Sheet,” which allowed users to search for tweets by athlete or sport and “Twitter Tracker,” which gives sports fans the ability to see popular news. Additionally, NBC’s robust website housed tabs ranging from “Tweets & Blogs” to “My Hometown Coverage” to “Videos,” all of which had more features to browse through, such as Digg Olympic tags and event replays.

Businesses often ask, “If we’re doing A, do we really need to do B and C?” NBC’s accomplishments prove that the answer is yes. Vancouver’s opening ceremonies alone pulled nearly 33 million viewers, while the remainder of the 17-day event garnered high ratings, according to the Associated Press. The same can be said for other major televised events, including the 2010 Grammy’s and Super Bowl 44, which both received noteworthy ratings through some engaging marketing tactics.

According to Wayne Friedman, “fifty-five percent of users who visited NBCOlympics.com have been watching TV and the Web site at the same time.” This is also true for mobile NBC users. In this case, Olympic sponsors, such as Coca-Cola, used a virtual snowball fight and iPhone app with NBC to benefit as well as receive high scores in brand recall, media recall and brand likability.

Search engines like Yahoo, which drew 32 million visitors and 314 million minutes time spent online, also delivered interactive features (that we believe likely contributed to NBC’s ratings as well) and gave fans the opportunity to take part in the Olympic fun.

With the amount of new technology, tools and creativity available, the audience experience is changing to seamlessly carry through from one medium to the next in order to truly capture their attention. Let’s face it, the Olympic numbers show that engaging, multi-platform content is here to stay and we hope brands won’t shy away from it, but embrace it for what it really is – awesome!