I love product packaging; I’m actually obsessed with it.

In late February of this year I noticed a change in my favorite orange juice, it looked different, and not in a good way. So I did what any curious package design junkie would do, I Googled it. Low and behold the New York Times and about billion other people noticed this too.

The New York Times article titled “Tropicana Discovers Some Buyers Are Passionate About Packaging” sparked a conversion that spread like fire in the Advertising world as well as in the Foodie world. Package design junkies and consumers alike were taking their complaints to the web and posting their displeasure on blogs and other social media outlets like twitter and Facebook. They felt that the packaging was “ stupid”, “ugly”, “resembles a generic brand” and countless other unfavorable comments.

Normally, like any other large corporation (Tropicana is owned by PepsiCo) they would ignore such complaints, as they do not add up to even the smallest percentage of their consumers, but this time it was different. Neil Campbell, the President of Tropicana North America, said the following in an interview about the new packaging:

“We underestimated the deep emotional bond” they (consumers) had with the original packaging. “Those consumers are very important to us, so we responded.”

“The straw and orange have been there for a long time, but people have not necessarily had a huge connection to them.”

“What we didn’t get was the passion this very loyal small group of consumers have. That wasn’t something that came out in the research.”

After reading this article and peering through some of the numerous blogs I tried to think about what this means to Morpheus Media and its clients. Several important points came to mind.

- Social media will tell you things that standard focus groups and research will not, plus the feedback is boundless and instantaneous

- Consumer feedback or lack there of will help gauge where your brand is on the social scale

- Social media gives brands the opportunities to respond to consumer complaints and strengthen brand loyalty

Tropicana took the comments seriously and started to pull the new design and roll out the old one. Starting March 1^st the old packaging was back in stores along with new campaign ads.

Social Networks during the years 2001-2003 were platforms where people connected with one and other without targeted advertisements. Blogs were not popular to distribute content, but to use as personal journals. Many people were using Chatrooms to communicate with new people.

From 2004 to 2006, Social Platforms were not as popular as they are today. Facebook was only open to college students with valid .edu email addresses. MySpace was in its prime being used by 15-30 year olds on a regular basis. Twitter was in its infancy and only being used by a select few who were in the Internet (pre 2.0) industry.

From 2007 to 2008, Social Platforms we know and love seemed to improve and expand. Facebook opened to the public and increased engagement levels by offering Applications. MySpace came into its own by specializing in Music. And Social Networks expanded to other countries.

Today, Social Media is whatever the user wants it to be. Accessible by Mobile, Application, or Website, Social Platforms can be updated and used on a frequent basis. Because the speed of Social Media consumptions has rapidly increased, platforms are visible in multiple locations. As the future of Social Media and the value of Social Platforms continues to unfold, we will see many advancements in targeted platforms. Trending in Social Media has defined our culture. What was once a platform that kept us engaged for hours now keeps us notified and up to speed in just a few seconds. To become more beneficial for advertising campaigns, the goal should be to keep users engaged for longer periods of time.

As a Social Media marketer, I believe that expansion of these practices will start to encroach on traditional marketing campaigns, infiltrating subway billboards, and become more prominent on Search Engine result pages.

How many times have you been watching television, something sparks your interest and you want–no–need to find more about that topic immediately (any LOST fan knows exactly what I am talking about)? You grab your laptop and fervently search for more information on what you have just witnessed.

A common trend at this year’s CES was Internet-ready televisions and new vehicles for users to digest Web content. We’ve heard of products and applications such as Apple TV, Roku, Netflix through Xbox 360 amongst many others. This has been the existing way to absorb web content directly through your large format television. Taking this a step further, Yahoo and Intel Corp. are planning on developing television ”widgets” in order to access such Web content more easily through your existing remote, bypassing previously mentioned hardware and using the television exclusively.

“You are going to see very broad adoption of this open technology by the best brands in the TV industry — not just for specialty products but deeply penetrated in their product lines”…..Patrick Barry, VP of Connected TV @ Yahoo

We currently can access services such as YouTube and Google’s Picasa on our televisions as well as generic services like the weather. With the adoption of “Ready- Web” televisions, users will more frequently access Web content alongside their regular, habitual television programming. This opens the opportunity for advertisers to capture audiences outside the 30-second spot and could add a layer of targeting methodology that was not previously possible.

This past week, I was in Toronto for the SMX Search Analytics Conference. We discussed mostly advanced analytics techniques and traffic segmentation, which is becoming increasingly important to be on top of, especially in this competitive marketplace. I think the standout talks were Michael Jensen’s on event tracking in Google Analytics, as well as Carrie Hill’s on the value of Traffic Segmentation, and some advanced techniques she uses.

Here are my full notes from the conference…

–

SMX Search Analytics Keynote Address - Vanessa Fox

Search marketing not only brings in targeted customers, it provides an abundance of metrics - about your customers, your potential customers, your entire market. So much data is available that it’s easy to get overwhelmed. In her keynote, Vanessa Fox covers the importance of focusing on the actionable data. You don’t need every metric; you just need the right metrics for your business.

Find Vanessa Fox on the web at Nine By Blue and on Twitter.

* Old data acquisition models
o Pain to impliment
o The type of data we get online would be impossible to get offline
* How is the mountains of data we can collect actionable for the client? So what?
o How to sort through all the data?
* At the end of the day, the important factor for analytics is conversion. -How do you define a conversion?
* Analyzing Data
o Rankings reports are dead
o Key is to figure out what to be measuring
o If not actionable, it can only be of limited help
o Realize what assumptions go into computing data - can be “deadly important”.
* Critical to a lot time to collect, analyze, and act on data.
* Stages of data
o Market Research - Keyword Research - Searcher Behavior
o Industry Research - Competitive Landscape - Revenue Potential
o Conversion - Search Results Conversion - Page Conversion
* Social Media Media Metrics Greasmonkey Plugin

Read the rest of this entry »

If you ask anyone in Marketing (traditional or online) right now what trends they are seeing from their clients, I can almost guarantee that high up on the list will be the cutting of marketing budgets.  In what could be one of the worst recessions in recent US history, a Fear Economy has developed over what the next year and a half may bring to businesses and brands in almost every field.  So, a question remains.  What are we supposed to recommend as marketers so our brands weather these hard times and come out on top?

At the risk of sounding like a Give-Us-You-Money-And-We’ll-Spend-It Media Strategist, the most impactful solution to this question is….keep spending.  During recession periods, marketing budgets are typically first on the chopping block (especially within big companies), however, remaining visible during a downturned economy can be incredibly important in keeping a company profitable during these times (as well as paying dividends once the economy begins to improve).

Historical data shows us that there is a significant messaging void during slumps in the economy (due to the aforementioned budget cuts) and that the impact of brand messaging and Direct Marketing efforts can be more impactful because, well….there’s just not as many people on the playground.  Marketing within this recessionary void can increase brand share of voice and promote “company health” to consumers, avoiding the feeling of “abandonment” that consumers can feel if a brand’s messaging goes silent all of a sudden for extended periods of time (see Guns’N’Roses, Chinese Democracy).

During the Great Depression, brands such as GM, Proctor & Gamble, and Camel cigarettes became brand leaders and survived the economic downturn by increasing marketing efforts while their competitors panicked.  Moving forward, I still see budget cuts….but (for the brands willing to make the investment in the future) a big opportunity for brand awareness and, ultimately, conversion.

Birthdays are a big deal here at Morpheus, and for March’s birthday crew, we classed it up with some Dunkin Donuts Muchkins. Tasty.

Morpheus' March Birthday Crew

Just a few moments ago I had the opportunity to meet with an old friend of Morpheus Media, Jimmy Walker.  Mr. Walker was here to share his experiences from the 2008 Mongol Rally with us here at the agency.  Mr. Walker and company successfully completed a 6 week auto rally from London, England to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia last summer.  If the photos are any evidence, this appears to have been the trip of a lifetime for those involved.  To say that this trip makes for a great story is an understatement having just been treated to a live narrative of the experience by Mr. Walker.

While the successful completion of this trip is amazing in its own right, what is really impressive is that Mr. Walker and team were able to blog about this experience as it happened. The record of this adventure can be found at TeamDesertaxi.com and is worth a good look.   The logistics involved in updating a blog hundreds of miles from civilization and potentially thousands of miles from the nearest mobile network are daunting to say the least.

What makes this trip personally interesting for me is that I had the opportunity to watch the creation of the strategy for this social media extravaganza transpire at the desk next to mine.  Morpheus Media’s own SEO & Emerging Technology guru Jeffrey Donenfeld pioneered the program from the comfort of our offices here in Midtown Manhattan.  Multiple scenarios had to be planned for, accounting for all possible technology failures and the redundancy needed to remain successful while traveling through some of the most isolated regions of the world.  Team Deserttaxi was literally able to successfully blog from Outer Mongolia thanks to Jeffrey’s hard work.

I really wanted to tip my hat to Jeffrey on a job well done, as he is responsible for helping the team tell a great story under uniquely challenging circumstances.

I just wanted to take a moment to thank my new friends over at Mashable for hosting an entertaining event last night.  Adam Hirsch and team have found a new home here in town at 92Y Tribecca. The location was great, the crowd was enthusiastic, and the presentations were informative.  All in all it was a nice evening of social pros connecting and discussing the current “State of the New York Blogoshpere.”

While the event was informative, I would be remiss if I did not compliment the group on their new digs.  For those of you who have not yet been to the new location it really is a great space.  There was a progressive vibe present during the networking and there was bloggers lounge built for pros.

Although I was unable to stay for the entire event, I enjoyed the sold out show.  I look forward to attending the next few events at this location and just wanted to thank Tamar for her insights.

But instead of spending time on this post back-tracking and explaining cloud computing in full detail, I think it would be best to go directly into some “what-if” scenarios that are quickly becoming reality.  Cloud computing is taking virtualization to new heights in the workplace and on the web, using the relatively small capacities of many to create a computing superpower.

What interests me most is what this will eventually lead to.  Analysts are predicting that in a few years, there will be just as much talk about the “world wide grid” as there is today about the world wide web.  What is this, you ask?  Aggregating small amounts of power, bandwidth and storage space from each of our personal computers, placing them all in one grid structure (much like a bit torrent does for pulling large files) and creating one all-powerful supercomputer, this grid would allow applications to run robust tasks at an amazing and possibly alarming rate.

Think in terms of a beehive.  If the hive has 20 extremely effective worker bees, it cannot compete with another containing 2000 less-than-perfect worker bees, all executing simultaneously to build a large structure.  The scary part here is that this becomes a hacker’s dream.  Hackers can now run decoding applications on a very large scale.  Encryption systems have historically stayed ahead of the processing power of the top computers out there, keeping security air-tight (in most cases).  The potential to infiltrate a large-scale grid of computers is making hackers everywhere salivate at the thought.

And next, what happens as computers begin to execute small tasks on their own?  These computers can connect to the grid and employ the masses to complete other small tasks.  Eventually, the computer could use information from other computers in the grid to execute a large-scale operation (which began as a simple task created by a user).  And then?  Chaos.  The machines will utilize their strength in numbers to take over our everyday lives.  Seem surreal?  Like a movie?  Better look closer, as it’s really happening.

So what exactly does 2009 have to offer the interactive marketing community?  Economic forecasts are currently just as frigid as the evening weather report.  Consumer confidence is, well, less than confident.  Is all lost?  No, not according to the “Luxury Letter.”

Produced by Adcision the Luxury Letter is “A journal for the online marketing professional” that focuses on the luxury vertical.  So as a great unknown digital frontier exists just a few short calendar days away in 2009, what effect will a bearish market play on media plans and sales.

Well, do what the Luxury Letter did and ask Rebecca Matt.  Rebecca is a Senior Strategist here at Morpheus Media.  She is known for keeping one finger on the pulse of the industry while always keeping another finger on her mouse in order to make informed decisions on behalf of her clients.

While no one can guarantee what 2009 will hold, Rebecca has demonstrated a history of making well-informed decisions based on multiple factors in order to help her clients accounts perform well beyond expectations.

Rebecca keep up the great work, and remember don’t give away too much…