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December 1, 2009

Adding Branded Content To The Mixby Mary Beth Kempfor Marketing Leadership Professionals

www.forrester.com

© 2009, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Information is based on best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester®, Technographics®, Forrester Wave, RoleView, TechRadar, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective companies. To purchase reprints of this document, please email [email protected]. For additional information, go to www.forrester.com.

For Marketing Leadership Professionals

ExECuTivE SuMMAryProcter & Gamble (P&G) launched its own record label, and Unilever produced its own soap opera. These efforts shouldn’t come as a surprise as companies seek to grab the attention of consumers in nontraditional ways. The production of branded content — topical content that is created by a brand — is a powerful means to reach consumers who have become immune to traditional advertising. But the production of a cool piece of music or the release of a viral online video does not equal a successful branded content strategy. As with the rest of the marketing mix, branded content needs to be consistent with the broader marketing plan and deliver a message to a specific audience. This report lays out the steps required for marketers to integrate branded content into their strategies.

TABLE oF ConTEnTSBranded Content: A Hot But Elusive Strategy

Branded Content reconnects Advertisers With Their Consumers

Why Branded Content Fails

Key Steps To Defining The Right Branded Content Strategy

integrate Branded Content into your Marketing Strategy

Step 1: Pick The People you Most Want To reach

Step 2: Define And Measure The Objective of your Marketing Plan

Step 3: Develop The Branded Content Strategy

Step 4: Define Tactics And Technologies

Evaluate your Branded Content Strategy

rECoMMEnDATionS

Plan Branded Content According To Your Readiness

Supplemental Material

noTES & rESourCESForrester interviewed marketing leaders at large global advertisers, agencies, and media companies in Q3 2009, including abc family, Cadbury, Edelman, MasterCard, Mediavest, ogilvyEntertainment, The Coca-Cola Company, and The new york Times.

Related Research Documents“integrated Marketing Strategies For Low-Consideration Brands” September 1, 2009

“What The Media Meltdown Means For Marketing” July 21, 2009

“We Are All Media Companies now” July 7, 2009

December 1, 2009

Adding Branded Content To The MixThis is the second document in the “integrated Marketing Mix” series.

by Mary Beth Kempwith Kim Le Quoc, David M. Cooperstein, David Card, nick Thomas, and Jean-yves Lugo

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mailto:[email protected]

www.forrester.com

www.forrester.com

http://www.forrester.com/go?docid=55224&src=55506pdf




© 2009, Forrester research, inc. reproduction ProhibitedDecember 1, 2009

Adding Branded Content To The Mix For Marketing Leadership Professionals

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BRAnDED ConTEnT: A HoT BuT ELuSIVE STRATEGY

His name is “Q.” He is the first hip-hop artist produced by TAG Records, the music label owned by consumer product giant P&G (see Figure 1).1 Surprised? Don’t be. In the past few years, British Airways, Chrysler, Frito-Lay, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft Foods, Levi’s, MasterCard, and Unilever have all created branded content that speaks to what their consumers care about. It can take the form of produced music, travel articles, cooking advice, or self-help topics. Branded content is not new, but it has gained ground in recent years. Why? It helps advertisers achieve what traditional advertising sometimes fails to achieve: effective engagement between brands and their consumers.

“With the digital explosion, consumers can choose to watch what they want when they want — they no longer need to watch the ads. As a result, ad spending has decreased. But consumers still want content, and advertisers still want audiences. And brands have the money to provide both.” (Vice chairman at a European company)

“Everybody is looking into making their media strategy more effective. The next big thing is to place your marketing message in an environment where consumers will be more receptive.” (Director of digital strategy at a North American company)

Branded Content Reconnects Advertisers With Their Consumers

The major consumer brands that have implemented branded content into their marketing efforts, from Anheuser-Busch to Unilever, have done so because this content:

· Re-introduces relevance. According to a Forrester survey, more than half of consumers are annoyed by the volume of advertising they see.2 But providing consumers with relevant content where and when they want it enables marketers to provide value and engage the consumer. SunChips tripled its household penetration in four years by dropping traditional push marketing messages and creating its “Get Green” initiative, which provided information about how to live a healthier and greener life, across traditional and social media platforms.3 The tie to the brand was subtle in the content but accentuated with efforts to tout its own green initiatives.

· Gives some control back to the brands. Through branded content, marketers regain control over the messages and values they want to associate with their brands and define the kind of relationship they want to have with their consumers. For example, Suave’s Web series “In the Motherhood” got its consumers’ attention back by addressing the difficulties of being a modern mom.4 Nike engaged with football fans by providing them with its “Head2Head” application that allows direct comparison of player stats with any football opponent at the high school, college, or pro level and associates the players’ performance with Nike’s brand.5

© 2009, Forrester research, inc. reproduction Prohibited December 1, 2009


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Figure 1 TAG records Helps P&G Engage With urban Males

Source: Forrester Research, Inc.55506

TAG Records, launched by P&G in the summer of 2008, has more than 200,000fans on Facebook, more than twice the number of fans for Axe, the directcompetitor.



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· Opens the dialogue with consumers. Advertisers benefit from the common ground branded content offers them to engage in a 2-way conversation with their consumers.6 This is critical in a fragmented media environment, where consumers can avoid traditional ads. For Kleenex, this meant mixing branded content with social media. Its branded “Let It Out” campaign invited consumers to let their emotions out and to share their emotional stories across TV, radio, print, events, and online banners. As a result, its brand metrics — such as Kleenex being of “higher quality” than competing products — increased, and market share grew again, squeaking out 0.05% year-over-year growth worth more than $50 million.7

Why Branded Content Fails

Producing relevant, exciting content and getting it into the hands of the right consumers can prove costly and challenging. Branded content plans fail due to:

· Poorly defined business objectives. Branded content is about building stronger connections with consumers. But the strategy will vary greatly depending on whether the aim is to increase awareness, build brand preference, encourage repeat purchases, or drive loyalty. Marketers need to set clear objectives by which to define the most appropriate branded content strategy and the metrics to measure its impact.

“The marketing team went to the agency and said, ‘We want an iPhone application.’ They felt this was the latest and newest technology in the market, and they wanted to be associated with it. But what we should have done is start with the idea then determine which media helps build on that idea to create more engagement with our consumers.” (Head of media at a European company)

· Standalone initiatives. For consumers to engage with their content, advertisers must avoid launching standalone initiatives. They will want to integrate their branded content with their broader marketing plan so as to appear as legitimate sources of information. Branded content needs to make sense with the brand’s overall positioning and values. Marketers can’t decide to produce content about a popular topic like music and hope it will engage with consumers if the brand’s overall communication has nothing to do with music.

· Inadequate resource planning. Creating branded content that resonates with consumers is a full-time job that requires the support of real content production experts. Failure to properly gauge the cost of these dedicated resources, whether internal or external, is one of the main hurdles that marketers face with this strategy. Anheuser-Busch experienced this in early 2009 when it pulled the plug on Bud.TV, its branded online video platform. The cost to regularly produce unique videos for consumers had grown well beyond the initial plan, and unique visitor traffic levels had dropped, limiting the value of the effort.8



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“Branded content initiatives are not easy. A lot of different pieces have to come together — it’s more difficult than just creating a billboard. And you can’t just cut it off; otherwise, you’ll deceive a lot of consumers. You need to plan long term, especially if it becomes really successful, as you will need to build on it.” (Head of media at a European company)

· Nonexistent distribution and promotion strategies. Producing great content is hard work, but it needs visibility in order to support the goals behind its creation. Branded content needs to be recognized for what it is — a media “product” that needs its dedicated strategy, from production through promotion to distribution. As with any content, there must be a dedicated communication and distribution plan that is most relevant to your consumers’ behavior, just as any new product requires when it is launched in the market.

KEY STEPS To DEFInInG THE RIGHT BRAnDED ConTEnT STRATEGY

Branded content is not new but is increasingly important, as media fragmentation and consumer dissatisfaction with advertising have drastically changed the way marketers reach consumers. There are many ways to execute branded content, from a sponsorship that brands existing content to the creation of unique content owned and produced by the brand owner. The decision for what level of involvement the brand should have in this effort should be determined by the level of engagement the brand expects to achieve with the content (see Figure 2).9 Successful branded content must be:

· Consumer-centric. Branded content starts with consumers’ interests and the media they use to get that content. Whether it is a fan page on MySpace, a music video and sponsored tour, or a TV series, it has to appeal to the customer independent of the brand message.

· Integrated. Branded content will be most effective when the content fits with the brand’s natural territory of expression — that is, when it’s integrated with the broader marketing plan and brand positioning. That requires marketers to start with a clear definition of their brand’s value statement and unique positioning. The stronger the value proposition, the easier it will be for consumers to make the connection between the content and the brand.

· Directed by the advertiser. Advertisers need to be tightly involved with the production of the content either by bringing the initial content idea to the table or by being tightly involved in the scripting, storyboards, direction, and production. Branded content often requires the advertiser to own the production process and create content that reinforces the brand.



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Figure 2 Level of Engagement Differentiates The Kind of Branded Content Advertisers Can use


Scale of engagement

Examples

Risks

Benefits

Costs Low to medium

Useful for positioningbrand; good fordifferentiation

Limited opportunity toengage users; cannot

share revenues

Orange sponsoringFaithless; Waitrose

sponsoringThe End of the Line

Sponsorship

Medium

Opportunity tointegrate brand into

content; good forreaching community

of hard-to-reachearly adopters

Credibility issues if brandpositioning is not well

executed

Freak Web series onMySpace UK, with

P&G and Red Bull asbrand partners

Partnership

High

Opportunity to owncontent and to benefit

from its syndication

Challenging for acompany without

experience to createand distribute content

P&G launchingthe hip-hop music

record labelTAG Records

Ownership

Low engagement High engagement

Integrate Branded Content Into Your Marketing Strategy

Branded content is a “product” — once advertisers commit to cover a topic, they must maintain that content with plans and distribution or risk deceiving consumers. To avoid falling into branded content’s main pitfalls, advertisers should carefully plan their branded content strategy, starting with objectives and consumer behavior. Forrester’s four-step POST methodology — an acronym for the people, objectives, strategy, and technology involved in the effort — forces companies to think through, in order, their branded content strategy as it relates to the marketing funnel to create a comprehensive strategy (see Figure 3).10



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Figure 3 How A Brand Like Evian Could Add Branded Content To its Marketing Mix


Awareness Consideration Preference Purchase Loyalty

Consumers can comment and sharethe “Living Young” stories and videoswith their peers.

Testimonials of real-life consumerscaptured on Evian-sponsored events

5 The “Living Young” Web site

The “Living Young” Community

A competition for consumersto win the “Living Young”experience of their dreams

4 In-store promotion

Community encourages storiesabout “feeling young.”

Consumers share stories about feelingyoung on Evian-sponsored events.

3 The “Living Young” community

Outdoor promotion

Original content discusses“feeling young” around the world.

2 The “Living Young” Web site

TV commercial invitesconsumers to jointhe “Living Young”online community.

1 ”The roller babies”

6 The “Living Young” adsNew ads for Evian feature real consumersexpressing themselves about “feeling young.”



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Step 1: Pick The People You Most Want To Reach

Integrated branded content starts with the target consumer segment and the topics and content types that interest this segment the most. To select the people, you must determine:

· The audience to engage with. Creating a content strategy is like creating a marketing plan. Before setting the content agenda, marketing leaders need to start with a solid profiling of their consumers based on their demographics, behaviors, attitudes, lifestyle, or values.11 This profiling will drive the type of content, the distribution of that content, and the message that content needs to convey. For instance, male runners have different motivations for running than their female counterparts, and they use different media to get information. As a result, brands like Nike must design different content strategies to engage with those two distinct types of consumers.

· The topics that connect them with your brand. With consumers’ profiles identified, the next step is to develop content around the topics that will resonate with that audience. Listen to your consumers and to what they feel passionate about. If runners are your target, male runners will favor performance, competition, and setting records, while female runners may be more engaged by fitness, community, and personal achievement.

Step 2: Define And Measure The Objective of Your Marketing Plan

The business goals should drive the content strategy to ensure that there is a measureable return on the effort to create and maintain branded content. The brand’s content objective should be tied to traditional marketing activities to:

· Increase awareness. Content that entertains your consumers and therefore grabs their attention serves the need to build visibility and association with the brand. This is what Unilever did with its Web series made by, and for, US moms (“In the Motherhood”) for the relaunch of its hair care brand, Suave.12 To measure the impact of such a strategy, advertisers need to set objectives accordingly. Beyond the number of Web episodes viewed, marketers need to assess whether consumers make the connection between the brand and the content and to capture how the awareness of the brand changes as more consumers engage with the content.

· Build brand preference. To create a distinction between one brand and another, branded content can educate consumers about the qualities the brand wants to convey. For example, educational content can differentiate brands as in the case of InterContinental Hotels Group’s (IHG’s)“The Real Cities,” a travel program that promotes the value of great concierges and highlights those in IHG’s properties. Advertisers need to track how consumers’ perception of their brand changes as a result of their content strategy, in terms of Net Promoter Scores and the metrics that drive purchase versus direct competitors.



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· Drive loyalty. Branded content can also be used to increase loyalty. By launching the “Members Project,” an initiative that invited consumers to submit and vote for the best humanitarian project online, American Express succeeded in gathering a community of more than 400,000 registered members in 2008, who submitted 1,190 projects and attracted 1.8 million unique visitors. This content-driven contest helped reinforce affinity with the American Express brand.13 To measure the goal of this program, the brand needs to measure the number of comments and contributions and also measure the correlation between customers’ involvement with the content and their tendency to spend more with the brand.14

· Encourage repeat purchases. Getting even the most loyal customer to use your product more frequently is a challenge that is well served by branded content. Branded content allows you to provide your customers a service to help them with their daily lives and maintain a connection with the brand. Kraft Foods’ iPhone recipe application invites food lovers to become creative in the kitchen, using Kraft products and ingredients. Marketers should measure how many consumers use the service, how often they use it, and how much time they spent with the brand as a result. The end goal should be reflected in improved metrics that indicate higher share of wallet.

Step 3: Develop The Branded Content Strategy

Once you have firmly established whom to target and defined what your objective is, you can start to build your content and distribution plan. The next steps you want to take are the following:

· Create a compelling story. Hip-hop music makes sense to engage with young urban male consumers, but it has to be authentic to resonate with the target. To entertain these consumers and grab their attention, advertisers have to choose story lines that are consistent with what their brand is about. The stronger the connection to the brand statement, the stronger the story line will be. Adidas’ “Impossible Is Nothing,” for instance, could give life to an entire series of inspiring content around how athletes as well as ordinary people strive to succeed.

· Make it stand out. The business of content is very competitive. Your content will need to be different enough that consumers get unique entertainment or informational value out of it. To get that done, complete a benchmark of who your new competition is for the content. Advertisers willing to cover very competitive topics like beauty or fashion — where they would be facing direct competition from top players like Vogue or fashion-forward blogs like The Sartorialist — might consider partnering rather than building their own content from scratch.

· Expect payback through brand lift and revenue impact. Creating quality content can be very resource-intensive and expensive. Media organizations have entire editorial and production teams dedicated full-time to doing just that. The strategy must align the production costs of this effort with benefit to the brand objectives and the resulting sales impact. If the goals are small, marketers should consider sponsorship or partnership opportunities rather than creating their own content.



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Step 4: Define Tactics And Technologies

With a strategy in place, the tactics of constructing an integrated branded content effort can now be put on paper. The decisions that need to be made at this level are:

· Choose content and distribution channels that match your audience profile. Content needs to be created and delivered across media that the customer uses. Even if all of the content is video, there must be a strategy for placement of the videos as well as a plan to draw attention to the sites or networks that play them. Use Forrester’s media allocation tool to define whether your consumers use TV, magazines, newspapers, radio, or new media to get and research information of interest.15 Take it down to the level of social media with the Social Technographics® Profile.16

· Identify production resources. Few marketers, unless they have an in-house agency, have the technology and the skills internally to create content — staff such as writers, copywriters, fact checkers, editors, researchers, and cameramen. To evaluate the budget and ongoing resources required internally or externally, factor in the kind of content you want to produce — text, pictures, audio, video, online, mobile, or social content — and the frequency of the output (i.e., daily, weekly, or only monthly). Also factor in the time and effort required to monitor consumer comments or manage blog updates.

· Create a promotion plan. Producing great content and distributing it through the relevant media channels is one thing. But it doesn’t mean consumers will automatically flock to it. Just like they would for any other product or service, marketers must also define and budget for a communication plan for their content. That will include free and paid media and creative options — like identifying their most social consumers and using them as content ambassadors

— to increase the viral visibility of what has been created.17

Evaluate Your Branded Content Strategy

Are you ready to get into branded content? You can measure your readiness to use branded content as part of your media mix based on a checklist of key decision criteria (see Figure 4):18

· Ten or more “yes” responses. You are ready to launch. Optimize your branded content strategy by hiring or partnering with the content experts — agencies, media outlets, or producers — who will best know how to produce relevant content for your consumers and for your brand. This demands that your content experts have a very good understanding of what your consumers are interested in and of what your brand stands for. Maximize the value of your content by integrating the promotion of your branded content into your broader communication plan.

· Five to nine “yes” responses. Delay your branded content plan until you rethink the objectives of your program. Refine your strategy to make sure you are offering a unique content



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proposition to your consumers compared to direct and indirect competition offered by other advertisers and media outlets. Ask yourself if you have designed a consumer-centric distribution strategy, and establish metrics to track the evolution of your branded content actions.

· Four or fewer “yes” responses. Hold off on spending the money. Rethink whether branded content is the right strategy. Make sure you are ready to take on the cost and commitment and that you have defined a topic that strongly ties your consumers’ interests with your brand values.

Figure 4 is your Branded Content Plan ready To Launch?


Branded Content Plan Checklist

Does your existing consumer profiling enable you to clearly understandyour target’s primary passion points and motivations?

People

Have you clearly defined a marketing objective for your branded content strategy?

Is branded content the best answer to achieve that business objective?

Objective

Strategy

Does the topic you have chosen to address touch one of your consumers’key passion points?

Is the topic you have chosen to address relevant to your brand positioning?

Are your branded statement and positioning strong enough that they clearlydifferentiate your brand from competition?

Is your content proposition different from other advertisers and media companiesthat also address the same group of consumers with the same type of content?

Is the type of content you have chosen to use the best type to help youachieve that business objective?

Have you set up research tests that will enable youto fuel your branded content dashboard?

Yes No

Have you designed a dashboard with the metrics that will help youmonitor the evolution of your branded content actions?

Is your branded content media mix consumer-centric (i.e., does it start with what your consumers do, like the time they spend with media, their trust in media, or the media sources they use the most)?

Technology and tactics

Do you have, or do you plan to implement, the technologies to measure the impact of your branded content efforts?

Total



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r E C o M M E n D A T i o n S

PLAn BRAnDED ConTEnT ACCoRDInG To YouR READInESS

Successful branded content requires careful planning. not only does it need to be integrated into the broader marketing plan, it also must play a distinctive role in the mix. But it doesn’t have to be overly complex from the start. Marketing leaders willing to add branded content to their strategy should do the following:

· Beginners: Keep the effort and expectations simple. For your first branded content initiative, simplicity rules. Stick to a single form of content — text, audio, or video — and distribution channel — Tv, print, radio, or online — that are most relevant to your consumers. Keep the budget simple as well; hire a professional freelance writer to get you started, and include funding for the communication strategy using free and paid search opportunities. Be patient, as it might take time before your content catches on.

· Advocates: Plan branded content as a long-term investment. An integrated branded content effort cannot be a last-minute investment — it needs to be part of the marketing plan from the start. As with everything else in the marketing mix, branded content needs to serve a specific purpose. Anchor branded content specifically with efforts to build awareness, create brand preference, or retain your existing customers, and tie their budgets together. unlike traditional advertising campaigns that may only last for a few weeks, branded content will persist online. Make sure to plan your resources to handle your branded content initiative on an ongoing basis. Based on the level of control you need to have over the content and the flexibility you want to maintain, expect to hire a full-time resource to manage the program.

· old hands: Invest in measurement to prove results. Because branded content is always on, you will need to set up a dashboard that will help you keep track of your actions. Metrics you use will depend on the goals you’ve set for your branded content strategy. you must look to prove the added value the content provides to your consumers, your business, and your partners. For consumers, track engagement metrics like changing attitudes toward the brand, frequency of content forwarding, and recommendations of the content to others. if you sell directly, capture where the consumer comes in contact with the brand across channels and media. Consider data mining tools like Sense networks or xtract that collect data across all customer touchpoints.19 if you sell via distributors, invest in ad hoc panels from players like comScore, nielsen, or Taylor nelson Sofres to prove the link between your content activities and purchase.20



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SuPPLEMEnTAL MATERIAL

Companies Interviewed For This Document

abc family

BBC

Cadbury

Chase Card Services

Edelman

El Mundo

MasterCard

MediaVest

OgilvyEntertainment

Pernod Ricard

The Coca-Cola Company

The New York Times

United Entertainment Group

EnDnoTES1 The US music producer and rapper Jermaine Dupri acts as the president of TAG Records. Island Def Jam

handles the distribution for the company. Source: Mike Tunnicliffe, “P&G Gets Into the Record Label Business,” Advertising Age, November 4, 2008 (http://adage.com/songsforsoap/post?article_id=126338).

2 Fifty-six percent of US consumers agree or completely agree with the statement “I am annoyed by the amount of advertising today.” Source: North American Technographics® Benchmark Survey, 2009 (US, Canada).

3 Launched in 1991 as a healthier snack choice made with sunflower oil, SunChips did not reach the goals that were set. To take it beyond the niche level, Frito-Lay bet on the interests this brand’s consumers exhibit in both a healthier and a greener lifestyle. So in 2008, the brand extended its solar-powered positioning from its brand name to its production and plants and its marketing vehicles. In addition to traditional TV spots and magazine ads, newspapers and outdoor messages would appear only when exposed to the sun. The SunChips Facebook “Get Green” application advised consumers on everyday steps to lead a greener life. The brand partnered with National Geographic to fund five everyday green initiatives. It also helped invent the first entirely biodegradable packaging. See the September 1, 2009, “Integrated Marketing Strategies For Low-Consideration Brands” report.

4 Back in 2007, 84% of US moms with children younger than 15 admitted they had let their appearance go. To engage in a new relationship with those busy and hard-to-reach consumers, Suave decided to help them regain control over their beauty. In partnership with Sprint, they created “In the Motherhood,” a Web series inspired by real moms. The online community enabled US moms to submit their own stories, vote for their favorites, and exchange tips. It was promoted through the Ellen DeGeneres show, blog seeding, mobile, and retail events. According to Entertainment Weekly, the Webisodes generated 21 million visitors. The campaign enabled Suave to increase its average retail price to $2, up from $1.50, and the show was eventually sold to ABC in June 2008. See the September 1, 2009, “Integrated Marketing Strategies For Low-Consideration Brands” report.







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5 Nike Football’s Head2Head tool allows users to compare themselves to any player, at any level, at any stage of their career. By simply entering his name, a player can create an instant visualization of his stats versus any opponent — high school, college, or pro. Then, using the comparison as motivation, he can launch one of several video tutorials featuring the NFL’s best players. The result is a platform that lets players see how they stack up in their position and then gives them the means to get better at it. Source: R/GA (http://rga.com/award/head2head.html).

6 Forrester believes advertisers can benefit from the media meltdown by adopting a new form of integrated marketing: post-meltdown integrated marketing. We define it as: crafting cross-channel campaigns that incorporate branded content and Social Computing elements with a feedback loop that allows in-process message and media tuning. See the August 24, 2009, “The Media Meltdown Makes Integrated Marketing An Imperative” report.

7 Between 2006 and 2007, the percentage of consumers who agreed with the statement that Kleenex was their favorite tissue brand grew from 53% to 61%. Sixty-four percent agreed that Kleenex was of higher quality, against 52% a year earlier. Seventy-one percent confirmed that Kleenex was the brand that most encourages to let it out. Source: Effie Worldwide (http://www.effie.org/winners/showcase/2008/2612).

8 Bud.TV launched after the 2007 Super Bowl with the objective of offering unbranded humor, reality, and sports videos consumers would find nowhere else. The expectation at launch was to drive at least 2 million unique visitors per month. But traffic was already down to 153,000 unique visitors in its second month partly because of the aggressive age verification on the site to prevent access from underage consumers. Anheuser-Busch finally pulled out the plug in early 2009. Getting the site up and running cost the advertiser $15 million. Source: Jeremy Mullman, “Anheuser-Busch Pulls the Plug on Bud.TV,” Advertising Age, February 18, 2009 (http://adage.com/madisonandvine/article?article_id=134701).

9 The brand’s relationship with content can vary from sponsorship through to partnership to ownership of the intellectual property. Advertisers must weigh the pros and cons to determine the right level of engagement in each case, from the lowest level of engagement, with sponsorship, to the highest level of engagement, with branded content. See the July 7, 2009, “We Are All Media Companies Now” report.

10 Forrester introduced the POST methodology in October 2007 that was first applied to social media. This four-step method encourages advertisers to start their social strategy by examining their consumers’ Social Technographics Profile before choosing an objective, building up their social strategy, and eventually picking up the appropriate social technologies to implement. See the October 9, 2007, “Objectives: The Key To Creating A Social Strategy” report.

11 Segmentation analysis is the hardest task in market research. Segmentation means not treating consumers as one unified market with identical needs, desires, and motives. Instead, segmentation identifies groups of like-minded consumers and ranks them in terms of their attractiveness as targets for a particular product or service. Effective segmentation analysis leads to improved product strategies by creating resonance in both product designs and in marketing messages. See the January 15, 2009, “The Consumer Product Strategist’s Guide To Segmentation Analysis” report.










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12 Back in 2007, 84% of US moms with children younger than 15 admitted they had let their appearance go. To engage in a new relationship with those busy and hard-to-reach consumers, Suave decided to help them regain control over their beauty. In partnership with Sprint, they created “In the Motherhood,” a Web series inspired by real moms. The online community enabled US moms to submit their own stories, vote for their favorites, and exchange tips. It was promoted through the Ellen DeGeneres show, blog seeding, mobile, and retail events. According to Entertainment Weekly, the Webisodes generated 21 million visitors. The campaign enabled Suave to increase its average retail price to $2, up from $1.50, and the show was eventually sold to ABC in June 2008. See the September 1, 2009, “Integrated Marketing Strategies For Low-Consideration Brands” report.

13 Source: Tiffany Meyers, “American Express Members Project: A Marketing 50 Case Study,” Advertising Age, November 17, 2008 (http://adage.com/article?article_id=132427).

14 Forrester believes engagement is today’s key marketing metric and that by understanding the differing levels of brand engagement among customer segments, marketers can better understand the role that social interactions play in their purchase decisions. To successfully transition engaged customers into loyal ones, marketers must be able to recognize their best customers and create reciprocal relationships. Leading marketers achieve this today by embracing what Forrester calls social loyalty. We define social loyalty as: brand affinity built on the connection of customers to the brand itself as well as to each other. See the June 25, 2008, “Social Loyalty” report.

15 Media planning is more complex and dynamic than ever. Europeans use many different media — from TV to blogs — and their usage changes every year. Some media help drive brand awareness, and some drive loyalty. Some media have a young urban audience; some have an older rural one. Some media generate high consumer trust, some low. Some media form great cross-channel combinations, some don’t. To get a first assessment on which media mix gives the best returns, marketers can use Forrester’s media allocation tool. This model helps to optimize the media mix by combining Forrester’s Consumer Technographics® data on media behaviors and attitudes with advertisers’ campaign objectives and media costs. See the December 18, 2008, “Choosing The Right Media Mix: Europe” report, and see the January 16, 2009, “Choosing The Right Media Mix: North America” report.

16 Many companies approach Social Computing as a list of technologies to be deployed as needed — a blog here, a podcast there — to achieve a marketing goal. But a more coherent approach is to start with your target audience and determine what kind of relationship you want to build with them based on what they are ready for. Forrester categorizes Social Computing behaviors into a ladder with six levels of participation; we use the term Social Technographics to describe a population according to its participation in these levels. Brands, Web sites, and any other companies pursuing social technologies should analyze their customers’ Social Technographics first and then create a social strategy based on this profile. See the April 19, 2007,

“Social Technographics®” report.

17 Many firms value customers primarily based on how much they spend with them. However, in this super-connected world of Social Computing, influential consumers drive purchase decisions and have an enormous value for a brand. Marketers should now include the social value of consumers in their valuation algorithms — using the social value scorecard — and offer sophisticated award systems to the most valuable consumers: the Ambassadors. See the February 27, 2008, “Redefining High-Value Customers” report.











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18 Forrester introduced the POST methodology in October 2007 that was first applied to social media. This four-step method encourages advertisers to start their social strategy by examining their consumers’ Social Technographics Profile before choosing an objective, building up their social strategy, and eventually picking up the appropriate social technologies to implement. See the October 9, 2007, “Objectives: The Key To Creating A Social Strategy” report.

19 Like in all good games of cat and mouse, consumers elude advertising while smart media and technology types come up with even more ways to reach them. New and personal means of communications and marketing follow consumers wherever they go. The power to reach consumers everywhere comes with responsibility: to be meaningful everywhere. Marketers can overcome consumer wariness with ubiquitous marketing, which offers a reciprocal, successive, and contextual dialogue. Ubiquitous marketing is the next frontier in integrated campaigns and customer relationship management, and its early adopters will develop a lasting advantage in their markets. See the July 17, 2008, “Ubiquitous Marketing” report.

20 Some of the major public panel providers include Survey Sampling International (SSI), e-Rewards Market Research, comScore, Nielsen, and Ciao Surveys. The panel universe is in flux, however, with offerings from both traditional fielding houses such as Western Wats and large, full-service research houses such as Taylor Nelson Sofres. It would be premature to provide a list of the most-favored panel providers because many are in the midst of improving their game. Smart buyers need to assess quality periodically, even for trusted past providers. See the July 19, 2007, “Five Keys To Success With Online Panels” report.





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