Sector
More people watching online video via their game consoles
Thanks to the greater availability of Netflix, Hulu, and similar services, streaming videos via a game console has grown in popularity over last year, says a new study from Nielsen.
Surveying more than 3,000 people in the U.S. in October, Nielsen found that video streaming now accounts for 14 percent of all time spent on Microsoft’sXbox 360, 15 percent of time spent on the Sony PlayStation 3, and 33 percent spent on the Nintendo Wii
Why mobile is better than email
We get this question at Dark Matter constantly. And sometimes, depending on the situation, it can be hard to answer. But, here is an instance where the answer is actually quite straight forward. The reason mobile is better than email marketing is because people still have to think about it. Look at the attached email from Citi. See how impersonal this email is and how loaded with tracking gibberish. We are all being constantly bombarded with email marketing like this, which should not serve as the model for mobile marketing. The highly impersonal nature of email marketing, often sent based on the decision of a marketing bot, is seldom based on relevance, but instead on predetermined, i.e., old information. Mobile demands more of marketers. To run successful mobile campaigns, marketers must use their marketing instincts and not rely solely on the output of a pre-existing recommendation engine. This crucial ingredient, the involvement of the actual marketer, is the key to relevancy. And relevancy is the life blood of mobile.
Big Banks Face Trust Deficit
Credit Union members (74%) are 3 times as likely as customers of Bank of America (25%) to experience a trustworthy relationship with their institution, according to a Harris Poll released in November 2011. Data from the survey indicates that 33% of JP Morgan Chase customers rate their bank as either excellent or very good at ensuring a trustworthy relationship with them, while 37% of Wells Fargo / Wachovia customers feel the same way. And while 12% of Bank of America customers feel that the bank does a poor job of ensuring a trustworthy relationship with them, not a single Credit Union member feels likewise. Overall, 45% of customers who use a bank rather than a Credit Union are satisfied with their institution’s trustworthiness.
Credit Union Members Feel the Love
The pattern holds when examining how customers rate “Big Banks” – defined as Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo / Wachovia – at valuing them as customers: Credit Union members (72%) are again three times as likely as Bank of America customers (24%) to feel valued. In fact, just 5% of Bank of America customers rate the institution as excellent in that regard, compared to 33% of Credit Union members. And while JP Morgan Chase (12%) and Well Fargo / Wachovia (11%) fare slightly better than Bank of America at being rated as excellent, they remain significantly behind Credit Unions and banks as a whole (20%).
Bank Customers Can’t Get No Satisfaction
Just 44% of bank customers overall feel very or extremely satisfied with their bank, compared to 73% of Credit Union members. Bank of America again rates lowest, with more customers not at all satisfied (10%) than extremely satisfied (6%).
Credit Union Members Most Loyal
Big Bank customers’ lack of satisfaction is clearly having an effect on their loyalties: while 87% of Credit Union members are extremely (61%) or very likely (26%) to continue using them, only 40% of Bank of America customers, 46% of JP Morgan Chase’s customers, and 54% of Wells Fargo / Wachovia’s customers feel the same way. Overall, 58% of customers who use a bank rather than a Credit Union feel that they are extremely (34%) or very likely (24%) to continue using their bank.
JD Power: Retail Banking Sentiment Reverses Slide
Consumer sentiment toward retail banks appeared to have reversed its historical downward slide in the early part of 2011, increasing for the first time since 2007, according to a J.D. Power and Associates retail banking satisfaction study released in May 2011. The study found that retail banking customer satisfaction improved by four index points from 2010 to an average of 752 (on a 1,000 point scale) in 2011.
Behavior and insight on this holiday season’s mobile shopper
Our two cents:
It’s certainly no surprise to learn of the compound growth rate of research and purchases for mobile shoppers. While some retailers made early bets in mobile that have in some cases yielded 20% increase in online sales, most are still trying to define an overall mobile strategy. So when the IBM says things like “Retailers are going to have to do a really good job in targeting their messages and promotions for mobile users” we can’t help but shed some light on what exactly that means for most retailers. Below are a few key points to “getting it right” for any retailer:
- Remember that mobile shoppers are surgical shoppers. And just as importnat, remember that shopping on a retailer’s mobile site means visual shopping, especially for ESL shoppers. Therefore, keeping copy to a minimum and getting multiple (and easily downloadable) images on the site is key. With the average mobile device shopper spending about 4 minutes on a site, it becomes imperative for retailers to quickly serve up ONLY the most relevant content. Furthermore, mobile shoppers also tend to do less browsing and look at fewer products when they shop, making it more imperative for retailers to personalize messages and content. Simply put, shoppers go to websites to get ideas, but they go to mobile sites to get what they want.
- Use social networks to drive engagement and sales online. Social networks are an important factor in retail. According to IBM Coremetrics data, 9.2% of consumers in October that came to a retailer’s web site from a social media site made a purchase, compared to 5.5% who visited the store site directly. Retailers should not walk away from this fact thinking that adding a social networking step to the shopper journey is the right way to go. “Liking” or “following” a brand on a social network is a non-linear action for shoppers and not part of the traditional sales funnel. Therefore, retailers would be ill-advised to treat it like any other media channel.
- Invest in mobile search. This is one of the few silver bullets retailers have in mobile and not nearly enough of them use it. The simple fact is that everyone uses mobile search and with google now running a mobile-specific algorithm, retailers must respond with mobile-specific SEO and SEM strategies.
Clos du Bois Winery teams up with Banana Republic for QR code campaign
Our two cents:
Good example of a QR code-based campaign in the wine and spirits category that goes beyond simple product information. It’s importnat to note that the strategic idea was in place at the onset, which will likely contribute to the overall success of the campaign. Furthermore, there is a clear value exchange between brand and customer, a concept that is paramount for any mobile endeavor.
The Slow and Sad Death of Mobile Wine Apps
Our two cents:
The wine and spirits category is rich with mobile possibilities, but severely lacking in successful case studies. Like all companies, wineries have dedicated marketers with vastly different comprehension levels of what mobile is and how it should be used. This is why many gravitate towards individual tactics such as mobile apps or QR codes, because it’s easier for someone trying to solve the mobile equation to create simple formulas in their head like mobile=app. Unfortunately, most marketers never fully think through the business case for apps, nor do they have a clear understanding of what succes looks like. The same money they put into developing an app can be used to create and manage a mobile database. See aktivatr as an example. Mobile databases gives wine marketers a dedicated customer channel that works consistently across all devices, not just smartphones, which only constitute 40% of the U.S. population.
Multi-screen approach to marketing works for Adidas
Our two cents:
We’ve been seeing (or at least reading) for some time that a multi-screen approach is the way that smart brands approach media. Truth be told, this is an old story. We used to call this integrated marketing, but with the explosion of small screens, we’ve re-named it “multi-screen.” The good news is that we can actually measure everything now. Here we see a report from Nielsen that not only measures the uptick in engagement, but also in ad recall. Two important success metrics for any awareness-based campaign. The one thing that should be noted, however, is that the media buy for campaigns like this is substantial. That makes us wonder if we would see the same results for smaller media buys, even if they were multi-screen?
