The Buzz at Lyman PR
IKEA + Facebook = Brilliant Social Media Campaign
IKEA, the most widely recognized purveyor of inexpensive furniture, recently embarked on a Facebook campaign to mark the opening of a new store. The campaign is pure genius, and for those who don’t quite ‘get’ Facebook, a great example of how powerful online word-of-mouth can be.
If a picture says a thousand words then this video summary from Forsman and Bodenfors, the advertising agency that created it, tells the whole story.
CMOs: Consumers Are Connected. You Need To Be, Too – Forbes.com
Here’s a great article on Forbes.com about how forward-leaning CMOs are incorporating social media into 2010 marketing strategies. The author discusses how social media should dovetail with other digital marketing channels, plus offers strategy suggestions for building a program.
Social media should lead digital marketing plans in 2010.
by Jeremiah Owyang
As we near the end of the year, CMOs are planning their marketing strategies for 2010. We learned during the recent Forbes CMO Summit that progressive CMOs are putting more resources behind their social marketing efforts.
They recognize that social marketing affects nearly all forms of digital marketing, including e-mail, advertising, search and Web marketing. It shouldn’t be treated as a silo. Even so, there’s confusion about how to develop a solid strategy. Here are some suggestions for how they might do that.
Social Marketing Affects All Digital Marketing Channels
CMOs must think of social marketing as a horizontal effort across all of their digital marketing assets–not as an independent experiment.
Most consumer brands, including Skittles, Best Buy and Dell, have integrated social marketing into Web marketing efforts. Yet beyond traditional Web marketing efforts, social technologies have implications to other digital channels. For instance, e-mail providers Silverpop, StrongMail and Responsys already have social marketing integration by encouraging consumers to share e-mails with their social contacts in Twitter, Facebook and beyond.
More dramatically, Google and Microsoft’s Bing announced partnerships with Twitter, promising to integrate tweets in search results. Eventually, tweets, blogs, and Facebook wall posts will influence these search results. The effects on paid search marketing are unpredictable.
Customers Don’t Care What Department You’re In
Not so long ago, flare-ups around customer support issues could be swept under the rug. Now, customers have a soapbox from which to tell everyone how they feel about your brand. From shabby employees at Domino’s embarrassing the company on YouTube to off-brand (if catchy) music videos like United Breaks Guitars’, customers are yelling back at brands–and sharing their opinions with millions of people at the same time. Search engine results about your brand are affected by this Web chatter. For example, searching Google for “Dell Support” results in links to blog posts about less-than-stellar customer service. Customers just want their problems fixed; their gripes can cause a lot of problems for a brand.
See the rest of the article here: CMOs: Consumers Are Connected. You Need To Be, Too – Forbes.com.
The Future of Social TV, Discussed Today
On November 12th an all-star panel will join to discuss the trends, technology and ‘next big thing’ that will shape Social TV at GigaOm’s “New TeeVee Live.” The event takes place at the Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco.
Notable panelists include Amy Banse, President, Comcast Interactive Media; Reed Hastings, Co-Founder and CEO, Netflix; Quincy Smith, CEO, CBS Interactive; Itzik Cohen, CEO and Founter, ClipSync, and Kevin Lynch of Adobe Systems.
What does the future of marketing look like in an ‘online’ world? CNBC’s Power Lunch asks the experts
KPG Ventures’ Dave Hills speaks to CNBC’s Power Lunch about the future of online marketing.
Sonos Introduces the ZonePlayer S5 All-in-One Wireless Music System
Sonos, the leading developer of wireless multi-room music systems for the home, today introduced the Sonos ZonePlayer S5, an all-in-one wireless music system that can be controlled with an iPhone, iPod® touch or any Sonos Controller. The S5 delivers crystal-clear, room-filling sound that rivals much larger, more complicated audio equipment. Plus, the S5 provides instant access to unlimited music with control from the palm of your hand. Now music lovers can find and play any song from an iTunes library, plus, a world of music and radio on the Internet, in any room of the house.
The S5 will be available for $399. Visit http://sonos.com/s5demo for more information.
No Secret Word-of-Mouth is Important – What are YOU doing?
A new Center for Media Research brief reports that word-of-mouth (WoM) marketing spend increased more than 14% in 2008, and is forecast to grow by an additional 10% in 2009. Here are excerpts from the brief.
PQ Media defines WoM marketing as an alternative marketing strategy which encourages consumers to dialogue about products and services through various online and offline tactics, often facilitated by brand ambassadors.
The industry includes content & service providers, ancillary products, and six additional segments within those sectors, says the report. The segments include strategy & consulting, WoM agencies, online communities, WoM media, research & measurement, and technology & tools.
Industry spending increased at a compound annual growth rate of 37.6% from 2003 to 2008, as the rise in popularity of blogs, social networks and online communities led brands to shift dollars to WoM as part of integrated media solutions in their quest to engage more elusive consumers.
Total spending on WoM is expected to increase at a CAGR of 14.5% from 2008 to 2013. Both major sectors – content & services and ancillary products – will post strong gains and contribute to overall growth. Ancillary products spending will increase faster than content & services spending primarily because the market is smaller with more growth potential.
Spending on Word-of-Mouth (WoM) Marketing ($x000)
Patrick Quinn, President and CEO of PQ Media, notes that “The most influential marketer in a consumer’s life is someone they know and trust, such as a family member, friend or colleague…”
Brand marketers, particularly packaged goods and food & drink brands, accounting for nearly 30% of all WoM spending in 2008, have increased spending and emphasis on WoM as part of their overall marketing strategies.
% Share of WoM Spending by Marketers in 2008
Brand Market Share of WoM Spend
Consumer Goods Products 17.4%
Food & Drink 12.2%
Finance & B2B Services 9.5%
Electronics & Telecom 9.4%
Retail 9.2%
Auto & Transportation 8.6%
Entertainment & Media 7.5%
Apparel & Accessories 6.2%
Health Care & Pharma 4.1%
Sports & Gaming 3.6%
Travel & Leisure 3.3%
Home & Garden 3.2%
Other 5.8%
Total 100.0%
Source: PQ Media, July 2009
With the rise of WoM spending by brands, content & service providers are experiencing sizeable growth. WoM strategy & consulting remains the largest segment at $832 million in 2008, but year-over-year growth slowed to 7%. WoM Agencies grew 18.7% to $197 million in 2008.
Developing WoM communities both online and offline are emerging trends within the content & services sector. Spending on WoM online communities increased 26.6% in 2008 to $119 million. Although it’s the smallest category, WoM media is the fastest growing content & services segment with spending up 34.6% in 2008 to $109 million.
“Despite impressive growth in the industry, word-of-mouth remains just a fraction of the overall advertising and marketing landscape,” added Quinn. “But double-digit growth in this economic environment is a strong sign of an increasingly prevalent role in the future.”
The complete report can be found here: www.pqmedia.com/about-press-20090729-wommf.html
Horizon Air Expands Mammoth Mountain Service With Flights from Northern California and Pacific Northwest
MAMMOTH LAKES, Calif. — After a successful first winter season, Horizon Air is expanding air service to the Mammoth Mountain resort for the upcoming snow season. In addition to adding a second daily nonstop from Los Angeles, Horizon will offer new daily nonstop service from San Jose and Reno and direct (same-plane, one-stop) service from Seattle and Portland.
The Mammoth Mountain resort area is just 15 minutes from the Mammoth Lakes Yosemite airport. During last year’s inaugural season of service, thousands of Southern Californians took advantage of Horizon’s 70-minute flight from Los Angeles instead of enduring five hours or more of driving.
“Our Southern California customers have made no secret of how much they’ve appreciated having such quick and easy access to this world-class recreation area,” said Dan Russo, Horizon’s vice president of marketing and communications. “Now, with Horizon Air’s expanded service, winter sports enthusiasts from Northern California and the Pacific Northwest will be able to enjoy the same convenience.”
The new service from Northern California and the Pacific Northwest is expected to introduce thousands of new visitors to Mammoth – many of whom would not have considered it for a winter vacation otherwise. Similarly, travelers from the town of Mammoth will gain an easier way to travel, with nonstop service to Los Angeles, Reno and San Jose, and direct (same-plane, one-stop) service to Seattle and Portland.
“The new and expanded routes on Horizon for next season put Mammoth within easy reach of thousands of skiers and snowboarders who love to play big in the mountains and have dreamed of visiting Mammoth for years,” said Howard Pickett, CMO of Mammoth Mountain. “Our guests loved the flights from Los Angeles last year and they asked us for even more flight options. With this expansion into Northern California, Reno and the Pacific Northwest, we are doing our best to deliver on that request.”
Horizon is offering special low fares for flights on select days between Mammoth and each city. Fares start at $49 each way from Reno, $69 from San Jose or Los Angeles, $144 from Portland, and $149 from Seattle.
The Mammoth winter season flight schedule shown below will run from Dec. 17, 2009, through April 11, 2010, and is available for sale now at www.horizonair.com or by calling 800-547-9308 (TTY at 800-682-2221).
Depart LAX Arrive Mammoth Frequency
8:40 a.m. 9:50 a.m. Daily
2:40 p.m. 3:50 p.m. Daily
Depart Mammoth Arrive LAX Frequency
12:50 p.m. 1:59 p.m. Daily
5:50 p.m. 6:59 p.m. Daily
Depart Seattle Arrive Mammoth Frequency
1:55 p.m. 5:20 p.m.* Daily
Depart Mammoth Arrive Seattle Frequency
4:20 p.m. 7:50 p.m.* Daily
* Stops in Reno
Depart Portland Arrive Mammoth Frequency
8:50 a.m. 12:20 p.m.* Daily
Depart Mammoth Arrive Portland Frequency
10:20 a.m. 1:50 p.m.* Daily
* Stops in San Jose
Depart Reno Arrive Mammoth Frequency
4:30 p.m. 5:20 p.m. Daily
Depart Mammoth Arrive Reno Frequency
4:20 p.m. 5:10 p.m. Daily
Depart San Jose Arrive Mammoth Frequency
11:25 a.m. 12:20 p.m. Daily
Depart Mammoth Arrive San Jose Frequency
10:20 a.m. 11:15 a.m. Daily
Well known for long seasons and plentiful snowfall, Mammoth Mountain is Southern California’s favorite mountain resort and is consistently ranked among the top ski resorts in the country by SKI Magazine. It currently hosts more than 1.1 million skiers per year, making it the third most visited mountain resort in the country, and boasts one of the most recognized terrain parks in the world. Other winter activities around Mammoth include cross-country skiing, ice skating, snowmobiling, dog sledding and dipping into the hot springs. Mammoth Mountain Ski Area owns and operates a variety of resort businesses, including recreation, hospitality, real estate development, food and beverage, and retail. More information is available at MammothMountain.com.
Horizon will operate all flights to Mammoth with 76-seat Bombardier Q400s. This high-speed, twin-engine turboprop is one of the most technologically advanced regional aircraft in the world. It’s as quiet and comfortable as a jet – thanks to special technology that suppresses noise and vibration, generously sized overhead storage bins, unobstructed under-seat space, and ample headroom (6 feet, 5 inches). The Q400 is also among the most environmentally friendly aircraft today, burning 30 percent to 40 percent less fuel and producing an equally lower amount of emissions (and 10 decibels less noise) than comparable jets.
Get In Touch With The World Of Music: Sonos Launches New Touch Screen Controller
SANTA BARBARA, Calif.- Sonos®, Inc., the leading developer of wireless multi-room music systems, today launched a state of the art music controller for the home, the Sonos Controller 200 (CR200). The new full-color Sonos Controller features an ultra-responsive touch screen display making it easy to quickly find and play all the music you want, in any room of the house, and all with the touch of a finger.
“Finding and playing music all over the house needs to be so easy that anyone who walks into a home can pick up the Controller and start playing DJ,” says John MacFarlane, CEO, Sonos, Inc. “Sonos has applied our seven years of experience designing wireless music systems for hundreds of thousands of customers in more than 60 countries to deliver the most innovative and intuitive (removed easiest since if it is intuitive that usually means it is easy) way to find, play and control music anywhere in the home.”
The Sonos CR200 is 100% dedicated to providing a great music experience throughout your home so everything — from the hardware and industrial design to the software and user interface — works harmoniously together to make controlling the Sonos system fast, easy and fun. The Sonos CR200 features a 3.5” full-color VGA display (640×480 pixels) and comes with a capacitive touch screen for accurate and responsive operation. The convenient touch screen keyboard enables rapid search of the world of music, including multi-million song jukeboxes (Napster® and Rhapsody®), more than 25,000 radio stations and podcasts, SIRIUS® Internet Radio, and of course, your own personal music library. It also makes the creation of custom radio stations from services like Last.fm and Pandora® incredibly easy. The quick intuitive interface provides rich graphics that showcase what music is playing and in what room all while making it a pleasure to view artist information, cover art and more. Styled with an anodized precision machined extruded aluminum case and soft durable rubber backing that fits comfortably in your hand, the CR200 ships with the Sonos Charging Cradle 200 so it’s always easy to find and charge your Controller.
Other Sonos Controller 200 features include:
• Easy set up – A few simple steps are all that’s needed to get Sonos up and running using the new Controller.
• Instant on — Pick up the Controller or touch the screen and it’s instantly ready to play music.
• Dedicated buttons — Mute, Volume and Zones buttons provide shortcuts to the most often used functions.
• Quick, Intuitive Search — Instantly find the artist, song, radio station, or radio show you want to listen to by typing on the on-screen keyboard. Suggestions are provided as you type.
• Superior wireless performance — The CR200 works on SonosNet (Sonos’ proprietary mesh network) ensuring that you get the best wireless performance of any wireless music product on the market with no interference.
• Easy zone management — Take music with you as you move through the house by linking rooms with ease (and without interrupting music playback).
• Multi-room volume control — Change the volume in a single room, or in several rooms, all from the same screen.
• Great for using outdoors — The CR200 features a transflective screen, making it easy to use while listening to music outdoors on a sunny day.
• Long-life and replaceable battery — Comes with a high capacity lithium ion battery that gets about five days of usage between charges and can easily be replaced.
• Compatible — The CR200 is compatible with all existing and previously purchased Sonos Multi-Room Music System hardware.
Also today, Sonos Software 3.0, a one-button software update, was made available to all Sonos customers. Sonos 3.0 brings new music discovery tools to the Sonos Multi-Room music experience when using the Sonos CR200 or Sonos Controller for iPhone – Info View. This new feature provides one-touch access to rich music information, like artist bios, album reviews, concert listings, and lists of similar artists. Info View is available on Last.fm and Rhapsody and can be accessed using the Sonos CR200 or Sonos Controller for iPhone. The new Sonos Controller for iPhone 3.0 is expected to be available via the iTunes App Store after receiving approval from Apple Computer.
In addition to enabling the new features of the CR200, Sonos 3.0 allows the CR200 to work seamlessly with any existing Sonos Controllers, including the CR100, Sonos Controller for iPhone and Sonos Controller for Mac or PC. Sonos 3.0 also provides Controller support for the latest Operating Systems. Sonos now supports Mac OS 10.4 and above (including 10.6), Windows XP and above (including Windows 7) and iPhone OS 3.0.
Pricing & Availability
The Sonos Controller 200, which includes the Sonos Charging Cradle 200, has a suggested retail price of $349 in the United States and is available worldwide beginning today at authorized Sonos dealers and at www.sonos.com. Also, the CR200 is available today as part of the new Sonos Bundle 250 ($999 suggested retail) which also includes a Sonos ZonePlayer 90 and a Sonos ZonePlayer 120. The Sonos CR200 replaces the Sonos Controller 100, which has been discontinued.
Research Report: Social Media Engagement = Financial Performance for 100 Most Valuable Brands
Charlene Li, along with Wetpaint, has released a new research report that correlated deep social media engagement with financial performance for the 100 most valuable brands.
In the report each brand was given a numerical score, with the following companies landing the top 10 positions:
1. Starbucks
2. Dell
3. eBay
4. Google
5. Microsoft
6. Thomson Reuters
7. Nike
8. Amazon
9. SAP
10. Tie – Yahoo!/Intel
The entire report is available here: http://bit.ly/KRGNt
SanDisk’s 60-Second Summer Mobile Phone Video Contest: shoot videos and win cash & prizes
What: SanDisk Corporation (NASDAQ:SNDK), the global leader in flash memory cards, today announced the launch of the SanDisk® 60-Second Summer Mobile Phone Video Contest. SanDisk reminds consumers that your phone isn’t just a phone, it’s a video camera, and it’s the memory that you put in it that makes life unforgettable. More video. More pictures. More songs. You’ll get more of life’s greatest moments with a bigger memory card from SanDisk.
Summer Cash & Prizes awarded weekly:
–One $5,000 Grand Prize Winner will be announced at the end of the contest.
–Five $1,000 Weekly Prizes go to each week’s best entry
–Top 25 Weekly Finalists each win a SanDisk mobile memory card, MobileMate™ Micro Reader, and t-shirt
Who: Anyone eligible can enter. Just grab your video capable mobile phone and shoot a video of the sights and sounds that make your summer buzz. An ideal summer afternoon. Your hometown. Vacation spots. Whatever! Make it 60 seconds or less and submit as many times as you wish.
When: Now through August 31. You have until Aug 10 to submit video for the contest. A winning video selection will be judged each week. There is no limit to the number of times any individual can enter, though they cannot re-submit the same video in the same and/or following weeks during the contest period.
Where: Entries can be submitted at http://www.youtube.com/sandisk. The winning videos will be showcased on SanDisk’s YouTube channel and will be available for downloading at www.wakeupyourphone.com.
About SanDisk Mobile Memory Cards: SanDisk offers an array of memory cards designed for mobile phones with card slots. The cards can fit into a mobile phone’s microSD™ slot and come in both microSD™ and microSDHC™ card formats, in capacities ranging from 2 gigabytes (GB)2 to 16GB. Using SanDisk® mobile memory cards, mobile phone users can store, share and enjoy more digital content ─ from music, photographs, and video ─ to ring tones and important files. Further information about SanDisk mobile memory cards can be found at http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog(1012)-Mobile_Memory.aspx
