Isn’t watching the news so much fun these days?

It was refreshing to see this positive headline on Adweek.com:

Ad Nets Find Q1 Less Horrific Than Expected

With decreasing budgets, clients are rightfully demanding that advertising be more and more targeted than ever–there is not money lying around for casual experimentation and casting of wide nets.  For many companies, it’s survival mode and time to hunker down.  One way to hunker down is to focus on your top target markets and mine them for everything they are worth–without appearing greedy of course.

Some things to consider in 2009, which will be the least normal economic year in decades:

• People are human.  Everyone in marketing is at least somewhat anxious about their job.  It’s natural for marketing directors to hope avoid saying this to their CEO: “Well, yes sir, the sales are down, and the economy is partly to blame.  But you are right, maybe now was not the time to spend 34% of our marketing budget on reaching out to a target market that at best could give us a 2% revenue jump.”

Agencies should continue to push innovation and creative solutions, but strategically should respect clients and their situations.   We’re all in this together.

• Seriously consider buying ad networks.

Whether behavioral, contextual, vertical or retargeting services, there might not be better bang for your buck right now than a surgical approach of online display advertising.  But, before you start buying up networks left and right really really think about patterns of consumer behavior and targeting-combining.

• Plan.  And then be ready to change.  Quickly.  I’m not saying that you should be screwing around with your brand non-stop.  That will cost you tons of money later.  I’m saying be nible with your tactics and strategies.

We’ve all made the mistake of not planning something, whereby you end up running around in circles.  But understand this:  The market is not normal right now.  Consumers are not acting normal.  Markets are irrational.  Psyches change daily.  Budgets change, daily.  Anxiety is almost as high as consumer confidence is low.   Just because accounting (and the IRS) likes to consider January 1-December 31 as a nice pretty window of time, doesn’t mean that your plans should be set in concrete to adhere to the old rule of “Let’s plan 2009 and execute, and then in December we’ll plan again!”  Right now, it’s more important to be nimble, and to be constantly reevaluating the state of your audience.  Think in months and quarters. Therefore, keep your 2009 plans as frameworks, and PLAN for tactical changes. Mark Kane, CEO of Traffiq, noted: “Let’s plan 2009 is gone. “Now, it’s mid-January, and (media) buyers are saying, ‘Let’s plan February.’”

Even though our beloved Charger’s aren’t playing in this years Superbowl, we San Diegan’s still have something to be proud of. One of the commercials scheduled to air–not once, but twice– during the Superbowl come out of an agency located right here in San Diego.

To have one of your commercials run during the Superbowl is like winning the lotto in the Advertising industry, which is why the Mering-Carson agency located in Encinitas, has reason to celebrate.

The young man making this all possible is Chris Roberts, a fellow alumni from Point Loma Nazarene University. His 30-second commercial called “The Chase” was one of five finalists chosen in the Doritos Superbowl ad competition. Chris’s success reinforces what we’ve been saying all along — San Diego’s creative is among some of the nations best. Congratulations Chris!

Allstate, Hyundai, Tiffany and others are adjusting their advertising messages to meet consumer moods about spending, and their shared premise seems to be this:  you still need to make purchases and spend money in order to manage your lives.  Just make sure when you do spend that money, it is done wisely with a product or service you trust will endure.

Listen here for an interesting story on this subject I heard this morning on NPR with Renee Montagne, interviewing Timothy Calkins, a marketing professor at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management.

Whether it’s insurance, a diamond ring, or a new home, people are still buying.  Advertisers realize that in order to gain their share of what purchase power remains, their marketing messages must stress quality, endurability, honesty, integrity, even safety.

There are a bunch of case studies I can point to, but I’d like to hear what you think.  Any examples you can share????

I was recently doing some research on social media statistics to show a potential new client why they should be engaged, and was surprised to find so little written about it! Considering there seem to be a bajillion blog posts addressing the general topic of social media, I thought surely there would be more with some hard-fast number. People like numbers!

After much searching and much weeding through irrelevant numbers, here were the stats that I found to be most interesting. Let me know if you think I’m missing any good ones.

General stats: (per 2008 cone business in social media study)

• 93 % of customers expect that companies have a social media presence in some form.
• 85 % believe that these companies should use these services to interact with customers.
• 70 % of online adults use social media
• 56% of consumers believe that a company is providing them with a better service by interacting with them on social media sites.
• 60% of Americans regularly interact with companies on a social media site

Blogosphere stats

• There were over a 184 million blogs worldwide in 2008.
• 346,000,000 people around the globe read blogs. (comScore March 2008)
• 77% of active Internet users read blogs.

Twitter stats

• There have been 1,155,825,000 Tweets to date. You can find the up to the second tweet count here.
• According to Compete, the growth rate for Twitter was 752%, for a total of 4.43 million unique visitors in December 2008.

Facebook stats (per Facebook. See here.)

• More than 50 % of Facebook users are outside of college
• The fastest growing demographic is those 30 years old and older
• More than 95% of Facebook members have used at least one application built on Facebook Platform
• There are a 150 million active users
• 700,000,000 photos are added to Facebook monthly
• There are 52,000 applications currently available on Facebook

YouTube stats (per the Future Buzz. See here)

• As of March 2008 there were 70,000,000  total videos on YouTube. (It seems safe to assume the number has grown considerably since then).
• The most popular video has received 112,486,327 views. (January, 2009)

LinkedIn (per Social Media Statistics Wiki. See here.)

• LinkedIn saw record traffic in September 2008 with 11.9M unique visitors, up more than 10% from August (10.8M) and a gain of 193% since last year.

While walking through the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco last week, I was struck by certain characteristics of a successful booth and how similar those characteristics are to a successful social media program. I know, a bit strange, but hang with me here. Then tell me if I’ve gone over the social media waterfall.

The best booths had a clear sense of their brand and expressed that top to bottom. In their design, collateral, booth staff attire and energy the brand was clear to any passerby. I thought Dry Soda Co. did a good job of expressing itself through clean design. Like when you see a great blog or website that not only has good content but is designed so well you want to keep going back just to look at it. You know when a company has figured out its brand and when it is flailing around, lost in a sea of bad design and no clear message.

Then of course there is the energy of the booth. sweetriot got it just right with their rocking message signs, great gals in cute tees and sharing of their product. You just couldn’t walk by without tasting some of that yummy chocolate. And isn’t that really what a good social media program does? Ignite the energy of the community and create a sense of something good going on? That booth was busy with people connecting, just like a good social media community.

Another booth that got it just right was the Savannah Bee Co. Look how warm and inviting it was, with the golden lit honey bottles and fresh flowers. They love their product and it really showed in the way they displayed the honey for tasting. Little spigots of each honey at a high counter where you could hold a little spoon underneath and let the golden drops fall. In social media snobbery is not a plus. Warm and inviting works better.

And sometimes, the best way to connect with people – online or off is to not take yourself too seriously. Doesn’t this just say it all?

It’s no secret that with the current state of the economy, consumers are watching every dime they spend. But that doesn’t mean they’re not spending. While researching ways to help my clients compete in a recession market, I uncovered several trends in consumer spending and key things businesses are doing to reach potential customers.

1. Watch how your consumers are spending. In order to talk to your consumers, you need to understand their mindset:

• They still love their booz. Alcohol sales are up 10% nationwide with the greatest increase at liquor stores (rather than bars) with lower priced labels and “sale” alcohol moving the fastest
• They are staying and entertaining at home more. Christmas sales may have been the worst in decades, but the gaming industry saw tremendous growth. Software games that can be played at home (in lieu of a night out) like “Rock Band,” “Guitar Hero” and “Wii Fit” had big sales. Hey MiltonBradley, Mattel and other game makers this is a great trend for you to jump on.
• They are making small splurges. Consumers are foregoing expensive travel and indulging closer to home. Instead of big trips, many people are treating themselves to small indulgences such as facials, massages and classes like yoga and dance.
• They want cheap transportation. While car sales are down, other gas-friendly modes of transportation are on the up including sales of motorcycles, bicycles and mopeds.

2. Offer customers a safety net. Under Hyundai’s new “Assurance Program”, if you buy one of their cars and lose your job in the next year, they will let you return it. See the spot below.

3. Give them something free. Anthropologie stores nationwide are offering FREE classes. Topics will include reinvention workshops to help you make the most of your wardrobe in a recession. What a great way to engage your loyalists and encourage store traffic.

4. Be where your consumers are. Your business is being talked about and you need to be a part of that conversation. On Facebook, Twitter and blogs everywhere consumers are giving feedback. I’ve said it before but Zappos continues to be a great example of a business that has an active, continuing presence on Twitter and other places on the web. And because of that, they are referenced to frequently (great PR, hint hint).

5. Be transparent. Especially in this economy, potential clients can smell marketing BS a mile away. Be real with your audience and they’ll respect you and want to keep the conversation going.

I thought Logan Jenkin’s column in the San Diego Union-Tribune today was the most honest, real explanation of what is happening at the U-T that I have heard or read since the house of cards started to cave.  I applaud Mr. Jenkins for writing it, and his editors for allowing it to run.  There is hope for the U-T yet, in whatever future form it takes.

Here is the text in case you don’t want to follow the link (but reading the comments at the bottom of the online version is really worth the click):

Logan Jenkins: What’s the future of the U-T? Read on, for now
By Logan Jenkins (Contact)

In a recent e-mail, Steve Richards of La Mesa affirmed what I already knew.

Newspaper readers, the old-school kind who love to hold newsprint in their hands, are perceptive, worried and approaching angry.

“Since you’re one of the few familiar writers still at your newspaper,” said Richards, a former TV news director, “how about giving us readers some real information about the Union-Tribune?”

To start, Steve, it’s no secret that San Diego’s privately owned metro paper is getting hammered by declining advertising revenue.

As you well know, it’s not just newspapers struggling for breath in this benighted day and age. Mighty Microsoft announced just last week that it will lay off as many as 5,000 workers.

“The Union-Tribune should level with us,” you went on. “What’s the ultimate plan? How small is the paper going to get? Is home delivery threatened? Is the price of the paper going to increase?”

Honestly, I’m not the best person to answer your pointed questions. I’m a cubicle guy, not a suit in an office.

This much I do know: The current plan is to try to sell the newspaper, preferably to an individual or group with a belief in good journalism. In the meantime, we are slimming down to cut costs and to be attractive to a white knight.

I would be lying, however, if I didn’t concede that the Union-Tribune one day could disappear as a physical object slapping onto the porch as the sun comes up.

When? Don’t know.

After I die, I hope.

“Are your few remaining writers going to get buy-outs?” you asked. “The ‘Final Column’ has become a regular and depressing feature in the last year. Will you be writing one, for example? Tell us the truth. I repeat, tell us the plan. What can we expect? We’re intelligent grown-ups; we can take it.”

Steve, I agree that you’re a smart adult, but I don’t agree with your perception that “few remaining writers” are on the payroll. Granted, way more than a thousand years of experience have walked out the front door in the past year or two. And maybe I’m looking through a rose-colored eyeshade, but I see the newsroom as half-full.

Think of when a major story breaks – a big election, for example, or a trial or a manhunt or a wildfire. We roll out the carefully edited work of reporters and photographers on the ground, first online and then in print as we’ve done for years.

No way can a loose network of bloggers in pajamas – or, for that matter, time-challenged broadcast outlets – match our concerted effort to inform in detailed depth.

I won’t pretend, however, that cutbacks don’t undermine our morale as well as yours. A week ago Friday, we were hit with salary and benefits reductions. Layoffs loom. Colleagues are forming contingency plans.

As a columnist prone to self-revelation, I have a confession for you.

Last week, I thought about bailing from the profession that saved me from another recession. I admit it. I was almost ready to write one of those depressing “Final Columns.”

Believe it or not, I was saved, at least for the time being, by Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama.

In 1981, the year Ronald Reagan was inaugurated, I was a young father trying to support a family on part-time teaching jobs at San Diego State and the University of San Diego. Long hours, paltry pay. No health insurance.

For several reasons, my chances for a tenure-track position were dim. In desperation, I enrolled in Northwestern’s journalism school. After a few months in Evanston, Ill., I was hired as a copy editor at The Daily Californian in East County.

Even in the middle of that terrible economy, I was in demand in a labor-intensive profession. I had found my life’s work.

From my first day on the job, I’ve been proud to be a newspaperman, as my father and grandfather were. The money has never been princely, but the work has been steady and rewarding.

A week ago today, a sour lump in my throat, I dialed the number of the head of a local school. I had a memorized script that boiled down to this: Would someone with my odd credentials – a musty Ph.D., 28 years in newspapers – be considered for a teaching position next fall?

But I couldn’t get through. In my self-absorption, I had forgotten that schools were closed to honor King’s birthday.

The next morning, before going to work, I watched the latest presidential inauguration with my wife. In his address, President Obama called upon the nation to draw upon its reserves of imagination and courage to serve the public good.

Call me a fool, but I came into work Tuesday glad – euphoric even – that I had been unable to complete that phone call.

You may think I’m trying to sell you on the existence of Santa Claus – Yes, Steve, there is a Fourth Estate! – but I believe in my creaky bones that the U-T is too vital to San Diego County for it to starve to death.

We may get thinner in this economic winter. We may have to innovate in ways that trouble those who grew up with fat newspapers larded with ads. Ultimately, newsprint may give way altogether to computer and mobile screens.

But I’m betting we’ll survive, with or without old-school hands like me, to serve the human need to know what’s going on.

Logan Jenkins: (760) 737-7555; logan.jenkins@uniontrib.com .

Sometimes the creative process in advertising comes full circle. I just viewed a cool new TV spot for the Acura RDX called “Wall Art”, where the team used stop-frame animation to mimic street art in an inventive new way.  And somehow it left me asking myself where I had seen something like it before.

For some reason, the ad reminds me of a less colorful version of the classic Beatles film “Yellow Submarine”.  The film was a breakthrough for its generation, taking Paul, John, George and Ringo into the world of psychedelic animation (and some of the best songs of their careers, but that’s another story). Yet, after watching this video tracing the making of the spot, I realize the modern take on this process makes use of more sophisticated technologies and artists, with a lot more depth and dimension.

According to a press release from the artists behind the new spot:

“Wall Art opens with an RDX parked in front of a blank wall.  This same wall is painted and repainted with cityscape, hundreds and hundreds of times, to animate the background behind the vehicle.  The 10-day shoot for Wall Art used more than 450 gallons of paint and 500 cans of spray paint, resulting in more than 400 layers of paint on the wall.”

Pretty cool technique.  And you can’t say that very often about a car ad.

To learn more about the ad, click here for details.

Say I went on a date with a smokin’ hot brand and all it did was talk about itself the whole time. Not only would I never see that brand again, I’d spit in its drink when it wasn’t looking and leave it to foot the bill. That’s because any new relationship between consumer and brand is a two-way street. Your brand has to listen sometimes and let the consumer do the talking from time to time.

It’s understandable for a brand to be excited about itself and all that it can offer its target. But you don’t have to pin me down and tell me every single thing all at once. Be cool. Slip me some tidbits here and there. It’s okay to be a little mysterious. Tell me one thing at a time; then let me do some of the work in getting to know you. I can always go to your website if I want your brand’s life story.

BK’s new Whopper Virgins is a great example of this. The TV commercial tells me absolutely nothing about the whopper aside from the fact that there has been a new taste test. But it peaked my curiosity enough that I went to the website to see what it was all about. It required action from me, but it was action of my own volition. This time spent with the brand is the most rich and meaningful a marketer can hope for.

The tables have turned. It used to be all about the advertiser. Not anymore. The consumer has more power to select what they are subject to than ever. So if you’re looking for a long-term relationship with me, you’d better be cool or I’ll hang out with another brand.

Calling media is never easy. Some aren’t nice. Some don’t care. Some are on deadline. Most prefer passive email. (And what’s up with those still using fax machines? Hello, the forests are thinning!) I’m not a passive PR person. I like to make connections and make them matter. And each time I need to hook an editor into a story, I know I need to call. And each time I need to call, I pump myself up. Every second counts. Each word matters. And you rarely get a second chance.

If I had to choose one video to explain how I feel with each phone call, I’d choose this one (I know it’s also a speech from Any Given Sunday, but I’m a rugby player):