…words

I wanted to share some interesting articles from the latest edition of Ad Age Digital:

Using Google Search Data to Read 2009′s Tea Leaves from Steve Rubel

Blogging may be making a comeback. Searches related to blogging resources and services posted 64% growth in 2004. Then they basically flat-lined the next three years. However, in 2008 they climbed 24%. It’s highly likely that both the growth in 2004 and 2008 was fueled by elections. But my gut is that something deeper is going on here. Perhaps some see blogs as a powerful personal branding tool that can help them weather the recession. Searches for the keywords “personal brand” are also up significantly.

Read more –>

A New Year’s Challenge to Brands From Mat Zucker

10 important resolutions for you to make on behalf your brands and agencies in 2009:

1. I will put my brand in the service of the country right now — not my P&L, not my division, not my parent company, not a quite-possibly already irrelevant 2009-2010 plan. This is the time to spend the years of positive brand equity we’ve built up.
2. I will impart optimism to the customers who have come to believe in the brand. I will not give into the national self-pity promoted by our news media. I will not be a Pollyanna, but I will not be depressing.
3. I will finally add to my brand standards how I expect my business to behave. These principles are more important now than just look, feel, tone or advertising message. I’ve gone too long without them.
4. I will find new ways to connect to my audience. They used to rely on me to ask them for money. What else can my brand offer them?
5. I will finally learn how to communicate the way my customers communicate. I will get fluent in the digital media they’ve come to love — search, text messaging, blogging, paid content, e-commerce. And my brand is going to make digital media better, just as we used to make traditional media better.
6. When I do use digital advertising, I will use it to actually sell product through news or differentiation. (Remember when ads did that?)

Read more –>

Most Manufacturing Brands Are Missing the Mark Online from Kelly Mooney

The web is the platform that integrates all customer touchpoints and it’s the one place where manufacturers have an opportunity to establish a direct relationship with the end consumer. It provides a unique opportunity for manufacturers to tell their brand story and differentiate themselves in a competitive landscape.

Even in the case of non-transactional sites, the brand still has a tremendous opportunity to influence the sale without being responsible for the ultimate transaction. That influence takes shape in information and tools that empower users to make confident, informed buying decisions, particularly about high-dollar products. A brand can create an open dialogue online, offer decision support and even support a community, resulting in an inspired consumer running three quarters of the race before even entering the store — and choosing a brand before she arrives.

Read more –>