Finally, the fifth trend to watch in 2012 is concept that encapsulates much of what I discussed in parts one through four – privacy.

#5 – First party and third party

The terms “first party” and “third party” denote something technical and legal in nature. At Knotice we are clearly advocates for a first-party approach in how brands create, access and use data, and how they identify and track consumers and customers. This bias permeates everything we do from a software and services standpoint:

• Profile tracking is performed only on the brand’s domains
• Profiles are identified and recognized by a first party cookie
• Third party data sources are treated as circumspect, with a strategic preference for leveraging explicit data and preferences or implicit and behavioral activity in the first party
• Extending choice and control to consumers across channels including email, mobile, web and online display

The fifth trend to watch in 2012 isn’t the digital marketing universe falling in line with Knotice’s philosophical and strategic position. Rather, the fifth trend to watch in 2012 is the emerging realization that the mechanics and philosophy of how good online business is done may be coalescing within a technical concept: first party vs. third party.

The mechanics and philosophy of doing business in the first party draws important distinctions and has meaningful impact on online business, which I have touched on in previous segments of this series.

Among them:

• Providing a technical framework allowing for more reliable identification, recognition and tracking of profiles, leading to more effective targeting on the front end and more meaningful cross-channel metrics, analysis and attribution on the back end.
• Minimizing reliance on third-party tracking mechanisms, behavioral data aggregation, and data sources which improves an organization’s ability to better embrace transparency with consumer data, privacy and preferences.
• Creating an efficient, effective technical and operational framework for the holistic practice of cross-channel direct digital marketing and communications.
• Consolidating and owning the responsibility for educating consumers, inspiring them to express preferences, capturing and respecting those preferences, and making this dialogue an easily-accessible across channel engagements, from the user’s mobile device to the call center.

If these are trends to watch in 2012, then clearly the shift to a first-party technical and philosophical approach is the encapsulating mega-trend for 2012.

#4 — Consumer data, privacy and preferences

In 2012 the fourth trend to watch for direct digital marketing is that of marketers earnestly taking steps to establish transparency with consumers and customers regarding how data is collected, and what data is used (and by what means) to communicate with them. It is the marketers’ response to the consumer-in-control that is meaningful this year.

Here’s the old 2011 “spin” in response to consumer concerns of data privacy: first, deny the allegation; downplay the consumer impact; and, pin the curtain tighter around the doorway to where the sausage is made. Meanwhile, enact cosmetic changes and jettison plainly indiscrete practices, while assessing the long-term business impact of an increasingly vigilant consumer. The prevailing marketer anxiety: having to making sense of a world where the once ample reserves of behavioral and third-party data sources are suddenly cut off and unavailable.

2012 will be the year the spin is abandoned in favor of transparency. We already see a cultural shift in some areas of the Internet where transparency has been embraced as good business – not because it’s defensible by counsel or because the nasty bits are more securely protected, but because it’s the right thing to do. Is it possible that the perception of the empowered digital consumer can morph from that of gnat-on-steroids to that of respected, rational and right individuals and consumers in the eyes of today’s marketers? That is, marketers recognize there is a significant and affluent audience with whom it is good business to do good business.

I believe that the business of the “curtain in the sausage factory” will become expensive, troublesome and perhaps more importantly, simply out of style. Marketers are beginning to understand that allowing consumers to express preferences and manage the framework for data-based interactions and messaging is a win-win. It is an invasive and intoxicating concept that, once embraced, will ultimately become fully-realized within many organizations by force of momentum. The ultimate manifestation will take a long time and take many shapes across industries as the market clarifies the prevailing mechanisms for consumer education and expression of choice. But the trend to watch in 2012 is the earnest progress towards brand transparency – embracing a policy where consumers are encouraged to understand and express preferences towards the brand as the nature of the dialogue.

The long-term business value is the potential for revenue, consumer loyalty and advocacy.

Within this staggeringly complex ecosystem intelligent marketers will realize that a system of single-channel, last-click attribution has outlived its usefulness, if the goal is to create meaningful digital marketing strategies rather than incrementally optimize a series of tactical deployments. And while attribution models that can make sense of the interplay between 2 or 3 channels clearly represent progress (and a hell of a worthwhile starting point), this is just the tip of the iceberg:

• Understanding how the diverse media and direct digital marketing tactics contribute to revenue, contribute to important milestones like awareness and consideration is critical.
• Understanding the most common and effective recipes for online impressions across channels to produce happy buyers, larger receipts, and better brand advocates.
• Understanding whether a brand impression on a smartphone influences a purchase decision made on a desktop computer, or, if the respective purchase funnels on desktop computers and smartphones are more isolated from each other. All of this and more is at stake.

Better investment in, and more attention paid to, intelligent attribution models will be an important aspect of effective marketing strategy development this year. This is nothing new for the small group of sophisticated online marketers at the leading edge of the curve. But the trend to watch in 2012 is seeing the torch being picked up by the brands at the middle of the curve and laying the groundwork for better measurement and insights. 2012 will be a year of attribution.

Let’s take a look at the second trend I’ll be keeping an eye on:

#2 – Understanding multi-screen profiles In 2012 digital consumers are multi-screen consumers. In my 2011 piece, I identified the “four screens and counting” dilemma. The prevalence of multiple wired screens within reach of the digital consumer during the course of the day (TV, desktop/laptop computer, tablet, and smartphone) creates hurdles for marketers. This means increasing technical complexity from an execution standpoint, and fractured views of individual consumers. Even though cross-channel consumer data (another focus for marketers in 2012) is important and becoming a more tangible reality every day, the concept of communicating with an individual profile across their four screens is still elusive.

2012 will be the year that marketers begin to make sense of the fractured multi-screen profile, both in terms of creating a single holistic view of this device-hopping user and better understanding the inherent schizophrenic behavior that comes with multi-device use habits.

About a month ago I read about IBM’s efforts to re-think and re-design the venerable email inbox specifically for mobile (smartphone) users. Why? Because research clearly shows that the same person has far different priorities and traits when accessing their email inbox from their smartphone vs. their desktop computer. It’s the same person; it’s the same email in their inbox. But the mere difference of the device being used to access the inbox makes all the difference in the world to turning priorities and user traits upside down.

As direct digital marketers in 2012 we have two mandates for understanding multi-screen profiles: use the increasingly powerful tools at techniques at our disposal to aggregate user and activity data from cross-channel activities into consolidated consumer profiles, yet be wary of using that single consolidated profile view to dictate segmentation and targeting regardless of the point of interaction. We can aggregate attributes like demographics, purchase history, browsing behavior and more, and create increasingly actionable insights. But these insights may always be trumped by the specific needs and desires signaled to us by the user’s device of the moment. While the primary online shopper within a young family may always buy the large box of diapers at Amazon with standard ground shipping, the same shopper while on a mobile device may only be interested in the small box and rush shipping.

Understanding, reacting to and creating a smarter view of these multi-screen profiles is an imperative for 2012 – and a trend to watch.

Check back next week for the rest of my trends to watch!

#1 – Mobile and social own the conversation. 2011 was a year where marketers understood the importance and value of mobile and social paradigms, and acquired familiarity with the technologies and opportunities, and competence with channel engagement or campaign execution. 2012 will see the continuing tipping of the scales. Campaign execution will transition into a modified holistic view of consumer interaction where mobile and social elements represent the crux of digital consumer engagement, not outlying or niche channels.

In many of my presentations, I quote from Vic Gundotra of Google from 2010. “Focus on the mobile user,” Mr. Gundotra stated, “and all else will follow.” At the time he was the engineering lead for Google’s mobile platforms. Not coincidentally he is now the engineering lead for social platforms, including Google+. We can certainly infer that if this statement was modified for today, he would clarify it is the mobile-social user that stands at the center of the universe.

What Google has understood is that the concepts of mobility and socialization have the potential to be pervasive to every type of online activity. For consumers, mobility and socialization translate to tangible things like convenience, immediacy, information, exploration, communication, action and more.

So every digital campaign element in 2012 must be optimized for mobile interaction, and must inherently foster socialization concepts such as sharing or liking. Or rather, to paraphrase Mr. Gundotra, mobile and social concepts must be the focus of marketer’s strategies, not just add-on channel afterthoughts.

And what smart marketers will realize this year is a mobile and social focus isn’t necessary so as to drive revenue and sales through dedicated m-commerce or f-commerce channels. Mobile and social are the key drivers that will represent success and improved ROI across a brand’s buying channels – whether retail, wholesale, catalog or call center, e-commerce, m-commerce or f-commerce.

More trends to come. Stay tuned!

The customized MS Tag (one-color black with a faint silhouette of a Porsche drawn over the Tag) is a double-edged sword.

In all fairness to Porsche, there is fine-type copy above the Tag stating “Get the free reader app at http://gettag.mobi The issue is this copy blends in precisely with the other fine-type copyright and disclaimer copy at the top of the ad.

Porsche also falls victim to the “mystery code” temptation, associating no call-to-action with the MS Tag or attempting to illustrate the experience or value the user will gain from scanning. Between this and the customized Tag, I wonder if overall response is negatively impacted. Once the Tag is scanned, Porsche’s execution of the mobile site is extraordinary.

So what do you think? Is there an example you’d like my two cents about? I invite you to leave a comment.

Buick steps outside the box

There’s a lot to like about Buick’s 2-page spread for the Buick Regal Turbo. Buick is clearly trying to update their brand image to appeal to younger buyers. To bring this point home, Buick leverages Google Goggles as their mobile response technology. At the bottom right of the ad is a subtle Goggles icon. Just below the icon in the bottom right border of the ad is a refreshingly clear call-to-action statement: “Unlock this ad’s interactive features.
Photograph this entire ad with Google Goggles on Android or iPhone.” I’m excited that Buick is experimenting with mobile response methods beyond 2D barcodes, SMS, or mobile URLs. But knowing that this process (and Google Goggles itself) may be unfamiliar to some users, they provide explicit instructions (though I would have liked to see a short statement on the need to download Google Goggles from the Android or iPhone app stores).

Google Goggles is a nice tool, though I’m not sure how many day-to-day consumers are familiar with how it works. Essentially it’s a visual search tool: when you use Goggles app to scan an image of anything, it kicks off a Google search based on image recognition. In essence Buick is asking users to use Goggles to recognize the print ad, and direct the user the matching information, which happens to be Buick’s mobile web site for the campaign.

Here’s the price of experimentation though. First users must scan the entire print ad for this to work. In order for the Goggles app to scan the entire 2-page ad, you have to hold the phone a good 2-3 feet above the ad. This is problematic if the magazine is sitting on your lap. I had to set the magazine flat on a table, stand up, and hold my phone at chest-level in order for this to work.

Once Goggles has recognized the print ad, the app brings up the search results based on that image. Fortunately for Buick, the first search result is the link to the mobile-optimized site (at right) for the campaign. But there are more problems. Don’t hold your phone high enough above the magazine to scan the entire ad? Goggles also recognizes parts of the ad, and the search results are different. In one case Goggles recognized only the headline in the ad, and the search results took me to a Google page with dozens of results most with links to Buick’s standard, non-mobile website. When I first scanned the entire ad with Goggles, the app listed two additional search results below the link to Buick’s web page – and neither result was anything Buick wanted to be a part of. We must remember that Goggles is a visual search engine, and apparently Buick cannot (or did not want to) limit results to only the intended destination. This is a bit of an issue.

Buick gets high marks for creating the best mobile web destination among these 4 examples discussed in this series. The site is very tied-in with the campaign, offers 3 short videos for effective but quick engagement opportunities, and a single CTA to “discover more” which links to the Regal’s product page on m.buick.com, where an interested user can view additional details and find a dealer. Nice work.

Kohler Using QR codes

Flip 7 pages forward to find Kohler’s full-page ad for their Flipside line of shower heads. Kohler uses a straightforward QR code – one-color, black, no customizations – at the bottom of the ad.
Thankfully it is large enough to scan well. The QR code links the users’ smartphone to a mobile-optimized page dedicated to the Flipside product line. So at a basic level, the execution of this campaign is very sound.

Two issues: the mystery code and the dead end.

I’m continually fascinated by brands that continue to use what I call the “mystery code” approach, and the fact that the mobile web site leveraged does not have the appropriate content for the application.

The QR code in the ad sits on its own with no supporting copy. There is no call-to-action, no description of the valuable content or experience the consumer will benefit from by taking the time to scan the code, and no explanation of how to participate if the user needs a reminder (or needs a URL to download a QR code reader). This is classic application of the “mystery code” approach, where the lack of any call to action or value proposition means only consumers who are extremely curious and have previous knowledge and comfort with scanning QR codes, will participate. This is a poor approach for creating a compelling reason for a larger audience of users to participate.

When you scan the QR code to reach the mobile web site (on the right), the execution is sound. The site provides a ton of content specific to the shower head model featured in the ad. There is a functional video link (though it links to Kohler’s YouTube site) for some nice engagement. Technical information is provided in addition to ability to download information on installation. However, there is no way for the consumer to act: no way to navigate to a page where a user can buy the shower head, no tool for finding a nearby retailer, no phone number to call to order. So even if the ad and the mobile site have done their job and compelled a user to want this product, Kohler has lead the user down a dead-end street.

Over the course of a series of posts, I’ll provide my review of each of the four ads. Let’s start with Volkswagen.

VW uses SMS

The first of the four was VW’s full page ad for the 2011 Touareg Hybrid, just opposite the Wired table of contents page. Bucking the recent trends of brands throwing around QR codes with abandon, VW’s mobile response offering was through SMS. The very simple and well-worded call to action: (below) “See the story behind the Touareg supercharged hybrid. Text HYBRID3 to 892277 to unlock the video.”

VW is making the most of SMS knowing this allows the greatest potential audience to interact via their mobile device. Even though the received SMS message links to a mobile web site (on the right) (which limits the potential audience to those with a suitable device and broadband connection), I like the additional option to continue the engagement through SMS alone. All too often SMS is abandoned too early by brands in their haste to transfer users to a mobile web page or device app.

Stay tuned for reviews of the other ads! And feel free to add your thoughts below.

While the use of social media has exploded since I first wrote about direct digital marketing, it’s important to note that the addressability found in a mobile phone number, web browser cookie, or email address DOES NOT extend to social media.

Yes, marketers can target certain users and user types through Twitter and Facebook, but these are not actually data profiles that a brand can store to a proprietary CRM database. This means that one cannot mine and manipulate the data in meaningful ways. However, there are plenty of meaningful indicators available from direct addressable email, mobile and web interactions – all highly trackable – which can add a wealth of context (identifying which customers are active in social media and which are prone to influence their friends and peers), or provide advocacy and endorsement of your brand. In this sense, direct digital marketing allows marketers to strike the match which their socially connected customers then use to light the fuse to the powder keg.

Also, think about the maturity that many brands have gained in the last 24 months, recognizing the need to gracefully, efficiently support consumers’ cross-channel research and shopping habits. In this context the centralization of a profile database that can provide addressable direct digital marketing to customers and prospects is a core requirement. Marketers who are motivated to deliver more relevant marketing communications to the right customer through the right channel are learning that silo’d data and content repositories hamper effectiveness.

These are just some of the scenarios in which the addressability of direct digital marketing – and the advantages of consolidating these capabilities – take on even more meaning and relevance in two years’ time. And this is really just scratching the surface. I would love to hear of more examples from our readers! Email me your thoughts and examples and I can provide a follow-up post with further discussion and examples.