Do Not Track: Is a Negotiated Solution the Answer?

May 1, 2013 – 11:58 am
Casey BartoLast week there was a storm brewing on Capitol Hill as the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on the status of the floundering Do Not Track initiative.
Plans for the initiative have slowed to a crawl, prompting the need for the Do Not Track Online Act to be reintroduced in the Senate a few months ago.
Senator Jay Rockefeller isn’t pleased with the slow pace of things and blasted the advertising industry last week saying the industry “is dragging its feet on development of Do Not Track… and I believe they are doing it purposely.”

In addition, Rockefeller claimed the AdChoices Program from the Digital Advertising Alliance doesn’t satisfy the FTC’s call for a Do Not Track standard.

The hearing on the Hill comes a few months after FireFox announced it would disable 3rd-party cookies by default.

Harvey Anderson, Mozilla’s SVP of business and legal affairs and general counsel told the hearing that the industry isn’t moving forward quickly enough.

Responding the slow pace of the initiative, California legislators introduced a bill designed to “require an operator to disclose whether or not it honors a request from a consumer to disable online tracking,” reads the draft legislation. “The bill would also require an operator to disclose if it does not allow third parties to conduct online tracking on the commercial Web site or online service.”

Matthew Schwartz at Information Week writes, “The proposed legislation sounds a rare note of clarity in the contentious debate surrounding do-not-track proposals, asking website operators simply: Do you honor consumers’ do-not-track requests?”

If an agreement is not reached soon, “escalation around these competing interests will create major problems for both individuals and the businesses that depend on the internet,” writes Peter Swire, The co-chair of the W3C Do Not Track standards process, at Wired.

So, what can be done to help advertisers, the government and consumers reach an acceptable agreement on Do Not Track?
Swire suggests negotiation. “A negotiated Do Not Track standard offers the best way to avoid the arms race: It would allow individual users to indicate whether they wish to have personalized ads based on their surfing habits. It would allow websites and advertising networks to continue their existing cookie-based models with the consumers who don’t opt out. And it would help avoid the sizzling controversy and escalation around cookie blocking and technical counter-measures.”

What are your thoughts on Swire’s comments and the current state of Do Not Track? Share below!
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By Casey Newman | Posted in Industry News | Leave a Comment

Redefining Roles within Marketing

April 29, 2013 – 1:34 pm
Patti RennerOne overlooked challenge of adopting a customer-centric cross-channel approach for marketing is not technology – it’s people. Teams within your organization are aligned around channel-specific responsibilities. Budgets are designed around channel-specific activities. The traditional funnel concept no longer works, but that doesn’t mean anyone is racing to replace it.
I invite you to take a step back and consider what is really going on with your customers. Here are some trends.
  1. Customers no longer respond well to marketing messages pushed out to them. They want stories, useful information, and ideas to entertain or enlighten them. The fact that this useful, entertaining content (aka “utility content”) is attached to your brand is a plus for you.

  2. People need depth of content to help them make a decision, or to validate the emotional “I-gotta-have-this” impulse when considering your offer. Websites, landing pages, case studies, videos, review forums… all of these help support the decision to buy. And since people are more likely to either ignore or not trust your advertising messages, these depth channels are worth attention.

  3. People are social. They want relationships with other people and with the brands they choose (in many, but not all cases). They use their purchase patterns to define themselves as individuals. To enhance your relationship, use your data to see what sites (social and others) your audience uses most often. Where do they spend their time connecting with others? Are they on Facebook, or are they scanning the recipe or weight-loss forums? Are they part of an online community? Are they posting to Pinterest or looking up DIY projects on home-improvement sites for inspiration? Be where they are, offering your brand as a helpful, supportive resource for them.

Knowing the value of reaching the customer with the information they want in the manner they prefer means your approach needs to shift internally. Nate Elliott, an analyst at Forrester Research brought up some interesting points at his closing remarks at the recent Marketing Leadership Forum event. While I’m not a huge fan of the forced acronyms (RaDaR, SoLoMo), etc.), he did bring up some excellent points about how today’s buyers engage. My question is this: If you had no legacy systems and were starting from scratch, would you structure things as they are today? Nate suggests changing up titles to reflect what the people do instead of the tools they use. I wonder how much easier it might be if you had a “Head of Reach” instead of “director of digital” or a “Head of Relationships” instead of “director of social engagement.” Something to consider as the funnel is crushed under the heel of today’s consumer. These are exciting times indeed.

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By Patti Renner | Posted in marketing | Tags: | Leave a Comment

Pebble Watch: Wearable is (Not Yet) the New Mobile

April 26, 2013 – 12:08 pm
Dutch HollisFirst things first… this is not a review of the Pebble smart watch. If that’s what you’re looking for, you may be disappointed. I will make a few comments on my Pebble experience at the end, but that’s not what I want to focus on. There are Pebble reviews out there aplenty.
What I want to talk about is the fact that wearable computers are here. They don’t yet share the ubiquity of smart phones, but they are here. Whether that means the Pebble, smart watches by Sony or Samsung or even Apple (rumor has it), or Google Glass – we are in the infancy of yet another advance in mobile computing and it’s not too soon to think about what that means.

For a “smart watch” the Pebble is a bit dumb. It’s more like a tiny second terminal for your phone. Since the data it’s displaying is basically sent to the watch from your smart phone via a Bluetooth connection, it’s not so much doing anything with the data so much as displaying it and letting you make some limited input.

I can choose which calls to take without looking at my phone. I can read texts, but not reply to them. Same with emails – I can read significant portions of emails (text only) with just my watch and that is nice. I can flip to the next or the last track on my playlist. These are all great features.

So why do we care as marketers? Well add one more screen for starters. Who even knows what the first screen is anymore. Is it the TV? The tablet? The phone? Will it be the watch or the glasses in another 5 years? Perhaps.

What is clear is that technology is changing faster than ever before. For a long time the PC was our primary mode of interfacing with the web. Then came the smart phones and changed the game. Now tablets are being adopted faster than any other tech device in history. Wearable devices have the potential to change the game again.

Also, wearable devices drive home the point that our messaging has to be flexible in presentation and increasingly relevant to get the attention of the target who has one more screen at his/her disposal. Expect that over the next few iterations, the features and functions of wearable devices will improve sufficiently to allow us to interact with email, SMS and other marketing messages in a meaningful way in this new environment.

Here is a shot of an email on my watch. Clearly it’s not yet time to start designing for wearable screens, but just as the iPhone changed the game for smartphones, something will come along that will change the game for wearables. We will need to think about ways to get to the heart of our message for wearable devices and how to add value to that specific experience, just like we did for mobile.New Picture

OK – I promised a few thoughts on the Pebble itself. Unless you simply like being an early adopter (and I do), just wait. The Pebble has no real app integration yet. I can’t wait to have it integrated with my Nike running app, but that is much farther off than I thought it was going to be when I signed up for my Pebble a year ago. The battery life I get is 30 hours max, though they have promised 2-7 days. The notifications integration with phone and SMS is solid. The email integration is flaky and I find myself resetting it every day or two to get it to work (I have an iPhone 4S – other iPhone users and Android users get varying results). Despite Pebble being the largest project ever on Kickstarter, it’s still a startup, so delays in manufacturing have hurt them and the customer support, though friendly, leaves much to be desired.
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By Dutch Hollis | Posted in technology adoption | Tags: | Leave a Comment

Marketing to the Perpetually Connected Customer

April 22, 2013 – 12:04 pm
Patti RennerIn Los Angeles last week gathered some of the brightest minds in digital for Forrester’s Marketing Leadership Forum 2013. The underlying theme was the “perpetually connected customer.” For these individuals (referred to as “perpetuals”), the use of digital is part of their lifestyle – multiple devices, multiple logins from multiple locations, all day long. In fact for some perpetuals, the information they receive via mobile device can sometimes be more real than their own reality. Many cannot have experiences without a mobile device involved. Consider the number of athletes walking the track at the opening ceremonies of the Summer Olympics in 2012 with their phones held high to capture the scene. Instead of savoring the spotlight after a lifetime of effort, many preferred to capture the experience digitally over the experience itself.
Research from late 2012 found that only about 4% of the population are perpetuals, yet that number is expected to grow rapidly. Mobile has trained our brains to expect more from our mobile experiences, using them as a tool to shorten the distance between what we might need and what we know we want. As the value of the experiences goes up, the level of connection to those useful experiences will also climb.

Another word for perpetuals might also be “distracted.” The old statistic where marketers had 7 seconds to connect with consumers when they land on your website has been replaced with 2 or 3 seconds on mobile. So how do you best reach these people? By inviting them to come to you. At the heart of your approach is content – but not just any content. Marketers need to shift from “sell” to “serve” in their overall approach. Start with sharing something useful. Content, advertising, videos, downloads and more all need to revolve around the needs of the customer. Where are they on the customer journey? What are they struggling with? What story can you share to support your brand mission while serving, educating or entertaining the customer?

How can you reduce the friction in any part of their lives?

Johnson & Johnson was an example shared during a presentation. As a brand that features baby products, soaps and lotions, they could have focused on their products, or their company history. But instead they placed their customer first, helping them deal with one of the greatest challenges of new parents – sleep. Their utility approach to reaching customers includes a highly rated app with instructions for bathing newborns, how to make a baby cozy before bedtime, lullabies, and more. Not only is the information useful – it also supports the overall brand vision.

When reaching today’s perpetuals, usefulness always wins. What can you do to better serve your audience? Maybe there’s an app… or a website… or a video on your company’s YouTube channel… for that.
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By Patti Renner | Posted in marketing | Tags: , | Leave a Comment

Facebook Home – A User’s Review

April 19, 2013 – 11:26 am
Lesley MattI was extremely excited the day Mark Zuckerberg made the announcement about Facebook Home. At first glance it seemed like a unique experience that would help to transform the way I interacted with people on my phone, and I couldn’t wait to for the release date so that I could start interacting with people in a new, exciting, revolutionary way that Zuckerberg created for me.
After a few minutes of updates and changes to my phone, I was immersed into the world of Facebook Home.

fhomeA few things struck me as odd after I downloaded it. I knew what to expect from watching the videos about Home, but I didn’t expect it to immediately take over my entire phone. I thought that it would be like other widgets on my phone, where I had to log into them to get them to start running. Not with Home. It was automatically showing a slide show of photos from my friends as well as status updates and other things that they had posted. This made me realize that I have some amazing photographer friends and the way the slide show was presented, it made it look even better, but also annoyed me because it was an experience I wasn’t ready for.

Here are my thoughts:

I felt completely lost after downloading it. I couldn’t figure out how to make my phone function as a phone anymore and all the basic functions of making calls, checking email and sending text messages seemed to go away.

Everything was replaced with all things Facebook. I felt I had just mastered the basics of my new Android phone, but I couldn’t quite wrap my brain around getting it to work without updating the entire Facebook universe of what was happening with me. If I was using an app, was that showing up on Facebook?

It’s always running, and kind of feels Big Brother-ish. Even though my phone has amazing battery life, I didn’t like the feeling that “big brother” was always watching me. I knew that downloading the app would change a few of my privacy settings, but it really felt like my entire phone activity could be watched by Facebook.

I also didn’t care for the fact that there wasn’t any real warning that this was going to happen. The update felt like business as usual, but my entire phone was transformed. This really struck a chord with me as I tend to do almost all of my bill and online banking from my mobile device. With Facebook’s past issues on privacy settings and information spreading I was nervous about having all of my personal banking and shopping preferences being used to “help” me make buying decisions. I am all for targeted advertising and recommendations based on first party cookies, but the potential for Facebook to take what I consider extremely personal information and use it to sell ads turned me off (note that to my knowledge there isn’t an immediate plan for this, but the possibilities of it turned me off).

After a few hours of having this ‘revolutionary’ new app on my phone, I decided that I didn’t care enough about what people were doing on Facebook to risk public embarrassment for being naïve and completely delete the application from my phone. Since it is a free app, I feel as if there wasn’t any love lost and I can always change my mind.

By Lesley Matt | Posted in technology adoption | Tags: | Leave a Comment

Join Knotice at The Forrester Forum This Week

April 17, 2013 – 11:52 am
Casey BartoThis year’s Forrester Marketing Forum is now upon us, and this year’s theme focuses on the perpetually connected consumer, or the ‘always addressable customer.’
According to Forrester, “These new, perpetually connected customers provide endless marketing opportunities.” A main pain point for marketers, however, is effectively engaging these always addressable consumers. As marketing channels continue to blur in the minds of consumers, marketers need to revamp their data management practices to provide coordinated brand experiences that span digital channels and device types.

The forum will help to address some of the challenges above, attempting to answer these questions:

  • How do you target the right moments to build relevance?

  • How do you avoid the backlash from people who feel bombarded by your messaging?

  • How do you pick the right emerging technologies and marketing skills to build relevance with customers at exactly the right point in time?

If you’ll be attending, be sure to stop by booth 204 and say hello to some of the Knotice team. We’ll have some really exciting content (including a new piece of research) and a look at some of the new stuff that’s on the horizon.

If you won’t be at the show, but want to follow along, keep an eye on the hashtag #forrforum on Twitter for up to the minute tweets and of course stay tuned to The Lunch Pail for some show takeaways from Patti.

And don’t forget to take a look at this recent research from Forrester that includes new insights on key challenges facing marketers regarding data collection and data management practices.

By Casey Newman | Posted in Industry News | Tags: | Leave a Comment

Technology is About Connection

April 15, 2013 – 1:54 pm
Patti RennerAs a former journalist, I find myself drawn to the “why” behind industry trends and statistics. Forgive me for sounding like a curious 5-year-old, but I’ve been asking myself some questions. For instance:
  • Why are tablets enjoying the fastest adoption rate of any new technology in history?
  • Why do people in a tight economy spend hundreds on multiple devices, resulting in the level of device fragmentation we currently see today?
  • Why are so many people on Facebook? Even with “Facebook fatigue,” Neilsen reports that 17% of time spent on the Internet from a PC is spent on Facebook (December 2012).
  • Why are people predicting the death of the PC when so much of the way we navigate our day-to-day revolves around the Web?
  • Why do my 80-year-old parents who resist online checking insist on owning an iPhone?

    • The underlying theme to all of these trends in question comes down to connection. Just as the World Wide Web connects websites and online content, its users seek a continued connection, digitally tethering to each other and the brands to which they identify. It’s a mosh pit of connectivity and we’re all just crowd surfing trying to stay on top of it.

    In the past 18 months or so, consumers have shifted from being simply interactive to becoming “always addressable.” The idea of advanced technology as intimidating has evolved into people demanding the tools they need to live their lives. The idea of “too much” has been replaced with “what’s next.” All of these device types offer a means to connect with others (people, online content, brands, etc.) for every thought that crosses through our highly connected minds.

    According to recent research released by Forrester, a shift must take place to engage this type of consumer with marketing that works. Here are a few ways to approach it.

    1. Take a people-first approach. Use your data from multiple touchpoints (including social and others) to better understand each individual and what motivates them to take action. To do this you need to “Create a fuller picture of all their decisions.” (This takes data management.)

    2. Consider the context. To engage these always addressable people, you need to consider what they’re doing, why they’re there, and what they’re doing as they interact with you. According to other research from Forrester, “Remember, 89% of tablet owners tell us that they use their devices at home, and of these, 79% are using them in their bedrooms.” Knowing that, when you look at your cross-channel engagement (such as email opens) and see a trend by time and device type, this information should factor into your overall approach (mobile phone = fewer clicks; tablet = image forward; etc.).

    3. How can you best meet their needs? The trend is not necessarily “mobile.” It’s more about getting the customers what they want, when they want it, on whatever device is at hand.
      The sooner you adopt an approach that spans multiple channels and device types, the better your odds at keeping up with consumers who blur their technology into their lifestyle. It begins with a shift toward connection. If a technology or tool doesn’t enhance that connection with your audience, you’d be wise to find an approach that does.
    By Patti Renner | Posted in Data | Tags: | Leave a Comment

    Firefox Cranks up the Do Not Track Heat

    April 12, 2013 – 11:40 am
    Casey BartoJust as I wrote about the Do Not Track movement being on its last leg, it appears Firefox has taken it to the next level with some new features. You’ve probably already read that the next version of the browser will block third party cookies by default, but here are some other features you may not have been aware of.
    Firefox 21, available in beta, has a new Do Not Track feature that’s got the industry buzzing. In addition to the standard options in its do not track header, Firefox has added a third option – nothing. What this means is instead of choosing either ‘it’s ok to track me’ or ‘I do not consent to being tracked’, you can now choose not to decide. Wait, what?

    Explains Seth Rosenblatt at CNET: “Firefox 21 gives you those three choices. “When DNT is off, it doesn’t mean ‘please track me.’ It means that the user hasn’t told the browser their choice yet,” Lowenthal wrote. When you install Firefox for the first time, he said, the browser is set to neither so that the choice is entirely the user’s.

    What’s not clear is how sites react to that. Do websites that receive no Do Not Track preference actually not track you? It may be that Mozilla is attempting to create that response, but websites have been issuing cookies to follow you around since long before the concept of Do Not Track even existed. That’s not to say that a more user-respectful approach to DNT isn’t a good idea, but it’s hardly how the Web currently works.”

    Continuing on with Firefox’s beta releases, next we have a new feature called Persona, which is designed to eliminate the need for remembering multiple passwords for multiple sites.

    “One of the most interesting and innovative features of Persona is called ‘Identity Bridging,’ which uses a known and trusted identity to log in to other sites and services. For example, Mozilla is highlighting yahoo.com as a common login which may be used elsewhere. A Firefox user with a Yahoo account can use this login information to log into other sites with Persona built in. This way, users only need to know one login and password combination rather than keep a running tally of several passwords or use another password storage service,” writes Michael Harper at redorbit.com.

    Firefox 22, available in Aurora, is set to roll out in June. According to Martin Smith at TruEffect, “Across the ecosystem the layering of the Firefox changes on top of those already introduced by Apple’s Safari browser will severely impact the data operations of vendors who rely on third-party data architectures and technical frameworks. Conversely, the vendors who have a direct relationship with the consumer will benefit – this includes Google, Yahoo! and premium publishers and advertisers using First-Party technologies.”

    What do you make of these changes? If you need help working in the first-party space, Knotice can help.

    By Casey Newman | Posted in Industry News | Tags: | Leave a Comment

    2D Codes: A Marketing Tragedy – Act II

    April 10, 2013 – 11:59 am

    dave-face-ShakespeareBefore we begin the second act of this marketing tragedy, the audience is invited to peruse Act I here.

    Over time, we’ve seen proprietary bar codes and well-meaning but under-capitalized companies go by the wayside. We’re left with a smaller group of most viable options for code selection with QR being the clear winner in popularity.
    Even with the bulk of the codes being QR, successful campaigns with any type of code have common elements:
    • A clear call to action describing the value to the participant once they execute the scan (higher value exchange in favor of the user equals higher scan rates);

    • Specific instruction that details any apps or special steps needed to execute the scan;

    • An entertaining, device-optimized, and contextually appropriate and creative destination that delivers seamlessly on the promise that engendered the scan activity in the first place (app downloads, microsites, AR experiences);
    • A clear ending, one that lets the user know when the experience has run its course (without dragging it out too long).

    Turn tragedy into joy as marketers win with 2D codes, too!

    • As part of the experience, marketers get the opt-in and captured contact information (mobile engaged lead sources consistently over index for AOV, LTV, and Conversion %);

    • Relevant, respectful follow-up is not just nice – it’s appreciated and expected. Bring those leads into your email, SMS, and Display programs and they ultimately exhibit better results more frequently than non-mobile subscribers;

    • Follow these leads from intake to conversion along the ownership path and use their actions to help prove mobility’s overall contribution to the cultivation of higher value prospect and customer segments.

    Today, we have programs for iconic brands that are averaging many thousands of scans on a weekly basis. 2D codes are interceding in key buying moments to offer additional support, encouraging the buying decision and improving the overall ownership experience. We’re activating print, capturing emails, delivering scan-only content, so brands and consumers are benefiting.

    Admittedly, similar to display ads in 1998-2000, the phrase QR or 2D has left many a marketer with a bitter taste and fetid scent lingering based on early results. If they can look at them for what they are great for, and use them programmatically to solve real marketing problems, QR codes could prove Juliet correct as she submitted “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” No matter what it’s called, it should be judged on what it actually is.

    By Dave Lawson | Posted in Mobile Marketing, Uncategorized | Tags: | Leave a Comment
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