It’s Cyber Monday, the online shopping cousin of Black Friday. Historically, this is a day when Internet retailers pull out all the online sale stops to engage consumers to act. But more than any year in recent memory, the day after Thanksgiving seemed to have the same goal. Online holiday shopping powered by social media check-ins and blowout price reductions seems to have fared well this Black Friday. So why the fuss over Cyber Monday? Considering the propensity for heavy shopping traffic to effectively shut down websites, the answer ironically might be a more reliable customer experience.
Let’s take in-store check-ins for instance. In order for these types of online to offline social media campaigns to be successful, employees of participating retailers must be kept in the know. The Gap recently launched a social media campaign offering free jeans to the first 10,000 people to check-in at Facebook Places. According to some shoppers, several Gap employees were completely unaware of the free jeans promotion. Though a full scale revolt was prevented, those customers that did not score swag were displeased. Needless to say, this is the not the kind of brand awareness businesses are looking to generate especially around the holidays. For online shoppers, check-ins could generate coupon codes or increase sale offerings. The incentives are optimized and tested within the website. This provides customers with cost assurance, alleviates stress and makes for a more merry and bright shopping experience. Though I doubt The Gap will be offering free pants anytime soon.
Google TV is expanding its reach just in time for the holiday season. Alert the media. Well, actually the media has been alerted. So have advertisers. According to an announcement made by Google last Thursday, the Google TV ads platform, provided by Verizon FIOS, is currently hitting well over three million households. Early next year, that number will skyrocket to thirty five million homes. And while there are still Google TV detractors, this expansion demands attention from online performance marketers.
The goal of online performance marketers is growth through efficiency, advancing the client’s ability to acquire customers more profitably. This strategy was effectively implemented by Search professionals in the early days of Google Adwords, which enabled them to target mass audiences at a low cost-per-click. The network’s popularity, driven in large part by forward-thinking performance marketers, has made Adwords Google’s main revenue source. Performance marketers could drive the same results for Google TV.
Advertising on Google TV will require continuous video and display optimization, dynamic approaches that those of us in the performance space successfully leverage on a daily basis. The level of user engagement Google TV generates is something of a great unknown. But quantifying risk in order to realize measured returns is nothing new to industry experts. It would be ill-advised for to double down on Google TV but a strategic investment in the technology could make Google TV “Must See Money Making TV” for online performance marketers.
When Forrester speaks, people in the industry listen. That’s what makes its latest report on privacy and social media so intriguing. Privacy concerns among social users in age groups 30 to 43, 44 to 53 and 54 to 64 have risen by an average of nearly 10%. Forrester deduces that the over-saturation of the social space – countless blogs (this one doesn’t count of course), discussion groups, forums and social networking sites – could be a factor. The over-saturation argument is hard to dispute; however, it isn’t fair for social users to fret about privacy when they’re the ones who opened the too much information flood gates.
Another aspect of this report that is both troubling and perplexing is the omission of couponing data, a growing strategy that is driving results for marketers leveraging social media. For users looking to score hot deals, especially with the holiday shopping season around the corner, they will have to give a little to get a little. Based on the growth of online and mobile couponing, privacy concerns don’t appear to be much of an issue here. Perhaps privacy only becomes a concern when users realize they can’t capitalize on it.
Perhaps September was a bit early to start planning for Black Friday. That annual rite of shopping passage was the focus of a blog written by yours truly two months ago. I suppose I couldn’t help my enthusiasm. The holidays do it for me. And now that November has arrived, they do it for big brands looking to effectively leverage social media as well.
Retail Giant Lowe’s is making a major PPC Search and Display Advertising pre-Black Friday push to drive customers to its Facebook Fan page. There, loyal Lowes consumers can take advantage of coupon codes and discounts for upwards of 90% off. Take that Home Depot. After hearing their Black Friday social strategy, I couldn’t help but wonder if the Lowes powers that be read this blog. In the September blog post I wrote “Online coupons figure to be used heavily by savvy shoppers but focusing primarily on this tactic to generate new business could alienate existing customers.” By rewarding their current consumer base, Lowes is keeping their loyal customers top of mind and simultaneously creating buzz to attract newbies through online performance channels.
The Black Friday Sneak Peak campaign certainly is an inspired idea. However, it has experienced some technical hiccups. Traffic to the Lowes Facebook hosting party on November 4th was so robust it took down the online shopping site. When the site was functional, check-out times were impossibly long. Customers got cranky. Yes, this could be par for the Black Friday course but it would be interesting to know whether or not Lowes consulted an online performance marketing team to run the campaign. After all, inspired ideas could only benefit from continuous optimization and improvement strategies.
