No more ".com"

The domains (those words after the dot like .com) are about to change. There exists a proposal to expand the domains, so maybe by the end of the year there could be hundreds of different words as domains. Coca-Cola could use .pop, Milkyway .chocolate and MTV .music. Any word could be used the only limitation would be the marketer or the company’s budget.

The initial cost estimated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (nonprofit agency that oversees the distribution and policy of domain names) is $185,000 for registration plus an amount from $25,000 to $75,000 in annual fees. But if two brands want the same domain there would be an auction, and the highest bidder will get the domain.

Some Pros of the “new” domains” could be that new brands that don't yet have an online presence could use the domains to distinguish themselves. For example a new fast food restaurant could use .fastfood, and have a competitive advantage. On the other hand, companies with large portfolios of brands (Unilever and Procter & Gamble) will end up paying a lot of money if they buy lots of generic domains.

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In my opinion this could represent confusion for customers, because there will be lots of domains, and it will be more difficult than just using the worldwide famous .com. Is this a real positive advantage?

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Juan Francisco

Google & Universal Alliance?

According to reuters.com; some people that are not allowed to talk about this topic said that Google Inc's YouTube and Universal Music Group are in talks to create a premium online music video service. If they reach a deal, the service could help Google to generate revenue from YouTube.

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A deal could represent a strong link between YouTube and the media industry, which has on occasion ordered the video-sharing site to delete clips of TV shows or music videos uploaded by users without the media companies' permission.

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Universal, the one of the largest music labels in the world, and YouTube, the popular video website, are in talks to create a site to showcase music videos by Universal artists. Maybe, the deal would be broadened out to include videos by artists at the other music labels (Sony Music, EMI Group and Warner Music).

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YouTube would also provide technology and advertising-sales support to help distribute Universal's video content to other Web sites. They are still working on the financial details of how the service would be run.

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The main objective of this site that would carry premium music videos and music-related content is to get higher advertising rates through YouTube. Nowadays, music companies typically get paid a share of any advertising revenue associated with a video on YouTube as well as a per-play payment for every video viewed.

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The talks between YouTube and Universal Music, whose artists include The Jonas Brothers and Miley Cyrus, started because in December, Warner Music ordered YouTube to pull down all music videos on the site featuring Warner artists, after contract negotiations between the two sides broke down. And they don’t want that this happen again.

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Universal's current licensing deal with YouTube expires at the end of the current month, and a new deal is expected for April. EMI is also in contract renewal talks with YouTube. Sony Music renewed its contract with YouTube last month.

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“YouTube said in a statement, "We are always working with our partners to find creative ways to connect music, musicians, and fans."”

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Juan Francisco

Twitter: Google's nightmare?

Recently, I have read a lot about Twitter, but not about the social networking. Everyone is talking about Twitter’s opportunities in search (http://www.search.twitter.com/), which are quite different from Google searches. Is different = better? Does this represent a problem to Google? Why is this relevant for e-marketing?

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The main difference between Google and Twitter’s searches is that Google looks for documents that have been produced, while Twitter looks for what was said on a given topic. We could describe Twitter search as a real-time search engine and social discovery tool. But what should we search with Twitter instead than with Google? One example could be a recommendation, if we are looking to a good place to eat sushi in Vancouver; it is easier, better and faster to receive a couple of recommendations from Twitter’s user that live in Vancouver than reading the 103,000 Google’s search results.

One implication for the companies is to which search engine they should pay more attention. Because most web site traffic comes from Google, especially if the company appears on the first page of results. But visitors that are referred by Twitter could spend more on the site than visitors from Google because the way Twitter visitors were referred is more customized.

Definitely, Google needs to pay attention to Twitter because they are offering something that they don’t do. At the same time this is a new challenge for marketers due to the fact that now they need to analyze how Twitter search engine could be used on the best way.

Juan Francisco

Pringles wrote on Joahniito's wall..???

Today, as always, I logged into my Facebook account, and the first thing that I saw was... “Changes to the Home page are coming soon”. But what are those changes?

First, the home page will have general news and filters to allow you to choose the information, friend lists, and applications that you want to see. You will also be able to share the content on the home page with your friends. The Facebook pages (the ones for brands) will be like a “normal” profile and instead of being apart; they will be mixed with the human friends’ profiles on the social graphs.

And what are the implications for marketers? Now, the brands won’t be restricted to only use “pages”, now they will have the same opportunities that Facebook users have, control profile, communication and publishing posts on people’s home pages!!! Are brands prepared for that "power"?

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All of these changes by Facebook are designed to put more information into the home page. But I think that it is really different to be able to see that your high school friend has tagged you on a photo than reading that Pepsi has a new image. I just hope not to have my homepage full of ads on March 11, when these changes will have started, because seriously I would “unfriend” all the brands if they annoy me.

I'll add an image that I found today and i liked it.

Juan Francisco

I’m a Skittles’ Fan!!!

Today I decided to become a Skittles’ fan! The reason... I logged into my Facebook account this morning and I saw that 6 of my friends had just become Skittles’ “fans”, I remembered all the cool colors of the candies & the nice package and I became a fan too. But, sincerely I have just bought them like tree times in all my life. Right now, Skittles’ Facebook account has 586,132+ fans. Even though they can’t translate fans = sales, it could give them an idea if people are coming to the site and choosing to engage at a deeper level.

Skittles’ website is trying to link different social-media sites in a menu that floats on any of the social networks. Depending on the customer’s behavior, the home page could be the brand’s Twitter or Facebook site, the video games are on Flickr, and the video media is Skittles’ Youtube page. This is a risk that the company is taking because they can’t control the customers’ actions or comments, on the other hand they can participate on the conversations and “talk” directly to the customers.

The brand can measure if the site’s style is working or not by the number of facebook “friends” or the comments on walls and Youtube videos. I think Skittles has applied one of the e-marketing principles “take advantage of others resources” creating a platform that includes the most successful social networks in one website. I should highlight that they did this with a minimal budget spent.

Bringing social tools into Skittles’ website was right, but the brand needs to offer something else after the social media experience to really translate the online succes on sales at the point of purchase. I have to go; I need to grab some skittles…

Juan Francisco

And the winner is... Social Media

I am not a big fan of The Academy Awards, but I can’t deny that movies’ fans and advertisers pay a lot of attention to them. Why talking about this on an e-marketing blog? …As I mentioned on a previous post, marketing is everywhere!

Nielsen information shows that the movie with largest adspend on the United States was “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. Advertising is an important factor for selling theater tickets, but nowadays social media offers “free” word of mouth that can be as effective as the traditional advertising. New Media Strategies and Bloggasm showed that during Oscar’s night the film with the most mentions on Twitter and Blogs was the Best Picture winner, “Slumdog Millionaire”.

Twitter Mentions:

1. Slumdog Millionaire: 6,369
2. Milk: 3,617
3. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: 1,110
4. The Reader: 814
5. Frost/Nixon: 543

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Blog Mentions:

1. Slumdog Millionaire: 28,909
2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: 20,939
3. Milk: 20,676
4. The Reader: 16,123
5. Frost/Nixon: 8,341

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We can notice that advertising is still important, but marketers need to pay attention to e-marketing channels because the communication that they provide can come directly from the final customer. Today’s challenge is to design a strong marketing plan that mixes offline and online channels effectively.

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Juan Francisco

"If You Seek Britney"

TV, Radio, Magazines, Newspapers, Billboards, Websites, Google, Youtube, Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs … Britney Spears is everywhere!

Her new album, new single, and new world tour need promotion. She and her staff have wisely used offline and online channels to advertise them. Let’s talk about her online campaign to see how her staff applies the basic e-marketing concepts.

Listening is to monitor your customers’ conversations between themselves. Is to listen to their needs and wants from a trustable source of information. There are lots of websites and forums dedicated to the pop star on the web. Spears’s staff follows the most important webs to know and “listen” the customers, what do they want and what do they expect. They have updated surveys that could be useful for choosing the tour “set list” or the next single.

Talking is to stimulate conversations between customers and participate on them giving subtle messages. Britney’s official website (britneyspears.com) has a blog. On this blog, Britney’s staff members post news and messages, and they can receive feedback with the followers’ comments. By providing a space for communication they are “talking” directly with the customers and this is helpful to “engage” them. In addition, she has facebook and twitter accounts to “talk” with her “friends”. Actually, on the website they have a “friend Britney” banner where all the links to add her to your social network.

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Energizing is about promoting your product/service with your enthusiastic customers’ help. Britney’s site is using energizing too; it has an application for buying tickets for the tour that can be added to Social Network’s accounts. They added a “grab it” tag to it. With these they are encouraging her fans to place it on their sites, so other fans can see it. Using energizing they want to increase the sales and advertising for free.

Customization/individualization is when your product or service satisfies individual needs, and costumers feel important because they perceive it as unique. Britney’s online store sells calendars and customers can personalize them, choosing size, color, and other features to fit each customers likes.

Interactivity is used with some online contests that the website has. Some examples are” wallpaper design contest”, or “create a history for a Britney’s video”. This interaction increases the website traffic and the fans enthusiasm to talk about Britney, this causes word of mouth.

With this example, we can notice that applying most of the e-marketing concepts at the same is possible, if Britney can, you can!

Juan Francisco