What can your brand learn from Angry Birds?

Source: Google ImagesIf you haven't had the satisfaction of eliminating all the pigs (and getting three stars in the process), then some people would certainly say you are missing out. If you have a friend who owns an iPhone/iPad/iPod touch/Galaxy Tab/any Android phone with the Google marketplace on it - I strongly suggest you ask them to download Angry Birds (if they haven't already) and give it a go. At the very least, you'll be entertained for a period of five minutes... or in most cases... much, much longer. 

I don't think the team of 12 at Rovio really understood what Angry Birds was capable of becoming when it was first released back in December of 2009, despite the 8 months of R&D they did before launching the project. Today Angry Birds has evolved from more than just an application to become a symbol for the rise of mobile gaming and in a way the disruption of traditional gaming. To date Angry Birds has been downloaded over 42 million times. What lessons can marketers take away from the success of the Angry Birds brand? Someone could and probably will write a book about this topic but for now, here are 3 ideas:

1. Your brand should be engaging - One-way messages are dead. Customers are now wired to ignore them. They are tuned in to WII FM - what's in it for me (I learned this from a brilliant Professor in school by the name of Alan Quarry). Anything a brand does should engage a consumer and offer them somethingSource: Google Images valuable. In the case of Angry Birds that value comes in the form of a brief (or extended) period of entertainment. If you manage to engage a consumer and provide them with a valuable experience, odds are a consumer would want to share that experience with a friend. 

2. Your brand should be accessible - Angry Birds has made itself available to consumers on many platforms. Where you choose to distribute your brand can certainly influence the level of adoption your brand has. The Internet is probably the ultimate distribution channel because it is becoming increasingly ubiquitous. If your brand does not have a presence online, then you are certainly behind the curve. If your brand does have a presence online, think about how you can leverage that presence to build a bigger tribe. In other words, if you're using social media channels that's great but those are now the table stakes, what are you doing to add value to customers' lives via that medium? 

3. Your brand should be evolving - Angry Birds has expanded into areas that go beyond the virtual space.Source: Google Images Most recently it has turned into a board game. Although the success of this brand extension is yet to be determined, the nature of it makes sense. The makers of Angry Birds have realized the tremendous success of the brand and it has begun to evolve. I can only imagine what the folks over at Rovio have planned for the brand this year. In order to stay relevant, a brand has to continually evolve with its customer base. Make moves that make sense and ones that won't alienate your core followers but instead amplify their current experience and cause them to bring on more followers. 

Final thoughts: Angry Birds is a lot more than just a game, it is a case study in brand evolution. 

Be Where The Consumers Are (Podcast Episode)

Christmas, Magic and Marketing

Not a lot of people believe in magic, but then again... not a lot of people know exactly what magic is. Having dabbled in the art myself, I can tell you that magic is a lot more than just sleight of hand routines and crafty Source: Google Imagesprop work. David Blaine in his book Mysterious Stranger, said that a magician is really an actor playing the role of a magician. A magician is someone who can make someone else believe in the unbelievable. According to Paul Harris (another legendary magician), magic is actually the art of astonishment.

The moment you witness something astonishing (like a great piece of magic), your conscious mind pauses for a second and actually considers whether or not to believe what just happened. It is in that one moment that you have experienced true magic. The reason I bring up the notion of experiencing true magic is because we are just starting to recover from the wonderful season of Christmas. A good way to know whether or not you have given the perfect gift is to watch the reaction on the receiver's face and judge whether he or she experiences that moment of magic.

Marketers can learn a lot from magic:

1. Delight with the unexpected - The one thing about a great piece of magic is that the ending is usually very hard to predict (unless of course it's a classic effect like sawing someone in half). An unexpected ending would generally leave the audience amazed and could easily create a long lasting moment of magic. Marketers should always try to deliver the unexpected. This is most readily applicable to the service industry, where a typical customer experience can be made magical by delivering something unexpected. E.g. A free upgrade to a first class seat for a single traveller.David Blaine (Source: Google Images)

2. Create something engaging - Another facet of a great piece of magic is that it will always keep the audience engaged (especially cynics who are watching every twitch of the magician's hands). Great marketing should do the same thing. Whether it be a 30-second spot or a below-the-fold display ad, the intended audience should be engaged enough to want to answer the call to action. 

3. Involve the audience - If the audience participates, they are made to believe that in some way shape or form that they actually have control over some part of the magical effect. This does two things: makes the effect more engaging and creates a stronger magical moment at the end. Most marketing is a one-way message to an audience and although some one-way messages can be engaging, most are not. The wonderful thing about social media is that it allows for an actual conversation (a two-way interaction as opposed to a one-way message). When you are creating a new piece of marketing, always think of how you can involve your audience.

Final thoughts: The art of marketing can easily be related to the art of magic. It should be the goal of any marketer (and any magician) to create a truly wonderful moment of magic and make it last as long as possible.

How can Groupon be a catalyst for loyalty?

Source: Google ImagesHypothetically, if there was an award for the company with the most potential in 2011... that award should go to Groupon. Groupon’s growth rate over the past year alone has been quite staggering and in many ways it’s only just beginning. Although the reasons for the Company’s rejection of Google’s mammoth offer are still a little hazy, I feel that Andrew Mason and his team believe they can be worth more in future.. a lot more. John Battelle recently wrote a brilliant blog post about the potential of Groupon and why they may in fact be bigger than Google one day.

The big question for digital marketers is this... how can Groupon (or other group-buying/coupon services) be strategically used to not only increase lead generation but ultimately to create loyal customers? In other words... how can Groupon be a catalyst for loyalty?

3 steps to loyalty:

  1. Offer some tempting bait - If you decide to partner with Groupon, the deal you offer must be something customers are willing to buy. Here’s a thought... figure out the product/service your offer that has the greatest demand and offer that as a Groupon. Why? Because it will cause customers to walk into your store. Once you have them in store, you have already won half the battle. The principle of temptation works the same way in any scenario, whether it be an attractive member of the opposite sex or a well-valued Groupon... a tempting offer creates action.
  2. Prepare your internal army - Once you have chosen the offer that is going to create action, the next important step is to inform every possible employee at your company that you are going to offer this deal... on this day. The reason behind this is simple: Groupon is giving you the chance to put on a show. Think of it like this... your company is like a small-time band trying to make it big. Groupon comes along and manages to secure you a well sized crowd. Your job is to then play so well, that the crowd yells for an encore.
  3. Delight, delight, delight - The most exciting thing about Groupon is the amount of new customers it can draw for your business. When you offer a Groupon, expect customers to swarm in and be prepared to delight them in every way. I’m not saying that the day you offer a Groupon should be the only day you delight customers, but if you haven’t thought about delighting them in the past... offering a Groupon would be a great place to start. Customer delight is a long-term strategy and offering a Groupon could be the first step in that strategy.

Final thoughts: Planning (pick the bait), preparing (amp the army) and executing (delight everyone) are three fundamental steps in pretty much any theoretical business model. Add in research and post-execution analysis and you’ve essentially covered everything. Groupon has tremendous potential to help many companies, as a result... its opportunities for growth are currently plentiful. Marketers can utilize Groupon as a strategic catalyst for securing loyal customers. Forget the bait and switch... start the Groupon and delight.

Stop competing, start collaborating.

Source: Google ImagesThis past week certainly had its fair share of very interesting stories; however. most of them were overshadowed by the Google/Groupon saga. Although it’s very tempting to write about the tale of Google and Groupon, most of my thoughts this week centered around a very interesting move by Gowalla.

For a long time Gowalla’s presence was hidden underneath Foursquare’s rising success among well-known brands, even though Gowalla was around before Foursquare was. A couple of weeks ago, I read an engaging profile written by Fast Company about Josh Williams (Gowalla’s Co-Founder and CEO). The article provided me with a better understanding of the core purpose behind Gowalla’s existence. To quote directly from the article, “Josh Williams liked to travel, and explore, and he wanted others to embrace that same spirit--and what it means--in a social and sharable way.”

Source: Google ImagesAfter re-reading this article, it seems clear to me why Gowalla decided to incorporate itself with Foursquare and Facebook. The latter two companies have now become such essential social tools for digital consumers that it could only benefit anyone to collaborate with them. This was still a very bold move by Gowalla, the company essentially made the choice to stop competing and start collaborating. It is still yet to be decided what will become of this bold move, but I’m hoping that both Facebook and Foursquare (primarily the latter) will play along with the new rules of competition.

3 key takeaways from Gowalla’s move:

  1. Put yourself in the consumer’s shoes - Forget trying to shape the behaviour of a consumer and instead, focus on changing your own behaviour to suit theirs. One of the keys to a disruptive technology is that it takes something consumers are already trying to do and makes it easier. Gowalla just potentially became a one stop shop. 
  2. Target markets are not fixed - Human beings are complex. Even though some of us may be loyal toSource: Google Images certain brands in some respects, we may be very fluid between brands in others. Segmenting users especially when it comes to social technology can be dangerous, simply because everyone has an innate need to feel connected. If your brand is currently targeted... how can you collaborate with your competition to increase (or I should say blur) the span of your target market? 
  3. Competition does not have to be a zero-sum game - In a zero-sum game, the customer always wins... so who in their right mind would want to work at a company that always loses? It’s easy to picture your consumer base as a large pie... you have a chunk and your competition has a chunk... each day you both try to take away more of the other’s share. What if you stopped and together decided to make the pie bigger? 

Final thoughts: Chief Insurgent in the new consumer revolution, Alex Bogusky was recently quoted saying, “collaboration is the new competition.” Josh Williams certainly seems to agree. In this age of hyper-competition, it may be more useful to shake hands, rather than throw punches.

The Brick and Click Disconnect: A Story

For many retail stores across North America... this past weekend was one of the most important of the entire year. The combination of Black Friday, followed by Cyber Monday is one of the highest grossing periods of the year for any retailer. For many years, I haven’t really done much during this time, just looked around at a few deals here and there but never really taken advantage of anything out there. This year was different. I’d like to tell you about my experience with a certain retailer, who shall remain nameless. I will first tell you my story, then share some lessons I learned from it.

Source: Google ImagesMy story: I needed a new winter coat. Considering I live in Canada, this article of clothing is probably one of the most essential. I had been searching online since September for a good deal on a nice winter coat and finally on Thursday I came across a deal I couldn’t refuse. A certain retailer was offering 25% off an entire online order plus free shipping! 25% off an order seemed like a pretty nice deal to me, the only problem... I didn’t know what size I needed. Luckily for me, this retailer happened to have a physical store nearby to where I live. The online sale was a one-day only sale, so I decided to head over to the physical store to see if they had the coat (and to figure out my size).

I figured - before even entering the store - that if I found the coat I wanted, in the size I wanted... I would just pick it up in the store, because if the online store offered 25% off then obviously the physical store would do it too right? ... Wrong. I walked into the store... found my coat... and took a look at the price. It was literally twice the price that the online store was offering (mind you the online store had this one-day discount going). Now... who in their right mind would ever buy the coat (or anything else for that matter) from the physical store if they can get a much better deal online? In fact, I hung around the store for a while and observed that a lot of people were trying clothes on and simply walking out afterward.

Interestingly enough, I met a friend who happened to be working at the physical store. I asked her if she knew anything about what was going on and asked whether she noticed that a few more people than normal were trying things on and leaving. She said this was the case but she had no idea why. When I informed her about the online deal... the customer behavior seemed obvious. She told me she would’ve done the exact same thing. So I tried on my coat for size, went home and ordered it online. The online experience was flawless, but the overall disconnect between brick and click left me a little dumbfounded.

Two key lessons:

  1. Customers aren’t fools: It would be naive of any company to think that customers do not search for their products online. Even if the company is seemingly selling a ‘commodity,’ there will still be a customer who searches online for this product. The process of online search may not necessarily be to purchase, it may only be for information gathering; however, it still happens. This being the case, any company that creates a disparity between an in-store price and online price is merely making the choice simpler for the smart customer. This causes a problem for companies: something has to suffer, in order for the other to succeed. In my case, it was the salespeople. 
  2. Your salespeople are some of your greatest assets, treat them that way: Imagine this: the day before the massive sale, every salesperson gets notified and told of this amazing deal online and told to encourage customers to try on clothes and then make the purchase online. Or better yet, the deal applied to the physical store as well! This way, salespeople would have been motivated to sell more and become even stronger advocates of the brand, and if a customer didn’t find the right size, the salesperson would have simply directed him or her to the amazing deal online where the customer would have surely found his or her size. Instead, the disconnect between brick and click, demoralized sales staff and if they got paid on commission... it would have even caused them to lose money. 

Final thoughts: Online shopping is a disruptive reality that is facing many physical retailers today. It is absurd for retailers to create a disparity between online and physical because customers today aren’t fools, but worst of all salespeople may get neglected in the strategy. If you’re a retailer selling something in both worlds, ask yourself - how can I delight my customer, while at the same time keep my sales staff happy? You may find that answering the latter, will answer the former. 

When Two Worlds Collide

Source: Google ImagesThis has truly been a very exciting week in digital marketing. I could write ten separate posts on the videos from the Web 2.0 Summit alone (see below). I have decided instead to focus on something that is truly going to change the way we interact with objects (primarily ads or other marketing materials like product packaging) in the physical environment.

Earlier this week, Google announced a marketing experiment. If you haven’t heard about an app called Google Goggles or seen it in action, please take a look at the link and watch the two minute video, it is seriously amazing. There was also a demonstration of this and other new Google technologies at the Web 2.0 Summit given by Susan Wojcicki (VP of Product Management). The presentation was titled, "The Perfect Ad" and primarily discussed how Google is making the offline experience of a customer better via an online experience. After watching this presentation and viewing the blog post, I’ve come up with three things that marketers should consider:

  1. From a consumer’s point-of-view, a mobile phone is increasingly becoming a brand-interaction tool: Picture this... if a consumer is out at some social event and a friend happens to mention a brand that the consumer knows nothing about... what is likely to happen? He or she may whip out his or her mobile phone and begin searching for the brand via the phone’s browser. You can imagine a similar situation even if the consumer was alone and happen to come across an interesting product that he or she had never seen before. The key point here is that the consumer is now choosing to experience the brand via a mobile medium and so marketers should consider how they would like to shape a consumer’s experience. A website experience on a computer and one on a mobile phone are two different things and should be treated as such. Source: Google Images
  2. The need for instant interaction: The beauty of a video ad on the Internet is that a consumer can interact with a brand instantly. The same goes for the service that Google Goggles is offering a consumer. Marketers must realize that having an ad that does not allow for instant interaction will actually put them at a disadvantage. This applies not just to standard print or TV ads but also to product packaging in stores. The use of QR codes or Google Goggles IDs should be something marketers consider placing on all their products just so consumers can fulfill their need to instantly interact with a brand.
  3. With all this movement to consumers controlling an experience via their mobile phone, what happens to salespeople? Picture this... a female customer walks into Best Buy wanting to buy a digital camera for her husband for Christmas. She walks over to the area with all the digital cameras and happens to notice they all have QR codes attached to them. She takes out her iPhone and scans a few of them. Through Facebook connect, she happens to notice that some of her friends happened to like (and recommend) this one particular brand of digital camera so she decides to buy that (end of transaction). Notice, the entire time there was no need for a salesperson. Salespeople are some of the most important assets a company can have, they are living, breathing, brand advocates. When developing a digital strategy (especially if it involves consumer interaction in a retail store), It is vital for marketers to consider the role that a salesperson is going to play. Overlooking this would result in the waste of a truly valuable asset. 

Final Thoughts: “The future of online is in offline” - Cyriac Roeding, Co-Founder and CEO of Shopkick. This is quite a profound statement. It is no longer a theory but a fundamental truth that these two worlds are colliding and it would be wise for marketers to prepare for it.

Important Conversations - Videos from the Web 2.0 Summit

Source: Google ImagesThe Web 2.0 Summit is probably one of the most important events of the year for anyone in the high-tech or digital industry. To take a direct quote from the Web 2.0 Summit website:

"The Web 2.0 Summit is the only place, once a year, where leaders of the Internet Economy gather to debate and determine business strategy."

It is a truly fascinating event, hosted by John Battelle and Tim O'Rielly. For the sake of everyone who could not attend the event, the Summit organizers posted most of the conversations/speakers they had on YouTube. Below I have listed a few of the conversations that I personally found extremely interesting (though in all honesty they were all probably very interesting). What I would like you to do is watch a video (or all of them) and post a tweet (button below) to your followers explaining why you think it's important. Please enjoy and share these with others! 

A Conversation with Yuri Milner Founder and CEO of Digital Sky Technologies, Investor

A Conversation with Eric Schmidt. CEO of Google

Managing Hypergrowth - Susan Lyne (CEO of Gilt Groupe) and Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos)

John Donovan CTO of AT&T on Mobile Networks.  - CTO of AT&T

A Conversation with Carol Bartz - CEO of Yahoo!

A Conversation with Jeff Weiner - CEO of LinkedIn

A Conversation with Mark Zuckerberg.  - Founder and CEO of Facebook

A Conversation with Jim Balsille Co-CEO of RIM

A Conversation with Shantanu Narayen - CEO of Adobe Systems

Mary Meeker, "Internet Trends" - Analyst at Morgan Stanley

Susan Wojcicki, "The Perfect Ad - VP of Product Management at Google

Point of Control: Consumer Platforms - Nikesh Arora (President of Global Sales Operations and Business Development at Google), John Hayes (CMO at American Express) and Yusuf Mehdi (Senior VP of Online Audience Business at Microsoft)

A Conversation with Evan Williams - Former CEO and Co-Founder of Twitter

Point of Control: Location Based Services - Matt Galligan (Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of SimpleGeo), Cyriac Roeding (Co-Founder and CEO of Shopkick) and Jeremy Stoppelman (Co-Founder and CEO of Yelp)

Point of Control: Commerce - Keith Rabois (GM at Square), Michael Rubin (CEO of GSI Commerce) and Scott Thompson (President of PayPal Inc.)

A Conversation with Robin Li - Co-Founder and CEO of Baidu Inc. 

Point of Control: Education - Ted Mitchell (NewSchools Venture Fund), Diana Rhoten (Startl), Davis Guggenheim (Waiting for Superman) and John Heilemann (New York Magazine)