It may be time to start rethinking the purchase funnel. Engaging with media, discovering and researching brands, and making purchase decisions are no longer limited by time and place. Consumers now engage in similar activities across several different screens, and the choice of screen affects each purchasing decision’s path.
So it’s important that marketers engage their audiences by placing the right tone and message in the right environment, all while preserving a cohesive experience.
The study defines a multi-screen consumer as someone between the ages of 18 and 64 who accesses the internet at least two times each week using both computer and smartphone, a group that now includes about 33 million Americans. It’s a desirable target audience, too: They have higher discretionary income and higher mean household income than average.
Information unbound
Several trends emerge from the data, many of which emphasize consumers’ growing desire for control over their experiences. For example, half of these multi-screen people use a DVR for watching television. Most (70 percent) use their phone to find information while on the go. Even networked game consoles are put into the service of this goal, with 23 percent using it to watch video and 39 percent using it to socialize.
In fact, gamers are the category to watch for predicting the future. Compared to other groups, they tend to be social influences who spend fewer hours passively absorbing content, and more time interacting with content and connecting with others as they play games, send text messages, and post reviews or comment on blogs.
Yahoo! Rich Ads in Search secures victory for “Battlefield: Bad Company 2″
Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) creates cinematic, immersive experiences for its video game users—qualities that don’t come across in a traditional text-based search ad. So when it released Battlefield: Bad Company 2, it used a kind of search marketing campaign with images and video that grab a gamer’s attention: Yahoo! Rich Ads in Search.
The Challenge
EA, which owns high-profile video game brands like Battlefield, The Sims and Madden NFL series, wanted to get maximum exposure for Battlefield: Bad Company 2, the latest title in its video game series. The game embeds players deep into an expansive yet totally destructible combat landscape filled with detailed vehicles and weaponry. It already had a built-in audience of gamers, millions of whom had bought its predecessor, so EA knew it could reach them through its usual mix of display and targeted television ads.
In order to build on the success of the previous titles in the series, EA needed to broaden its target market beyond what it could reach with its usual methods. It considered search marketing, but the company’s proven strategy of using visuals meant it wasn’t convinced that search would be effective.
“Gamers were eagerly anticipating the release, but we knew it had the potential to be an even bigger success than the first one,” says Leslie Shinn, senior marketing manager at EA. “We needed a way for a new audience to see for themselves how amazing the game is.”
The Solution Search agency iProspect recommended Yahoo! Rich Ads in Search, which allowed EA to use the power of strong imagery while gaining the benefits of search marketing. Since EA already had created the visual assets, there was no additional cost to repurpose them for Rich Ads in Search.
Challenge: Dunkin Donuts is a morning kind of place, serving up hot coffee and baked goods since 1950. The company wanted to find a whole new way to say good morning to both existing and potential customers.
Solution: Yahoo! developed original, branded online programming—“The Yahoo! Sports Minute” and “Good Morning Yahoo!,” powered by Dunkin Donuts, which delivered the morning’s top stories in a fun, quick and easy format.
This campaign marked a first, though not the last, time Yahoo! worked with a partner to develop original content across multiple categories. The results were impressive, offering widespread exposure to the Dunkin’ Donuts brand.
Study finds that combining tactics can creep people out
Advertisers want people to remember and have a response to their messages. Even hating an ad is okay if it’s persuasive and memorable. What advertisers don’t want, however, is to squander money. Yet a team of researchers discovered that’s what some expensive campaigns are doing.
A recent study looked at sales-oriented online advertising to determine the effectiveness of different approaches. The researchers confirmed that matching an ad to a website’s content increases purchase intent. They also looked at formats like takeover ads, pop-ups and video players (which the study calls “obtrusive”), and confirmed that those work too.
The surprise came when they looked at ads that combined being obtrusive with being related to the content. Instead of increasing effectiveness, those ads were relative failures. Since the researchers estimate $664 million is spent on those combination ads, there’s a lot of money possibly going to waste.
Privacy concerns Figuring out the reasons behind these results is more difficult to prove, but the researchers have a theory—people may simply think it’s creepy when an obtrusive ad matches the content being viewed. They notice the combination of tactics, start to wonder if their privacy is compromised, and become suspicious that they’re being manipulated. These negative feelings may even get projected onto the company, product or service being advertised.
Go wide—with a range of specific and general words and phrases
Editor’s Note: This is another in a series of posts we’re calling “The Best of the YSM Blog.” These are posts containing timeless advice and best practices that never go out of style. Even if you read it the first time, it’s not a bad idea to review this information periodically to help get maximum performance from your advertising.
Originally posted February 3, 2009
[Below is an excerpt from Yahoo!’s Smart Start guide, which is packed with helpful content to assist you in making your campaigns as effective as possible. Whether you’re an expert search marketer or just starting out, the tips from Yahoo!’s “Sharon Goodsense” offer practical search marketing insights. Download Smart Start.]
Want to increase your conversion numbers? You may need to consider bidding on more specific keywords that contain things like the brands you sell and even specific model numbers. This will appeal to searchers who are closer—or ready—to purchase.
Start by looking online—and thinking like a customer
One of the best and easiest places to begin scouting out keywords is right on your web site. Look through all your pages and pick out the words that are most relevant and interesting to your customers.
Put yourself in searchers’ shoes to come up with all of the possible ways they might be looking for what you offer.
Consider bidding on keywords for your most profitable products and services first to spend most effectively within your budget.
Think about what you want your customers to do (like become better informed or make a purchase).
Review your competitors’ web sites to see what kinds of words they use to talk to customers
Use the Find Keywords panel, on the left side of the Choose Keywords page in your account, to get possible keywords that relate to the products and services you want to promote.
For a more advanced way to find keywords, check your web server logs. These logs can tell you what your site visitors are searching for and how they navigate through your web pages.
On the 20th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, everyone deserves access—even to digital ads
Twenty years ago, busy intersections had steep, dangerous curbs onto the pavement. Today they boast gentle ramps that help those with impaired mobility move smoothly into the crosswalk. This is thanks in no small part to the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), signed into law on July 26, 1990. And just as the ADA has helped make the physical world more accessible, Yahoo! is helping make the cyber world more accessible.
Enabling the physical, digital and advertising worlds
Some 650 million people around the globe live with disabilities. Enabling everyone to move smoothly online lets users, regardless of their abilities, get the information they need, when they want it. In fact, according to the National Organization on Disability, 48% of Americans with disabilities say that the Internet has significantly improved the quality of their lives.
And with the potentially vast scale of this audience, no one can afford to say, “You can’t do that.” The purchasing power of people with disabilities tops $1 trillion, including $220 million in discretionary income, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.
To demonstrate Yahoo!’s commitment to inclusion, we’re running a pair of display house ads on Yahoo! Travel: one on how to find the best sushi in your area and another for the new Hollywood summer movie, “Grown Ups.”
To learn more about the art and science of accessibility in online advertising, download our .pdf, “Making Ads Accessible.”
When a new display ad goes live on the Internet, it may seem like the end of a process that started with strategy, creative and buying. But in many ways when an ad goes live it’s just the beginning: analytic data comes and that starts the cycle all over again, as information is used to refine and optimize the marketing strategy, creative content, and buying plan.
What’s the data telling you?
For Adam Chandler, vice president of sales for PointRoll, a Web marketing firm specializing in rich media, all the steps of an online marketing campaign are interdependent. “There needs to be a continuous-feedback loop,” he says. “Online advertising allows you to get real-time information and then optimize your current spend based on what the data is telling you. Once you go live, it’s really just the beginning, because you’re now getting feedback from consumers on what they think of your brand.”
Vacation destination Mont-Tremblant uses Yahoo! Smart Ads to increase bookings and learn more about its customers
When you serve a wide variety of people with an even wider variety of services, how do you know which products and messages will work in a marketing campaign? Mont-Tremblant, in the Laurentian region of Quebec, used Yahoo! Smart Ads to dynamically generate customized display ads that connected with its customers. These “smarter” campaigns also revealed some surprising information about its vacationers.
The Challenge
Voted best ski resort in Canada’s Northeast by Ski Magazine 14 years running, the Tremblant resort is an elegant leisure-time complex and village in Quebec with picturesque mountains. The region is thus primarily known for world-class skiing. However, Mont-Tremblant also boasts a few 4 1/2-star golf courses, relaxing spas, 5-star hotels, intimate B&Bs, events, fine dining, a casino and a host of other activities.
Mont-Tremblant’s tourism board wanted to increase bookings for its partner properties in its primary U.S. target market which account for some 40 percent of its business during the winter. For the online marketing campaign, the tourism board wanted to specifically target the greater Boston area and the surrounding New England states. Marketing was a difficult task as Mont-Tremblant offered such a wide variety of activities and deals with different consumers wanting different vacation packages.
Part Two: Creatively challenging the status quo with sharable display ads
In part two of our four-part primer on getting started in online display, we look at some of the latest trends and innovations in display advertising. View part one, “Planning and Strategy.”
A few years ago, Oregon residents logged onto the web to find an animated crab crawling across their browser window before making a home for himself inside the four walls of a display ad.
It was a clever use of rich media at the time, recalls Andy Askren, but he isn’t sure it would play today. The ad was created by Askren, creative director of Portland-based advertising agency Grady Britton, for the coastal town of Newport. “At the time it was really successful,” he says, “but I wonder if it would be seen as cheesy today, whereas once it was innovative. The content in online ads has to constantly keep one-upping itself.”
When it comes to creating engaging content for online campaigns, advertising agencies have more tools to work with than ever before. They also have the pressure of trying to innovate in a field where innovation itself is humdrum.
Ever wonder what your home page would like if it were, well, a home? Yahoo! took over our own Yahoo! Front Page with a dynamic ad that visualizes the way we bring together all the reasons you love the Internet—within four walls, no less. Click on through to see how making Yahoo! your online home puts the best of everything —great entertainment, instant news, useful information, captivating content, relevant ads, e-mail, Instant Messaging and more—all within easy reach. Make the web your own with Yahoo!, the one place that brings Your World together with The World.
The takeover is just one part of the new Yahoo! branding campaign that will also show the power Yahoo! has to drive business and build brands. Watch for all of the other iterations rolling out now across all types of media.
Gamers lead the way for multi-screen consumers
Editor’s Note: This is another in a series of posts we’re calling “The Best of the YSM Blog.” These are posts containing timeless advice and best practices that never go out of style. Even if you read it the first time, it’s not a bad idea to review this information periodically to help get maximum performance from your advertising. 
When you serve a wide variety of people with an even wider variety of services, how do you know which products and messages will work in a marketing campaign? 
