Adweek recently published the results of a new study conducted by ZAAZ, Wunderman, BrandAsset® Valuator, and Compete that explores the relationship between the search engine that consumers use to find a brand’s website and the consumer’s perception of that brand. The study found that loyal users of Bing, Yahoo!, and Google have distinct characteristics that benefit some brands more than others. “This research demonstrates that marketers have a real choice to make when formulating search...
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"A Liger, it's pretty much my favorite animal. It's like a lion and a tiger mixed... bred for its skills in magic." How did I become an Optimization Test Designer in a world that just now understands what the heck Optimization really is? First, I got lucky. I was working at ZAAZ as an accountant, a workplace that is way ahead of its time, and I was working in a field where I used the...
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[cross posted from mobileux.net] My colleague Chris Kerns gave a shout out earlier today about Techcrunch's reported existence of an Android-powered device that will be offered directly from Google. There have been rumors for months about a Google Phone (even hints back when Android itself was first announced many moons ago.) Now this device from Google hasn't been officially announced - just tweets from some Google employees who have be using the device, and some...
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(Cross-posted from Web Social Architecture.) I've said before that there are three crucial elements of online community policy: Legality, appropriateness, and relevance. I'm now thinking that there's actually a "hierarchy of needs" among those three, and that taken together and put into practice, they are much more than a set of rules for what's ok to do in the community. They’re more like a social contract, a creator of quality and value. Legality isn’t exactly...
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(Cross-posted from Web Social Architecture.) Our social media engagements typically start with some kind of assessment, with varying degrees of formality and scope. We have an internal list of questions we use to plan these assessments, some of which are more relevant and important for a given engagement than others. Here they are: 1. Have you formalized the goals, KPIs, and reporting for your social media activities? This gives us a sense of the degree...
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(Cross-posted from Web Social Architecture) I really like David Armano’s Conversation Starter post from earlier this week with predicted trends in social media for next year. In particular, his first point hits on exactly what I think is going to be the key to success for marketers in social media: 1. Social media begins to look less social With groups, lists and niche networks becoming more popular, networks could begin to feel more "exclusive." Not...
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Most marketers approach social media in the same way they've approached broadcast media for decades. And that's true of measurement as well. But with social media, the old rules don't apply. Traditionally, marketers focused on quantity metrics like impressions. As the Web emerged as a marketing platform, we translated that approach to digital, emphasizing quantity metrics like unique visitors and page views. Later, as the Web matured into a bona-fide business channel, transaction became important:...
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In July, Forrester Research released its "U.S. Interactive Marketing Forecast 2009 to 2014" lead by Shar VanBoskirk. A key highlight: "Interactive marketing will near $55 billion and represent 21% of all marketing spend in 2014 as marketers shift dollars away from traditional media and toward search marketing, display advertising, email marketing, social media, and mobile marketing." A few key shifts caught my eye: Social media will quadruple to $3 billion in the next five years....
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Below are the submissions for our next social media event. We're taking votes over on our Facebook page. The eight with the most votes will be our presenters for 21 Slides! 1. Lessons Learned from LOLcats. There's a lot to be learned from the popular LOLcat meme. Why is www.icanhascheezburger.com so successful? What attracts users and keeps them coming back? Are there lessons to be learned from this phenomenon? (yes!) My presentation will include a...
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When we talk about media strategy with clients, it’s helpful for us to categorize media into three buckets: Bought Media (Display, Email, Paid Search, etc.), Owned Media (Web-sites, landing pages, etc.), and Earned Media (SEO, Social Media) The first media types, Bought and Owned are generally controllable – Earned Media, while manageable, is NOT controllable. Whether your business has a deliberate strategy for Earned Media or not – your business may still have a presence....
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This is kind of fun. The folks over at Drifting Creatives posted a video of our Seattle headquarters, with my colleague Rachel as tour guide. I like how they captured our vibe, especially with the tunes that take me to my happy place: Rachel walks you through our usability lab, talks a bit about web optimization, and even takes you behind the infamous Z-Bar. You should come visit us too! See my previous post about...
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Mark your calendar: Our ongoing series resumes October 15th. And this time, you can participate. Here is the announcement: **************************** What is 21 Slides? 90 minutes. 8 social media presenters. Five minutes each. No more than 21 slides. Add beer. ZAAZ is inviting local social media digerati, strategists, and media dabblers of all backgrounds to submit presentation ideas to compete for the eight available 5-minute presentations slots. The submissions are reviewed by the event directors...
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Let's say you're a mobile device company about to launch a big new product...at about the same time that your more visible competitor is doing the same thing. Knowing that said competitor is pulling out all the stops to market its product and that consumer interest is near an all-time high, wouldn't you want to piggyback on that momentum? To ride that larger marketing wave? Wouldn't it be great if you could know ahead of...
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Building a monetization model is like traveling to a foreign country. It starts out confusing, not knowing where to begin or even how to speak the language, but after some time, you broaden your horizon and learn a few things. You start to wonder, ‘’Why isn’t everyone doing this?’’ Monetization is the method in which you convert a site’s activity into a monetized amount. This can range from a button clicked to an application completed....
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Art & Copy opens in select cities tomorrow! If you live in Chicago, New York, Denver or Seattle, then you are one of the lucky ones. In Seattle, the film will screen at Northwest Film Forum. ZAAZ's own Katherine Leggett will be hosting a panel discussion on opening night. The panel follows the 7 o' clock screening, and panelists will include Pam Fujimoto (art director) and Cal McAllister (founder of Wexley School for Girls). You...
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