Print Still Reigns, but More Retailers Turn to TV

RESEARCH FROM NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Faced with flat budgets, marketers are experimenting with new media mixes this holiday season.

According to BDO’s Retail Compass Survey, 63% of chief marketing officers said this year’s holiday budget was flat, compared to 55% in 2009 and 43% in 2008. But this year, just one-fifth said their budgets were lower than a year ago. That’s an improvement from 2009 and 2008, when 26% and 32%, respectively, reported lower budgets for the holiday season.

“Retailers are investing their holiday advertising and marketing dollars across a widening set of platforms, as they emerge from the recession,” said Steve Ferrara, partner-retail and consumer product practice at BDO USA. “The fact that only 20% cite a decrease in budgets signals that they have a bit more flexibility in how they stretch their advertising and marketing spend.”

Many retailers are scrutinizing the budgets they do have and allocating more to TV. One-quarter of CMOs said they were spending most of their budget on broadcast this year, up from 13% a year ago. Best Buy is just one of the retailers increasing its presence on TV this holiday. The retailer, which said it would increase its TV spending by a low double-digit percentage, began running holiday spots on Dec. 1 this year. To free up funds for TV, the retailer pulled money away from inserts.

Most CMOs — 42% — said they allocate most of their holiday budget to print ads, down from 64% a year ago. And 27% said they’d be investing the bulk of their budget in online ads, including social-networking sites. That’s up from just 18% last year.

Overall, social media is gaining traction among retailers, many of whom still needed to make major improvements to the strategies used last year. According to the survey, 75% of retailers are utilizing social media this year, up from 51% a year ago. Facebook is the clear winner there, with 92% of CMOs utilizing the site. More than 60% say they use Twitter, while just 20% use YouTube and only 8% use MySpace.

“Retail CMOs’ sharpening and increasing focus on social-networking sites speaks to the growing popularity and effectiveness of this medium to reach consumers across demographics,” said Mr. Ferrara. “The low-cost nature of social networking gives retailers more room to boost their broadcast media investment for the holiday season.”

Still, social media is a relatively small part of retailers’ overall budgets. The majority, 62%, said less than 10% of their marketing efforts would focus on social-networking sites, while just over 1% said 70% to 79% of their efforts would revolve around those sites.

iPhone apps vs Andoid apps Web Search Interest:

Graphic Design Search Statistics Gold Coast vs Brisbane

Web Design Search Statistics Gold Coast vs Brisbane

Type of Data Visualisation

Interesting movie on the making of Field Notes 2010 Fall Edition

Wings: Making the Field Notes 2010 Fall Edition from Coudal Partners on Vimeo.

Can you bear it?

A nice little illo that wasn’t accepted by the client. Shame not to have this guy out in the world, he seems like a loveable little bear.

Rewarding with Location based services

The card-based loyalty program might just be going the way of the dinosaur … or the two-way pager.

The newest crop of location-based mobile apps rewards consumers for actions before they reach the register, and it could save them from fumbling for cards in wallets or loading down their key rings with plastic tabs. Mobile apps like Shopkick, Loopt Star and CheckPoints offer shoppers discounts and deals when they check in, walk into a store or pick up products and scan their barcodes. One startup focusing on loyalty programs for hotels, Topguest, even rewards users for tweeting.

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Trying Out Shopkick

Our Reporter Checks Out the Deals and Collects Kickbucks at American Eagle

“We realized a while ago that the conversations about our hotels are happening on Facebook or Twitter without us,” said Michael Doneff, VP-marketing for Viceroy Hotel Group, which offers discounts to users who check in at its hotels through Topguest. “These are guests who are passionate about our properties; why wouldn’t we want to reward that?”

This set of loyalty apps also takes the check-in-to-places phenomenon that Foursquare has popularized right to the mall or grocery aisle. Rather than checking in to alert your social network or post to Facebook, users can check in for discounts to use at the register or for points that add up to gift cards, prizes or donations.

And there are some big-name proponents. Mikael Thygesen, chief marketing officer at Simon Property Group, just spent the past few weeks traveling to big-name retailers with Shopkick’s founder and CEO Cyriac Roeding. “They have all been intrigued and interested,” Mr. Thygesen said of the meetings. “The fact that, for the first time, you as a retailer are going to be able to identify a shopper when they cross the threshold of the store, not when they’re at the point-of-sale and getting ready to exit the store, that’s a game changer.”

SHOPKICK

WHAT IT DOES:

The app rewards shopper behavior, beginning when they walk through the door. Consumers rack up points for scanning products, testing products or even visiting a dressing room. Rewards are doled out as special offers and discounts from the retailer, or as Shopkick’s currency, Kickbucks (see sidebar), which can be donated to charity or redeemed for Facebook credits, products or gift cards.

BRANDS ONBOARD:
Best Buy, Macy’s, American Eagle, Sports Authority. Simon Property Group will be rolling out Shopkick technology in more than 100 malls before the holiday season.

WHY IT’S DIFFERENT:
Instead of relying on GPS technology for check-ins like other apps, Shopkick uses a device in store that emits an inaudible sound picked up by the user’s phone. That ensures consumers are only rewarded when they actually enter the store.

SWAGG

WHAT IT DOES:

Swagg is meant to be a mobile wallet—consumers can buy, send and redeem gift cards through the app, without the piece of plastic. Like credit-card companies, Swagg will reap fees on transactions. With an iPhone app slated for the holidays, Swagg also aims to consolidate numerous membership and loyalty cards for multiple stores in one app that keeps track of purchases and alerts when rewards are due. The app is also a vehicle for location-based offers and deals. Users can set their preferences to tailor the deals they receive — say, decline men’s clothing, prefer electronics — while Swagg collects on a cost-per-action basis.

BRANDS ONBOARD:
American Apparel, with more expected in the coming weeks.

WHY IT’S DIFFERENT:
In a category crowded with venture-funded start-ups, Swagg enjoys the backing of Qualcomm. The tech giant bought Swagg developer Firethorn for its mobile-commerce expertise and already enjoys relationships with major handset manufacturers.

LOOPT STAR

WHAT IT DOES:

Check in at participating stores on Loopt Star and get a discount to take to the register. The app recently launch “Rewards Nearby” so users can find deals up to 20 miles away when they launch the app. The new feature puts the four nearest special offers to you at the top of the check-in screen and, since it launched, stores have seen foot traffic from the app spike, says Loopt founder Sam Altman.

BRANDS ONBOARD:
Gap, Burger King, Steve Madden, Element, Paul Frank

WHY IT’S DIFFERENT:
Loopt grew up as a social location-based network like Foursquare and recently moved into retail with the launch of its Star extension. The app is also based on Facebook, which could prove fruitful now that the social network is turning on its new location feature, Places. “The reason we’re moving everything to Facebook is we’re close to a world when you can display your location to all your friends,” Mr. Altman said. “There’s about to be 100 times more geo-social data there.”

TOPGUEST

WHAT IT DOES:

Launched in June, this service aims to convert your existing check-ins and tweets about hotels and airlines into loyalty points for programs you’ve already signed up for. When you check in on Foursquare or tweet about a travel brand, Topguest automatically translates those social-media actions into points for a loyalty program. Brands decide the value of actions, like check-ins and social-media mentions, to rewards points beyond dollars spent.

BRANDS ONBOARD:
Users can earn loyalty points at 4,500 hotels globally. It’s partnered with the rewards program Priority Club, which includes Holiday Inn, Intercontinental, Crown Plaza and Hotel Indigo. Standard Hotels and Viceroy have also signed on.

WHY IT’S DIFFERENT:
Topguest is not an app and doesn’t ask you to check in or post on yet another service. “Rather than trying to get consumers to adopt new behavior, we want to give rewards for things they’re already doing like checking in on Foursquare,” said Geoff Lewis, Topguest CEO and cofounder.

CHECKPOINTS

WHAT IT DOES:

When the app launches this fall, users will earn prizes like iTunes songs or iPads, gift cards or airline miles for picking up and scanning product barcodes once they’ve checked in to a specific store. When the app is opened, it features a list of products that are worth points. Featured products from brand partners allow for bonus points or special promotions like coupons or buy one, get one offers.

BRANDS ONBOARD:
CheckPoints will announce a number of brand partners at launch in mid-September, said CEO-cofounder Mark DiPaola.

WHY IT’S DIFFERENT:
This app focuses on supermarkets, office-supply stores and home-goods outlets, which house multiple brands on its shelves. Mr. DiPaola calls it more product-focused than other apps. “When a user goes into these busy places with tens of thousands of products, we’re aiming to drive consumers to pick up specific products, whereas they may have walked past that product before, or not even walked down that aisle,” he said.

Location based check-ins for Fast Food

The two CKE Restaurant fast-food chains are launching their own loyalty mobile apps to reward customers for “checking in” at any one of their 3,000 locations around the country. The app, for iPhones and Android phones, called Happy Star Rewards, allows users to reveal their locations to CKE Retaurants in exchange for free food and prizes, as well as share it with friends through Facebook, Twitter and other networks.

“As far we know, we’re the first quick-service restaurant to combine the location-based tech with tangible rewards,” said Brad Haley, exec VP of marketing for CKE. Like popular location-based service Foursquare, Happy Star Rewards users will have to check-in at restaurants to be eligible for the rewards. After four check-ins, Hardee’s or Carl’s customers get a chance to spin “The Wheel of Awesome” for prizes, which mostly consist of food, but also include hard goods like Blu-ray players and video-game consoles. If a user decides to wait until the eighth visit, they’re eligible for bigger prizes. While the app doesn’t come out until later this year, it sounds like a mishmash of location and brand apps. Like its standalone predecessors, Happy Star Rewards will also have social-media sharing, but contains the videos, store locator and product information more endemic to brand apps. “Loyalty programs have been around since the dawn of marketing,” said Mr. Haley. “But the paper-based or plastic-card loyalty program is becoming somewhat obsolete. We’re having an app on your phone that goes with you everywhere rather than a card you don’t want to carry around in your wallet.” Location-based apps like Foursquare get plenty of press, but they’re far from mainstream. The Pew Research Center recently found that only 4% of online adults use services such as Foursquare or Gowalla and, in a single day, only 1% use them. However, Mr. Haley says the chains are after 18- to 24-year-olds, and Pew finds that 8% of online adults between 18-29 use location-based services, “significantly more” than other age groups. Apps such as Loopt Star, Topguest and Shopkick work for multiple brands as one-stop mobile wallets for loyalty cards. But rather than work with one of the established players, CKE opted to build its own. “If you are one of the first ones to offer a card in a mobile wallet, that’s a huge advantage,” Mr. Haley said. “Some of these multi-brand platforms are convenient, but it’s irreligious, you’re just one of many choices.” CKE has had plastic card-based loyalty programs in the past, but they were tough to administer and took a lot of resources to develop and maintain, Mr. Haley says. Plus, customers lost the cards. “Every restaurant you go to wants to give you a card or loyalty program,” he said. “But nobody’s purses or wallets are big enough. Taking that and converting it to a digital format was a real opportunity.”