The Online Advertising Playbook Plus
GETTING IN DEPTH: ARTICLES
July, 2007
The New Age: Beyond Lead Generation and Brand Identity
Steve Rappaport
B2B
Business to business marketing strategies produce brand demand by utilizing new forms of online media to their fullest potential. Businesses have greater ability to interact and build relationships online that will make the brand experience more relevant to each consumer’s particular context and desires.
Visa USA’s Business Breakthrough campaign is an example of a company whose online marketing strategy was truly interactive and effective in creating brand demand. Visa created video case studies for customers to follow on their website of actual small companies Visa was assisting with business advice. Video was more popular than traditional case study formats of a white paper, and the opportunity to see businesses working with Visa caused businesses to feel connected and engaged.
Traditional strategies of lead generation and brand identity can only be somewhat helpful to companies in the interactive and online arena because they do not engage people the way the online environment allows. Consumer engagement can create real brand demand by using technology to address relevant consumer concerns and interests.
June 2007
“Three Emerging Advertising Models”
Steve Rappaport
Journal of Advertising Research
Advertising is in a transitional period partly as a result of new online media. Older strategies of interrupt and repeat are giving way to more media-integrated, relevant, and interactive strategies brought about by digital media. Three new models have emerged. The “On Demand Model” deals with greater consumer control over content and the media experience via TiVO, DVRs, iTunes, et al. The “Engagement Model” is based upon emotional, contextual, and experiential connections with the consumer building toward the co-creation of brand meaning. The final model, “Advertising as a Service,” looks at advertising from the consumer’s perspective and seeks to design the easiest, most helpful and enjoyable customer experience. It intends to shape and personalize the consumer experience when making a brand decision.
These strategies can be used in tandem as their basic elements and premises complement one another. All involve a certain level of responsiveness to the consumer perspective; all can best flourish in burgeoning realms of interactive technology and media that facilitate the brand-consumer relationship.
Winter 2007
“Six Strategies for Online Advertising”
Steve Rappaport
Always On
Here are six winning advertising plays straight out the ARF’s “Online Advertising Play Book.” First, pull customers in through multi-dimensional and interactive advertising. Second, use the internet’s ability to categorize and profile consumers based on their online behavior to precisely target your advertising. Third, online advertising should be one facet of a comprehensive multi-media strategy. Allow consumers to easily forward or share information. Connecting online and print advertising can be mutually reinforcing and give the advertising the greatest reach. Fourth, incorporate interactive elements into the advertisement itself, such as an advertisement game, product design tools, and savings calculators. Fifth, online advertising should be engaging consumers: welcoming participation in the brand experience and learning from consumer input. The final strategy is an understanding that the traditional one-way advertising street from media to consumer has changed. The new mEdia are n-way interactive, and advertising must change as well.