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every product and service experience must be recognized as a contribution to the total brand image. It should be designed, maintained, and managed across platforms and over time with a central truth. Ultimately, a pattern will build through these successive experiences, and that pattern will be rooted in the core brand promise.

It is critical to define a sharp personality in order to create a unique experience and build a strong brand over the long term.

Nearly all the advertisers polled (92%) said they aimed content marketing at their customers, and 54% targeted prospects. Six in 10 also created content designed for journalists or others in the media. The most popular approach—mentioned by 65%— involved placing content on both print and digital platforms, while 43% used only digital channels.

Facebook was the runaway winner when it came to distributing branded content; 84% of advertisers said they had used it, and a further 11% planned to do so in the future.

More than three-quarters (78%) of those polled said they had produced newsletters, and 12% intended to do so, while 74% had posted content on properties such as partner websites. Pinterest was one of the least compelling propositions for these advertisers. Just 8% said they had used it to post content, and 3% planned to do so; 73% said they weren’t even considering it at the moment. Despite the growing enthusiasm for content marketing, content-related budgets remain rather low, judging by this research. More than two in five respondents (42%) reported that their company spent less than SEK1 million ($147,711) on these initiatives, and 24% spent between SEK1 million and SEK5 million ($738,552). Yet only 6% said they had no funds at all for content marketing. In another vote of confidence for content, 53% of advertisers said their content budgets would increase in 2014.

Corporate websites perhaps have a key reputational role to play in the marketing mix, supplementing and underpining social media marketing spending — by providing reassurance of a brand’s professionalism where a Facebook page can provide evidence of user engagement/approval (or otherwise).

The results indicate that corporate websites still have a key role to play when it comes to marketing a company’s offerings, despite the big role also played by social media. It’s also notable that mobile marketing is still relatively low down the priorities list, with an aggregated percentage of 24%. It’s still far better than the poor unloved (and doubtless rarely updated) company blog, though, with just 6%.

The survey asked respondents to rank different marketing activities first, second and third in importance, collating all three preferences to get the overall percentage. On first place preference, corporate websites came out joint top with online advertising, cited by 18% apiece as the most important activity. Social media slumped in importance on this measure — cited by just six per cent of respondents as the most important activity (and second only to the company blog):

The top priorities for increased budgets in 2013 are commerce experiences, social and mobile marketing, and content creation and management

story-centric rather than channel-centric approach

The average revenue per visit for Pinterest traffic was more than $1.50. But while Pinterest is able to drive highly lucrative leads – and the release of Pinterest’s Analytics Tool for Businesses should help companies make use of them - it can deliver only a relatively limited set of eyeballs.

If a company’s goal is to simply reach a larger audience to create or maintain brand awareness, Facebook remains the best option.

it seems fair to say that Pinterest is a more efficient marketing channel than Facebook.

there are now more monthly users of mobile apps than there are for desktop computers and laptops. Yet the the desktop ad market is still 10 times the size of the mobile ad market in revenues

To execute a mobile ad buy, you have to choose between various networks and exchanges and real-time bidding platforms. The ads themselves are also different since they're often designed to prompt users to take action relatively quickly, which mean fewer branding ads and more direct-response executions. To ensure that the ads are effective, it helps to tailor to them to individual users' demographics and geographic location. To make things even more complicated, while on desktop, there are basically two operating systems, in mobile there are at least 10, Becker says and "hundreds of browsers and screen sizes."

eMarketer predicts that TV will continue to grow — and outpace digital advertising — through 2017.

TV ratings are down — Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne recently found that they fell 50% over the past decade — TV is still the last place where you can find 5 million or more people tuned in at the same time to an ad. You may be able to get in front of 5 million people on Facebook, but if you use a display ad, only about one in 1,000 people will click on it.

bigger advertisers are jumping into mobile — Mondelez (nee Kraft) pledged last year to put 10% of its ad budget into the segment

Agile content development is best executed by a partner that has strategy, production, and analytics under one roof, combining what agencies traditionally do best with what production companies traditionally do best.

When strategy, creative, and production teams can sit side by side and collaborate fluidly, agile content is the by-product.

A perfect example of this is Red Bull, which has even gone a step further to combine brand, agency, and production company into one. No one would argue that they are not one of the most successful agile content marketers on the planet.

The most important part of setting your brand’s agile content strategy is having a clear idea of why your brand is creating content to begin with.

Next, your responsibility is to make sure that the content you’re creating is meeting your brand’s overall objectives. Your selected content partner should be responsible for making sure the content you create is something that your target consumer actually wants to see.

Once your brand’s content strategy is set, it should be seen as a living framework that should evolve over time. Recognize that your brand and content both live in a dynamic world that changes constantly.

In these new mobile settings, maybe success for an ad doesn’t mean lots of clicks or even lots of online purchases. Maybe it means phone calls, or foot traffic to stores. Maybe it means someone searches for something now and later follows up on a desktop computer. Google has been exploring ways to measure all of these possibilities.

aims to turn foot traffic into a measurable outcome of mobile ads, something that it has already done with phone calls. With a click-to-call ad offering, users can click a phone number within their search results to call an advertiser who has sponsored the term.

A Google spokesperson says that on average, campaigns see on average a 6% to 8% increase in average click-through rate when brands include a click-to-call phone number in an ad.

About 30% of restaurant searches and 25% of movie searches take place on mobile devices. About 25% of YouTube traffic is mobile. But according to earnings reports the company filed with the SEC, its cost-per-click fees and profit margins are smaller for mobile advertising products than for similar advertising on its websites.

He argues that it makes more sense to measure effectiveness of mobile advertising by metrics such as reach, frequency, and recall--like TV--than by the same click-through metric on which desktop digital advertising relies.

Facebook's Head of Measurement and Insights, Brad Smallwood, recently made a similar argument for all digital advertising, desktop included. He wrote in a blog post that when brands focus on reach rather than clicks on Facebook, they have 70% higher return on investment from their campaigns. T

By selecting “News Feed” as a placement option, your ads will be displayed on both desktop and mobile.

Typeahead This is one of the most used features on Facebook. It gives advertisers the ability to target searches.

It is one thing to ask a business to pay to increase its visibility, that is the type of thing that businesses budget for. It is another to ask users on their personal pages directly for money. Google has never asked me to spend money to improve the search results for my own name, for instance.

The people who use your product or service: The voice of the customer is the most influential of all. Provide loyal consumers with an opportunity to get involved by sharing their stories. Identify digital influencers that fit your brand aesthetic and explore partnership opportunities. This approach is heavily evident in the fashion industry, where brands routinely work with fashion bloggers on everything from Twitter chats to advertising campaigns.

The people who support you: Why not collaborate on content development with partners or vendors? By working together, budgets become more manageable and both parties can benefit from the potential PR story. By working together, you can deliver deeper impact and cast a wider net. 

With more brands developing more and more content, we will naturally reach a point of over-saturation where only the very best stories will make an impact. As such, it is absolutely crucial to begin to refine and optimize current content marketing practices. Also, with the line blurring between marketing or brand managers and content developers, it’s worth noting that those best suited for positions in content marketing have a rare combination of business and marketing acumen, digital savvy, as well as journalism, public relations, film, and even creative writing. For those with this mega-mix, employment opportunities abound.

Advertising spending in emerging markets is increasing faster than in the worldwide market

Globally, advertising was up 3.1 percent in the first quarter year-over-year to US$ 128 billion, following a strong finish last year.

In terms of total dollars spent, TV is still king with the most spending. The growth in TV market ad spend, like the growth in overall spending, was region-dependent. In the emerging markets of the Middle and Africa, for instance, TV soared 33.8 percent, while it grew only 4 percent in North America.

The evolution of print advertising is also heavily region-dependent, meaning that any predictions about the demise of print might best specify a location. Magazine ad spending actually increased by 7.6 percent in Latin America, for instance, but dropped by 5 percent in the U.S. Newspapers showed a similar difference, increasing by 10.3 percent in Latin America and dropping by 2.1 percent in the U.S.

However, the growth in online advertising was consistently strong around the planet. The Middle East and Africa again led, with 35.2 percent, followed by Latin America at 31.8 percent and Europe at 12.1 percent. Radio also saw growth in every region.

The trigger is the actuator of a behavior—the spark plug in the engine. Triggers come in two types: external and internal. Habit-forming technologies start by alerting users with external triggers like an email, a link on a web site, or the app icon on a phone. By cycling continuously through successive desire engines, users begin to form internal triggers, which become attached to existing behaviors and emotions. Soon users are internally triggered every time they feel a certain way.  The internal trigger becomes part of their routine behavior and the habit is formed.

After the trigger comes the intended action. Here, companies leverage two pulleys of human behavior – motivation and ability. To increase the odds of a user taking the intended action, the behavior designer makes the action as easy as possible, while simultaneously boosting the user’s motivation. This phase of the desire engine draws upon the art and science of usability design to ensure that the user acts the way the designer intends.

Variable schedules of reward are one of the most powerful tools that companies use to hook users. Research shows that levels of dopamine surge when the brain is expecting a reward. Introducing variability multiplies the effect, creating a frenzied hunting state, which suppresses the areas of the brain associated with judgment and reason while activating the parts associated with wanting and desire. Although classic examples include slot machines and lotteries, variable rewards are prevalent in habit-forming technologies as well.

The exciting juxtaposition of relevant and irrelevant, tantalizing and plain, beautiful and common sets her brain’s dopamine system aflutter with the promise of reward. Now she’s spending more time on the site, hunting for the next wonderful thing to find. Before she knows it, she’s spent 45 minutes scrolling in search of her next hit.

What separates the desire engine from a plain vanilla feedback loop is the engine’s ability to create wanting in the user. Feedback loops are all around us, but predictable ones don’t create desire. The predictable response of your fridge light turning on when you open the door doesn’t drive you to keep opening it again and again. However, add some variability to the mix—say a different treat magically appears in your fridge every time you open it—and voila, desire is created. You’ll be opening that door like a lab rat in aSkinner box.

unlike a sales funnel, which has a set endpoint, the commitment phase isn’t about consumers opening up their wallets and moving on with their day. The commitment implies an action that improves the service for the next go-around.  Inviting friends, stating preferences, building virtual assets, and learning to use new features are all commitments that improve the service for the user. These commitments can be leveraged to make the trigger more engaging, the action easier, and the reward more exciting with every pass through the desire engine.

As Barbra enjoys endlessly scrolling the Pinterest cornucopia, she builds a desire to keep the things that delight her. By collecting items, she’ll be giving the site data about her preferences. Soon she will follow, pin, re-pin, and make other commitments, which serve to increase her ties to the site and prime her for future loops through the desire engine.