Before we take leap forward, let’s take a look back at what 2011 brought us

2011 was indeed a year for emerging media. But this year, we really began experiencing what it means to integrate emerging media with traditional media.  I know there are still skeptics who may believe that the two entities do not belong together, but as people continued to spend more time online there is no way around it. More organizations sought to create an online and offline experience for their target audience this year then ever before.

Still not sold on it? Well think about it. If you answered yes to any of these questions below AND answered the call to action then you have proved us right.

• Did you see a TV commercial with links to their Facebook Page or Twitter account?
• Did you scan a QR Code on an advertisement in a magazine or direct mail piece?
• Did you watch a live TV show and tweeted your response to a question they asked at the same time or joined a tweet chat?

Social Media: Although social media is generally driven by consumers this year brands dominated the networks. We saw a major change in layout, advertising programs, and capabilities from the top social media networks. For example the Facebook Insights dashboard allows companies to become more social and engage with a wider audience by placing their brand directly in their presence without necessarily invading their space. Twitter’s usage continues to grow amongst multicultural audiences especially African Americans and Latinos. But, if there is one thing that stands out about this platform is that almost 48% of users access their account on their mobile devices.  Expect this to become the driving force behind 2012 changes to Twitter.  Nonetheless, the rankings probably will not change much amongst the top performers but keep an eye on Instgram and Tumblr in 2012.

Digital Design Media:

Content Creation- One design trend that was prevalent this year was content creation sites/applications in the form of reviews. The act of curation is becoming essential to staying current with fresh content on the Internet. For example, Stamped allows users to rate and approve things they like quickly. Rather than a standard three to five stars rating Stamped is a yay or nay proposition–it makes the review/recommendation interaction quicker and easier. Since Stamped starts members off with a finite number of credits it rewards users with more stamps if their recommendations garner attention via their social network. Ultimately the whole idea of Stamped is a giant call to action with one’s friends acting as the curators. In 2012, social marketing will go beyond just the networking sites.

Infographics- Now that you have extensive amounts of data at your fingertips-now what? Infographics merge data and design. Infographics are creative, engaging, and make market research much more easier to understand. If you have research to present, consider designing an Infographic in 2012. As popular marketing websites such as Mashable.com continue to use Infographics to explain data expect to see this trend continue in 2012.

Mobile Media:

QR Codes- QR Codes were everywhere this year…even on my toothpaste tube! Direct mail pieces really benefited from QR Codes because they provided an intriguing quick way to get deals and more information about the sender.  There is still life for direct mail, thanks to QR Codes. Therefore do not completely count them out of your strategy. Besides direct mail pieces, QR Codes have begun showing up on more product packages, poster boards, advertisements, and outdoor media.

Online Shopping: Online shopping numbers hit major highs this year. The emergence of tablets, mobile websites, and mobile applications made shopping online much more convenient for consumers. This Christmas 18.3% of online sales were from a mobile device up from 8% last Christmas.

Well that was our year in review and we look forward to 2012. Happy New Year from ARGUS!

When thinking of market research in our digital age, I think it’s reasonable to question whether or not it still makes sense for marketers to continue to conduct focus groups to gain consumer insights. I suppose if you think about it, it does seem a little old fashioned, asking a group of people to sit around a table for an hour or two, probing them with questions. Especially as the world of consumer research is rapidly shifting to gathering information online through sophisticated tracking tools on websites and online surveys sent to emails. Companies are even looking to their Twitter feed as a main way of getting feedback and staying connected to their audience base.

What does this all mean for the focus group? As a marketer, I’ve had the opportunity to be a part of a number of focus groups and have seen firsthand the rich insights gleaned from these in-person sessions. Key findings and insights that cannot be learned from reading an online survey, analytics report or a Twitter feed, and have informed the strategy and tactics for successful campaigns.

Here are just a few reasons we shouldn’t discount the focus group as a key component of your market research strategy:

1.) Follow-up Questions: The beauty of the focus group is the ability to ask follow-up questions on feedback that you may not fully understand or on a topic that you want to hear more about.
2.) Emotions and Body Language: If consumers have a strong emotional reaction to your brand/product/service/idea – good or bad – you need to know it. And there’s no better way to understand these emotions than seeing and hearing them for yourself.
3.) Discussion amongst consumers: It’s such a unique opportunity to have members of your target audience in the same room discussing your company. You’ll find one person’s comment often sparks insightful commentary from another.
4.) Undivided Attention: Unlike other market research methods, you have a captive audience of people who have committed an hour or two of their lives solely to focus on your company and share their thoughts.
5.) Meet your Consumer: Every marketer worth her salt can easily spew off the demographics and psychographics of their target audience – age, income level, education, interests, etc. – but there’s something very powerful about seeing this person in real life. What do they look like? What’s their demeanor? Any surprises?

What have been your experiences with focus groups?

If you have been successful in one market, there is a high probability you will be able to repeat your success in another market. But it can’t be any market – it has to be the right one where your brand will be relevant, your success model can be replicated or where you can adapt to fit local needs.

The first step is to fully understand who you are selling to, and locate this audience in another market. Say you are selling a product to Hispanics, identify where the largest concentrations of Hispanics in the US are located. The second step is to dissect this potential market and get to know every aspect of it. Conducting an in depth competitive analysis is imperative, as well as understanding details about the market’s demographics, trends, current affairs and every aspect that can affect your brand, directly or indirectly. Perhaps your audience is there, but your product won’t be relevant to their local needs.

As mentioned, a competitive analysis can be a good indicator of a good opportunity. The best way to benefit from a competitive analysis is to not only look at what your competition is doing, but also, to observe what they have done, how they have been successful or how they haven’t. Why? Lessons learned can be incredibly valuable, so leverage someone else’s experiences to benefit your own efforts.

And look forward. How might the environment be changing in a way that accommodates – or not – your brand? Is there the potential and should you start planting seeds now, or will the environment change in a way that your brand will be obsolete in a few years?

The key is to be relevant at the right time just like Amazon is with its online community. You know your brand, and you know your audience. So you already have the tools to understand what can make you successful. Just make sure to look outside of your backyard. You often need to remember your roots to be able to grow and thrive.

Today’s realities of record unemployment, job insecurity and home foreclosures, make the task of earning consumers’ trust even more challenging.  Consumers are paying closer attention to HOW they are spending their money and WHO is receiving it.

Creating a strategy focused on fostering trust can help you find your business on the receiving end of these transactions. There are a number of components that go into a winning trust strategy, including:

1.) Really get to know your consumer

Age, income, geography, education, ethnicity are all great starts, but you can go much deeper than that.  Consider where they come from (culture, values), their reality today (priorities and fears) and where they want to be tomorrow (hopes and dreams). These insights enable you to develop branding and promotional strategies that connect with your audience in a more meaningful way – make them feel like you “get them” and then in return, you deserve their business.

2.) Define the consumer experience

Once you’ve defined who your consumer is, you should now set your sights on defining their experience with your business. Your consumer experience is the sum totality of all interactions with your business at every touch point – your visual identity, website, social media strategy, customer service practices, sales, etc. Developing a consistent, positive experience that consumers grow to expect and love from you is the key to earning their trust and loyalty. Borders, who was recently ranked number one on Forbes’ “Best Customer Experience” list, is an example of how good customer experience can lead to higher sales and ultimately brand loyalty. Borders.com, for instance, has linked its online retail sales to a site that gives information on events that incites customers who do not buy online, to visit the store for a poetry reading and purchase items then. Whatever the overall strategy may be it clearly pays to provide great customer service.

3.) Leverage word-of-mouth

When you create a great consumer experience, people take notice and talk about it. We know that the average consumer will share positive brand experiences with approximately ten people. Today, word-of-mouth is more powerful than ever. Consumers are not only talking about their experiences, they are also taking their opinions to Facebook, blogs and Twitter. It’s important for you to be present on these social media channels in an effort to cultivate positive conversations about your brand and mitigate the negative.  For instance, monitor your company’s name on Twitter. If you come across a negative comment, apologize and within reason, do what you can to make the situation better.  This will certainly impress the individual you’re tweeting with as well as his/her network of followers. A company that utilizes this insight very well is Comcast, or as known in the twitter world, “ComcastCares.” Frank Eliason, Comcast’s ‘Twitter Man’, has successfully created a greater consumer experience thanks to the fact of back and forth discussions regarding Comcast’s services as well as stressing the importance of building customer trust through social networking.

There’s something very powerful about someone we know and trust recommending a brand. There’s also something very powerful about someone we look up to (celebrities, community leaders and other public figures), declaring public support for your product or service. Identifying influencers from your target audience and earning their trust so they will endorse your brand is an effective way to build brand loyalty.

4.) Communicate in-context

Sometimes it makes perfect sense to create a high profile TV spot to promote your business and sometimes it does not. Consider the time and place when consumers will be most receptive to the message, and then determine the most appropriate media channel for disseminating it. There’s a lot of clutter out there in the marketplace and consumers will appreciate your tact in speaking to them when they’re primed to receive the message. If you’re a financial services company targeting small business owners, I may not notice your billboard driving down the highway on my way to work; however, I may take notice of your online banner on a trade website I read every morning at the office.  Being more precise in your targeting not only earns the good graces of your audience, but also will save you money in the long run.

Leveraging these insights for a winning trust strategy will help your business be on its way to cultivating trust and retaining loyal customers. The bonus? These will also be essential in piquing the interest of new consumers and expanding your market base.

The third step to building your social media portfolio is:

3. Execute with consistency.

At this point in the social media portfolio process your profiles have been established and you have worked to correct any misinformation. Keep in mind that moving forward with consistency across a range of social media sites is extremely important because you want people to instantly recognize your business from the look and feel of your social media profiles. Don’t be afraid to take advantage of the customization features offered by sites, such as profile pictures and backgrounds.

Here are some guidelines that will help your business achieve a consistent and professional image:

• Layout or color scheme: The layouts and color schemes of your social media profiles should be based off one common denominator, generally your company website. If your profiles conflict, people may be unsure whether they are looking at the same or two different companies.
• Official logo: While this seems like a no brainer, it is very important to use the same logo version across profiles. This means keeping it on the same color background and displaying it prominently on the profiles.
• Update intervals: Set deadlines for when your profiles will post new content or updates. This can be as simple as deciding to post a blog every week and at least one Twitter post a day. Remember, just because you take a day off doesn’t mean the Internet does.
• Language and voice: It would be beneficial to carry the same voice and language throughout your profiles. You want to maintain a professional but approachable persona. Being consistent doesn’t mean having only one person write and update all profiles. It means setting guidelines for appropriate language and terminology that all contributors will feel comfortable with and follow.
• URL shortcuts: There are many different sites that allow users to shorten URLS. On mobile sites and character constraining sites such as Twitter, shortening URLs is a must. Internet users take a gamble when they click these links because they cannot determine where it will bring them due to the URLs being a jumble of numbers and letters. Use the same URL shortening site every time to avoid confusion and to establish credibility.
• Photos and images: Have four or five official photos of your business available. Some sites allow users to upload photos to enhance their experience and the site’s database. Keeping the same photos every time will cut down on the confusion.

One benefit of having these guidelines established ahead of time is that the process of making profiles on new sites becomes streamlined. The trick is applying the guidelines to whatever customizations a site may offer. Following guidelines across sites will also give your social media portfolio a professional and well-planned look.

This series was created to help your business plan its social media strategy and execute it effectively, thus creating a social media portfolio. Going into the portfolio process, you want to have a clear understanding of your businesses’ resources so that you can devote enough time to all the channels you plan on targeting. You also want to take control of your social media presence by establishing your businesses on channels you do not plan to utilize regularly in order to protect your image. Leaving content creation up to other users can damage your portfolio and make your business appear questionable. Lastly, you want to be consistent in the look and feel of your social media profiles by drawing up guidelines that can then be implemented across all your social media.

Social media is a valuable tool that can support your businesses’ communications goals. Building your portfolio is only half the work, you need to keep up with and maintain your social media. With the three steps in this series you can create a portfolio that emphasizes the value of your business, drives traffic, and adds to your online presence.

If you’re interested in learning more about social media and how it relates to business, take a look at our last two posts:

Building Your Social Media Portfolio: Pt. II

Building Your Social Media Portfolio: Pt. I

The second step to building your social media portfolio is:

2. Create profiles on channels you don’t plan to utilize on a regular basis to protect your image from false information.

Half of your social media portfolio is creating profiles and content on various sites. The other half is protecting your content and monitoring what is being said in social media to protect your image and stop false information from spreading. This is where the importance of stagnant sites comes into play.

There is a double-edged sword to social media. On one hand, it’s great that everyone can create content. On the other hand, it’s…not great that everyone can create content.

The classic example of this paradox is an electronic business directory. This is where the definition of social media can get a little fuzzy. Location based and check-in based applications like Foursquare or Google Latitude can act like a business directory in the same way that Yelp or Google Maps can. Location based and check-in based programs function to gather information about a business or a place that will assist and enhance a user’s experience. The catch is that the businesses being listed may or may not have created their profile on these sites.

Picture this: An imaginary tourist is sitting in the imaginary “Sunflower Café” a few blocks away from their imaginary hotel. The tourist takes out their smart phone and launches the imaginary check-in based application “The World in Your Pocket.” After using the search bar in an attempt to find the “Sunflower Café” with no results, the imaginary tourist decides to create a listing for the business without the café’s knowledge. The problem? The imaginary tourist has a touch phone and accidentally spells the word “sunflower” as “sunflwr.” The owners of the “Sunflower Café” do not dabble in social media and have no knowledge of this profile. The spelling mistake leaves their business looking questionable to other patrons using the same check-in based application.

Accidents like this are innately innocent, but they can create a bad image for your business. They are also a pain to clean up after the damage has already been done. The solution? Create the profile before someone else does. Or, check your business’ existing social media profiles to make sure the information is correct and make changes if necessary. You do not want someone else’s mistake detracting from the hard work you have done to build you social media portfolio.

Many sites have the option to “claim your business.” This means you can either create a profile, or edit an already existing profile by signing up for the application and going through a few simple identity-verifying steps.

Business directory sites are the easiest social media profiles to create and consequently forget about. They generally require little to no maintenance once created, unless they are being used to distribute special offers or for some other creative purpose. By going through various sites and establishing your business, you can prevent false information from circulating while simultaneously adding pieces to your portfolio.

Keep in mind that it may be necessary to use a smart phone when creating social media profiles. Many sites allow you to sign up online, but you can only go so far without the actual smart phone application . Sites like these include Foursquare, Gowalla, Google Latitude, Whrrl , Brightkite, Loopt, and Facebook Places.

Stay tuned for Part III of “Building Your Social Media Portfolio,” focusing on maintaining a consistent image across all your media profiles.

The first is that our Principal/Creative Director, Lucas Guerra, came up with the name ARGUS as homage to his home country combining “ARGENTINA” and “U.S.” Lucas may actually tell you this depending upon how nostalgic he is feeling for home on that given day.

The second, truthful answer, is that ARGUS is named after a powerful protector in Greek mythology. ARGUS is said to have one hundred eyes and sleeps with only two of them closed at a time. This way, he can watch every detail and look after those in his domain. Here’s a visual:

Within ARGUS, we’ve adapted these traits to our observant or vigilant methods for our clients. We pride ourselves in our keen attention to detail, curiosity for events in the world, and how these inevitable changes may affect the clients we serve.

And though we may not have 100 eyes like our ancient friend, it sure feels like it sometimes. A key part of our strategic process is to examine complex issues and challenges from every angle and perspective. Seeing beyond the obvious and developing smart and innovative solutions that surpass the status quo is at the core of what we do. An example of this is the anti-smoking interactive campaign we developed, called the84.org, that targeted teens in Massachusetts. Rather than develop another campaign that preaches the negative effects of smoking, ARGUS took a fresh approach and focused on the 84% of teens who currently do not smoke and established their healthy behaviors as normative and cool. The campaign was extremely effective with over half a million visitors coming to the site from all over the United States.

We are also alert and aware of what is going on in the world around us much, like our Greek counterpart. The industry is constantly changing and we don’t want to miss a minute of it. We have our eyes and minds open to new information, technology and trends that affect our clients and how we do business.

In the spirit of our mythological namesake, we are prepared to take on any new challenge that comes our way. We just like to think of ourselves as a little better looking.

I use the term Mad Men to define CD because most executives, directors, planners and creatives were men (yes, Virginia — even in the early 90’s).

Modern advertising reflects vintage style in an Ad Age promo for Mad Men.

The book chronicles the extreme ups and downs of running an agency, and battling internally whether to position the agency as a “creative shop” or to become a business partner with the client.

There were striking parallels between their struggles in 1989 and the challenges facing many agencies today (not withstanding our economic woes).

Is the mark of a great agency comprised of award-winning work that brings in new business, but ultimately falls short of supporting the client’s objectives?

Probably not.

Perhaps the answer lies in the support of client business goals with award-winning work that’s rooted in consumer insight. Couldn’t both live in harmony?

Clearly, ARGUS would not be in business if we did not achieve both. Our clients stick around for the long-term, because we work for this balance.

At a time when consumers truly own brands, won’t tolerate change on package design or product formula (remember new Coke and Tropicana?), and CMOs are looking for ROI, you’d better be sure to marry the two — or you’re dead.