Experience Engineer

Just Ahead: Cars That Tweet

"It isn't possible to stop it," said Michael Sprague, marketing director at Kia Motors Corp.'s North American division. "Consumers are going to continue to drive with phones and all we can do as a manufacturer is to provide what the consumers are asking for and make it as safe as possible."

"It is absolutely a selling point," Mr. Reyes said. "People are already distracted by their phones in their car, but we can make it safer for them to do what they are already doing."

Car manufacturers are catching up quickly integrating technology into their products. I like it. I also like that industry is pushing government standards to make sure people get what they want in a safe way.

Do you let government restrict you, or do you find ways to push the boundaries?

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AOL's focus on ad serving starts rewarding

In June of 2011 I wrote how AOL was re-aligning itself and becoming more focussed. It's proven business model of ad serving and collecting media outlets that bolstered that model was to set a base of ad serving growth.

And it has.

As VentureBeat reports:

Fourth quarter 2011 highlights:

AOL grew global advertising revenue by 10 percent — its third consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth.
Total revenue decline was its lowest rate of revenue decline in 5 years.
15 percent growth in global display revenue — AOL’s fourth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth.
AOL reported the lowest rate of search and contextual revenue decline in approximately 3 years, due in large part to growth in search revenue on AOL.com.
Dial up subscription revenue declined 18 percent (lowest rate of decline in five years), with a monthly average churn of 2.2 percent year-over-year.
AOL’s Adjusted OIBDA expensess, excluding Traffic Acquisition Costs (TAC) and an $8.5 million legal settlement were $360.4 million, down from $391.3 million and $368.0 million in Q2 and Q3 2011, respectively.
AOL’s operating income and Adjusted OIBDA grew $46.2 million and $37.4 million sequentially. Both declined year-over-year due to lower total revenue, strategic investments and an $8.5 million legal settlement. Net income declines year-over-year also reflect the gain on sale of AOL’s investment in Brightcove in Q4 2010.

Nice job staying focussed AOL.

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Happy year of the Dragon! - CNY 2012

To all my Chinese New Years celebrating friends, have a great year of the Dragon!

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Social Media Brings Nike 'Closer Than Ever'

via mediapost.com

Calling the results “remarkable,” Nike Inc. says its fiscal second-quarter revenues climbed 18% to $5.7 billion, from $4.8 billion in the same period last year. Net income rose 3% to $469 million, compared with $457 million in the year-ago period. Sales in North America were particularly strong, up 21%, with double-digit gains in stores and online on Thanksgiving weekend.

The results beat investor expectations, and Nike executives say the strong performance is a result of steady gains in both its basketball and running divisions, as well as its continued digital transformation. “We’re using digital to change everything about the product creation process,” Mark Parker, president/CEO, says in a conference call that was also webcast. Not only has that sped up its manufacturing, beginning with design and moving into factories, it’s also been a game-changer in its marketing approach.

“Social media is helping us unite and expand,” he says. “We have never been closer to our consumers, as they connect more with each other, their heroes and their favorite teams.”

Great to see digital at the center of product creation.

For all the talk of Social Media being hard to measure Nike is able to come up with some very clear figures. If you're having difficulty measuring the middle but see the end result, do the results still count?

Have a great Christmas everyone!

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Does investing in Social Media create business value? (via Ogilvy)

via slideshare.net

Ogilvy just released a study on the business value of Social Media. In the wake of the Harvard study concluding that taste does not rub on on your friends through social media this seemed to be an appropriate topic to bring up.

The Harvard study is useless to most businesses. What does it matter if my taste is different from my friends. What matters is that I spend more on your brand because the shared taste with my friend and their confirmation of the awesomeness of your brand makes me want to buy it. (read that really quick, it is an awesome run on sentence)

Kapow!

So what do the Ogilvy brains share:

Social media exposure is directly linked with increases in sales. Integrated social media (social content + one or more other channels) exposure is linked with significant increases in spend and consumption—for example, social media + PR exposure was associated with a 17% spend increase compared to the prior week without these.
Integration matters. Exposure to social content was most consistently effective when it was combined with exposure to other types of media channels.
Social media is a top driver of impact. Out of the 20 channels analyzed, social media was No. 1 or No. 2 in magnitude of impact on spend and consumption.
Social media exposure is directly linked with changes in brand perception. Social media by itself is particularly effective at rapidly impacting brand perception—exposure to social media generated the largest impact on brand perception over a short (one week) period of time.
Brand exposure in social media is low. Weekly social media exposure to brand mentions was relatively low (24% of panel) vs. television branded exposure (69% of panel), even in this selected high social media consumption group of consumers.

Seems to me it's an effective way of getting closer to consumers...regardless of taste.

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Just Ahead: Cars That Tweet

AOL's focus on ad serving starts rewarding

Happy year of the Dragon! - CNY 2012

Social Media Brings Nike 'Closer Than Ever'

Does investing in Social Media create business value? (via Ogilvy)