1. Chapter 14 Objectives • After reading Chapter 14, you will be able to: • Describe the characteristics of the major physical (off-line) and digital (online) media. • Differentiate among broadcast, print, narrowcast, and pointcast electronic media. • Explain how marketers use reputation aggregators for natural, paid, and vertical search. • Compare and contrast social media communities, blogs, and social networks. • Outline the main methods for buying media and for evaluating an integrated marketing communication (IMC) campaign’s effectiveness.

2. Halo 3 Launch • Halo 3 went on sale worldwide September 25, 2007 and sold 3.3 million units the first week. • Microsoft combined physical (off-line) and digital (online) media to announce Halo 3 and create buzz. • Formed off-line partnerships with Burger King, Mountain Dew, Doritos, Pontiac, and others to co-brand products, license merchandising, etc. • Added digital media including video documentaries and Web sites for buzz building. • Can you think of recent product launches that have combined off-line and online marketing and media?

3. Marketing Communication Media • The line between off-line and online media space is blurring more every day. • For example, newspaper ads and articles are often accessible in either location. • Media can also be categorized as paid and unpaid. • Each medium has capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses.

4. Media Types • Broadcast media include TV and radio. • Print media include newspapers and magazines. • Narrowcast media such as Cable TV (CATV) transmit focused electronic content to special-interest markets. • Pointcast media are electronic media that can transmit to just one person. • Direct postal mail allows for selective targeting and can be personalized.

5. Digital Media • IMC tools can be used to communicate with target markets via digital media. • E-mail is a direct marketing digital medium. • Web sites are digital media. • Social media are online tools and platforms that allow internet users to: • Collaborate on content. • Share insights and experiences. • Connect with others.

6. Search Engines • Search engines are reputation aggregators (Web sites that rank Web sites and products). • Google ranks search engine results partially based on popularity. • Some are calling Google a “reputation engine.” • Search marketing refers to the act of marketing a Web site via search engines. • Natural search. • Paid inclusion. • Pay per click advertising.

7. Natural Search • Natural search (also called organic search) involves optimizing a Web site so that it will appear near the top of the results page when searched. • Search engine optimization (SEO) is the act of altering a Web site and incoming links so that it does well in organic, crawler-based listings. • Web sites optimize both their content and meta tags with keywords that visitors are likely to type into search engines.

8. Paid Search • Paid search occurs when an advertisers pays a fee for directory submission, inclusion in a search engine index, or to display their ad with particular keyword searches. • Paid search is commonly called pay-per-click (PPC) because advertisers pay when users click on ads. • Google charges $0.15-$15 per click. • Click-through rates can range from 0% to 50%.

9. Vertical Search • Vertical search is site-specific search on specialized topics, such as travel, online retailers, or books. • Vertical search sites include: • ZoomInfo and LinkedIn (people search). • CareerBuilder (jobs). • YouTube (videos). • Pricing models on vertical search sites include directory submission fee, cost-per-click, and traditional cost-per-thousand (CPM) impressions.

10. Online Communities • Types of communities include wikis, news aggregators, video and photo sharing sites, online forums, product review sites, etc. • A wiki is software that allows users to collaborate on the content of the site. • News aggregators, such as Digg.com, bring news from many sources to one place. • Video and photo sharing sites host user-generated content.

11. Community Building Principles • Larry Weber (2007) suggests a 7-step program for building a successful online community: • Observe. • Recruit. • Evaluate platforms. • Engage. • Measure. • Promote. • Improve.

12. Blogs • Blogs, online diaries, or journals are social media. • In 2007, 12% of internet users had created a blog and 22% had posted comments. • Technorati.com tracks over 112 million blogs. • Marketers use blogs to disseminate their views and to draw users to their sites.

13. Social Networks • Social networks help individuals connect deeply with other for different purposes: • Meeting people, sharing interests, and having fun. • Finding contacts to get a job, venture capital, or to find employees. • According to Lewis PR, 33% of companies will implement a social network by 2008 and 70% will include social networks in their marketing strategy.

14. Effective Internet Buys • Marketers use many digital strategies to reach target markets: • Search engines. • Social media such as online videos and blogs. • Keyword advertising campaigns. • It is difficult to generalize about the most effective online media strategies.

15. Efficient Internet Buys, cont. • Cost per thousand (CPM) calculations can determine the most efficient buy. • The CPM metric is calculated as follows: • (Cost of the ad/Audience) *1,000 • Audience size is expressed in impressions. • Typical Web CPM prices are $7-$15 or $0.15 to $15.00 at Google.

16. Metrics • The measurement of advertising campaign effectiveness includes metrics such as: • Click % • Conversions • CPM • To see how a firm evaluates the effectiveness of its internet advertising buy, consider the examples in Exhibits 14.21 and 14.22.