Advertisers trying to build their brands online will need to look beyond traditional web metrics to determine if their investments are paying off, according to a recent study by research and ratings firm Nielsen.
There’s emerging evidence to suggest that brand metrics, which show attitudinal response to online campaigns, can predict offline sales, according to a new report, “Beyond Clicks and Impressions: Examining the Relationship Between Online Advertising and Brand Building.”
The findings are important as more advertising dollars get allocated to online channels. Digital budgets increased more than any other type of media in 2011, according to a survey of more than 300 advertising decision-makers from a variety of industries. The survey results were published by The Cambridge Group—a Nielsen company.
The report also shows that in 2011, 54% of those surveyed believe online ads are highly effective at “enhancing brand/product image,” compared to only 38% of respondents in a 2008 version of the report.
Measuring impact
As consumers have accepted the Internet into their lives, advertisers are increasingly interested in ways to better reach consumers, deliver messages, and build ongoing relationships through this medium. Advertisers including online brand-building in their media mix are looking for:
The research showed that the click-through rate for a given ad campaign showed no connection to sales lift and no measure of whether the message resonated with consumers.
Nielsen examined how exposure to Internet ad campaigns influenced brand measures such as ad recall and likeability, and whether consumers said they were more likely to purchase the product after viewing the ad. The analysis showed that online ads do, on average, succeed in influencing brand engagement and opinion, particularly for ad recall and message association. The degree of positive brand impact, however, largely depends on the strength of the ad itself.
Stronger-performing web ads drive noticeably greater impact on branding metrics compared to average or weak ads. Just as television ads perform better based on the quality of the creative and programming context, online ads are similarly affected by factors such as creative approach and content.
Online advertising potentially offers a greater range of possibilities than television in terms of format, dimension/size, and other characteristics, according to Nielsen. In many cases, understanding online ad impact and what separates a strong ad from a weak ad is even more complex than understanding television ad impact.
Overall, Nielsen’s research indicates that traditional direct-response metrics such as click-through rate fail to indicate whether online campaigns will affect consumer attitudes or offline sales. As a result, advertisers need better brand metrics to determine the impact of online ads to separate themselves from the competition.
The New Year is a season of renewal, and for media relations pros, it is a time to examine outreach plans for the start of the year. Whether it’s commercial real estate, the residential building or financial services industries, 2012 will be a competitive year for those seeking column inches from their favorite reporters.
The general media environment for credit unions will be mostly positive, and unless something unexpected surfaces, the press release most anticipated by reporters will contain details about solid membership gains made during the fourth quarter of 2012. For those credit unions that made substantial membership gains, it will be low-hanging fruit ripe for picking. Credit unions that didn’t log significant gains, meanwhile, can look for other areas of increases, like credit card balance transfers, new account openings or auto loans.
“Because the NCUA usually doesn’t release aggregate data until six-to-eight weeks after the end of the quarter, a credit union could conceivably release its membership data in January and then re-release it, along with an update on the current quarter’s membership activity, when the NCUA releases their [information],” Northwest Credit Union Association (NWCUA) Director of Public Relations David Bennett said. “It takes some planning and coordination, but if it adds a dimension to a reporter’s story and gets a credit union in the news, mission accomplished.”
According to Bennett, gaining credibility as a preferred reporter resource—both as a credit union institution and a PR pro—can be as simple as making yourself available for color quotes, or as complicated as providing financial data and analysis.
Take advantage of the beginning of the year to schedule visits or “one-on-ones” with beat reporters who cover credit unions, finance, and consumer news. In most cases, the informal meeting will be an opportunity to get to know the reporter and find out what he or she will be working on in the coming months. It will also be a time to pitch a few ideas of your own. Inform the reporter that your credit union’s membership appreciation event will be a timely photo opportunity, for example, and that it just so happens to be scheduled around the time the NCUA is set to release Q4-2011 membership data.
Being that preferred resource doesn’t mean you have to know everything about credit unions, either. But you should know where to find just about everything—or know who to ask.
For credit unions in the Northwest, the easiest and most trusted place to turn for accurate credit union data and information is the NWCUA. Trusted by reporters and credit unions, we’re staffed with six professional communicators of varying disciplines ready to assist members with proactive and reactive media relations. If you are working on a story with a reporter and need some additional data or a quote, contact us and we’ll do everything we can to assist.
For media “outreachers” who enjoy the hunt for the information and have the time to do it, consider utilizing a variety of resources from only the most trusted organizations. A few other credit union-specific resources include:
Credit unions have made significant gains in their already established credibility over the past few months. Take advantage of it, and remember that there is an entire community of credit unions rooting for your success. Because it’s easier to collaborate to get press attention than it is to compete for it, have an open dialogue with your fellow credit union communicators. There is strength in numbers. And when two or more credit unions come knocking on a reporter’s door, it’s hard to not listen.
Matt Halvorson is editor of Anthem, the publication of the Northwest Credit Union Association (www.nwcua.org). Contact him at mhalvorson@nwcua.org.
1st Advantage Federal Credit Union, Yorktown, Va., had a problem: Almost no one was clicking on the banner ads it displayed in online banking sessions to cross-sell products.
So, the credit union tried a different approach. It began presenting targeted questionnaires to members as they finished their online banking sessions. This tactic boosted conversion rates for one of its products to nearly 10% in a test.
“We saw a significant increase in conversion once we made the application a pop-up option when the member logged out,” Jim Craig, vice president of marketing for 1st Advantage, tells American Banker.
The product it tested, called KulaX, was developed by Micronotes of Cambridge, Mass. KulaX presents three questions, targeted to a specific user and designed around a particular product. The questions are presented only when the member logs out.
The KulaX technology can use either transaction data gathered by the institution or its own analysis engine to target questions. It tracks responses and the actual use of the offers it presents.
1st Advantage uses an online banking product from Fiserv, and it has its own back-end system to examine member transaction data.
In spring of 2011, 1st Advantage tested KulaX for a variety of products, including debit cards, mortgages, and auto loans. The most dramatic improvement was for the credit union’s debit card.
During the test period, 22,000 of the credit union’s 57,000 members visited its online banking site. The credit union identified 275 who had the card but were not using it.
Using KulaX, the credit union created an online form with three questions and paired it with a $10 cash incentive if the member agreed to use the card for 10 transactions. Of the members who were presented with the offer, 154 viewed the survey and 25 actually completed it. Fourteen agreed to take the offer.
“From a marketer’s perspective, it was nice to know who accepted an offer and who didn’t so we could retarget it,” Craig says. This way, the credit union can avoid bombarding users with offers they repeatedly turn down.
The credit union also plans to give its member service representatives access to data from KulaX so they can use its records to follow warm leads.
Placing the member surveys at the end of the online banking session was a smart choice, according to Ron Shevlin, senior analyst at Aite Group. “Transactional marketing is always striving for two things: Customer relevancy and timeliness,” he says.
And members are more willing to hear from their financial institutions about products online than they are about a merchant’s products, according to a Fiserv survey of more than 1,000 consumers.
More than half the respondents said they’d consider receiving recommendations online for financial products if they were tailored specifically to them. Only 14% said they’d be open to hearing about targeted third-party recommendations, and nearly 25% said they’d be open to both.
In early 2007 when I wrote a paper titled “Still Not Targeting the U.S. Hispanic Market?” little did I know what the next four years would have in store for businesses, families, and individuals across the United States. Putting aside the hardships that the “Great Recession” has had on us all in one way or another, little appears to have changed with regards to the great majority of businesses overlooking the U.S. Hispanic market and few companies proactively targeting the market in a strategic and culturally appropriate manner.
When businesses across all industries are struggling in the face of an economic climate not seen since the Great Depression, what better way to grow your business than tap into a market of 50.5 million people with a purchasing power of more than one trillion dollars right at your own back door!
According to the U.S. Census Bureau 2010 census data, 308.7 million people reside in the U.S., of which 50.5 million (or 16%) are of Hispanic origin. This is an increase from 35.3 million in 2000, when this group made up 13% of the total population. That’s an increase of 15.2 million between 2000 and 2010, and accounts for over half of the 27.3-million increase in the total population of the United States. Put another way, the Hispanic population grew by 43%, which is four times the growth in the total population at 10%.
Some of you may be thinking that the U.S. Hispanic market has been impacted just as much, if not more, than the general market by recessionary forces. It’s true that Hispanics were proportionally significant employees in those industries hardest hit by the recession, and that the Hispanic unemployment rate has been running higher than the nation’s overall rate.
|
Hispanic Unemployment Rate* (%) |
Nation’s Unemployment |
November 2010 |
13.2 |
9.8 |
July 2011 |
11.3 |
9.1 |
August 2011 |
11.3 |
9.1 |
September 2011 |
11.3 |
9.1 |
October 2011 |
11.4 |
9.0 |
November 2011 |
11.4 |
8.6 |
*seasonally adjusted
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics
So, why is the U.S. Hispanic market a more viable growth opportunity in an economy currently struggling to climb out of recession? To answer this question we have to look to the cultural, social, personal, and psychological differences between the general market and the Hispanic market that influence and impact consumer buying behavior:
The burst of the housing market bubble in 2006 and the subsequent drop in housing values over the past five years has had an impact on everybody. Hispanics have seen the effects of loss of wealth firsthand as a proportionally large number reside in states that have been among the hardest hit by the housing crisis: California, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona. On the positive side, Hispanic homeownership rates remain significantly below the average of the general population and to non-Hispanics in the U.S. The home-ownership gap in 2006 according to the U.S. Census Bureau between non-Hispanic whites and Hispanics was 26.1 percent. In 2010 the gap had increased marginally to 26.9 percent.
Another favorable factor is that Hispanics have a larger household size than non-Hispanics. According to the 2010 U.S. Census Bureau, the average Hispanic household size is 3.53 people compared to 2.45 for non-Hispanics. In 2010, 26.3 percent of family households in which a Hispanic person was the householder consisted of five or more people. In contrast, only 10.7 percent of non-Hispanic white family households were this large. Having an extended family household provides additional disposable income for the family unit and makes the family less economically vulnerable if there is a reduction in income or a job loss in the household.
Economic and political turmoil is nothing new to many U.S. Hispanics who have experienced the effects of recession and poverty in their country of origin. As a consequence Hispanics are more desensitized than the general market to the hype generated by 24/7 cable news channels surrounding the current economic plight in the U.S. The current spending constraints many in the general market are forced to make in today’s economic climate are nothing new to many Hispanics who still feel they are better off in the US than if they were in their homeland.
In reality U.S. citizens in the general market have lived on credit for many years which is in stark contrast to Hispanics. According to the latest information gathered by the U.S. Census Bureau, in 2000, well before the Great Recession hit, there were 159 million credit cardholders in the U.S. which equates to each cardholder having nine credit cards. A 2009 FDIC National Survey of Unbanked and Underbanked Households, reported that 43.3 percent of Hispanic households are either unbanked or underbanked, which means that the adverse impact of the current credit crunch on this segment of the market is proportionally less severe.
As a potential market to grow your customer base, I’m surprised that more companies are not looking at this segment as a growth opportunity. In our experience of consulting and
training with companies targeting and servicing the U.S. Hispanic market, the hesitation and resistance to proactively target this segment of the U.S. market can be attributed to one or more of the following reasons:
How have companies that have faced these and similar issues overcome them?
In summary, there is no doubt that there is a large and potentially lucrative market opportunity for those companies prepared to invest in developing a U.S. Hispanic market strategy. With the impact of the Great Recession making consumers cautious to spend and companies in a fierce battle for their available disposable income, there is no better time than now for those companies prepared to put forth the effort in a new customer acquisition strategy targeting the U.S. Hispanic market. Companies prepared to invest up front and develop their U.S. Hispanic market strategy and customer service infrastructure will be well-positioned to reap the rewards, while competitors continue to struggle in an economy barely limping along.
Tony Malaghan is CEO of Arial International (www.arialinternational.com), a muticultural consulting and training firm. Contact him at Tony@arialinternational.com.
More than ever, credit unions are using Twitter, Facebook, and other forms of social media to reach consumers, as evidenced in part by the success of Bank Transfer Day. A new study indicates that while executives expect the success of every marketing campaign to be measured, it is more difficult to quantify electronic marketing.
About 82% of executives surveyed said they expect every campaign to be measured according to the "2011 State of Marketing Measurement Report," a survey professionals conducted by Ifbyphone (eMarketer, December 16).
Yet, in breaking down the different marketing types, only 47% of U.S. marketers believe they can effectively measure the return on investment (ROI) of e-mail marketing. Other types of marketing saw even smaller percentages. For social media marketing, only 26% of marketers think they can effectively measure ROI.
About 62% said they track an overall net increase in sales to measure the success of marketing programs. Also, 57% look at the number of new customers acquired, 39% track the number of new leads generated, 33% look for an increase in customer retention, and 33% measure a quantified increase in awareness.
The tools they used to measure marketing campaigns include Web analytics, cited by 48% of respondents; e-mail marketing software analytics (47%); leads from contact forms (38%); and social media monitoring (30%).
Among the marketing types for which respondents believe they can effectively measure ROI:
Measuring which keywords drive either the most clicks (40%), the most online conversations (40%), and the most phone calls (37%) were cited by marketers as challenges.
Published by CUNA News Now at www.cuna.org/newsnow.
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