WEB MARKETING: Women Rule.

Who are you messaging with your important web marketing? If you're not talking to women, you're making a major mistake. According to Ad Age, 2007 is the year that women surpassed men in online activity. But what really presses a woman's "hot buttons" in digital marketing? Here's the story:

1. Women's Community. Talk to women and give them an opportunity to talk back. In 2007, the number of women visiting female-oriented social communities jumped 35%, to more than 70 million.

2. Let Their Fingers Do the Shopping. More than 54% of women shopped online in 2007 — 68% of those in households with incomes greater than $100,000. What did they buy? In order of popularity: travel, adult clothing, health and beauty products, financial products, and food or groceries.

3. Show Me the Video. Women are now catching up to men in online video viewing. This year, 43% of all women online have visited a site like youtube.com, versus only 27% last year. What catches the online woman's eye? First and foremost, music videos and movie previews.

4. Oh Mother, Where Art Tho? Odds are, in front of the computer. One of the most active submarkets of online females is moms — more than 43 million of them, online daily, spending an average of 85 minutes online.

5. Forget the Carpal Tunnel, All That Time Online is Healthy! It's a fact. More than 84% of all women utilize the web for health care and related information. Betwen the ages of 25 to 34, that number rises to plus-90%.

Bottom lines here? If you're in travel, health care, apparel, child and baby products, health and beauty products or services, financial services and food, you'll find a ready and willing audience in online females. So market to them, video to them, and give them a chance to exercise their voice.

SOURCE: Ad Age, NOISE

BRANDING: Another Call for Turning the Box Upside Down.

If you're one of the large and growing number of NOISE website fans (and there are, in fact, many of you), you've read our mantra about branding leadership that goes: "We don't just think outside the box. We turn it upside down and sometimes even break it apart."

Well, along comes a new, dynamic essay in Ad Age by Bernd Schmitt, Professor of Business at Columbia Business School and Executive Director of the Center on Global Brand Leadership. In his diatribe entitled "To Build Truly Global Brands, You've Got to Break the Rules," Schmitt argues against the following assumptions:

1. YOU NEED TO USE COMMUNICATIONS TO BUILD THE BRAND. According to Schmitt, "a great product or service or original retail concept alone won't do. You've got to get the message out." Yet in his argument (and NOISE agrees), that doesn't necessarily mean traditional advertising. In fact, you should probably just throw the term "traditional advertising" out of your vocabulary as a) something approaching extinction and b) a massive waste of money. So the point is, yes, use communications: but new communications as we know them today and a creative mix of 'em.

2. YOU NEED TO USE ASPIRATIONAL APPEALS. We give this a double-two-thumbs up (four thumbs?) as both true and false — which is also what Schmitt states. The twist here is, while aspirational appeals still need to be made, they MUST be made in the context of real people or the real world (like Dove's wonderful "Campaign for Real Beauty"), because we're all way too cynical (particularly younger adults). And why are we cynical? Because (see above) traditional advertising has taught us to be that way.

3. YOU NEED TO USE GLOBAL MEDIA. Schmitt argues "not true" and NOISE agrees — to a point. If your audience is global, obviously forms of global media (web) are mandates. But what Schmitt is suggesting is that brands look to "global opportunities" (like sponsoring something in a high-global-visibility area like Times Square) on local levels. Same impact, different focal point.

The bottom line from Professor Schmitt and Professor NOISE? To most effectively build your brand today, you need to turn that box upside down and be open to any on-strategy creative thought — no matter how wild and crazy it might first seem.

SOURCE: Ad Age, NOISE

INCENTIVE MARKETING: Motivate the Troops By Shipping Them Out.

According to a 2006 study by Incentive Federation, corporations are finding that travel rewards have become the leading motivator to inspire sales forces, reward employees or even attract new customers. Of more than 1,100 marketing executives surveyed, nearly one in three U.S. companies currently uses some form of incentive marketing — to internal, external or both audiences. While 33% of those employ merchandise incentives, the fastest-growing and (seemingly therefore) most popular incentive is travel-related.

As specialists in travel and tourism marketing, NOISE has conceived, developed, promoted and managed a variety of extremely successful strategic partnerships that incent consumers with travel or travel-related rewards (see media praise of such a strategy here). Our experience has found that finding the right-fit travel marketing partner isn't always easy — it takes a lot of work and persistence to penetrate the Maginot Line that some corporate marketing departments place between you and the decision makers. But when you are successful in finding the fit, the cross-promotional results can well exceed your expectations.

SOURCE: Marketing News, NOISE

DIGITAL MARKETING: How To Generate Click-Click-Clickthrough.

It's true that online ads — specifically banner ads on mass-market web destinations — are increasingly decreasing in effectiveness. Clickthrough rates have been steadily declining for years, with 2007's average clickthrough rate a precipitious 67% less than 2006.

But this doesn't mean that online ads, from web banners to pay-per-click programs, should be thrown out like yesterday's news (sorry, newspapers). Smart marketers and agencies know that today, the key word in digital marketing is targeting.

According to an article in BusinessWeek, targeted digital marketing demands two things to be successful: a web media outlet that provides targeted content to its users (think search engines, social networks, special interest websites or web portals like health, travel and beauty), as well as a smart marketing campaign that targets the ad message to the audience and content (think unique promotions, special offers and customized messages). Combine the two correctly and effectively, the editors of BusinessWeek content you'll see clickthrough increases of 30% to 300%.

Advice?

Seek targeted-content media. Develop targeted-message advertising. And always always always purchase clicks, rather than impressions.

SOURCE: BusinessWeek, NOISE