Job Title? d. All of the Above

I have never read an article, err, “whitepaper,” that was so spot on to the reason I shaped my role in the industry to what it is today. I was e-mailed Forrester’s “Implications of the Splinternet and the Future of Web Analytics” yesterday and read straight through it; twice. This paper was a result of a survey that asked 210 marketers took to evaluate the “pain points they experience while trying to keep pace with the rapidly evolving multichannel digital environment.”

My “Ah ha!’ moments came during various moments in the study, but first I will tell you a little about what I do. I like to look at myself as a hybrid role of a strategist, analyst, community manager, and brand enthusiast. Although I would love to have a minion army working for me, splitting up the roles, I take them all on myself, everyday.

I realized when I graduated, and have only been confirmed of it since, that companies, firms, brands, people (whatever you want to call them) who have somewhat adapted to online marketing in the non-tradition sense (social media, multi-platforms, mobile) are scared. They are scared to fully emerge and strategize their brand on these channels because they don’t know if it will lead to a payout.

“Firms reported that measurement is a top challenge for adapting to fragmentation. The failure of measurement to keep pace creates significant barriers to adoption for marketers because uncertain ROI is the top barrier to adopting new channels in their organizations.”

Now, back to why I created by job role. I already had the skills to be an online media specialist, helping brands utilize platforms based on their audience, message, and service/product. That was simple. What I ran into was, “Well, how do we know spending time on these sites are going to lead customers to purchase?” I knew that this emerging industry was going to need more to back it up then telling a brand to Tweet, Pin, Instagram, or Tumble. I learned analytics, SEO best practices, and  the almighty PCC and Google Adwords world. Putting all of these skills together lead me to a place where I could give reasons for strategies and recommendations (with evidence of success) for a brands online goals. Once again, it all starts with strategy. Strategy comes from numbers; numbers turn into creating great content (or let’s hope it does).

“As media fragmentation occurs, what skills do you predict will be most critical to your marketing
organization over the next five years?”

50% surveyed answered “strategy.” The article goes on to state:

“Firms must develop an overarching strategy from which to direct the tools, organization, processes, and measurement capabilities that are necessary to succeed in a fragmented marketing ecosystem.”

So, first comes strategy, then comes testing and implementation (what works, what doesn’t work), and then comes expansion. Although firms are scared that the money they put into “social media” (“WHY? IT’S FREE!?) it is the mind behind the madness takes a lot of work and skills to reach the full potential of a brands online presence.

I have seen so far in my professional career thus far, that case study after case study is showing that brands who adapt to  online fragmentation, WILL see a payout. I am finding ways to measure both presence and engagement, AS WELL AS conversions, traffic and CTR. They are all relative. You can’t be successful with out one or the other. The article ends with a page of general recommendations that I would KILL to have CEO’s read, who are weary about online marketing, and the online fragmentation, and where their brand stands.

This is now the longest blog post I have written in awhile and a praise you for reaching the end. So I will leave you to read the article yourself. It will help understand why emerging online media is so important for companies and how you can keep CEO’s happy with real numbers and real results.

“Success is really hard to measure. One of the biggest challenges. The vast majority of our measurement is in terms of
inquiries, leads, pipeline driven and it’s really difficult to measure a social network in that way. How do you measure?
Numbers of members in the community? Or getting the CIO of the biggest company in the country rather than 15
smaller CIOs? It’s about quality and quantity of people in the community.”

Stand Out

The stand out piece of information I have learned so far are the lack of platforms and sources available for the population to get easy and straight forward information surrounding sustainability. Brand practices, green washing in advertising and packaging, social movements backed by companies as well as the sustainability of particular brands and products, are all important pieces of information that it takes someone to be knowledgeable about sustainable purchasing. There is yet to be a platform that condenses all of this information, informing the public on the best possible brands to stand behind to better our environment. It still seems that it takes work and the proper education for a consumer to be fully aware of what they are buying into. This is something that is a passion of mine to find, or be a part of building, because I believe it (resource availability) should start at a young age. If I knew the things I did now at a much younger age, about green washing and energy consumption/waste, the decisions I have made and the companies I chose to support would have been drastically different.
After being aware of the environmental issues of our planet that are starting to motivate companies and brands to think more “green,” there should be a source to back up and show exactly what it is that they are doing to make these changes in the environment for the better. Seeing different platforms (Green Washing Index, Good Guides, Global Reporting Initiative) and agencies (Enviromedia) that are taking initiative in educating and working with sustainable thinking corporations is wonderful but frustrating in that it still doesn’t make it easy for the average consumer to really gain the information or knowledge it takes to make smart and sustainable purchasing decisions. In order to make a large positive impact on our environmental trends, societal changes need to happen as well as brand shifts to sustainable thinking, and there should be a platform where this information can make this shift possible and accessible.
A long term focus on improving our environment though the transparency of brands, companies and retailers, has to be built in order to progress. My goal is to be a part of a generation that makes this information easy to access and become the norm of younger generations’ education in order to continue making decisions and support brands and movements that will shift the environmental impacts to a more positive action.

HippyShopper- My New Heaven

OK- So I am a girl and I  care about fashion. I care about the environment and sustainability too. The internet has been a wonderful source in being able to research what companies and brands are doing to fall into these categories. I was pleased to fall upon one website that featured MULTIPLE lines of fashion and brand in one place, rather then researching them all seperatly.

Where is this magical place you ask?

HippyShopper.com

“Ethical Consumerism. Your guide to the fair trade, organic, wildlife friendly, ethical produce out there.”

This all inclusive website features:

• Ethical Fashion
• Food and Drink
• Health and Beauty
• Green Gadgets
• Energy Saving

Could you ask for anymore? I know those are all of my favorite things.

Even famous celebs like Emma Watson, and popular brands like H&M (who aren’t always sustainable) are featured on here when they are. Making it easy to pick and purchase anything on the site.

SUSTAINABILITY IS NOW FABULOUS!

Picture Yourself

Not only does SustainablePhotography.com visually capture nature and organic lifestyle with original shots, but promises to leave a small carbon footprint with recycled print paper, digital work flow and efficient transportation to some of the most beautiful places on the earth. I love photography so I will keep this short and simple, let your eyes see the beauty earth we try so hard to preserve: Info

West Sideeee

It is easy for me to care about things that are close to my heart. Growing up in Eugene, OR, the Northwest is very important to me, a place where I would want to raise my kids someday. The weather, the people, the forward thinking communities focusing on organic and recycling. It is a great place to live. Truly.

Sustainable Northwest brings ‘people, ideas, and innovation together so that nature, local economies, and rural communities can thrive.’

What they do:

Their process reminds me a lot of my creative strategy classes at the University of Oregon. They take issues regarding advancing rural communities, the growth of natural resources, and supporting green economies. How?

COLLABORATION

Something that takes peoples ideas and outside thinking to come up with ideas and solutions for communities that may not have the resources themselves to grow.

They also do no limit themselves, working on not only a local level, but across communities, and with state and federal policy level.

This very much reminds me of my classmates.

THINK BIG, DO BIG

Food Justice

COMMUNITY    +       EQUITY    +   SUSTAINABILITY

Recently visiting the University of Oregon, Food Justice had a conference to increase awareness and action about food and farm issues, speaking on policies for a successful and thriving local food system. What exactly do they do?

They have guest speakers from all around including:

Dr. Vandana Shiva, Indian food activist and writer

Frederick L. Kirschenmann, U.S. sustainable agriculture leader

WHAT THEY DO:

* advocacy trainings

*policy workshops,

*information-sharing

*campaigns

According to the insights of those at the conference at the University of Oregon, some of the topics covered during the key note speeches as well as the conference advocacy training were:

• Examine the meanings and tensions among the three conference concepts: community, equity and sustainability
• Share research from across disciplines
• Build opportunities for collaboration among scholars, policymakers, practitioners and activists
• Connect Eugene’s food and agriculture community to national and international groups
• Investigate the relationship between regional food movements and social media
• Consider the roles of women, indigenous groups and youth in farming and food culture

Emphasis on sustainability and food is an important topic for both the issue of saving money and eating healthier food. If there was enough advocacy and support for something like Food Justice, the greater community would have the resources and the energy efficient technologies to support themselves, depending less and less on imported goods. Oregon has one of the most rich and viable land and resources to sustain natural sources and food, that everyone should get involved and find out how to support this cause.

Want to get involved? click here.

Communicators on Sustainability

Understanding the needs and views of consumers regarding sustainability, I believe, is an important source to professionals in advertising, PR, journalism and advocacy in this field, in order to address and educate consumers in an effective way. Knowing how consumers feel about particular environmental issues, specific brands and what they represent, and how it is important in getting their message out about helping the environment in the best way is key.

Tom Osdoba, Managing Director for the Center for Sustainable Business Practices at Oregon, had insights about the way sustainable markets worked with particular communities, and whether or not the placement of sustainable companies is important to their success. For example, he spoke about New Seasons Market, which has been building stores in food desert neighborhoods, making healthy foods available to those who didn’t have that option before.
This was a success when most people thought it wouldn’t be. This shows that even the most unpredictable trends supporting sustainable living are possible with the right insight to the consumers minds about what sustainability means to them and how it impacts the way they live.

Kevin Tuerff, one of the founders of Enviromedia, is the consumers sustainability hero. He takes on only clients that are fully committed to  focus on public health and environment. He focuses on behavior campaigns, having to know a whole lot about the way people act and think and how that impacts the way they chose a brand or company. These intimate insights of a consumer thought process when approaching sustainability is what makes his behavior changing campaigns as successful as they are. “Don’t Mess With Texas,” one of the most well known campaigns keeping Texas clean. This wouldn’t be possible without the knowledge of what would make people come aboard this movement.

Taking on the side of the companies and corporations, Peter Lawrence enhances company innovation, collaboration and organizational culture by the design of buildings. An architect taking his skills into the world of business, he has the power to influence business leaders and expose them to the education of design. With his skills, companies are able to take on sustainability leadership roles, passing that down to employees and consumers. With the knowledge of how people think and work together to better collaborate important ideas surrounding sustainability, the possibilities for improving the environment are endless.

Inspiration for Innovation- Edward Boches reflection

I was lucky enough to be apart of a week at the University of Oregon hosting Edward Boches, Chief Innovation Officer at Mullen in Boston. He spoke on digital and innovation, calling out to students, including myself to think of a way to spark innovation for our generation in America. Going through this process of thinking about such a grand scale project, I’ve learned the in’s and out’s of what it takes to collaborate and listen to instill ideas surrounding innovation and where the world of advertising is leading into.

Something great that came out of the week was the new UO hashtag: #Buildshit. The week of key note speeches, lectures and lunches inspired me and my journalism colleagues to make things instead of talk about them. The control of platforms at our disposal (the internet) has cause the power of communication to shift from controlled to liberation. Leaving it up to us what we want to develop, share and innovate.

Edward mentioned some differences of today’s advertising model and goals.

Audience——> Community

Messages———>Experience

Target———> Invitation

Media Plan———> Interest Plan

Penetrate———-> Collaborate

“ART AND COPY IS NOW EXPERIENCE AND ENGAGEMENT“

It is up to our class, our generation, to find new ideas that have yet to be discovered and take them on to #buildshit. I feel lucky to be apart of a program that provides great motivation and inspiration such as Edward Boches and all the professors pushing us to make our footprint in the industry as we graduate and join great agencies and companies, inspiring those after us to build and find more after us.

Groupon: What Were You Thinking!

Superbowl Sunday: Eating pizza, chips, drinking soda and getting excited for the entertaining commercials between football plays.

My mouth drops when I watch this first time Groupon commercial hit the screen:

Exploiting Tibetan culture and troubles to promote their website, showing viewers how much money they can save (in this case on Tibetan cuisine) in the United States using Groupon.

America is all that matters right?

Major uproar all over the internet ensued for making light of real life issues and using an entire nation to promote an American company. Groupon responded by stating trivializing Tibet’s cause was never their intention, but it still makes me wonder how the concept’s offensiveness slipped through the hands of everyone involved in making, writing and producing the commercial.

Crispin Porter & Bogusky who strives to draw attention to the cultural tensions created by brands was the Ad agency behind this commercial and are being criticized for doing it in the wrong way.

Is this and CP&B downfall without the influence of Bogusky anymore?

Only days after the premier of the commercial during the Super Bowl, spoofs, blogs, and campaigns against Groupon took over the internet, including this spoof on Conan O’Brien:

One Planet, One Green Certification

One Planet, One Green Certification

As complex as human emotions, thought processes, decisions and lives are, when it comes to a consumer and a product the connection is rather flat lined and simple. When a consumer is thinking about buying a product the 3 most important things that go into the decision (differentiating brands and products) are:

Visual Appeal
Cost
Brand name (and it’s value to their life style)

Advocating for sustainable and energy efficient companies, brands or products, is just another complex thought consumers have to think about. Everyone wants to be “Green,” but how many people will actually put that into practice, doing the research of how a product or company is really selling themselves as a sustainable one.

According to Enviromedia social marketing Green Guide, there are over 350 green certifications inthe market:

These labels are yelling out to consumers “LOOK AT ME! I’M GOOD FOR THE ENVIORNEMNT!”
How can someone with out a background of sustainable and green  knowledge ever have the time or desire to learn the differences between these labels, what they mean and how and why the companies are using them.
16% of Americans think the marketing advertising industry should not self-regulate sustainable claims, meaning that if the power was in the hands of those advertising the products, the lines begin to blur on the authenticity of relaying a message and doing good for the environment.

If there was a third party sustainable advocate, knowing the weights between the benefits and downfalls of how a product is made, where is has come from, where it can go after being use (recyclable, compost-ability) and made a series of labels rating the products and their impact on the environment.

My ideal global campaign would be for ONE (yes you heard me) one global primary green product enforcer by a third party, and out of the hands of the government who looks at profit and company benefit rather than enviornment ideals.

Why this would work:
⅔ of AMericans (65%) say having one seal for all green products would give them more onfidence that they were buying green.
41% of Americans say taking the power of certifying products as green away form the government and on to a third party green advocate resource would help them in making decisions about what products to chose.

(Info: Enviromedia.com/greenguides)