What can I say?  It's been too long since my last post, there is new stuff to talk about, the oil spill is (almost) over and some of us....are thinking about the upcoming snow season.

Where have I been?  Out.  In the wild.  Deep in the woods.  Hiking so much its insane, camping, using all sorts of new gear, kayaking, surfing, kitesurfing and the newest venture is being more into mountain biking.  I've traveled up to Acadia, down to Bethany Beach, DE, the GUNKS, Seabrook Beach and even a short stay in Cape May New Jersey.  But what does that have to do with online media for outdoor enthusiasts?

Using the gear.  Living it.  For all of you marketing managers out there, this is me standing on a soap box and getting the word out.  Working 8-6 M-F in an office does nothing for understanding your customer.  I've had so many in depth conversations with consumers, from the "guy living in a van" and mountain biking the state parks, to the newly minted internet millionaire surfing his brains out on the shores of the Cape.

The conversations are a bonus, but its seeing the gear in action and seeing how people are using the new technology that matters most.  Which.....brings me to something special I've been sharing with a few select clients   Chitika. These guys are charging forward with a simple interface that has allowed some of my customers to see a 3x increase in CTR for their branded online media.  The price is right, the technology is sound and for now, the company IMO is still off the radar. 

Peck around their site and tell me what you think.  And if you are thinking about the fall or winter media spend ( as you should be ) give me a call and I can go over some ideas.

For once it would be nice to know that I am not the only one who can toss and turn at night, frustrated that I can not fall asleep, and the reason why is internet pricing.   If anyone out there loses sleep over pricing for your outdoor brand, please let me know!

Reason being is one of the partners from my old days at Powerline Sports reached out to me once he heard that I was back on the job market.  And it was the same old same old.  He was getting crushed by internet retailers beating him on price when he was there offering support for kitesurfing brands.  Here is what drove me absolutely insane when I owned a retail boardsports store:

Consumers have no clue that retail is a luxury.  Stores these days exist for one reason and that is to help consumers get questions answered, try on product and then once they know exactly what they want, off to Backcountry.com or some other internet retailer the consumer goes to get the lowest cheapest low cost shipping deal on the planet.

Here is an example.  My neighbor pops over yesterday to show off his new Kayland hiking shoes.  I am in love with this brand.  And for years, they have been super hard to find despite some outstanding awards-

"Kayland’s Zephyr hiking boot was honored as a recipient of a 2009 Backpacker Editors’ Choice Award. The women’s Convert hiking boot was bestowed the Women’s Adventure Editor’s Choice Award and, most recently, the Vertigo Light was named Outside Magazine’s Gear of the Year award in the hiking boot category"

So my buddy is dialed in about how awesome Kayland is, but I have to say it.  He is a total 100% penny pincher.  But to the point of being ridiculous about it.  He had spent the last month, traveling around the state, trying to find the shoes, trying different styles, getting the sizing right, and asking a million questions ( he went into this with me in great detail).  I think it is the hunt for the product that gets him so jazzed. 

And in the end, once he had his style down and sizing, and after wasting considerable time with retailers, he went online.  For another hunt.  The hunt on price.  A sale, a coupon, free shipping, a gift basket.  Can someone please give this guy an award or something because he is now a buyer?  Seriously, you can see how this makes me crazy.  Consumers act as if local retail support means nothing.  And yet, brands and local retailers have yet to figure out a way to correct this problem.

Here is where I have some love for brands who can walk the line with retail and the internet:

• Do not just give lip service to retailers that you will be very firm regarding MSRP.  If I find your product on EBAY or discounted in season, no dice for carrying your product.
  
• Be like Burton.  They figured this out a while back and I think have one of the most harsh attitudes towards selling their top of the line snowboards online.  They have done an excellent job at this, even going one stellar step forward by only offering some "premium" boards in key top producing retail shops.  You can't find some of their boards anywhere except in the retail channel.
• Brands need to back up co-op advertising more.  Use it.  Leverage it.  Geo-Target the co-op digital for that local store willing to pinch in for a large open to buy
• Retail loyalty programs work.  Retailers need to step up and use them more.  Get a punch card and stamp it each time a consumer spends $25 in the shop.  Once they have 5 stamps, they get a coupon for $25 off their next purchase of $50 or more.  Simple.

Any other ideas out there on how to keep the consumer in the store?  I'd love to hear from you.

So I'm a gear head through and through.  I collect bikes, camping gear, kitesurfing gear, helmets, mountainboards, surfboards, snowboards, wetsuits....I have a ton of stuff that I am so proud of.  I'm very excited about the idea that I now have so much gear in my basement that I may have to get a storage unit so I can move it all out and make room for the kids stuff.

And over the years, through posts here and hanging around the Outdoor Retailer show, I've collected quite a following on Twitter.  To say that I have some top brands in the Outdoor Industry following my tweets and reading my blog is also something I am very proud of.   Check them out!

Here is an idea that struck me on the head this morning.  Typical media planning activities for agencies who cover the outdoor market tend to focus on print and online media.  We all know that outdoor enthusiasts spend a considerable time online, so in order to reach them you need to make sure your media planner has the correct sites dialed in for the engagement.

While at NameMedia, through the couple hundred campaigns we ran for outdoor brands, one sticking point was that "last mile"  And its a doozy.  How can an outdoor brand advertise online without upsetting their brick and mortar channel?  On the one hand they are driving online sales, and yet their main focus is on the open to buy dollars floating around for each pre-season from established traditional retailers.

I'd like to take this concept one step further.  Let's say you are a super large brand, and your media planner (located in NYC) is in charge of the mechanics behind your media buy.  Lots of research, lots of planning.  To me, that is like spending a ton of time in college and grad school and then applying for a job.  The person interviews you and asks what real world experience you have.  Case in point with the media planner.  How many outdoor brands can interview the agency and ask what type ( or how many) outdoor activities does the media planner engage in?  Because without this, the planning is done purely on market research.  Where is the tie-in with the consumer at the retail level? 

I'm sure there is a ton of value on the media planning side that I am missing here.  That is fine.  Outdoor Mojo is no PHD.  But we do have is another company called Powerline Sports.  This started out as a bricks and mortar shop for kitesurfing.  Over the years, the biggest keystone sales came from the softgoods and clothing.  So the natural migration should be into companies like Patagonia, Life is Good, Rail Riders...etc..etc.

And here is where this goes.  What is the media planning from Outdoor Mojo was somehow tied into the market research behind Powerline Sports?  This is to say, a media plan could be developed and then feedback and results could come from the retail side....in real time.  And what if you were a small outdoor brand who couldn't afford a full license from Leisure Trends to get at this data.  Like this:

• Gather market intelligence from outdoor consumers on variances on branding before an online campaign goes live
• Understand more from consumers about what makes them buy prAna over Horny Toad.  And then take this info and apply it to the media campaign
• Use survey cards, from consumers, as to what sites they visit online.  And then take this info and use it to establish reach with targeted media buys
• For smaller brands, develop a program where "beta" testing can occur for a product and then have the consumer pipe back market research while the media campaign is being developed.
• In store market focus groups using Elite and Super ac
  
• Kitesurfers are the upper elite when it comes to outdoor brands.  Trust me, I know.  These are not the type of people who shop at Dick's Sporting goods thinking they will find Rab or Arc'teryx.  Wouldn't it be great to tap into them in real time, when they are NOT online?
  

These are all very very premature ideas.  I would love to hear from some more marketing managers out there on their ideas.  How would you see the benefit of having a retail store with your products tied into the agency that administers your branding and reach?

So I wake up one morning and head into my job at NameMedia like it was any other day.  Almost two years to the date, where I had been in charge of marketing and sales for a group of owned and operated outdoor enthusiast sites ( Rockclimbing.com, Dropzone.com, Basejumper.com...etc...etc), they call me into HR and mention that they are reorganizing the business unit.  Read : Laying off several members.

You never see stuff like this coming, but as they say change is good.  I'm super proud of what I accomplished at the Outdoor Channel, and now its time to hunt down my next opportunity in the outdoor market.

As many of you out there know, we all love the outdoors.  And we will all fight tooth and nail to make sure that we stay employed in the outdoor market.  It's who we are.  It is what we do when we are not working.  And above all, the majority of members in the outdoor space are the kinds of folks you want to work with, or head into the mountains with.  It's that simple.

Living on the East Coast ( Massachusettes) presents some challenges.  I'd say 80% of the jobs out there are best suited for those living in CO, UT or CA.  So to give you an idea of where I am hunting, I put together a list of "target" companies where I will be sending my resume.

So while I hunt down some consulting gigs in the shortshere I'd like to ask a favor from the outdoor community.  If anyone knows a contact in HR, Marketing or Sales from the following companies, or even knows of a current opening with one of them let me know!  Also, the list I have here is really just from some initial research.  I may be missing some key players, and if so let me know so I can add them to the list.

Here they are:

MASSACHUSETTES

66 North US Inc. , Newburyport MA
ADC FOOTWEAR, Reading MA
ADVENTURE OUTFITTERS , Hadley MA
Aline , Marblehead MA
Alps Sportswear , Lawrence MA
Avalanche Wear AV Sportswear , Lynn MA
Bemis , Shirley MA
Boston Vertical , Everett MA
Common Soles, Wellesley, MA
CITY SPORTS , Boston MA
Clarks , Newton Falls MA
Earth Inc , Waltham MA
Essential Gear, Greenfield MA
GoMotion Inc. , Wareham MA
Green Market Services Company, Brockton MA
IllumiNITE , Hudson MA
Karhu North America , Beverly MA
Marmaxx Group , Framingham MA
MICHELIN FOOTWEAR , Pembroke MA
New Balance Athletic Shoe, Boston MA
New England Rope, Fall River MA
Polartec LLC , Lawrence MA
Reebok International Ltd.  Canton, MA
Saucony Inc. , Lexington MA
Stride Rite, Lexington MA
Swix Sport USA Inc , Wilmington MA
The New England Surf Co, Beverly MA
Tweave LLC , Norton MA
Vibram USA , Concord MA

MAINE

32 North , Biddeford, ME
Acorn , Lewiston ME
Delorme, Yarmouth, ME
L.L. BEAN , Freeport ME
RSN Resort TV , Portland ME
Sterling Rope Co , Biddeford ME

NEW HAMPSHIRE

All Terrain , Sunapee NH
BAILEYWORKS , Portsmouth NH
BROOKSTONE , Merrimack NH
Eastern Mountain Sports , Peterborough NH
ECCO , Londonderry NH
Eco-Mills , Portsmouth NH
Golite Footwear , Portsmouth NH
I.C.E., Inc. , Kingston NH
Jetboil Inc. , Manchester NH
Life is Good , Hudson NH
MBT, Portsmouth, NH
Minus 33 Merino Wool Clothing , Ashland NH
NEMO Equipment Inc. , Nashua NH
New England Footwear, Portsmouth NH
Simply Birkenstock , New Hampton NH
The Timberland Company , Stratham NH
Trailtex LLC , Portsmouth NH
Xterra Footwear , North Hampton NH

"Page level transparency" & "Brand Safety"

What does this mean to you as the brand manager for an outdoor product?  Does it mean that your ad is on rice paper and the customer can see safely right through your pitch?  Not exactly, but to be serious the whole internet advertising game is moving at light speed, so let's hope you are as well.

Lucid Media is an interesting meta network.  Translation:  Place your outdoor brand ads on the net and Lucid will help you target customers based on activity type and page content.  It is like having a report from an outdoor magazine ahead of time, telling you where the best page would be to match your advertisement to your customer.

And let's not forget about brand safety.  All this means is that when you buy online media, you can be assured that your ad for a high tech tent will not appear next to an article on "5 best ways to keep your house clean while taking care of a newborn"

These meta networks are new news.  Not even a year ago, to place media on the net, you first had to find the reach, then get a handle on what sites to choose that best match your target demographics.  This was by far a manual process.  Tons of different insertion orders and different media specs.  At some point during your campaign, reports would be sent to you showing which ads performed best on which site.  This all occurred after the fact.  You could optimize the placement going forward, but those first few weeks were more of a test than anything else.

So Lucid is here to the rescue. Or not.  What they bring to the table is a very robust taxonomy of websites, broken down by activity.  So while you may be used to targeting outdoor males, Lucid will help you target those males who are more into climbing and less into say disk golf.  Here, let me show you:

Lucid has tons of channels.  For us, we're most interested in "Sports and Recreation"  For those of you with an agency, this is what the media planners are doing in order to prepare your campaign.  They are finding websites with the demographics you need and then negotiating the media spend at the site level.

But here is my problem with this.  Actually, I have several issues.  Look at the categories above.  There are 21 sub categories for this channel (and hundreds of sub sub categories).  So Lucid is making the assumption that you know the relative value of pitching your campaign to a group of golf lovers over a group of camping junkies.  Seriously.  Who knows this?  Maybe you've had a long term license with Leisure Trends and know a little bit more about the types of activites your customers love to do when not using your product, but for many of the smaller outdoor brands the cost of this data is too high.

That is where an experienced digital marketer can help out ( hint hint).  I've built and managed hundreds of outdoor media campaigns, and I know much more about the inner workings of targeted media, and how it either matches up or bucks the trend when it comes to baseline comScore stats.  Sometimes what may seem obvious on the surface isn't so obvious in the details.

For instance, I recently had an outdoor brand come to me with a line of travel hammocks.  They knew little about what their activities their customers liked to do, but they were sure it was light travel.  The campaign was set up to run across several websites, but I knew ahead of time that outdoor fishermen and skydivers would do better than say campers.  This came down to lifestyle patterns and income levels. I also helped them match up the media spend based on focused DMA markets as opposed to a national sweep. 

But still, I think the Lucid solution is a step in the right direction.  At least you can target your customer at a high level contextual match and then refine moving forward.  The guess work about CTR and ROI results has been slightly reduced ahead of time.  The brand safety is nice as well.  But this would need to me monitored, in real time, in order to assure your ad dollars were being used to their best potential.

If anyone would like more info on this, drop me a line and I'd love to walk you through it.

How can you not love the thought about eating granola without any clothes on?  Seriously?  When I first heard of this company, I was floored with all of the double entendre marketing potential.  A clear bag, sustainable packaging, passion for granola, a key halo alliance with the National Arbor Day Foundation....these kids were on fire.

What I love most about the marketing behind Bear Naked is that for decades, the granola market was super saturated.  I mean big names, like Nature Valley.  Here are two very smart young adults, living the dream in Darien CT telling their friends and family, "....hey, we just love granola and think we're on to something.  Who cares if we're up against General Mills?  Who are they?"

And that is the point.  How often does passion and nimble strategy trump the big players?  Case in point, I came across a new job opening for Bear Naked ( yes, after two years with NameMedia in their Outdoor Channel I'm on the hunt for something new) for a summer position as "In-Market Tour Manager" that was cooked up in the kitchen of Onboard Entertainment.

So the plan for summer?  Why change what has already been working?  Grab some free spirited college kids, toss them in a van, and make it their mission to hunt down every outdoor, running, water based, gym vibe so-you-think-you-are-core type of event in specific DMA's and run with it.

I love their job posting:

Brand Ambassador Responsibilities
• Position is temporary. Approximate dates range from (May 1 – September 30, 2010)
• Represent with integrity the Bear Naked brand, and accurately communicate key messages
• Act as the Bear Naked Ambassador by representing the Bear Naked brand with positive and enthusiastic support for the product at all times
• Research and negotiate key opportunities in market (i.e. marathons, mountain bike races, triathlons, retail partners, and everyday athlete hot spots) to enhance overall campaign, consumer experience, and increase positive exposure of the Bear Naked brand
• Manage production elements as needed, i.e. permitting, routing, vehicle maintenance
• Manage all aspects of on-site product sampling
• Oversee and maintain all operations of the customized vehicle
• Initiate and develop retail partnerships
• Submit weekly recaps, reports, photos and timesheets in a timely manner
• Implement social media initiatives (frequent posts on Face book, twitter, etc.)
• All regional travel arrangements must be approved in advance by On Board Entertainment
• May require travel outside of market

I also love the fact that they are not leveraging all the "new" things (read expensive with little chance of + ROI ) with social media when their hand-to-hand combat via van style with free samples has been working all along.  For some reason, Granola works in the Brand Ambassador model.  Say you're at an event, someone comes by with a quick sample, it smells good, you are hungry....its an easy sell.

For all the outdoor brands out there, I have to ask.  What types of product are better suited to the college kid in a van model and which ones are better off under the creative control of in-house marketing or an agency?  And why is it that Bear Naked can hit so much scale with this approach when there are more brands out there, with more ad budget, who can "barely" make a dent?

Here is an article that came across my desk today.  Thumbs up because I am still getting calls from established outdoor brands who are only now just starting to think about advertising online.  "Let's try a test budget"......."..I'm not so sure about this, I still have a heart for print."......."..I love online media, but I could never sell this internally."

And so on.  And it's true.  There is a little learning curve to getting some of your branding online.  But once you see how it can be done, done well and costs less than print to deliver 4MM outdoor audience members being introduced to your brand, it's smooth sailing from there.

Word for Word:



Tuesday, April 13, 2010 Measuring Creative ImpactBy Joe Marchese

In the evolving digital advertising model, the effectiveness of "brand" creative will be measurable. Not only will there be ways to measure how impactful creative is, but there will be a number of metrics that can be used to measure different marketer objectives for their advertising creative. Here are a few.

Time Spent - Unlike the days of the "30-second spot," time is now a variable for creative advertising. This means that marketers can hold people's attention for longer through great creative. While that sounds intuitive, it isn't. Let's not forget those Head On commercials. Annoying creative can be very effective when you are buying a 30-second block of time, but won't get you the upside that the new digital advertising model offers.

Consumer Interactions Rate - All creative implementations in digital should have some sort of consumer call to action. The idea here is that the digital medium allows for interaction, and that getting a consumer to interact with the brand message will help to strengthen the delivery of that message. It is the difference between hearing a car commercial about car X tell you about six safety features, and having a unit that allows you to pick what you think is the most important of six safety features on car X. Same message, more attention and recall generated. How good your creative is at generating these type of consumer interactions is easily measured.

Hint: Every action will have a different drop-off rate depending on how difficult the interaction is. For example, uploading a photo is a lot harder than rating a video. Have a range of activities. If less than 50% of people delivered to your creative interact in some meaningful way, either your media or your creative is ineffective.

Added benefit: Consumer interactions can generate content and feedback for brand marketers, so creative good at getting consumer interactions provides marketers with significant added value.

Share Events - The goals of advertising haven't changed. I don't know of many commercials that were produced where marketers said "boy, I hope nobody talks about this ad to their friends." In fact, how much people talk to their friends about an advertising campaign has always been a measure of success --we just couldn't measure it before. Now we can. Once consumers have engaged with your creative, the "share on twitter/facebook/blogs/email" should be there every time. And the rate at which people share the message they just interacted with is yet another great measure of creative effectiveness.

Hint: People don't want to share brand messages, but they do want to share their interactions with brand messages. Creative develop to elicit this type of interaction gets better rates of sharing. If the share rate on your advertising is less than 5% either your media or your creative is ineffective.

Added Benefit: More consumer-to-consumer shares mean more "free" and highly impactful media. Good creative can be like a bonus or discount on your paid media buy in the new advertising model.

Fans - This one is pretty obvious. Fanning shouldn't be the sole focus of creative efforts, but it's pretty obvious that good creative will lead to greater rates of people connecting to a brand's social media presence on places like Facebook and Twitter.

Awareness, Perception, Preference.... - We are working in a digital medium where we can connect to consumers better than ever before. Pre/post studies of consumer perception should not be hard, and they should be used to understand if your creative is impacting consumer preference.

Leads Generated - Whhhaaaaa???? Yeah, I know, crazy isn't it -- since I think it's the industry's myopic focus on lead generation that's killing the Internet as a good branding medium. But consider it this way: Lead generation doesn't have to be the focus of the creative, because a majority of consumers are not at a point in the funnel that makes them viable immediate leads. Still, there is no harm in having a call to action for those that are. The risk is having the lead generation call to action dominate the creative, which leads to bad creative, which leads to all of the above metrics being poor. So there is a slippery slope. But there's no reason why good BRAND creative won't move a segment of people along in the funnel to the next phase. The key is balance.

The most exciting part about this is the creative revolution that will come once we start measuring what matters. It's going to benefit publishers, marketers and consumers

I get a lot of newsletters throughout the day regarding media plans, targeting and the latest and greatest.  One came over yesterday that really hit the nail on the head regarding the role of the "enthusiast" and the general online community.

The outdoor space is a little different.  There are general brands who brand online, and for them finding a deep pocket of "enthusiasts" can be tough ( when have you seen a micro-site devoted to Dove Soap?).  Outdoor folks are different, and its interesting to me how this author points out some thoughts that we've known all along.

I'll put a link to the article at the end, but in a nutshell : In order to brand online, you need to be inside the commnuities who are using your brand, and then reach the ones who are going to tell as many people as possible about how cool they think your product is.

Top Ideas from the Article:

1. The 1% Rule
2. The 2-4X Rule
3. The New Media/New Pipes Rule
4. The Martha Stewart Rule
5. The Power of "Weak Links" Rule
6. The Feed the Fire Rule
7. The More Things Change Rule
8. Horse Before the Cart Rule
9. The PR Pitfalls Rule
10. The Customer-Service Rule

10 Essential Rules for Brands in Social Media

I used to hate BMW with a passion.  Not sure when it started, but I know it was a long time ago. Oh wait...I know.  It was in high school when my but was taking the bus all the way through senior high and the one kid in school who annoyed me the most had a BMW his parents passed down to him.

Then over the years, I learned a little more about the brand and my admiration for the brand increased (I also grew up). They had that cool show with the car making art, the designs get better....you get the idea.  Visit their web site and these folks have a very over the top passion about design and cars.  I respect passion.

Outdoor brands also have a story to tell and I'm sure your customers aren't out there already holding a grudge against you.  It may be a piece of gear that nobody has.  It may be a type of jacket that just breaks down all the rules.  I know from walking the halls at OR that the brands have cool stuff, they have passion and by far, they have little resources for marketing the message.

So take a look at what BMW did.  Their motorcylces have insane acceleration, and they took this idea to the next level.  Pop a video on You Tube and it goes viral.  1,000,000 new views.  I'm sure there is an outdoor brand who could do something like this.  You just need to think outside the box and touch a nerve with consumers you want to get in front of.

[I watched this video twice, so really they only got 999,999,999 uniques!