With all the environmental spin going on these days in the outdoor market, I'm still amazed at how much print marketing I get in the mail from major outdoor retailers.

Maybe it's just a matter of repeating the past and sticking to what has traditionally worked ?  Or maybe these marketers are targeting an older demographic that is not online?

Case in point was a well done postcard sent to me from EMS.  Co-Op ad deal with Smartwool as well.  But here is the intereting thing : EMS is sending me, an outdoor enthusiast, a print offline postcard in the mail and then asking me to go online to get a "buy thee get one free" deal.  What?

As any good marketing manager should know, outdoor enthusiasts are moving....in droves....to online mediums and spending upwards of 12 - 15 minutes a day researching outdoor events, products and news.  Postcards in the mail?  Maybe 10 seconds tops before it goes into the recycling bin.  

So where is the buying behavior best targeted? Here are some interesting things to note on the Outdoor Audience from NameMedia.  Data provided by Comscore Plan Metrix:

Sports equipment (searched for info/online/last 6 mo)
Composition Index : 146
Target Lift : 660

Sports equipment (bought/offline/last 6 mo)
Composition Index : 152
Target Lift : 831

Sports equipment (bought/online/last 6 mo)
Composition Index : 304
Target Lift : 1605

Getting past the quant speak here, what the above is saying is quite clear.  Outdoor consumers are 1.5x more likely to search for sports equipment online and 1.5x more likely to then purchase that equipment offline ( at the local retail store).  But the major thing to note here is that these same folks are 3x more likely to purchase online in the first place. 

So why would you target them at home when you have double the chance of making that sale online?

Another number up there is the "Target Lift"  What this unit measures is the engagement factor with that medium.  A low number means the person is where you need them, but but not very engaged as to where they are.  A high number ( like 1,605) means they are engaged and ready to act.

Lesson from all of this is that you can reach your consumer with more efficiency and less cost by simply pitching them online and then bringing them somewhere nice and pretty to purchase online.  When you mix the message ( a post card with an online coupon code) you are spending more than you need on print to only achieve half the results.

Following on the same idea from my earlier post, marketing managers have little budget, little time and certainly can use any "buy in" for marketing programs from other teams.

We've been working on a solution for this for quite some time, and now that more and more retailers are taking some of the eCommerce sales in-house it makes sense to create an ad unit specifically tailored to this trend.  Columbia just did this:

PORTLAND, Ore. – Aug. 12, 2009 – Columbia Sportswear Company (NASDAQ: COLM), a global leader in the active outdoor apparel and footwear industries, today announced the official launch of www.columbia.com, the company's new e-commerce site where consumers can buy Columbia products directly for the first time.

So what if I told you we had a tool that would crawl your website, grab every product under the sun, create a custom ad unit for each one and that we do this for you at no additional cost?

Not only this, but our tool would contextually match content on our sites so that if a person was talking about camping, your tents would show up.  If they were going on a bike trip, your helmets would show up.  You get the idea. 

Need our members to engage your brand and sign up for your newsletter?  Got it
Need our members to enter in their zip so they can find your product?  Got it
Want to drive foot traffic at the retail level?  Check
Need more members to sign up for your stuggling Blog, Twitter Feed, Facebook program?  Check and then some.

Here is what all this looks like.  Awesome stuff!

One recurring theme in my conversations with outdoor brands is that they simply do not have the in house resources to create the advertising banners.  And this is not something particular to the outdoor space, in fact we come across it in our other channels as well ( home & garden and electronics). 

Waaaay back in the day, when I was running Powerline Sports, I think a standard banner from the local designer set me back $250. And it was horrible.   The good news is that we've found someone out there who can now get this done in 48hrs, maybe $50 and you even get revisions!

The company is called "PointBanner" and I have their ad above.  Simply amazing stuff....not only because it looks good, but because whoever is designing these banners is doign so day in and day out.  After a while you get good at this, and if you take a look at their portfolio you'll see company names like Crocs on their roster.....strong ads, strong call to action and simple to use.

I hope some of you out there can take advantage of this.  Sure not everyone has the in-house budget like Black Diamond, but I think at least with Pointbanner you are more on a level playing field with the big brands...at 1/4 the cost!

Its been quite a while since I've seen a video clip come over on the site that accomplishes all three things at once:

1.  We understand our customer, and we know what is important to them
2.  Here is some video that not only conveys this message, but is the kind that will make you watch it over and over ( a bonus by-product / viral )
3. Nothing fancy, nothing made up, just a real shot of what goes on in the wild.

Congrats to Black Diamond on running this on Rockclimbing.com:

Top notch article.  Over on Online Media Daily from urber cool internet guru Gian Fulgoni who heads up the ship over at comScore.

Common theme here is what I mentioned a while back.  Internet ads are gaining share and proving to be just as powerful in gaining mind share with your consumer as TV.  The stats from the comScore study were brought up again in the article as well where the study showed how people who view display ads will head over to Google to search for the brand ( 18% of the time) or just go direct to the company website (29% of the time).  And when they do visit the site, they spend on average 55% more time there than just some Joe off the street.  Cool stuff! Going way beyond just the click!

But the real juice from this article is in the comments.  I have several that I want to take up here, so I'll start with this one:

Steve Latham from Spur Interactive brought up a cool case study:

"Case study: we recently ran a 1-month campaign (June 2009) for a regional retailer in which we isolated one market for heavy display advertising. The results were overwhelmingly validating: test market showed a 14% lift in sales vs. comparable markets, and based on in-store surveys, the Internet ranked higher than TV as the medium that influenced their visit to the store. We also found that 90% said they had been to the retailer's web site before coming to the store. Display CTRs were nothing to write home about but site traffic for the test market more than doubled. We also found the average person who hit the local store info page had seen 4-5 display ads. "

How cool right?  Hey didn't someone have this idea earlier...hint hint...

http://www.outdoormojo.com/1/post/2009/06/cool-idea-geo-targeting.html

Everyone is using this, but word is still caught up in the chatter of the internet.  And with Outdoor Enthusiasts, you are talking about a much stronger audience, very loyal, very research oriented ( thus why they spend 7 minutes a day on our sites). 

Have a brand with an eCommerce channel AND a retail channel?  Think of your ads as being able to drive online ROI and drive store traffic.  Reward those choice account with a targeted campaign that delivers foot traffic into their store and at the same time cover part of your costs of the campaign with online sales to your corporate site.

Seriously.  Online media has been around for quite some time, but I wouldn't say that we're anywhere close to reaching its full potential.  Like I said earlier, smaller more nimble companies who "get" online marketing are the ones who are leading the charge in the online advertising space.  Stealing market share all the way to the bank.

Keeping on top of Online media is like trying to never drop the soap everytime you take a shower.  Try as you may, eventually you lose track and all hell breaks loose.  In the case of taking your shower you lose the soap, and in the case of spending your ad budget wisely its your marketing budget that is at risk...without reading the right stuff you might as well take those dollars and toss them in the trash (or down the drain).

Which is why I suggest everyone out there subscribe to Media Post News, Online Media Daily.  This is ground zero for what is happening in the market and just by staying on top of how fast things are moving, you'll be that much closer to beating out your old line competition. 

There was a cool article in there a couple of days ago...let me grab that.