Tuesday, March 15, 2011

A brand conversation and forum with MBAs



One hour to define the complex world of brand is hardly adequate but that's what I was allotted yesterday evening among a group of University of Ottawa MBA students. 


Providing insight within a learning institution is a great way to assert and crystallize your thoughts while contributing to knowledge and understanding. 


University of Ottawa has invited us on numerous occasions to share our professional views and practical theories with their students. In each occasion we've benefitted from meeting very engaging and thoughtful individuals. 


Unfortunately I could not get to all those who raised their hands for questions but the students enthusiasm to ask questions provided me comfort that another hour could easily have been spent.  


The time together with the students was used to present our model for brand leadership. This is useful because the thinking is applied to many circumstances relating to an organizations market position and their tactics in support of building brand.  Deconstructing brand and understanding the component parts perhaps for some is a defensive strategy in our present age of information overload and brand democracy for the masses.ie:Facebook, Twitter. For those wanting to understand more about the techniques and methods used on audiences to persuade or "convert" people to action, having a primer about how this is mapped out is useful. Those looking at brand structure will be informed about how to process the strategies corporate organizations implement to disseminate content and sell product or other things. The model discussed may apply to an individual, organization or nation. Breaking brand down into clear and accessible parts removes much of the mystery inherent in this loaded subject area. 


Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Clicks, a primer about online media

Google AdWords


Google AdWords is by far the most advanced online platform for developing content relative advertising and delivering it to individuals amidst their information search process, when they are more likely to make a purchase decision. Using Google AdWords, we can optimize advertising to ensure that we are hitting the right users (people searching Google) at the right time in the right place.


High Level Overview 


1. Determine client objectives with respect to digital advertising (awareness, interest, sales, etc)
2. Determine the overall budget of the AdWords Campaigns and duration. Set daily limits for dollars spent
3. Keyword Research – which are most effective by looking at competitors and the industry. Categorize keywords into AdGroups
4. Create an AdWords Campaign for each objective (ie. Business or Tourism clients)
5. Create content for the ad(s) which will show up on the Google search and/or content networks
6. Launch campaign
7. Monitor for trends while optimizing the campaign to ensure that the buy is being spent most efficiently




Pricing Information Pricing is based on the scope of the campaign and set by either using a Pay Per Click (PPC) or Cost Per 
Thousand Impressions (CPM) models. Traditionally, PPC yields better results for clients with a very specific target audience/client.
PPC pricing is determined based on the influence of the keywords, the traffic they produce and the other bids submitted to Google AdWords for the same keywords.
Eg. Keywords “Hotels in Ottawa” = ~$3/click. Therefore, a budget of $15,000 would result in 5,000 clicks, which can be purchased on a per diem basis. This means we can set the daily budget at $150 or 50 clicks. Monitoring the campaign allows us to tweak the numbers and budget based on results.


LinkedIn


LinkedIn’s advertising platform operates much the same way as Google AdWords or Facebook Ads. The benefit of using LinkedIn Ads is that your keywords are highly targeted to relevant users based on the information they have included in their public profile. LinkedIn Ads can be purchased in a similar fashion to Google AdWords, using both PPC and CPM models.
The difference between LinkedIn’s ad platform and Google AdWords is in how the information (advertising) is absorbed. LinkedIn relies on targeted interested whereas Google AdWords uses search functionality. For this reason, Google AdWords campaigns can be slightly more expensive than LinkedIn but usually yield better results.



www.SoshalGroup.com