Think with Google: Consumer Intentions for Holiday 2009

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Attracting the right consumers this holiday season will be more important than ever. Join us as we share findings from new retail research on consumer plans for the 2009 holiday season and strategies marketers can take to better target and reach their customers.

During the webinar, we will discuss:
- How consumer behavior has changed and how shopping habits look headed into the holiday season
- What changing consumer behavior means for your search and online marketing strategies
- Recommendations for how to effectively target your audience

This webinar is ideal for beauty advertisers with a holiday eCommerce focus.

Date & Time
Tuesday, October 20th 2009
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm EST / 11:00 am – 12:00 am PST
Register Here

Branding Study Shows Strong Positive Correlation Between POPTUB Site Visitation and Pepsi Brand Favorability

Monday, October 12, 2009

Posted by Jenny Liu, Industry Marketing Manager, CPG

As referenced in an October 2008 TechNews article, Google and YouTube launched an entertainment-focused original video series called POPTUB back in the fall of 2008. The series, which was produced by NY-based Embassy Row, was an "Entertainment Tonight for the YouTube generation" and featured host Maria Sansone, promotional interviews and a premium Pepsi sponsorship. Segments often included pop culture coverage of YouTube homegrown personalities and the branded channel, lived on YouTube at www.youtube.com/POPTUB.

The series wrapped up August 2009, and had garnered over 3.2million channel views and over 45,800 subscribers. YouTube and Pepsi wanted to better understand the branding impact that POPTUB had over their target demographic and cola drinkers. A branding study was commissioned with research vendor Dynamic Logic to get at this question.

The results of the branding study showed that:

medium to heavy visitors were statistically more likely to be more aware and favorable of POPTUB, as well as of the overall Pepsi brand. 48% of medium to heavy visitors of the POPTUB channel had a more favorable opinion of Pepsi as a result of knowing that they were the sponsor of POPTUB.

When asked why that is, one female respondent to the branding study, age 20 said, "[It] makes them seem more current." One male daily visitor, age 18 says, "If POPTUB is a sort of representation of Pepsi, Pepsi is represented well."

When asked the main reason why POPTUB-ers visit the channel, 50% selected because "videos are entertaining" and 39% said it was because they loved the host (Maria Sansone). 28% reported that it was unique content that could not be found anywhere else and 23% said they like to stay current with pop culture.

When asked open endedly, what's your favorite thing about the POPTUB channel, one 19 year old male, who visits daily, exclaims, "I love discovering videos that are funny, Poptub is like Local News to me." Another visitor, male age 22 who visits several times a week summed it up with "Quick access to funny videos". Another daily male visitor, age 29, shares "I like watching the lovely hostess introducing new or somewhat new videos I have not yet seen. In one word refreshing."

This study proved that a branded media site can effectively move a number of branding metrics for a brand. Further, the more a brand is able to drive visitors to the site, the more likely they are able to convert the visitors to become brand advocates.

Fast.Forward. Connecting marketers with innovative ideas and other marketers

Monday, October 05, 2009

As consumers become more and more technologically savvy, businesses and marketers have worked quickly to keep up. As a result, many companies are left questioning what they aren't doing that they should be, or what they should do next to stay in front of the right people, in the right place, at the right time, in an increasingly digital world.

To address some of these questions, we have partnered with The Wharton School to launch our Fast.Forward. Channel on YouTube, which highlights insightful perspectives from industry experts and academics on how marketers can stay ahead in the changing landscape. (You might have seen a similar site launched by our UK marketing team in partnership with London Business School earlier this year.)

In over 100 short videos on www.youtube.com/fastforward, industry and academic thought leaders — including Jerry Wind, Lauder Professor at The Wharton School; Nancy Hill, CEO of AAAA; and our very own CEO, Eric Schmidt — share their views and insights on how the marketing world has changed. Perhaps more importantly, the videos also take a look at the implications of those changes for marketers and consumers. These experts tackle topics ranging from the importance of innovation and insights, to the new definition of speed. On the flipside, we also have videos from interviews with everyday folks, where we learn about the roles advertising and online content play in their daily lives.

In addition to the library of videos, the brand channel offers a "barometer" gauging consumer confidence levels and links to free tools designed to help marketers understand the online world a little better, as well as information on the Future of Advertising. A Wharton-led, research-based project, the Future of Advertising aims to explore and address a number of the business and marketing challenges in the current "Advertising Reality", while developing new models and empirical generalizations for advertising.

So if you're interested in hearing what others really think about "advertising", if you want to check out what happened at Advertising Week, or if you have your own opinion that you'd like to voice, check it out.

Posted by Cindy Goodrich, Google Business Marketing