Even though Super Bowls can be a bit of a let down, advertisers and brands swarm to get spots for the big game. Case in point, all of the Super Bowl ad spots were sold out before Thanksgiving this year. This is mainly due to brands wanting to get in front of one of the largest audiences to view television programs. It is predicted this year there will have been 100 million people watching (REUTERS) the Super Bowl; and at a price tag of $3.5 million dollars for a 30 second spot, it may seem like a deal. However, I’m not sure that the brands truly recognize the value of the spots or the return they may, or may not get from them.

The Retail Advertising and Marketing Association states that 73% of consumers who watch the Super Bowl ads, watch them for entertainment; entertainment, not for purchase. Only 8.4% of all consumers who watch the ads, say the ads influence their intent to purchase. Now that number is quite scary. Brands invest $3.5 million dollars for 15-30 seconds of the consumers’ attention and only 8.4% see that spot and think, “purchase.” I won’t even go into my concern that the brands aren’t even doing their market research on the audience. How many brands that advertise during the Super Bowl know they are advertising to their target demographic?

Are the Commercials More than Entertainment?
If it’s not purchase intent that brands and marketers are going after, what is it then? Is it brand affinity they’re trying to target? Probably not. The only two brands, and I’m sure that I’m not alone here, that come to mind in the memorable history of Super Bowl ads that target the brand in a building capacity, are Apple and Chrysler. Apple’s 1984 Macintosh commercial struck an emotional cord with all of us; it felt different, and it resonated with us to this day. Chrysler’s famous re-brand commercial, “Imported from Detroit,” not only set the auto manufacturer apart from the others, it gave all of us hope even though the majority of us don’t live in Detroit. Why did these commercials resonate so well? It’s because they weren’t selling a product, they were selling an idea–an emotion. This cannot be said about the other commercials that consumers consider “entertainment.” Try it out for a minute. Think back to the “entertaining” commercials of the Super Bowl. Can you think of the product, or even brand, they represent? If you can’t, how do you think a brand justifies the $3.5 million spend?

Another Attempt at Measuring Value
According to the University of Wisconsin Eau Claire, companies that buy advertisements during the Super Bowl, end up outperforming the S&P 500 the subsequent week. Is this a good measure of the value of a Super Bowl ad? This could be just an inflation of the stock by traders in the anticipation of the brand performing well during the Super Bowl. Yes, brands that increase their value in the stock market are a good thing. The UWEC report also mentions that the inflated value comes down, in subsequent weeks, to normal. If I were a betting man, I would buy stock in the brand before the Super Bowl, and then sell the week after. It is a purchase, but most likely not the one the brand is expecting.

Brand Buzz
Another way some brands potentially measure the return is from buzz. Buzz in the form of online conversation, social buzz, and just overall sentiment from the ads. In the social media world, this buzz can be measured in the amount of brand mentions, product mentions, commercial mentions, tags, shares, comments, likes, etc. There are many forms of measurement for this category. However, buzz doesn’t necessarily mean purchase or purchase intent either. We are only talking about people talking about things. And most of the time, we’ll see consumers talking about the content in the ad, the celebrities, the jokes and the wit of the ad, and NOT the product or brand. So, if a brand is justifying return based on buzz, they’re justifying it on things that are not relative to the brand of product.

Is Social Media a Measurement for Success
Think of this Super Bowl ad for Acura NSX.
Yes, it does feature Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno fighting over the new model line. The ad is funny and entertaining. The ad also features a hashtag too, #JerryNSX. No doubt this ad got plenty of conversation and buzz. However, I argue, does the ad impact your purchase intent in any way? Will the brand or the car resonate with you beyond the first time you saw it? Most likely consumers will only remember Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno, maybe the brand, but not the car. Not to mention the fact that the car itself is beyond many of our price ranges. So, why spend $3.5 million per 15-30 seconds for this ad?

Social media is becoming more ever-present in the Super Bowl commercials and offers up another form of measurement: Engagement. Reuters stated that 60% of those watching the game will most likely be tied to another device such as a smartphone or tablet. This gives the brands an opportunity to engage the consumer off the television, and provide more content to the consumer beyond 15 seconds of entertainment. One key way of achieving this is through “innovative” social media tactics. Since the consumers are already on another device, the CTA on the ads will most likely be in the form of a social engagement. Join the conversation is too vague nowadays. Consumers require a specific call to action, especially with a captivated audience that breaks Twitter’s tweets per second records.

Budweiser used a hashtag in their Bud Light Platinum ad (#MakeItPlatinum) and Audi snuck in a hashtag in their vampire commercial as well, (#SoLongVampires). This represents an attempt by the brands to engage those consumers beyond the ad. It was a good attempt, however in execution, the hashtags seemed to be a bit of an afterthought. What am I, as consumer, going to talk about with those hashtags? Why is it relevant or is it valuable for me to discuss this online afterward?

Best Buy’s #BetterWay commercial featured well-known innovators and inventors in the digital space. The brand chose to align themselves to the inventors and speaking to a “better way” to do things. They’re getting closer and the hashtag was relevant to the advertisement and positioning of the ad. The ad itself resonated pretty well, but lacked the specific call-to-action with the hashtag. Again, this is another social media after-thought. As a brand, if you want the consumers to engage, especially on social media, you have to be specific with the call to action; tell the consumer exactly what you want them to do with your hashtag, just don’t throw it up there and assume they’re going to do something.

In the end, which brand did it right? You probably already have your opinion, you knew as soon as you saw the ad. And chances are it’s only one or two ads that you thought, “did it right”. In my opinion, I responded to Budweiser’s Return of the King and Eternal Optimism spots. These spots are historical in nature, but reflect something deeper inside of all of us. The ads strike a subtle emotional chord. They position the brand as one who has always been around and will always be here for us consumers; past to present. Interestingly, the brand did not use any social media tactics either. The ads were not funny, nor were they provocative. They hit it just right and they were on-brand. Not to mention, they can be re-broadcasted even after the “shock” of the Super Bowl is over. Even with the emotional chord, did that make you want to purchase Budweiser? Probably not. It most likely will remain in your mind. Even so, I ask, do you think it’s worth the $3.5 million investment? Unlikely.

Super Bowl Ads Are Social Media Savvy
If you hadn’t already seen, some of the most anticipated Super Bowl ads have been leaked onto social media sites everywhere this week, and it’s looking like it should be a good year for commercial entertainment. However, this is one of the first years that we have seen these ads leaked in such high volume. There is already buzz about which brands have gotten it right, and which completely missed the mark.

So what is with this new phenomenon of leaking ads prior to the most hyped live event in America? It’s simple. Super Bowl spots cost about $3.5 million for a 30 second spot, so advertisers are really just trying to get the most for that money. This article sums it up best when they say, “100 million people are expected to tune into Sunday’s broadcast on NBC. But with well over a billion people on Facebook and Twitter combined, it’s a goldmine for advertisers if a fraction of those people continue to talk about their commercials days after the Big Game.” Many of the ads this year even come complete with their own interactive social media portion, including smartphone apps and hashtags.

One of the most notable efforts this year has been made by GoDaddy.com, who will be the first brand to put a QR code on the TV screen during the Super Bowl. In addition, we hear that nearly 1/3 of all adds with incorporate Shazam technology to allow users to continue interacting after :31. Undeniably, the Super Bowl is one of the largest days in the established world of TV advertising, so this new development is very exciting for the still-developing world of social media. It’s nice to see that brands are making such a concerted effort to make their ads more accessible to everyone, and to fully embrace the engagement opportunities of digital media.

Have you seen any of the ads so far? What have been your favorite or least favorite? (I personally love Volkswagon’s obese dog getting himself into shape!)

Other Must-Read Stories This Week:
Tools and Technology: Twitter Rolls Out Expanded Brand Pages for More Companies
Twitter has rolled out its enhanced brand page options for more companies this week.

Partnerships: Bazaarvoice Partners With Buddy Media to Make Ratings, Reviews Social
Buddy Media, the social media management platform, has partnered with Bazaarvoice to “help brands distribute reviews and other user-generated content to their social-media audiences.”

Measurement: More Than Fans, Followers and Likes: Measuring Social Media in Local Government
It seems that local government is having a difficult time learning how to measure their social impact.

Influencers: Facebook’s IPO: What Wall Street still wants to know
The big influencer this week was about Facbeook’s IPO. We’re interested to hear what you guys have to say about it, so take a look at this article and let us know!

Fun Stuff: The pope’s on Twitter? 10 unlikely tweeters
Who would have ever thought they could find the pope on Twitter? Check out a list of some of the most unlikely tweeters.

First of all, I’m sure all of you know at least one Community Manager. Whether you work with them, are friends with them, or interact with them through the communities that they manage, everyone knows a hard-working Community Manager. And because you know them, you know what an exciting and unique opportunity it is for them! Whether they are acting as a head-cheerleader, managing a disgruntled consumer or simply representing a brand, Community Managers wear many different hats throughout their days.

Between the long nights of hard work and the daily fires they need to put out, Social Media Community Managers really do deserve a day of appreciation. I hope all of you had a great celebration this week and told all of the Community Managers in your life how wonderful they are!

Other Must-Read Stories This Week:
Tools and Technology: Twitter to delete posts if countries request it
Be careful! Countries now have the right to request for Tweets to be taken off Twitter.

Partnerships: HootSuite and Syracuse University Deliver Courseware for New Generation of Social Media Professionals
HootSuite has partnered up with Syracuse University as their first partnership fort their Higher Education Program.

Measurement: Obama’s State of the Union Address Sees 760,000 Tweets
Did you watch the State of the Union address on Tuesday? Did you tweet during it? If you did, you’re not alone. The tallies are in and about 760,000 tweets went out about the speech. What did you think of it?

Influencers: McDonald’s Twitter Campaign Goes Horribly Wrong #McDStories
McDonalds may have lost their rank as “social media influencer” this week when they hit a snafu with one of their hashtags.

Fun Stuff: Super Bowl gets social-media command center
The Super Bowl is about to get social .

Why Now?

Elea: What do you think is driving this move toward analytics?
Shaina: Accountability has been looming for years. Some organizations are still getting away without it, but I’ve seen clients and us fired if Sr. leadership changes and the analytics aren’t up to snuff. The days of bloated business are over.

Elea: All of you have invested your careers in analytics – you have really branded yourself as someone who can use data to provide answers. What led you to do that and where do you hope it will take you?
Shaina: I experienced the .Com boom and the .Com bust. If only we had had analytics widely in 2000, we probably could have saved the industry and a lot of jobs. Every agency in Chicago closed its doors and the industry overall lost the entire middle tier of talent. We now have a talent shortage for all the work that is out there. I chose this profession because a it comes naturally to me, and b to save the industry from tanking again, and to provide the consumer and business a better product.

Elea: Where do you see analytics going in the next 5-10 years?
Shaina: I see it maturing to where the rest of the internet industry is today. It’s 10yrs behind and we’re still struggling to educate the cost to actually bring value with it. In 10yrs it should no longer be a differentiator or a add-on service. It should be core to the business end to end and everyone will know what it takes to execute it well.

Providing Value to Leaders and Decision Makers

Elea: Where do good analytics projects come from? Does it start with the data or start with the decision? A bit of both?
Shaina: It starts with both and should always be a balance of the two. Having a concrete understanding of business, marketing and customer objectives to drive the strategy and business must be in place for the data to have meaning. Sometimes, however, the results of the data may spur a new business objective altogether based on the finding.

Elea: Do you have any tricks or suggestions for getting the attention and interest of decision makers? How do you manage expectations?
Shaina: Build a relationship with them whenever possible. If not possible at least understand for what they are held accountable, and their area of interest for what they want to accomplish with their business. Then tailor the results and the work in that direction.

Data Infrastructure

Elea: Many of our students are interested in entrepreneurship and will have the opportunity to build analytics into their business from the start. What advice do you have for them about how do you figure out what data needs to be stored, how to store it and how long to keep it how long to keep it, etc.?
Shaina: Start off writing a clear business plan and take a swag at targets and goals. Then depending on the business type, start small. Don’t plan to build a data warehouse out of the gate. Start with a few KPIs and collect data on those from the beginning. As the business becomes more sophisticated add more KPis and metrics. Re-evaluate the performance measurement strategy annually, and check on it mid-year. It depends on the type of business for how long you should keep data. In the marketing world, we usually go back at most 5yrs. The industry and consumer evolve too rapidly for anything older to be relevant. Mostly we look only 2yrs back. It depends on the market and their impact on sales and consumer confidence.

Elea: There is a lot of hype right now about “big data”? How do you define “big data” and what tools are you developing to handle it?
Shaina: I define big data as data that requires heavy mining and large data warehouses for storage. “Big data” is not something we handle. It’s something that’s stored on the client side, on the media buying side, on the software vendor side. We will partner with Annalect – our Omnicom data storage provider, if we move into handling this volume of data.

Building a Team

Elea: What makes a great analyst? What skills should they have?
Shaina: A good analyst is someone who has limitless curiousity, observational skills, and is inspired by motivations. Why? Is something they ask multiple times a day. A great analyst is someone who does all of the above, but knows how to control their mind on when to put energy into asking those questions, when to quit or not ask those questions, and how to communicate what they find in a persuasive way that get’s people do to something with it.

Elea: Some students see analytics as a low-level, “dead end” career? Is that true? Where do you analytics fitting into the organization?
Shaina: I’d assume those students don’t have “people skills”. If you have people and management aptitude analytics is a not a dead end career. The opportunities at the moment for example are limitless. Every company is behind on analytics. There has never been a time in the industry since 1998 that there are so many opportunities. The trick is to find a company who prioritizes it and values it. One that has a culture of accountability.

Elea: What makes analytics a great job? What is your pitch to potential recruits?
Shaina: The opportunities. The smart people with whom you will work. The ability to drive business strategy. The joy of applying “analysis” to all aspects of your day. And the pay is DARN good for every level in the field.
Closing Questions

Elea: Shaina, you handle accounts like Nissan, addias, P&G and Rolex. If there was one thing you would like to tell your clients – something that might not be easy to tell them, but that they really should know – what would that be?
Shaina: I have told them. Analytics is expensive! It requires an army of people to do strategy, collect good data, analyze it, communicate it and then do something with it. It’s got to be 20% of their overall marketing budget not 3%. And a lone analyst inside the walls of a Fortune 50 company isn’t going to succeed or stay there very long. Analysts need a team, and support and most companies haven’t yet figured out where and how to increase their budget allocation for it.

Wikipedia, Google, and other sites slowed, if not killed, the SOPA and PIPA legislation with their blackout protest on Wednesday, January 18. The big sites behind the blackout clearly exploited their massive reach and place in people’s daily lives, enabling the protest to grow with amazing speed. Equally important, the sites adeptly employed key strategies for sparking a movement.

Other organizations can mobilize people for their cause by understanding the key strategies of movements and examining how the blackout followed those strategies.

1. Share a Purpose
Having a purpose inspires passion and participation. At the heart of the protest was a belief that the Internet and information should be free. But a purpose doesn’t have to be altruistic. Many Wikipedia or Google users probably acted out of concern they’d lose access to these incredibly convenient resources.

2. Pique Curiosity
Curiosity leads people down the rabbit hole. Many people had probably heard little or nothing about SOPA or PIPA. A new and imminent threat certainly provokes curiosity – and alarm.

3. Direct the Action
Give people a specific and easy way to participate. HelloFax created a very simple form to send a fax to your members of congress, based on your ZIP code. Wikipedia also encouraged visitors to contact their members of congress and streamlined the process by providing email addresses and links based on ZIP codes. As a result, four million looked up contact information, according to Wikipedia.

4. Open Up the Movement
This is a no-brainer for a public advocacy campaign, and the protest spread to many sites, big and small. It also holds true for movements meant to support a particular brand or company. Give advocates a purpose and the tools and they will build a movement themselves. You don’t try to own it or control; you work to fuel it.

5. Create a Spectacle
Many sites and companies had voiced opposition to SOPA and PIPA prior to the blackout, but with limited effect. It took the spectacle of the blackout to gain public attention and media coverage. Creating a cultural spectacle is also a motivator and reward for participants – they can be part of something big.

6. Show Real-Time Results
This is one strategy where the blackout could have done more. Participants didn’t get much real time feedback or social proof. The sites could have shown that tallies for faxes sent or petition signatures, or perhaps that friends and colleagues had also participated.

Perhaps the best example of a movement with immediate feedback is Earth Hour – when participants see their city go dark and know that thousands or millions of other people are turning off their lights at the same time.

There are many other examples of savvy and successful movements, from the public to the commercial: the 2008 Obama campaign, the Nike+ Human Race, and the ilovebees alternate reality game for Halo2 (below). Each one serves a different purpose and employs the key strategies in different ways.

What are some other examples of successful movements?

I’d appreciate reading you thoughts: What you would add or change to the strategies?

While Timelines themselves are an innovative idea, allowing people to pull in other parts of their social footprint really changes the game. Users will now be able to pull in their Pinterest app, eBay, Foursquare and Airbnb, plus so many more. This is truly an example of our social footprint coming full circle–our world is becoming truly social little by little.

There is some question as to whether or not this is taking things too far. Questions surrounding whether we are too connected, too comfortable on the Internet and over-sharing with people that we do not even really know. I do think it’s a valid question and it brings up some interesting points, but when it comes down to it, this is the future. Our generation, and generations in the future will expect to be able to connect all of their social networks and to track their social footprint with the ease of a click. What do you think? Are Timelines offering an amazing new way for us to be even more social? Or are they setting us up to be less connected with one another?

Other Must-Read Stories This Week:
Communities: Pinterest for Brands: 5 Hot Tips
Pintrest, the newest hotspot in social, has been getting a lot of attention recently and brands are in the midst of trying to figure out how to use it to their advantage.

Partnerships: Zynga Confirms It Is Seeking Partners for Online Gambling Initiatives
Zynga, the social gaming guys, is ready to take on online gambling.

Measurement: Measuring The Value And Success Of Targeted Social Media Marketing Campaigns
Social ROI can be difficult and confusing, but it’s always important to keep up on. Check out one of the latest measurement articles from this week and let us know what success you’ve had in measuring your social efforts.

Influencers: Social media stars
Many of the best companies to work for are using social media heavily. Check them out and see what sort of impact social has had on their business.

Fun Stuff: Twitter’s Take on the 2012 Golden Globes
Whether you love it or hate it, awards season is upon us. Check out what Twitter had to say about Hollywood’s first major award show of the year.

As another year begins we all find ourselves looking back and looking forward. Or, as we say in Marketing Science – analyzing and predicting.

We would also be the first to point out that predictive modeling relies on the analysis of historic data. Or, in regular-person speak – only by looking back can we look forward.

So, stick with us in our predictions for 2012 because as we focus on the future we will be taking some detours into the past.

Prediction #1
Social media measurement will focus less on ROI and more on brand affinity and purchase decisions.
Legend has it that once upon a time, in a land far, far away websites were once considered an expensive and optional marketing channel. (“This interweb thing is nothing more than a fad.”).

There was also a time when social media was viewed by many as a fad. 2008-2009 saw businesses start to take social media seriously. (“Maybe this Zuckerberg kid is onto something.”).

By 2010 executives wanted to know what their social media marketing spends were doing and social media measurement took off. The listening platform industry was born and several companies offered products that measured how much conversation was there about a brand, what were the key topics of conversation, and what was the sentiment of those conversations.

As social media marketing budgets grew, those same executives wanted to know how their spends were performing. And so 2011 became the year of social media ROI (return on investment). A prior post speaks more to this topic.

As we turn the corner into 2012 we predict that the focus on measuring ROI will lessen as companies stop wondering if social media has value and accept that it is now a fundamental part of the marketing mix. The measurement of social media will evolve into measuring its impact on brand affinity and purchase decisions. Social media will stop being viewed in a silo and seen as part of an end-to-end marketing mix.

Prediction #2
Companies will begin to focus on digital optimization programs for their main online properties in addition to their usual approaches to innovation.
In the earliest days of the internet testing meant building a whole new website, launching it, waiting while the audience learned their way around it and then comparing the new site’s performance to the old one.

Then technology evolved and it became possible to show some visitors the main website, and others (a virtual focus-group if you will) an alternate version of the site. Instant comparison was available and online A/B testing was born.

Statisticians will tell you that A/B testing can only tell you so much. Unless each webpage is identical except for one element such as a picture, then how can you tell why one page performs better (or worse) than the other? Enter multivariate testing. Imagine multiple A/B tests happening simultaneously on the same webpage, being controlled by some clever algorithms and analyzed by some even cleverer statistical models. That’s multivariate testing in a nutshell.

The end result is an online property can ascertain (within a very fine degree of statistical significance – for any math majors reading) which elements (words, pictures, color schemes and so forth) work best in which combinations on particular areas of a website.

In 2012, with the testing marketplace crammed with vendors offering solutions ranging from free to very costly, expect to see more organizations focused on optimizing via testing, rather than following their traditional methods of innovation.

Prediction #3
Web analytics will move more and more towards ‘digital analytics’ – a wider view of customer interactions, incorporating new data from a variety of sources.
In the early years of web analytics a company’s web analyst (Singular! There was often only one) looked at website data in isolation. How many visitors came to the website? What pages did they look at?

Meanwhile, the email marketing team were looking at their reports. And, the media buyers were looking at their reports and the brand managers were looking at surveys and questionnaire data. Then along came social media and the social media people were looking at their reports.

Today, it is possible to combine these quantitative and qualitative data sources with each other without the need to build costly, customized data warehouses. Many of these types of tools integrate with each other through plug and play APIs – it’s often as simple as giving one tool the other tool’s password.

This gives us the ability to look at one set of data through the lens of another. In practical terms this means answering such questions as ‘what are the most popular pages on the site for females?’ The web analytics system telling us the popular pages and survey data telling us the user’s gender.

In many cases it also gives us the ability to make these tools work with each other. For example, the web analytics tool can identify which users abandoned their shopping carts. It tells the email tool this, and the email tool can send an email to those users offering an incentive to complete the transaction. In turn, the web analytics tool will be able to tell if that email was successful.

As the prevalence of these data integrations increases and the cost decreases, expect to see more companies moving away from siloed web analytics and towards integrated ‘digital analytics’ in 2012.

This trend will also include more integration with non-digital data sources such as traditional business intelligence and data warehouse systems containing transactional data and customer information.

Prediction #4
Real time analytics technology will come into maturity and be leveraged in a wide variety of areas.
There’s generally been a lag between activity occurring on a web site and that activity showing up as data in a web analytics tool – a delay of anywhere from 15 minutes to 24 hours. The 15 minute delay was considered ‘real time’ and was the exclusive domain of some of the more expensive, customizable web analytics tools. Big companies with deep pockets were able to take advantage, but not everyone.

Near the end of 2011 Google Analytics (the most used, free web analytics platform in the world) unveiled true real time analytics. Within seconds of someone arriving on your website you can now see their presence and follow along with their activities.

This is very impressive and certainly has a wow-factor, but how useful is it?

Currently, few companies are making changes to their websites on a real-time basis. Many websites are only updated sporadically throughout the year. The one exception is content web sites: news, sports and weather sites for example. For these sites a 15 minute data lag has traditionally been acceptable, and editors are able to change headlines, pictures and story positions based on performance feedback from their web analytics tool. However, the cost of tools with this near real-time capability has limited this to major sites with serious budgets.

In 2012 expect to see smaller websites starting to make use of real-time analytics and making more on-the-fly updates. It won’t just be content sites. As real-time data becomes more ubiquitous expect to see it used in novel and innovative ways.

Prediction #5
Mobile measurement will expand rapidly as companies rely more and more on mobile as a key marketing channel.
There are zeros and ones all around us, all the time. Mobile data is everywhere and mobile internet use is growing rapidly and it can’t be stopped. Every day new statistics emerge: 77% of the world’s population has a mobile handset. 85% of new handsets have access to the mobile web. Even in the United States and the UK, 20% of internet users are mobile-only.

With numbers like these abound, it is surprising that for many organizations mobile measurement is still an afterthought. The major web analytics tools all offer some sort of mobile measurement, but it is often basic and not as customizable as their web offerings.

This gap in service offerings has led to several companies specializing in mobile measurement. However, in most organizations any analytics gathered from these tools is analyzed in a silo and not, as discussed in Prediction #3, integrated into a holistic digital analytics approach.

As apps continue to supplement websites, and as websites start to look better on mobile screens (more automatic resizing, less user pinching and zooming) expect executives (who’ve also read the stats on mobile usage) to want more details about the performance of their mobile sites. This demand will lead to a renewed focus on mobile measurement and analysis in 2012.

In general, all the measurement ideas outlined above are achievable by a variety of tools and products. In almost every case prices (and feature sets) range from free (basic) to very expensive (extremely customizable). The more tools available the better. Competition encourages innovation and it pushes prices down. The consumer wins. Free tools, even if their functionality seems limited, are a great way to dip your toes into the new waters of measuring things you haven’t measured before. Not only will it give you the confidence to explore a new measurement field, but, often it will help you build a business case for investing in a paid solution. (“Look at the progress we made with a free tool. Now imagine what we could do with a budget to spend!”).

Why not make it a new year’s resolution to measure at least one more thing than you measured last year? Add a new tool, try something outside your comfort zone. What do you have to lose?

Pinterest has been getting a lot of buzz recently. The social network, which is essentially a digital scrapbook that allows users to “pin” things they like across the Internet onto their own personal “boards”, is seeing so much traffic recently that they were launched into the 10th spot in Experian’s list of the most popular social networks. So what is it about the site that is capturing people’s (mostly women’s) attention?

It seems that Pinterest is just the combination in a social network that people have been looking for. Rather than posting long arduous blog posts, or even 140 characters in Twitter, Pinterest allows people to click and go. Find something on the Internet that you want to come back to later, pin it, and move on. It’s quick, easy, and most of all, extremely addictive.

Users can check out other users boards, see what they’ve been pinning and re-pin those things themselves. It’s a community of sharing that can be very personal. Many boards are about cooking (recipes they’ve found) or weddings (dress ideas, locations, etc.), which allows other users to gauge a part of your life from your boards. But what about it exactly makes Pinterest so addictive and intriguing? Yes, they have a wonderful design and have been given a ton of money to run with ($26 million from Andreessen Horowitz, to be exact) but what it really comes down to is that it’s easy and entertaining. It is visually pleasing, easy to add your pins, and it keeps information that you want to reference later in one place.

Although the network is still invite-only (despite being launched in 2010), it has become one of the most popular networks on the Internet and is poised only to grow even more. What do you think? Are you on Pinterest? Addicted? Tell us in the comments!

Other Must-Read Stories This Week:
Communities: Facebook seeks world champion hacker
Facebook is hosting their second annual Hacker Cup challenge. Think you’ve got the skills?

Partnerships: Facebook and Moo partner to print Timeline photos on business cards
Who wouldn’t want their Facebook Timeline photo on a business card?

Measurement: Measuring Doesn’t Mean It Matters: A Review of Social Media ROI
Looking for some help with your social media measurement? This might be the book for you.

Influencers: AP names Eric Carvin social media editor
AP has named a new social media editor, who will work to coordinate all of their social media efforts.

Fun Stuff: Social media resolutions for 2012
Already broken some of your new years resolutions? No biggie! This article can give you some fun ideas for some social resolutions you may really be able to stick with.

Since it’s the start of a new year, we’d love to get your feedback on Social Six! What did you enjoy about it last year? Anything you really didn’t enjoy? Anything you would like to see more or less of? Let us know in the comments!

Happy New Year! Our teams are back from holiday time with their families and ready for an exciting year ahead. But before we welcome 2012, we thought it might be fun to look back on some of our favorite stories of 2011. It seemed fitting to pick 11.

Here you have a list of eleven posts from across our offices, spanning topics from customer experience and branding to measurement and mobile. It’s a great overview of trends and technologies that shaped the past year of digital marketing.

We thank you for continuing to read Experience Matters and are looking forward to bringing you another year of timely and compelling points of view.

1. A New Breed of Resume
By: Andrew Turnbull, Associate Planner

2. Brand Consistency is Killing Digital Advertising
By: Jim Kim, Creative Director

3. 4 Ways to Optimize Your Brand’s Content Curation Process
By: Brad Halasz, Content Analyst

4. A Bad Case of Grouponitis
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Americans rallied together for November 5th, Bank Transfer Day (BTD), as an opportune time to make the switch. Community banks and credit unions capitalized by encouraging customers to move their money to the institutions that don’t charge such fees.

In the final week of October leading up to BTD, eight major financial institutions one-by-one decided not to charge debit card fees, falling to the threats made by consumers.

Consumers stood as one on Bank Transfer Day. In the aftermath, Credit Unions picked up 650,000 new customers – more than all of 2010 combined – totaling $4.5 billion in deposits. Big banks stand to lose more. Their reputation is so thoroughly tarnished among the masses that the ten biggest US banks could collectively lose $185 billion in deposits over the next year if they don’t do more to please their customers.

A Changing World: Consumers Gain Control

Consumers are connected and better informed more so than ever before. Advances in technology are driving new capabilities and new ways of delivering services, changing how we communicate with one another and through what platforms and devices.

The rise of smartphone has created the expectations that almost all services can be managed and delivered regardless of location. With ubiquitous service availability, we’re seeing apps more and more bringing us together to provide advice, motivation, resources, and support to one another. Our shopping is becoming more connected, with platforms such as Pinterest that create conversations surroundings stuff consumers love, Fab.com that attract people of a similar lifestyle, or Sneakerpedia where people can share their passion for shoes. We’re becoming more connected to the physical world around us, through augmented reality, QR codes, and Stickybits. Our health is becoming more connected, with sophisticated monitoring devices such as Jawbone’s Up wristband letting consumers monitor and share their daily activities. Our television is becoming more connected, with co-viewing apps bringing an added layer of social activity through smartphone and tablet. In the age of the algorithm, we’re more informed to what others like, follow, read, watch, and whom we’re interacting with. We can even learn what our best friend wants for Christmas through Walmart’s Shoppycat app.

In the near future, our banking services will become more connected, providing consumer even more control. We’re seeing glimmers of this already, with American Express’ social currency consumers are sharing purchases, with Movenbank and Credit Sesame people are encouraged to share their financial personality profile, with PayDivvy consumers can share meals and travel expenses, with Holvi consumers can share checking accounts, and with Prosper we can bring together people who want to invest with those who want to borrow.

As financial services consumers become more connected and better informed, the greater the pendulum will shift, with traditional financial service providers holding less and less power. Americans will expect greater control with the financial services products and services they purchase and will demand to be a part of the decision process. From changes to the private-side transactional banking experiences to fees, financial service institutions must listen for how consumers will respond.

If banks don’t listen, consumers will begin taking their business to a host of newcomers in the financial services space providing simpler and more transparent personal financial management and bank services.

Industry in a State of Transition: Opportunity in 2012
Now is as good a time as ever to reinvent the industry. In 2012 and beyond, traditional banks will be competing with newcomers such as Simple, Betterment, and Personal Capital for mindshare over customers in banking, investment and advisory services. A host of virtual banks – PFM and saving specialists, prepaid and payment solution providers, and investment managers – are distancing themselves from their traditional counterparts in terms of branding and offering innovative solutions. They have positioned themselves as a new breed of banking in a market where consumers are fed up with the “business as usual” of traditional banks.

How to Win Back Their Trust: Harness the Voice of the Customer
Brand loyalty is won in financial services when customers believe firms have their best interest at heart. In a new era of banking where consumers have control, banks must win back trust to stay relevant.

In an era where customers hold more power, like any healthy relationship, winning back trust means banks must begin to communicate with customers differently:

•Be supportive.
Recognize when the masses are upset. Be understanding when they express concerns over changes to products and services. Take concerns seriously, and address them openly.
•Listen.
Find creative and innovative ways to connect with customers. Allow them opportunities to share ideas about your brands’ products and services.
•Be available, direct and helpful.
Bring customer service to the forefront of key digital touchpoints, simplify product offerings, and provide more contextual advice and guidance. Customers will tell their friends if they have a positive brand experiences.
•Do Good.
Leverage the power of the masses to spread more goodwill. Brands that make giving back a major part of their business model are being praised.