Introducing the concept of Digital baselines which amplify marketing spend as they will deliver an ongoing annuity of brand impressions. Starbucks is world class, Levis has a great trajectory, but Old Spice isn't as impressive as you might have thought. Here is how they work, how to build them and what the future will bring.
1. Rubinson Partners, Inc.
“Food for Thought” Series
How Digital Baselines
Can Amplify Your
Marketing Effectiveness
Joel Rubinson, President
joel@rubinsonpartners.com
Blog.joelrubinson.net
Twitter: @joelrubinson
Also on LinkedIn and Slideshare
Ideas herein are property of Rubinson
Parters and cannot be used without
permission. joel@rubinsonpartners.com
2. From push to pull to baselines
Understand the
idea of digital
baselines
Determine
The future
impact
Measurement
Build
strategy
Ideas herein are property of Rubinson
Parters and cannot be used without
permission. joel@rubinsonpartners.com
3. From push to pull…to baselines
Traditional advertising is “push”; advertisers only get the
ad impressions they pay for.
In Digital, the consumer can pull messages when THEY
choose…by searching, navigating, liking a brand on
Facebook, subscribing to a Youtube channel, etc.
In a digital age, brand advertising can build “digital
baselines”… generating an annuity of earned and
owned impressions continuously into the future.
This amplifies the effectiveness of your marketing
spend
Ideas herein are property of Rubinson
Parters and cannot be used without
permission. joel@rubinsonpartners.com
4. Digital baseline impressions are
significant
Tens of millions have chosen to connect to and
search for Starbuck’s, building up huge digital brand
baselines…it gets well over100 million impressions
(earned, owned, and search) each month that it
does NOT have to pay for! Baselines include…
33MM Facebook fans, generating 50-100MM
impressions from page updates
16MM searches each month for the word “coffee”
(they show on the first page of search results
(probably 50MM+ searches where Starbucks shows
up in total)
3MM followers on Twitter
3MM monthly unique visitors to their website
Millions of smartphone app downloads which allow for
mobile pay at Starbucks and recharging digital
accounts
Ideas herein are property of Rubinson
Parters and cannot be used without
permission. joel@rubinsonpartners.com
5. Levi’s Go Forth” campaign built
baselines from scratch
Started 2009
Levi’s had a social graph
under 20,000
Today they have:
6MM fans in Facebook
93K followers in Twitter
1MM+ monthly UVs to
their website
Generates tens of millions
impressions each month
that they do not have to
pay for.
Ideas herein are property of Rubinson
Parters and cannot be used without
permission. joel@rubinsonpartners.com
6. On the other hand, Old Spice was a
campaign with modest residual media effect
Old Spice certainly generated:
Sales increases
Lots of views on Youtube…over 300MM
views
But only created modest digital
baselines
2MM+ Facebook fans
300,000 Youtube channel subscribers
200,000 followers on Twitter http://wearesocial.net/blog/2010/08/wie
20,000 monthly unique visitors to their den-kennedys-spice-case-study/
website
Ideas herein are property of Rubinson
Parters and cannot be used without
permission. joel@rubinsonpartners.com
7. Digital marketing goals
You should have two primary goals:
Generate short term conversion/sales lift
Build your digital baselines
These will require different digital creative and
media strategies
BUT, to understand how to weigh the two
objectives you need to determine digital
baselines’…
Ideas herein are property of Rubinson
Parters and cannot be used without
permission. joel@rubinsonpartners.com
8. Digital baseline impact
Key question: what are digital baselines impressions worth?
Consultant narrative is not enough…YOU NEED EVIDENCE!
Getting evidence:
For sales that occur offline: use marketing mix modeling
(preferably, a newer multi-stage approach)
You will probably find that TV advertising not only drives sales directly but
it also drives search, liking a brand on Facebook, following a brand on
Twitter, etc. which in turn drive sales
For sales that occur online, use attribution modeling
The importance of individual digital brand baselines (e.g. Facebook
vs. owned media visits) will vary for different brands
Ideas herein are property of Rubinson
Parters and cannot be used without
permission. joel@rubinsonpartners.com
9. Digital baseline impact evidence
Working with Compete data, I analyzed 63 brands
across retail, restaurant, and beauty. Becoming a
brand fan on Facebook increased the likelihood of
visiting the brand’s website by 85%.
http://blog.joelrubinson.net/2012/06/surprising-new-
study-on-facebook-marketing-effectiveness-for-brands/
Marketing Mix Modeling I was involved with showed
Facebook impressions were significantly correlated
with sales and website visits
Ideas herein are property of Rubinson
Parters and cannot be used without
permission. joel@rubinsonpartners.com
10. Building brand baselines
Ideas herein are property of Rubinson
Parters and cannot be used without
permission. joel@rubinsonpartners.com
11. The case for digital baselines
They are an asset, delivering impressions each month
that the marketer does not pay for
In effect, amplifying the effectiveness of your marketing spend
They affect the customer relationship in deeper
ways, even extending into mobile payment
They can deliver sales lift
Ideas herein are property of Rubinson
Parters and cannot be used without
permission. joel@rubinsonpartners.com
12. Digital Baseline Building
Paid within
Brand
Paid social
Owned preference Sharing and
traditional, environment
media and customer endorsement
digital (e.g.
interactions
Facebook)
Ideas herein are property of Rubinson
Parters and cannot be used without
permission. joel@rubinsonpartners.com
13. Digital Baseline Building
Twitter Owned media,
followers apps users
Facebook Search Youtube, other
likes Ideas hereinimpressions of Rubinson
are property subscribers
Parters and cannot be used without
permission. joel@rubinsonpartners.com
14. Digital Baseline Building
Paid within
Brand
Paid social
Owned preference Sharing and
traditional, environment
media and customer endorsement
digital (e.g.
interactions
Facebook)
Levers can build baselines and baselines can build each other
Owned media,
Twitter followers
apps users
Search Youtube, other
Facebook likes
impressions of Rubinson
Ideas herein are property subscribers
Parters and cannot be used without
permission. joel@rubinsonpartners.com
15. When a marketer makes digital baselines a
key objective, they will adopt different
communication strategies
More Starbucks, less Old Spice; your objective is to get people to “join your
brand”
Owned media will offer content, offers, a sense of community, and
functionality that is engaging, sharable, and provides SEO for key terms
Digital display will try to drive people to a landing page that encourages
them to join an owned media environment (provide e-mail for
rewards, download app, etc.)
Advertising on Facebook and Twitter will be increased, to build the number
of likes and followers
Facebook updates will have different content strategies:
Practice visual branding; harmonize visuals to make products easier to find in store
Induce Facebook fans to download mobile apps
Tightly link content from website to Facebook to encourage traffic to owned media
LAST BUT NOT LEAST: CHANGE THE RESEARCH METRICS OF
BRAND SUCCESS Ideas herein are property of Rubinson
Parters and cannot be used without
permission. joel@rubinsonpartners.com
16. New metrics of success
If you are using surveys alone to track brands, you are
not positioned to succeed in a digital age
Create KPIs comprised of BOTH survey and digital metrics
From digital analytics you can measure and track progress at
building digital baselines and the impressions they spawn
each month
Modify marketing mix modeling approaches so these
new metrics are also variables going into your models
Leverage user-level digital data:
Profile users (for learning and more precise ad targeting)
Track activity
Conduct attribution analysis
Link digital baselines (e.g. Facebook oauth permission to
download apps and get offers)
Ideas herein are property of Rubinson
Parters and cannot be used without
permission. joel@rubinsonpartners.com
17. What’s next? Cracking the code on
mobile to generate shopper
impressions
A brand impression someone sees while in
“shopper mode” will be more impactful
The great majority of sales are planned at
home but occur in physical stores
The mobile device is the connection…in the
US, it is probably with half of us at both times
and places
Marketers must extend digital baselines to
connect both places and phases of shopping
Smart phones can bring shopping plans and
offers from home to store
Ideas herein are property of Rubinson
Parters and cannot be used without
permission. joel@rubinsonpartners.com
18. The evolution of digital media
thinking
Thinking digital Balanced Digital
advertising approach: baselines
would kill TV paid, owned,
advertising earned media
All brand Media
building would convergence
be via social
media
Ideas herein are property of Rubinson
Parters and cannot be used without
permission. joel@rubinsonpartners.com
19. If you found these
ideas
stimulating, Rubinson
Partners would love
to help you create
and measure a digital
baseline strategy
joel@rubinsonpartners.com
Ideas herein are property of Rubinson
Parters and cannot be used without
permission. joel@rubinsonpartners.com
20. Abut Rubinson Partners, Inc.
Joel Rubinson is President of Rubinson Partners, Inc.
marketing and research consulting for a brave new world
and a member of the faculty of NYU Stern School of
Business where he teaches social media strategy. Joel is
the former Chief Research Officer at the ARF.
Started in 2010, Rubinson Partners, Inc. (RPI) is a marketing and research consultancy that has
helped equip marketers, research, firms, and digital marketing companies for success in a digital
age. Selected assignments:
For a large CPG marketer, evaluate measurement gaps regarding digital data and create a roadmap
For Unilever, designed one of the most comprehensive shopper insights digital sensing and social media
listening platforms ever created
For AOL and BBDO, consulted on “7 Shades of Mobile” to understand smart phone owners’ usage and
motivations into a new way of defining what we called “behavior markets”.
Working with MSA, a leading analytics firm, created a next generation approach to marketing mix modeling
that is specifically geared towards improved estimation of digital and social media impact
Conducted numerous workshops on shopper and digital
For ShareThis, led one of the largest analyses of social media sharing behavior ever conducted,
In partnership with InsightsNow, Inc. RPI created a next generation system for innovation
For a major marketer, helping to shape a new approach to digital media measurement
Conducted white paper analyses for leading suppliers
Contact info:
joel@rubinsonpartners.com
Ideas herein are property of Rubinson
Parters and cannot be used without
permission. joel@rubinsonpartners.com