HP's Dhore Discusses CRM for 60 Million Customers†

Brandweek, October 7, 2008 — When it comes to Customer Relationship Management, Hewlett-Packard has its hands full. The company gets 600 million calls a year from its customers and ships about 500 million products. The task is complicated by new forms of customer interactions, such as blogs and social networking applications. At the helm of all this data management is Prasanna Dhore, HP's vp of customer intelligence. Dhore joined HP last year from Dreyfus, where he focused on reducing churn. At HP, Dhore has more tools at his disposal, but also a lot more data. Last week he discussed HP's CRM program with Brandweek's editor Todd Wasserman. This article highlights excerpts from that conversation.

General Mills, Kraft Launch Word of Mouth Networks†

Brandweek, October 5, 2008 — Recognizing that a consumer's two cents are well worth their dollars, General Mills and Kraft have both launched new word-of-mouth networks.

For General Mills, it is "Pssst . . . ," an online network that gives members the scoop on the latest product news and offerings. The site, pssst.generalmills.com, currently has 100,000 members after a quiet launch last month.

Pssst uses an initial survey to help gauge product preferences. Once registered, users can voice their opinions via blog posts, share online coupon offers and recipes, and test new sample kits via the mail.

Kraft, meanwhile, kicked off Kraftfirsttaste.com last week, which lets consumers share the newest coupon and sampling offers, but also includes features such as a member spotlight, product... continue reading

Everyone hates ComScore

As the de facto measuring authority of online audiences, tiny ComScore punches above its weight - and earns some serious coin

FORTUNE, September 26, 2008 — Last winter, when Google lost a third of its market value, analysts blamed a small web-research company based in Reston, Va., called ComScore. The firm had issued a report that said Google's domestic paid clicks - the number of times people click on an ad - had flattened. Analysts initially went berserk. Oh, my God! they gasped (we're paraphrasing here). Google's ad business is tanking!

Turns Out, We're Not Such Big Multitaskers†

MRI Study Finds Most Media Usage Confined to One at a Time

Advertising Age, September 17, 2008 — Marketers have begun to believe that the average consumer is able to surf the web, answer a cellphone, read a newspaper or magazine, listen to an iPod and watch TV all at the same time. Yet a report released by MRI this week found that multitasking is less frequent than might be expected.

McDonald's Reports 4.5% Sales Bump for August†

Olympic Sponsorship Appears to Pay Off, at Least in Short Term

Advertising Age, September 9, 2008 — McDonald's Corp. today reported same-store sales for August were up 4.5% in the U.S. — a result one analyst estimates will be nearly double the industry average. But industry-watchers are doubtful the company can keep up that pace, especially now that the Olympics are over.

UBS analyst David Palmer predicts the Golden Arches' August performance, which also saw global sales jump 8.5% compared to August of last year, will come in "nearly double" that of the fast-food industry as a whole.

Kellogg: Digital ROI Surpasses That of TV†

After Success With Special K, Marketer to Shift More Spending Online

Advertising Age, September 4, 2008 — The digital divide is narrowing for Kellogg Co., which today said its return on online investment for the Special K brand has surpassed that of broadcast TV over the past 18 months.

"It's still relatively early in our learning," Mark Baynes, chief marketing officer at the Battle Creek, Mich., company told the Lehman Bros. Back to School Consumer Conference during a discussion on how Kellogg is trying to increase advertising and marketing efficacy. "But analysis of the Special K initiative of the last 18 months showed digital media exceeding that of broadcast ROI."

The New Standard In Advertising In A Social Media World

MediaPost Publications, August 28, 2008 — What started out in 2003 as simple community-based Web sites and tools for sharing information with friends, social media has grown into a phenomenon of epic proportions with the monumental success of sites such as YouTube, Bebo, Flickr, Digg and a myriad of others.

Earlier this month, ComScore reported that over half a billion people worldwide hang out on social networks. That translates into two-thirds of all Internet users. And half of those, about 250 million people, call Facebook and MySpace home.

Why You Won't See Michael Phelps on the Wheaties Box†

Kellogg Signs Swimmer Before Big G's Traditional Unveiling

Advertising Age, August 28, 2008 — In a PR masterstroke, Kellogg Co. managed to spoil an every-four-year tradition for General Mills — the unveiling of Olympians to grace the Wheaties box. By the time Big G made its big announcement today, Kellogg had already one-upped the news by revealing that it signed the biggest of them all, Michael Phelps

What Obama Can Teach You About Millennial Marketing†

Consistent Mass Branding Works -- but Can Backfire With Other Demographics

Advertising Age, August 11, 2008 — Baby boomers and Gen Xers declared mass marketing dead long ago. We live in a world of fragmented media surrounded by cynical consumers who can spot and block an ad message from a mile away. But what Gen Xers and boomers may not realize is that the unabashed embrace of select brands by millennials, from technology to beverages to fashion, has made this decade a true golden era of marketing for those who know what they're doing. And when it comes to marketing, the Barack Obama campaign knows what it's doing.

Who's Most Likely to Buy Your Brand?†

Nielsen Connect CEO Jon Mandel Aims to Find Out

Advertising Age, August 6, 2008 — When he was one of the industry's top media-buying executives, Jon Mandel needed the equivalent of a rifle to target consumers, but all he had was a bazooka. Now he's gone from pressing the industry for better data to measure the effectiveness of commercials to building the rifle himself. As CEO of Nielsen Connect, he's charged with finding a way to move the industry away from traditional demographic-based media plans in favor of those that more directly influence consumer behavior.