Good ideas can come in all shapes and forms; they can be well thought out and meticulously sculpted, or hectically thrown together on a whim and a good feeling. Just ask Matt Harding, the creator and star of the Internet video sensation “Where the Hell is Matt” as well as several other creative videos. Matt’s video’s take him all over the world where he may display some questionable dance moves, but presents them in locations that are so strikingly beautiful and unique that no one really seems to care. Matt’s dance moves took him to all corners of the earth and include locations such as Paris, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Seoul, and Kuwait. According to Matt, since the start of his Journey back in 2003, he has since been to all 7 continents, visited 55 countries, received a sponsorship from Stride Gum and been hired by Visa to star in their upcoming Travel Happy campaign.

Matt started filming videos of himself doing his now famous dance, when one of his travel buddies told him to do the dance on camera. When the comedic potential of Matt’s dancing was discovered, it was decided that more dancing shots should be filmed, and eventually a short film was compiled. His second film “Where the Hell is Matt (2006)” garnered a much larger response, as it featured him dancing at 36 famous landmarks all over the world, and was able to spread around the internet thanks to the arrival of video sharing network Youtube. To date that video has accumulated more than 15,000,000 views.

However, it was what Matt decided to do on his third and most successful video that is the reason for this article. Now with the status of Internet celebrity, and with the secure backing of an enthusiastic sponsor, Matt reached out to his fans with the help of his website. He asked his fans that would like to have their country visited and be featured dancing in his next video, to email him with their location and a time to meet. The results that followed are not only staggering but moving on an emotional level as well. In “Where the Hell is Matt (2008)” Matt visited an amazing 69 locations, and filmed himself dancing with thousands of people all over the world. With the addition of his tactic to include local people dancing in the video, Matt’s third film’s views skyrocketed to 29,000,000.

Matt had the wisdom to realize that what he was offering, a fun and lighthearted video of a lone man dancing all over the world, had much more reach and appeal if he included not just himself but hundreds of others who love to dance. Using the power of the Internet and the amazing ability for people to connect on social networks, Matt reached out to those who loved his video and gave them the opportunity to join in on the fun. Matt’s video shows in the most touching of ways that people love to interact and to be a part of something. With the inclusion of more people in his video to not only make the film more interesting, but also to have the film shared exponentially across the web by those who participated, the third installment of “Where the Hell is Matt” saw its total number of views double when compared to the 2006 film.

The same thing is being done in the business world every day, as the ever growing power and reach of social media allows businesses to connect with their customers like never before. If anything Matt has shown the business world that if you can create a product that people want and find interesting, and give them a way to share it and even participate in it, than your end result will always be greater than if you chose to go at it alone. So before you start your next marketing campaign or update your business scheme for the next financial quarter, remember Matt’s advice, and get as many of your customers and fans involved as possible.

Article Resources:

Matt’s Website

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By Brice Sanderford | May 26, 2010

Be that as it may, Stan’s informal dinner presentation on Thursday made a strong case that, going forward, the merger of direct marketing and digital lies at the core of what marketing will be. Stan calls that intersection “iDirect.”

In his view (and that of many visionary industry observers), traditional, Mad Men advertising — which, unlike direct marketing, is a) non-measurable and b) has been dominated by what Stan calls the Media/Agency/Nielsen Complex — has wasted some $2 trillion in the 20th century. In short, with no engagement, no brand-building, and no Internet connection, Stan describes 60 percent of print media advertising as “garbage.” At the presentation, he invited the professors in attendance to take last week’s edition of Newsweek and challenge their students to figure out how – by any measure (because there is none) – the ad dollars aren’t “wasted.” Pepsi’s defection from Super Bowl ads to online is cited by many as further confirmation of the trend away from traditional advertising.

Stan noted that “iDirect is the future of marketing. It is the growth engine at the confluence of Digital and Direct that enables customer engagement to drive a better ROI than ever before.”

Stan acknowledges that, while iDirect is the future, nobody is precisely sure what it will look like, but the perfect storm would appear to involve merging marketing across all channels, from online to offline, together in multi-variate, measurable touch points: mail, email, web, mobile, social, CRM, etc. This isn’t your Dad’s “integrated marketing,” though. That’s old news.

If a January 8 post by Samuel Axon on Mashable is correct, the billion dollar gate from Avatar is probably a solid example of the social side of iDirect at work. Now how do we take this outreach to the remainder of marketing?
Stan no doubt tackles this conundrum in his new book, Reinventing Interactive and Direct Marketing. I haven’t read the book (yet), but answers I’ll be looking for include:

1. Are we talking about behemoth iDirect agencies, bigger than the Department of Defense, trying to do every single marketing thing that a company needs – and then, in real time, running the results, measuring, reacting, reframing? I mean that hasn’t worked out too well for DOD, has it?

2. Or are we talking about simply applying the lessons of direct marketing – namely, if you can’t measure it, don’t do it – to every imaginable digital effort like email, web, social media, and those yet conceived?

3. (My Choice!) Or are we talking about some evolving form of digital application that can bring the message to one place in the customers’ hands. I think that’s the one.

Case in Point One: My friend’s love affair with his new Palm Pre. I haven’t gotten beyond my Blackberry (which, frankly, I hate), so I’m no expert in smart-phoning. But my friend is and he’s literally spent weeks fixing this gadget to the point where he can now carry his office — even his life — in his pocket. He checks email, of course.. but also retreives soccer scores, listens to podcasts, figures out where the restaurant is, reads movie reivews, follows blogs and Twitter, and gets whatever he wants on uStream. Last night, he announced with incredible excitement that the Pre has an app for his new Google Voice! This allows him – in some magical twist of technology – to talk for free, leaving Sprint pretty much out of the equation (extra points for screwing Sprint). The point is that maybe this is what we’re talking about when we keep saying that customers will drive the bus. This is not about what marketers will do, say, or contrive: This will be about what customers will choose to do. We won’t be able to reach them unless they somehow allow that. Bottomline: Likely the contemporary marketer’s job is to realize this difference and — somehow — respond. Very tricky.

Case in Point Two Makes the Case: In an energetic Q&A following Stan’s remarks, one participant observed that, to the upcoming generation of iDirect users, “i” had an even more centric meaning — as in “ego-centric.” The commentator said, “To my 17-year old son, “the ‘i’ stands for ‘I’ — as in, I get to chose the tunes I listen to, the video I watch, who I talk to, who my friends are.” Me.

So, yeah… looks like our new job is going to be finding out where the customer is hanging out, nailing (not guessing) who might be interested in what, giving the customer a way to get back to us, measuring the reaction, re-evaluating (in real time, if possible), and then starting all over again. Technology can do it, but we have to dream it.

Of course, Google’s product launch hasn’t gone off without a hitch-the company was a little bit too confident in its ability to automatically calculate which email contacts its customers would actually want to connect with socially, and privacy concerns and lawsuits have ensued.

Still, Google is fixing those issues, and it’s way too early to pronounce  Buzz dead in the water. In fact, as MediaPost notes, Buzz is  “the beginning of a hub that could eventually connect to forums, third-party PC and mobile applications, as well as other social sites.”

Facebook’s Project Titan is still being developed, but it is already hotly anticipated and expected to compete with Gmail.

On the Bronto blog, Kristen Gregory, Email Marketing Strategist for Bronto Software,  called Project Titan “a move that takes us more toward a truly integrated channel – where search, email, social, etc. reside together and where the idea of a master preference center could ultimately live.”

Taken together, these two stories seem to signal a broader trend- the impending merger of email and social networking.  Some people love the idea, some people hate the idea, but the same was once true of Twitter and Facebook.  As the lines between the two begin to blur, how should brands and marketers react?

Email that’s integrated with social networking demands direct response campaigns that are integrated as well. Even today,  our experience has shown that integrating social media and sharing capabilities into an email campaign improves response and conversion dramatically.  As the email inbox turns into a social networking command center, users will be encouraged to engage in social sharing even more than they do now.

Dukky makes it easy to integrate social media and email campaigns.  With our platform, recipients can share offers by email or on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Even better, with our analytics, you can see who is responding, who is sharing your offers and how they are sharing them, and more, all in real time.

I’m not alone. As Dukky CMO Scott Couvillion told Incentive Magazine in a recent article, “Points are a liability for companies. They’re credit toward something the company has to one day fulfill. But the only contact they’re having with employees or customers is through statements saying, ‘Here’s your reward balance and here’s some stuff you can get with the rewards points.’ The reaction was poor, so they tried to migrate to digital, since it’s cheaper to maintain. Problem is, it’s also easier to ignore, so companies were getting even fewer responses.”

Dukky is breathing new life into old-school rewards points programs by using personalized gift cards to make them more appealing to consumers. Instead of sending out a catalog, Dukky mails out gift cards that respondents can use to snag reduced-points redemption offers from the program. The cards are activated on a personalized URL (PURL), and customers can share the offers with friends and family.

While the respondents are at their PURL activating their gift card, they can also complete quick surveys to give the company helpful information about how customers perceive their products and promotions. A little bribery, in the form of extra points for completing the survey, can be used to sweeten the deal.

Of course, Dukky also offers our first-class analytics dashboard so that the company can monitor responses in real-time.

Why does Dukky’s platform work better than simply mailing or emailing out statements? Personalized gift cards get people engaged, while the ability to share the offers socially offers a viral component that vastly increases the reach of the program.

For example, referring to Dukky’s campaign for Cafe Express, Couvillion explained to Incentive that “People were sharing on average with three other people. The most people will forward to is about nine, but on average three. That’s because it’s coming from a friend or relative.”

“It’s still direct marketing, but it feels personal. Apply that to loyalty programs. Consumers know what they want. Put content into the hands of your advocates and let them do the marketing. It’s a very different way of thinking about direct marketing.”

Social media big winner in marketing mix

Marketers’ top priorities for 2010 will be customer acquisition and retention, followed by thought leadership, according to a survey by virtual events provider Unisfair.

Six in 10 marketers polled said acquiring new customers would be critical in 2010, while 48% would focus on retaining current customers—a particularly important effort in the recession.

Unisfair suggested that virtual communities to engage both current and future customers would help accomplish both these major goals. Some 48% of marketers seem to agree—that’s the number of respondents who said virtual events were among the top three activities they planned to increase next year. The most common response was social media, selected by three-quarters of marketers polled, followed by search (51%) and e-mail (49%).

Unisfair also quizzed marketers on which social networks provided the most value. Professional network LinkedIn was on top, at 26%. Slightly fewer respondents thought Facebook had the greatest value-add, at 23%, while 17% named Twitter.

LinkedIn only has a tiny market share of all social network visits—0.25% in the first week of September 2009 according to Experian Hitwise. But Unisfair’s results are less surprising in light of its attractive user demographics. Members are significantly more likely than users of other networks to be affluent, well-educated and employed full-time, based on data from Anderson Analytics. LinkedIn users also report making more purchases online in almost every product category.

Why does Dukky’s direct response platform combine traditional direct mail with new media technology? Based on a study conducted by the DMA, 42% of interested direct mail recipients prefer to respond to offers online. So Shawn Burst, founder and direct mail pioneer, developed a suite of products to capitalize on this finding by providing a stimulating online user experience combining gift cards and coupons.

A psychologically validated phenomenon, “coupon stigma,” partially explains the generally low usage rates of less than 2% of the traditional direct mail coupon offers. A Journal of Consumer Research study demonstrated that coupon users are stigmatized by others as “cheap.” The study confirms longstanding common knowledge that coupons are, in many cases, not socially acceptable. The Dukky Platform sees higher-than-normal redemption rates because both its offline and online distribution methods avoid this “coupon stigma” by completely changing the frame of reference: both physical and online coupons are reinvented as personalized gift cards.

This innovative patented technology will now be offering a web-service API for direct mail companies and agencies to build scalable, reliable direct mail solutions on the proprietary framework which was built using Amazon’s Elastic Cloud, Content Distribution Network and Simple Storage Service (S3). The API is also integrated with a custom Interactive Voice Response (IVR) component which allows consumers to activate offers over the phone.

Some of the other API features include: personalized URLs, custom landing page development, social media integration with over 45 social networks including Twitter and Facebook, customer profiling, segmenting and automated responders, e-commerce and live analytics reporting.

“Fortune 500 retailers worldwide have shown much interest in our current platform and we feel the API web service is the next appropriate step in the growth of our company,” says Shawn. He states that “you have to see it to believe it” and encourages companies to try out the live demo, which can be viewed at here.

Newsprint remains the main source for consumers to find promotions.

Lately advertisers have been quick to criticize the ailing newspaper ad industry; however, in a recent study conducted by MORI Research for the Newspaper Association of America, or NAA, the initial findings were very supportive of the so-called dying industry.  Of the 3,000 adults surveyed, 82% indicated that they “took action” as a result of newspaper advertising. Actions included coupon clipping, investigating products online, and completing a purchase.

Another interesting finding was that other means of advertising lagged far behind newspapers as the main place consumers checked for promotions.  The nearest competitor was the Internet which had a measly 21% compared to newspaper’s 41%.
“Newspaper advertising remains the most powerful tool for advertisers who want to motivate consumers to take action,” said NAA President and CEO John Sturm. “While new technologies have their place in any total marketing program, initial findings from this important research demonstrate the enduring power of today’s newspaper ads.”

The finding isn’t all that surprising. Readers who turn to newspapers to find information about current events probably also trust papers for information about the products in their lives. But newspapers and marketers need to smarten up and find a way to take advantage of this opportunity.  Clipped coupons will soon go the way of the typewriter. Personalized deals, mobile bar codes, online tracking and double-digit direct marketing response rates are our future and may be the perfect remedy for our ailing news-gatherers.

This week there was a lot of news about the future of the US Postal Service.  The President of the National League of Postmasters reported that the organization’s obligation to pay retiree health benefits is dragging its bottom line into the red (reportedly to the tune of $20 million in losses a day.) In response, the USPS is considering restructuring its employee benefits and cutting back on delivery and office hours. As you might imagine, these announcements have caused a stir.

We thought it was a good time to take another look at this graphic published by Good a little while back. It gives an excellent indication of the size of the USPS (according to wikipedia, it’s the third largest employer in the country) and how important it is for it to figure out how to pull itself through the recession.

The USPS is going to have to embrace some change to stay relevant – and so does its mainstay direct mail.  Dukky’s developing new technology and listening to consumer sentiment in order to help our direct mail customers. This week we launched a demo that shows how we marry direct mail with social media and voice technology in order to increase response rates.  See where the future of direct mail is heading  here. We hope the USPS will follow suit and innovate alongside us. Because when change is brewing, the worst thing you can do is put down your head and avert your eyes.

The beauty of social networks rests in their ability to filter the noise of the internet and surface high quality and relevant information.

For instance, on Twitter I follow people I trust who are talking about subjects of interest like online marketing, social media, finance, and journalism. My Facebook friends keep me updated on my social circles, even when I’m living on the other side of the country. And LinkedIn’s industry groups connect me with insightful articles and discussions.

Yet social networks are constantly polluted by voices that care little for quality or privacy. Overly eager marketers, spammers, and other wily strangers often infiltrate my personal streams of information. I have to work to keep all of my accounts spam free.

Fortunately, new tools are doing more and more of the filtering for me. One of my favorites is Aardvark. Started by a handful of ex-Google employees, Aardvark is a new kind of search. I can IM a question to Aardvark and it crawls my extended social network to find a quality answer as quickly as possible. There’s no advertising and I have yet to get a spammy answer.  But it’s reasonable to believe that as the tool grows in popularity, marketers will look for ways to insert their messages into the flow of information. Fortunately, I think the Aardvark team is smart enough to build some sort of marketer repellent into their service.

Why don’t more marketers take the hint?

Consumers don’t wan’t to be  subjected to irrelevant information. We use online technologies to improve the quality and efficiency of our lives. We don’t appreciate interruptions (and we’re getting better at ignoring them.) We do appreciate tools that help us accomplish our goals (and we’re quick to adopt them.)

Marketers who understand the consumer mindset relative to social networks and who can create valuable content that improves lives (not products that improve lives) have the best shot at successfully inserting their messaging into the flow of information on social networks. But “simply being there” is not a strategy.  Loud, annoying, irrelevant information  buzzes like a mosquito. It might occasionally get a bite but most often it will be swatted away.

Dukky has figured out how to provide marketers with social networking tools to help them fit organically in the social space. But we’re wrestling with one big question: do all marketers belong in social networks? Scott Couvillion, Dukky’s CMO, likes to say  “It reminds me of the rule of spandex, just because you CAN wear it, doesn’t mean you SHOULD.”

If you’re creating high quality information and sending it to people who care then you’re probably pretty popular at the social networking party. But if you won’t take the time to figure out who to approach and how to talk to them – well then you might as well not show up.

Do you agree?

Image Source: Flickr