Surfs up! Harnessing the Power of the Crowd

Posted on July 8, 2011 by admin

As a music junkie, a few weeks ago I attended the Hangout Fest in Gulf Shores Alabama (which every music lover should go to) and it really got me thinking about crowd surfing. Since I always have marketing on the brain, watching the surfers got me to thinking about crowdsourcing. Here at Team Dukky we’re encouraged to look for innovative ideas everywhere. As I watched the surfers get passed up and down the masses I was reminded of the power of “the crowd”. How can we harness that power to help in spreading our message? Crowdsourcing is the answer. But while jumping into a sweaty crowd of screaming fans is (as you may know) a righteous experience, crowdsourcing is actually more suited for the musician’s agent than it is for, say, the Black Keys themselves.

Crowdsourcing is a hot topic these days, especially in the marketing industry. It allows companies to harnesses the intellect and creativity of the masses, and it is this focus on the “crowd” instead of the individual that gives the term its name. True, it is a form of outsourcing, but not in the way we’ve come to define that term. Through crowdsourcing businesses present a problem to a large group of their engaged followers and/or customers and ask them to solve it. The benefits are two fold – the company gets the valuable insight of what their target audience wants (or in some cases, don’t want) and the customers get to feel like their voice is being heard. If their ideas and concerns are taken to heart, and they see their ideas implemented, they are then encouraged in their relationship and remain devoted fans. It’s a win-win situation.

The rise of the Internet has seen this tactic take a stage dive the likes of which has never been seen. People are gathering at the request of businesses or creating websites of their own and offering their services at prices most could never dream of. Wired Magazine ran an excellent article on the practice right about the time that crowdsourcing started getting noticed in 2006. Among the groups mentioned were amateur photographers offering professional grade photos for fractions of what the pros charge, and the rise of TV shows that featured fan created videos. However, the crowdsourcing practice that really caught my eye was the group InnoCentive, which provides a platform for major corporations to offer rewards to those who can solve their most complicated R & D problems. The starting amount for reward money is $10,000 and some eclipse the $100,000 mark. Bear in mind however, that these problems are incredibly complex. One of the people interviewed in the Wired article explained how it is often the people with no experience in the respective field, who have the best chance of solving the problem.

You might ask yourself what any of this has to do with social media or marketing, and the answer is much more than you might realize. Crowdsourcing, at its core, is the practice of utilizing the untapped resource of the crowd. Facebook is the largest crowd on the Internet these days (though Google+ is hoping to bring an end to that). At 600 million strong, it is still growing daily. Like Facebook, Dukky realizes that the ability of the everyday person to be a brand evangelist is exponentially greater than most businesses give them credit for. If the crowd can help solve the most complicated experiments in the fields of science, than surely they can also help with advertising.

The trick to making the world a better place is allowing the world to help. This holds true in the marketing world as well. Dukky’s unique marketing platform allows you to leverage your customers to reach new ones across a multitude of crowds – through email, Facebook, Twitter and 0ver 340 other social media networks – and track the outreach and its response in real time on the Analytics Dashboard. Harnessing the power of the crowd has never been easier.

So, we ask you, whose up for some crowdsourcing? Take the plunge today!

This blog post was written by Brice Sanderford who has been helping the sales team at Dukky. He also got to go to Hangout Fest, which we are all still highly jealous of him for. You can find him on LinkedIn here.

Bring out your dead! (marketing tactics, that is)

Posted on March 25, 2011 by Dominique

Finally, someone explained it. Listen up world, as we tell the sad, sad story of the last advertising agency on earth – courtesy of FITC, which is, oddly, an advertising agency.
<a href="http://www.vimeo.com/10251808">http://www.vimeo.com/10251808</a>

Why this video? Well, currently we are hard at work putting our new SMB platform to the test and each member of Team Dukky has a part to play. My main duties have been in assisting new small business clients to draft out their campaigns and put them into action. Small business owners on a whole are a pleasure to work with. Most are eager to dive into the social media integration and live analytics feed our product provides. However, from time to time I’ve been hit with one particular question – why should I have my campaign set up as a share-to-win promotion? Will social media help me at all?

While the answer seemed obvious to me, I have come to realize that many small business owners are operating under the rules of the old guard of advertising. This, my friends, is a mistake. Television and print ads alone are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Consumers are tired of having marketing messages dictated to them. They’re tired of having no control over what sort of messages they’re bombarded with. With the growth of internet capabilities, smart phones and the ever expanding reach of social media into every aspect of our lives it’s no wonder that traditional marketing tactics are failing to work. Think about it. How many people do you know that sit and watch cable television anymore? They don’t. They have Tivo and DVR. They record their shows, watch them on their schedules and, if you’re like me, relish in the fact that they can fast forward through the commercials. That’s right, I work in marketing technology and I hate television commercials. In fact, I don’t even have cable. Why pay $60 a month when I can snuggle in bed with my beloved Hulu? Sure, there are commercials (count em, 3 per episode) on Hulu shows. BUT they allow me to tell them if the commercials are relevant to me or not and then customizes what ads pop up during my shows. Most are even interactive. Hulu listens. Hulu learns. Hulu, is my new best friend.

Consumers do not want to be pandered to. Our lives are too busy these days. We need smarter marketing. This is where digital and social media, with their ability to take traditional marketing further, have taken hold. When I log onto Facebook I don’t see ads for arthritis pills, Dora the Explorer or hockey gear. Why? Because those things aren’t relevant to me or my life. It would be a waste of money for a company to pay to put those ads in front of me. I’m never going to buy Scott Turf Builder. I let the landlord worry about the lawn. Facebook and other social media sites allow advertisers to filter the people their ads are visible to based off their searches, likes, posts, tweets and comments. So when I login to Facebook I see ads for local New Orleans music performances, my beloved Saints (Who Dat!), sales at Anthropologie and discounts at Starbucks (yep, I’m that girl).
Continue reading →

Dukky takes PODi Best Practices Award for its Direct Mail Marketing Case Study

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Dominique

Team Dukky is proud to announce it has won the PODi Best Practices Award for its case study of client Chick-fil-A’s direct mail and viral marketing campaign. We couldn’t be prouder!

Continue reading →

Target prepares for Black Friday shoppers with Tweet Tidings on Twitter.

Posted on November 22, 2010 by Renee

I’m a sucker for a good slogan or phrase, so when I read about Target’s new social media marketing plan in preparation for Black Friday, I was completely in love. Target’s Tweet Tidings campaign is in my opinion…brilliant. Its simple goal is to spread some holiday cheer via their Twitter account and use customers and followers to do a little marketing for them. What’s better than interacting with customers on a positive note a few days before one of the biggest shopping days of the year?

Continue reading →

We have a winner! Dukky’s contest proves the power of social sharing!

Posted on October 27, 2010 by Dominique

Today we announced the winner of our iPad Giveaway contest. Congratulations to Ruth Campbell from NC! She is the new owner of an Apple iPad!

This was a proud moment for Dukky. We initially set up the contest to see just how effective marketing via social sharing could be. The campaign URL was shared by 7 of our staff members on their personal social networks and email. The results blew us all away. Check out these numbers:

Total response: 138,193 (from just 7 initial shares!)
Customers who entered the site from social networks: 104, 122
Customers who entered the site from a direct URL: 34,068
3,012 Outgoing shares: 43% Facebook, 42% Twitter, 11% Email, 4% SMS text messaging
104,122 Incoming shares: 60% Facebook, 36% Twitter, 3% Email, 1% SMS text messaging

Continue reading →

Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse’s winning email campaign makes them Dukky’s star student of the week!

Posted on October 26, 2010 by Renee

Today, I want to highlight one of our star students at Dukky. After ending a great campaign last week, I think they deserve a little time in the spotlight. Seriously, if I had an award to pass out, I would.

There are many factors that play a vital role in the development and execution of a successful campaign. We often refer to Dukky as an “add-on” technology. Your secret weapon that, when positioned just right, takes your marketing campaign to uncharted territories. This technology is a strategic piece to entering these uncharted territories, however, it is not the only important factor in a successful campaign. Continue reading →

Who’s Facebooking at Work? Everybody

Posted on October 25, 2010 by Dominique

Here’s an interesting article about Facbook and the workplace by Dan Tynan from ITworld to kick start your week. Further proof that you can market to people via social media even when they’re at work.

Analysis: A survey reveals that Facebook use is rampant inside nearly every large company — whether they know it or not. And not knowing can hurt you

Admitting that you access social networks on company time is a bit like admitting that you surf Internet porn. Hardly anyone cops to it (“oh no, I would never think of doing that”), but when they’re surveyed anonymously — or your IT geeks look at their usage logs — it turns out a surprisingly high number of people actually do it.
Continue reading →

I went to the DMA…now what? Here’s a few quick response tips from Dukky.

Posted on October 19, 2010 by Renee

It’s been a whirlwind of a few days after the DMA convention in San Francisco last week. Hopefully, you came and stopped by our booth and met our Super Dukky (www.superdukky.com) or sat in our session with the USPS discussing, “The New Normal” Wednesday morning.

These shows can often be a blessing and a curse in retrospect. It’s great to network, explore and be exposed to new solutions and opportunities, but unless we choose to implement, integrate and improve based on what we’ve learned, we may just end up with a lot of new info on our desk…or dare I say, in the trash can. Continue reading →

Have you talked to your customers today?

Posted on October 11, 2010 by Renee

Last week The Gap released a new logo after a 20 year reign of its previous one. Along with its new logo came a tremendous amount of comments and opinions many disapproving of the new corporate symbol from customers. CNN released a story reporting The Gap responded to its negative customer’s comments with this statement, “We know this logo created a lot of buzz and we’re thrilled to see passionate debates unfolding! So much so we’re asking you to share your designs,” the company said on its Facebook page late Wednesday. “We love our version, but we’d like to see other ideas. Stay tuned for details in the next few days on this crowd sourcing project.”

Although The Gap didn’t exactly win big with the new logo, the fact that a campaign or new product release stirred its customers to action and gave them an outlet to voice their approval or disapproval makes The Gap much smarter than many of its other retail competitors. So what if customers didn’t approve of the new logo, The Gap was able to get them talking, and better yet, they listened and responded to them keeping the conversation alive. This kind of welcomed customer involvement and engagement is why The Gap is certainly ahead of the curve in terms of marketing strategies if they capitalize on this moment with customers.

So what did The Gap do that was so great?

1) They welcomed the conversation. We hear plenty of opinions and stories of how “risky” it is to involve customers in planning and development and how new technologies like Dukky are giving customers a voice. “What if they say something negative?” Well at Dukky we think, “What if they do?” Great news…you can find out now and respond. It’s only a risk not worth taking if you really don’t care what your customers think, and if that’s your strategy then you’re in for a rude awakening in today’s marketing environment. Don’t be afraid of the conversation, welcome it and engage it. You might just learn a thing or two from your audience…the marketing and planning is for them anyways, right?
2) Consumer engagement is not important – it’s vital. Keeping your current customers is a much better strategy than depending solely on new ones to replace those who have lost interest in your business. In order to keep customers engaged, a proactive approach is required to interact with them. I love that The Gap has extended the opportunity for new logos to be submitted from customers. Sometimes our customers just need acknowledgement that we are willing to listen and respond to their voice and they are satisfied.

Regardless of whether The Gap chooses to keep the new logo or opt for another one, they have managed to do something many companies ignore or do not consider in their strategies. The Gap has stirred up a conversation and now has an opportunity to impact its marketing and outreach exponentially in the coming months by engaging its customers. Customer-centric planning, marketing and development is the key to long-term success.

New technology that allows consumer engagement to be a steady part of marketing is changing the game of outreach. Mass marketing is only a small portion of strategies now, it’s no longer the driving focus.

What level of involvement do your customers have in your product development, business strategies, expansion, new services, etc? Have you given your customers a chance or portal to respond and engage?

Dukky’s solution to include consumer engagement as a part of all marketing campaigns is serving as the game changing solution for businesses that welcome the conversation with its customers. The results of these conversations speak for themselves.

Success prior to the launch of a new item or product line

Customer insight on past, present & future direction

Development of future target marketing strategies

Identify your key customers and their influence in their social realms

Qualify, rank and track the customer behavior

The shift of conversation and opportunity has already happened. Have you talked to your customers today?

To learn more about Dukky’s strategies related to consumer engagement, visit us at www.dukky.com.