Andy Boyer

Category: Marketing

  • Even the Spammers Have Stopped Trying

    What happened to my Nigerian bankers, miracle curing pharmaceutical companies and SEO firms? This spammer deserves a Webby for their brevity I guess.

  • 3D Projection Mapping

    You have no idea how much I want to work on a project like this someday.

    Sony PS3 Video Store – Realtime Projection Mapping – Part2 from The Found Collective on Vimeo.

    Hot Wheels

  • The Magic of Saying Nothing

    Sometimes, you generate interest by simply not saying anything.  All it takes is one person to be excited about the unknown, and that excitement can spread.

    I don’t know anything about Wendr.  In fact, here’s everything I know:

    That’s my old friend from New Orleans, Marc Calamia, seeming to be excited about Wendr.  I clicked through and landed here:

     

    They’ve told me nothing.  No reason for me to join.  But also, no reason for me not to.  So naturally, I signed up.

    Sometimes we just want there to be more cool things, and we’re willing to give up an email address to hear about them.  Moral: Don’t underestimate the fact that people want to like things.

     

  • So What is the Next Xbox/Sounders Sponsorship Worth?

    It’s hard to think back to 2008, back before the Seattle Sounders officially existed in anything more than everyone’s imagination.

    The Sounders were to become the 16th team in a league with a couple of marquee names in David Beckham and Landon Donovan. LA, DC and Toronto were the only teams to draw more than 18k fans a game.

    So when the Sounders announced that Xbox was going to commit $20 Million bucks to the team and the league, it really seemed like – and was – a large sum of money to risk.

    But now as we look at the end of the 3rd year of the deal, it’s the Sounders who can’t wait for the contract to expire. Unfortunately for them, they still have 2 more years of the deal. When you look back, the Xbox media team made a heck of a deal.

    At $20 Million over 5 years, you are looking at a deal that is only $4 million a year. For that 4 million Xbox got rights to the front of the jerseys, signage in all MLS stadiums, naming rights to Xbox Pitch at Qwest (then Century Link) Field, and TV spots on all broadcasts.

    Let’s look at some of the other deals in the MLS (sourced from The Brotherly Game):

  • Red Bulls: Red Bull @ $50 Million total, including stadium naming rights. But they also own the team.
  • Real Salt Lake: Xango @ $5MM per year.
  • Galaxy: Herbalife @ $3.5 – $5MM per year.
  • DC United: Volkswagen @ $3MM per year. (A few other deals are in this range, like Philly/Bimbo, San Jose / Amway.)

    • So if we assume the national value to the Sounders sponsor is roughly the same as the value any other team’s sponsor receives, the delta is in the value at home. So lets say maybe 1/2 – 2/3 the value is in national exposure, and 1/3 – 1/2 is in local. If that’s the case, then the national value is about $2 million for each team.

    So in those terms, the local value of DC United’s sponsorship would be about $1 Million per year. For Salt Lake, it’s $3 Million per year. Now the 38,500 fans per game in Seattle just about doubles everyone but the #2 LA Galaxy at 23,000 per game. So if the Sounders drive 2x more fans than Salt Lake, and 2x the TV impressions, you’d have to estimate the local value is at least $6 Million per year (2x Salt Lake).

    There are probably more scientific ways to figure this out, but we don’t have access to impression volumes, jersey sales and hard stats. And we haven’t included the premium that Xbox pays for being the local guys recruiting employees, and the international value of having the team play across Central America and Mexico, or the fact that they’ve gotten a smoking deal the last 3 years.

    So let’s ballpark a number of $9 Million per year to start the new deal in 2014. ($2 Million National Value, $6 Million Local value, $1 Million Premium.) How does that look?

  • Do You Do Anything to Drive Customers Away?

    Quite often in marketing, we focus on the “Acquisition” aspect of the formula. How do we make someone aware of what we’re selling and then get them to buy it? And usually, the marketing team will get laser focused about the campaigns they are running, evaluating whether those campaigns are being successful.

    But only the savvy marketer will audit the entire company. Is there anything else going on in any other division, where customers are literally being driven away?

    Let’s take a personal example. Years and years ago I bought an Acura from Acura of Seattle. No, out of good marketing, personal laziness or just because I don’t know any better, whenever I need something fixed, or just to buy a certain part, I call Acura of Seattle. The number is even in my Contacts List. (Well, it was. Not anymore. Thanks Apple. Different story.)

    So I need a simple part, so I call the guys down at Acura of Seattle. They don’t have the part, but it can be there in a few days. No big deal. Inconvenient, but not inconvenient enough for me to go looking somewhere else. But then comes the kicker.

    Acura of Seattle: “We’ll need you to come down and pay for it in person, then we can have it sent to you.”
    Andy: “I’ll just give you my credit card over the phone.”
    Acura of Seattle: “Can’t do that. Need you to drive down to Tukwila and pay in person, then we’ll ship you the part.”
    Andy (Staring at phone): “Or I can call Acura of Bellevue.”

    And so I call Acura of Bellevue. They need to order the part as well, but tell me to just come in tomorrow and it’ll be there for me. Done deal.

    So when it comes time for me to buy a new car, it really doesn’t matter what kind of clever marketing campaign Acura of Seattle throws at me. Facebook, Twitter, Direct Mail, it really doesn’t matter. All I’ll really remember is that Acura of Seattle wanted me to drive to Tukwila for no reason and Acura of Bellevue was helpful.

    Moral for the marketers: Find out if other parts of the company are crushing your campaigns…

  • Two Fun New Projects Enter Alpha

    As we enter Q4, the team over at Social3i is happy to release two new products into a private alpha stage.

    Relaborate is a tool for helping professionals with Blogging. We’ll debut publicly at NWEN’s First Look Forum.
    Animakast is a project we’re doing with our friends at FlyingSpot. It’s the simplest, easiest and cheapest way to turn new or existing audio content into compelling animated video.

    We love the prospects of both these little start-ups. Let me know if you would like to join our private alpha program for either.

  • Hope Solo, Steve Nash, Sounders, and FIFA 12

    Can’t resist posting this ad promoting FIFA 12, starring Steve Nash and Hope Solo. Pretty funny stuff. Would love to have seen the actual shoot. (And I still don’t understand what you get when you cross a gorilla and a leopard….)

  • McDonald’s “I Spy” Interactive Video Campaign

    Another nice find by DigitalBuzzBlog.

    This McDonald’s campaign asks you to watch a :50 YouTube video and look for a certain character hiding in the scene. If you click on the character, you move on to the next level.

    It’s actually a little hard at first, so don’t lose your patience the first time to get to the end without spotting Grimace. It’s a neat gimmick for a campaign, and definitely something you could replicate if you have the creativity and motivation.

  • Chocolate + Augmented Reality =

    Leave it to a 100 year old chocolate company to create a truly innovative interactive campaign utilizing augmented reality and an app called Blippar.  I don’t have these candy bars in front of me, so I can’t vouch for the game yet, but I’ll try to pick some up on my next trip to QFC.  (Video via DigitalBuzzBlog)

  • Nokia’s Gulp – “How To Make A Successful Stop Motion Video”

    Love this stop motion video from SumoScience for Nokia’s N8 phone.  Not only is the video itself great, but I appreciate the end of the video where they make it easier to see “how” they did it.