Two points of differentiation—no high fructose corn syrup and a flexible, squeezable, microwaveable pouch—are played heavily in messaging and creative. The $1 million national marketing campaign for the line of eight Breyers Toppings just began rolling into the marketplace in the run up to the Memorial Day weekend as the weather warms and moms are looking for snacks for kids.

“We took a look at the category and there was not a lot of innovation,” Mindy Beegle, director of marketing, dessert decorating products for Signature Brands, said. “Customers were hungry for something new and exciting.”

Signature Brands and its agency, Eric Mower + Associates, began talking to retailers in the fall and shipments began this spring. The products are being sold by a number of retailers including Kroger, Publics, Food lion, Target and Walmart, which took all eight items in the lineup.

“That was a pretty exciting day,” she said.

A national FSI just hit with a $1-off coupon, as did full page and third-page ads in Walmart’s “All You” 1.5 million circulation magazine.

“A coupon can mitigate the risk when it comes to trying something new,” said Sandy Gingerich, senior partner Eric Mower + Associates, who manages the Buffalo office where the work came out of. “It’s not as risky as paying full price for something and then finding out you’re not really that happy with it.”

Much of the marketing is co-branded by both Breyers and Signature Brands, including on Facebook and Twitter. At Breyers’ Facebook page, its 312,000 fans find a dedicated tab that opens up to content about the toppings, links to www.breyerstoppings.com and a downloadable coupon. The page was built in a responsive design to sniff out users devices and resize itself for optimum viewing.

A supporting contest is also pitched at the site where fans can fill out an application to be selected as one of 25 people to be chosen as brand ambassadors.

“We’re choosing people that have a vey strong social media presence,” Christine Dougherty, management supervisor for the Signature Brands account at Eric Mower + Associates, said.

Video content is under development and will debut in July to keep the momentum going and provide news updates. In stores, large freestanding merchandise displays hold the product and tear off coupons.

Signature Brands’ own portfolio includes Cake Mate and Paas Easter egg-dye kits. It also markets products under licenses with Betty Crocker, Disney, Hershey and others.

The post Breyers Toppings Marketed with $1 Million Campaign appeared first on Chief Marketer.

1.  High Definition Matters

Quality matters. Video isn’t just for TV anymore, so it’s imperative you plan for your spots to be on all screens. 75% of homes today are HD capable, and nearly all laptops and PCs can play HD. Even the latest round of tablets and smart phones are high resolution and designed for the HD experience, not to mention connected televisions. In an environment when files are transcoded for each publisher and broadcast format, you don’t want quality to stand in the way of a great viewing experience. If you’re not mastering and delivering your spots in HD, you’re already behind the curve.

2. Sharing Means Caring

 Production is expensive, so every spot produced should be considered for use on all screens. And there’s no better way to ensure your spots are shared between media and creative teams across broadcast and digital, than by storing your masters in a digital asset management (DAM) platform. These systems not only make it easy to share spots, but they ensure all spot metadata is visible to all parties. And for global campaigns that need to customize and localize spots, it’s a requirement – not an option. From asset IDs to talent & usage rights, metadata transparency is a critical component of convergence and shouldn’t be overlooked.

3. 1,000,000+ Formats

The TV and online video ecosystems have their own unique set of video formats and standards — you can’t simply take a broadcast master and stream it online. As online video publishers each with their own specifications, and broadcast and TV networks around the globe increasingly require totally different specifications, it’s imperative the conversion process start with the highest quality format and to work with a partner that knows and is certified across the board. Campaign management platforms that automatically convert your production masters into the right formats for TV and online ensure your spots always look the best on any screen, anywhere in the world without any headaches. But make sure your online videos are all identified by an Ad-ID/ISCI code – all too often they’re not. Also, look for providers that have a variety of interactive video formats and flexible creative tools so you can offer the best experience for each type of screen. Interactive video has been shown to be nearly 10X as engaging as linear video ads.

4. Consider Your Platform.

When it comes to online video, site serving can leave you exposed. Marketers may want to consider a third-party ad server to have control over the campaign from a single platform, to eliminate the need to coordinate activities with each individual publisher.

5.  Where’s the Consumer?

Online campaign ratings are important, but cross platform ratings are where it’s at when it comes to video convergence. It’s the only way to measure your campaign when your spots are airing on both television and online. Look for duplicated and unduplicated reach to provide insights into how your TV and online activities complement one another. Also, demand open APIs from your data providers so you can aggregate those sources and layer them on top of your campaign ratings to extract more meaningful insights. Set top box data sources can be invaluable, but make sure you understand any differences that exist between those results and the media costs tabulated with industry standard currencies.

6. Optimize on the Fly

 Make the most of your creative by optimizing your campaigns for effectiveness across TV and online. For online video, third party ad servers can help with campaign optimization. Have a video narrative that you want sequence? What about frequency tagging? Performance triggers across all your publishers? These techniques can all be employed to generate substantial lift in brand awareness and affinity. Online campaigns and engagement data can also be used to optimize broadcast campaigns. It’s simple to test spots at limited scale online and then use the results to aid the decision making process for broadcast and cable TV traffic.

7. Don’t Sell Dog Food to Cat People

Relevancy is one of the most influential factors of advertising. But to be relevant, you need both advanced targeting capabilities, either by program or audience, and a library of creative options. Program or content targeting is not as straightforward online as it is on TV, but it is possible. And for audience targeting, you don’t have to limit yourself to online. Most cable, satellite and IPTV providers all have addressable advertising solutions that can help you zero in on your target audience through HH modeling. When it comes to creative, make sure you have lined up a provider to build multiple versions of spots for different audiences up front, or are using dynamic creative optimization technology to customize spots on the fly.

8. Go Global or Go Home.

Convergence isn’t just about breaking down the silos of media channels – it’s about breaking down geographic silos as well. Large scale campaigns spanning multiple countries and continents can be daunting, but one of the best things you can do for your brand and yourself is to accept convergence. Consistency and control over the brand message are just the tip of the iceberg. Workflows can now be streamlined and shared across offices. Various local brand teams can suddenly work together or share leanings and best practices. And data generated from every consumer interaction on every screen around the globe can be visualized and acted upon in real time. You don’t have to give up your local creative & marketing partners either – in fact it’s quite the opposite. You simply need to provide a common set of tools to empower them and everyone involved in the campaign to do what they do best.

9. Don’t Forget the Talent

Most digital agencies don’t think about the implications of using creative online that hasn’t been approved for use outside of broadcast. That can create unanticipated costs for marketers. Talent management companies such as TEAM Services and Talent Partners are used by 98% of the marketers in North America. Ensure that you work with your talent payroll and management company to secure buyouts for content that will be used online.

10. This Screen, That Screen, Just Make Sure it Works

Finding a partner with true scale, reliability and the breadth of services across both traditional TV and online is critical. Whether your spots are bound for broadcast or online – on TV, desktop, tablet or smart phone – national or international – a common platform to unite activities is fundamental to convergence. Point solutions for online video only go so far when they’re disconnected from the initial creative process and broadcast efforts. And broadcast solutions without robust online targeting and optimization severely limit campaign potential. While these best practices can help you get started, the next step is to bring them all together.

John Douglas is product marketing manager of DG.

The post 10 Tips For Online Video Success appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Supporting the channel is a yearlong “DTour of a Lifetime” competition offering six people the chance to be brand ambassadors traveling the world and documenting their adventures on the channel.

John Greenleaf, global head of the DoubleTree by Hilton brand, talks Google, technology, budget and more.

CHIEF MARKETER: What is the goal of your partnership with Google?
GREENLEAF: The marketing partnership is with Google and Hilton Worldwide to work with Google to uncover opportunities that will benefit our brands. The first to develop a program is Doubletree with DTour. We think it leverages the strength of Google and the travel distribution of Hilton Worldwide.

CM: How did the idea for the channel come up?
GREENLEAF: The idea was generated in conjunction with Google who has participated in our strategic planning for a year. This is what came out of that—social, combined with experiences people have with travel.

CM: How does the site work?
GREENLEAF: It aggregates comments and feedback on travel based on location. We view it almost as a noncommercial approach to consolidate people’s feedback. People comment on any travel experience, they can drag in any video or pictorial content to DTour from their social sites and then share that with the larger public about what they did in that market.

CM: This is a new technology developed specifically for this program. Can you explain?
GREENLEAF: It was developed by a software company, This Moment, which Google engaged for us to be able to pull social content into DTour.

CM: How does all this tie to booking room nights at your hotels?
GREENLEAF: All of our hotels are posted on the map at the site, but it’s more about the locations you’ve traveled to and the experiences people have had there. Customers talk about the value and excitement of travel within the context of the network of hotels we have around the world. It’s a really personal way to describe it and a way to personalize the product and travel experience within the context of the DoubleTree hotel brand. The feedback from travelers and locations ties in beautifully to our hotels.

CM: What kind of a response have you gotten since the launch on May 6?
GREENLEAF: Within two weeks we have gotten more than 1 million views.

CM: What are your marketing plans for DTour?
GREENLEAF: All of the marketing is for the U.S. and UK and was developed online. In place now are media buys on YouTube, Lonely Planet and BBC.com with video ads that run across food, lifestyle, travel and business categories. We’re also running traveler interview videos with the BBC.com and full-page takeovers and wallpaper in North America on Lonely Planet.

CM: Why those particular sites?
GREENLEAF: Those are sites that are very much aligned with the traveler who is going to use social media more.

CM: What role do DoubleTree hotel team members play on the site?
GREENLEAF: Through a section called “DTour Guides,” team members across the globe can share their travel advice and must-see hotspots from a local perspective.

CM: Have you shifted budget dollars to online?
GREENLEAF: DoubleTree brand spends about half of our marketing dollars online, including mobile. That’s a significant shift and we do it very effectively with a lot of testing, a lot of different executions and to drive awareness.

CM: How does mobile fit in?
GREENLEAF: We’re working with Google to develop mobile programs. That’s clearly the fastest growing channel for travel and we’re anxious to get out ahead of that. We just launched the Hilton Honors app last week and have seen the most downloads so far over last week.

CM: How does this program compare to your overall marketing program?
GREENLEAF: We have tried to stay on the leading edge of technology as far as how we compare to other hotel marketers. We continue to push hard to stay in front in that part of the marketing arena.

CM: How do you do that?
GREENLEAF: We test offers to encourage consumers to book business on DoubleTree.com. We buy lots of banners that feature an interactive promotion or rate with click through to DTour.com. We book through our app and are very active in email campaigns targeted to Hilton HHonors members. We are very aggressive in exploring new and better ways to generate business and the partnership with Google is just one of the ways we’re pushing that forward this year.

The post DoubleTree, Google Build Custom YouTube Travel Channel appeared first on Chief Marketer.

For example, Dunkin’ Brands doesn’t encourage local franchisees to do things like start their own Facebook pages, not only because of the work involved (which franchisees quickly learn they don’t have time for) but the tremendous support the corporate social machine can give them

When deciding where it needs to be socially, Dunkin’ considers where consumer are interacting with brands on emerging platforms. A Vine account  was launched in May with a “Runnin’ on #IceDD” contest, where users can win a year of free iced coffee for sharing how the beverage puts a spring in their step. Dunkin’ Donuts has 8.7 million+ Facebook fans, 230,000+ Twitter followers, and 27,000+ YouTube subscribers (with 1.2 million+ video views), as well 4,000+ Pinterest and 42,000+ Instagram.

“People love sharing pictures of donuts,” says Jessica Gioglio, PR and social media manager, noting that the company’s most popular Facebook post to date was a photo of smiley faced donuts, generating 63,000 likes, 5,600 shares, and over 5,000 comments.)

The brand itself has roots as a small local business. The first Dunkin’ Donuts shop opened in Quincy, MA in 1950, where it still stands today. The business case for social for Dunkin’ was to create a high energy community of fans. “We wanted to wrap our arms around them and show we care about what they say,” says Gioglio, who spoke at a recent PRSA Boston event.

Dunkin’ has a cross-functional social team, incorporating representatives from many aspects of the company. The interactive group handles promotions, email, loyalty and mobile, while media oversees advertising and strategic partnerships. PR and customer service keep tabs on social content and community management, while legal is brought in to offer overall program counsel.

Local agencies help Dunkin Brands support over 50 Twitter accounts for different geographic regions, such as @DCDunkin, @DunkinBoston and @DunkinChicago. Through these accounts, localized specials are offered.

Social also helps Dunkin’ gain momentum in areas the brand has not expanded into yet, such as California, where it plans to be by 2015.

The key to good social content for the brand is to keep things short and sweet, and talk up the products while staying away from a hard sell.

“You can say go buy a donut but its more engaging to say ‘how many bites does it take to eat a donut?’” Gioglio says.

The “DD Fan of the Week,” a concept created in social, has gone out into the real world, as the honoree is featured on a digital billboard Dunkin’ has in Times Square. Other engaging campaigns have included asking customers do dress their coffee cups up in Halloween costumes and share the photos, or to tweet pics of their “sad” lunch sandwiches, for the chance to win and upgrade to a Dunkin’ product.

On the gaming side of social, Dunkin’ Donuts has a presence in Sim City, a partnership that earned it 3.7 bilion impressions in less than 6 months and over one million new Facebook fans. In the game, Dunkin’ has gifted more than 50 milllion virtual coffees, donuts and other products.

Social has also proved to be an effective customer service tool for the chain. When PR pro Zach Nobinger tweeted that the cheese on his bagel wasn’t melted three times in one week, Dunkin’ started following him in 27 seconds, direct messaged him and quickly got a gift card out to make up for his inconvenience. Nobinger created a YouTube video chronicling the PR/customer service win for Dunkin’. (Giglio admits they don’t get to everyone in 27 seconds, of course, but they do their best.)

It has also been valuable as a PR outlet. When Boston was on lockdown during the manhunt for the Marathon bombing suspect in April, news outlets jumped on the fact that while the city had asked businesses to stay closed, some Dunkin’ Donuts locations were open. Giglio’s team was able to get the word out that the stores were open because employees had arrived prior to the lockdown and police had asked them to stay open, to give offers a place to refresh during the stressful day.

On a more positive note, Dunkin’ is always on the lookout to tie in to holidays that fit with the brand. That makes June 7, National Donut Day, a natural. Customers who purchase a beverage will get a free donut.

The post Dunkin’ Donuts Goes Local From the Corporate Level appeared first on Chief Marketer.

According to BIA/Kelsey, 97% of consumers research online before making a local purchase. What do consumers see when they search and discover your business online? Reputation management starts with this simple question, because it’s critical to understand what your business looks like online to potential customers.

Here are the basics of reputation management for local businesses: Assess, address and build.

1. Assess your reputation on search engines, review sites, social media, blogs and websites.

• Search Engines: You probably first think of review sites and the ratings that you’ve received on places like Google+ Local. But to get a typical customer view of your reputation, start by assessing what shows up for your business and reputation by usingkeywords, such as “Business Name,” “Business Name + Reviews” and “Business Name + Complaints,” on Google and Bing. Are the results positive or negative, new or old? The results you see here matter, because 70% of consumers look to search engines to find reviews, according to Econsultancy.
• Review & Listing Sites: Once you’ve assessed and tracked your reputation on search engines, locate your business pages on review sites and local listings like Google+ Local, Yelp, Yahoo! Local, Citysearch and MerchantCircle. Then claim your listings so that you can manage your business content and respond to any negative reviews you find.
• Social Media Sites: Are people talking about your business on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube? Social media is an important part of your online reputation because people may discover your business there, and it’s where customers share their experiences with local businesses—especially bad experiences.
• Blogs & Websites: Consumer experiences with local businesses show up in these formats as well. Set up alerts to stay up to date on what consumers might be saying about your business elsewhere on the web.

2. Monitor and Address Your Reputation Across the Web.

Once you have assessed your online reputation, you will have a good idea of issues that need to be addressed. This is a good baseline, but it’s critical to set up a system to make sure you’re alerted about new reviews that could affect your business reputation, since they could come at any time. Here’s how:

• Use Alerts, Tools and Services: There are many tools and services to monitor your reputation online. First, set up Google and Yahoo! Alerts to send you emails any time they discover new content for the business keywords you choose. This requires that you consistently check these emails, but it’s a quick way to get started.
• Reply to Negative Reviews: Almost every business will find complaints when assessing their reputation online. It’s important to respond to negative online reviews because doing so signals to customers that you care about them and their feedback, and it tells other readers that your business puts customer service first. When responding to a negative review, be professional and courteous, address the concern, and resolve the actual customer issue offline.
• Apply What You Learn to Your Business: What you find in the reviews may provide valuable insights about your business, operations and staff. Do customers consistently complain about long wait times or rude service? Do they praise the quality of your services but wish you offered greater variety or pricing options? These comments are valuable insights that can help you improve your business.

3. Build and Promote Positive Content About Your Business.

You cannot delete negative online reviews, content or comments about your business unless you go directly to a customer with whom you’ve resolved an issue and ask that he or she revoke the commentary. (Some sites allow this, while others will not; plus, this tactic can backfire if the customer isn’t truly 100% happy with the resolution.) Instead of focusing your efforts on removing the negative, which you can’t tightly control, pour yourself into sharing and creating positive content about your business so consumers will discover it online when they search for your business.

For example, ask happy customers to leave you reviews on the top review sites that show up when you search for your business; this will help build your reputation on those sites and give a more balanced view of what it’s like to do business with you. People are more likely to post a complaint online, but for every unhappy customer, you likely have many who are satisfied. So, create a system to consistently request reviews from satisfied customers, and show your appreciation.

You should also create blog posts with customer success stories, testimonials and videos. Share this content on your website as well as on social channels. It’s also critical to create a variety of timely, search-engine optimized content using your reputation keywords so the content will show up when consumers research your online reviews.

Invest in your local business’s online reputation by reporting on its reputation, responding to reviews, and creating and promoting content—or by paying for a program that manages it all for you. Your online reputation is very important to today’s consumers, but how important is it to your business?

Tiffany Monhollon is senior content marketing manager, ReachLocal.

The post Why You Should Give a Darn About Your Local Reputation appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Choosing the right lead generation strategy for your company depends on the type of service or solution you offer and on the types of customer interactions you encounter most frequently.

Outbound lead generation involves cold calling and prospecting—actively reaching out to prospective customers to introduce your company to them and build relationships. Inbound lead generation includes engine optimization, pay-per-click Google ads and social media marketing.

However, before deciding whether or how much to spend on inbound vs. outbound lead generation, you need to consider whether people are currently searching for your product or service online.

If the answer is yes, and there is already significant search engine traffic surrounding on your product or target market, you might want to consider focusing on inbound lead generation as your core lead generation strategy.

For example, printer ink is a great example of something all businesses search for online. It’s a commodity with many vendors selling it online, and you should try to generate more sales leads from search engine marketing. Put more focus on SEO and pay per click ads. Optimize your website so that certain popular search keywords are included in your text and headlines. Buy Google ads so that when all those thousands of people search for your solution by name, they will have a chance to see your ad and clickthrough to find your company’s website. Create blog articles and other content marketing material and build relationships with other bloggers and influential online publications and commentators in your industry.

On the other hand, if you sell “managed print solutions,” chances are there won’t be as many online searches for that service. This could be a sign that you need to focus your lead generation strategy on outbound lead generation tactics—identifying prospect companies that are a good fit for what you offer, informing local businesses about your service, and doing lead generation calls to identify the prospect’s pain and develop solutions for the prospect’s unique needs.

Inbound and outbound lead generation strategies don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Unless you sell a highly specialized product or service with very little online search interest, your company would probably benefit from at least some inbound lead generation. Often companies can use inbound lead generation to generate sales leads (for example, by offering blog posts, podcasts, how-to videos or downloadable eBooks), and then use traditional outbound techniques to further qualify and nurture the sales leads.

Of course, most of of your sales prospects are not going to decide to buy from you simply by looking at your website. But inbound B2B lead generation can capture attention and interest, build trust, and set the stage for building a deeper sales relationship with a prospect over time.

Gregg Schwartz is director of sales for Strategic Sales & Marketing.

The post Finding the Right Lead Generation Strategy appeared first on Chief Marketer.

• New list to market in past 7 days
• Exclusive to list manager
• Data card quality score 85 or higher on NextMark
• Data card publicly available online

Caliber Corporate Contacts

This proprietary database includes more than 50,000 in-house executives in roles such as C-suite, general counsel, corporate secretary, investor relations, risk, compliance, PR, media relations and others.

Universe: 55,067

Price: $150/M

Selections: Email, phone

Contact: TriMax Direct, Keely Vazquez, keelyv@trimaxdirect.com, (651) 292-0156

Datacard: http://lists.nextmark.com/market?page=order/online/datacard&id=380034

Female-Focused Publications by Bartash Blow-In

Inserts can be placed in publications distributed by Bartash Printing, including Women’s Journal, Matters Magazine, Momma’s Little Guide and LI Bride 2 Be

Universe: 9,050,000

Price: $40/M

Contact: Leon Henry Inc., Jim Gallagher, jimg@leonhenryinc.com, (914) 285-3456

Datacard:  http://lists.nextmark.com/market?page=order/online/datacard&id=380119

The Oregonian Newspaper Monthly Statement Program

Inserts will be included in the monthly billing statements sent to subscribers.

Universe: 884,00

Price: $60/M

Contact: Media Horizons Management, Anthony Accatino, aaccatino@mediahorizons.com (203) 604-1793

Datacard:  http://lists.nextmark.com/market?page=order/online/datacard&id=380180

Chris DeMartine is director of business development at NextMark and president of the VT/NH Marketing Group.

The post Chief Marketer Listline May 16 appeared first on Chief Marketer.

A customer journey shows how a customer progresses through buying stages—or emotions, states of mind or sentiments—toward you, your brand, or your product or service. Caring about those customer journeys helps to take a bigger perspective beyond just a transaction or conversion, helps you to focus on various segments and their particular needs, to measure the right data and to create content marketing that actually works. Here’s what you need to know.

The post Why You Should Care About Customer Journeys appeared first on Chief Marketer.

Content marketing is a great way to get links but it’s not the only way to do it. In fact, placing too much emphasis on content can actually distract from what we should be doing most—approaching the unique needs of each client and niche. This author shares five link-building tactics that aren’t rooted in content.

The post How to Build Links Without Traditional Content Marketing appeared first on Chief Marketer.

B2B marketers love data, but their biggest challenge is acting on all the data they have to improve their marketing efforts. This article highlights five essential reports for B2B marketers looking for actionable insights. Lots of research, stats and charts here. And once you get the hang hang of marketing analytics, the next step is using custom dashboards: four Google Analytics dashboards are recommended.

The post 5 Key Reports for Measuring B2B Marketing appeared first on Chief Marketer.