In the new marketing and media ecosystem, some will fail, some will thrive, and all will have to evolve.

In 2007, Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) sponsored an online contest to design the skin of HP’s new special-edition entertainment laptop. The company promoted the contest selectively in 13 countries via the television, Web, and mobile channels of its media partner, MTV Networks. But word spread virally, and more than 8,500 entries poured in from 112 countries in just over a month. The contest site got more than 5 million hits, prompting HP to re-forecast sales to five times its original estimate. And it was “all because we opened the doors and allowed our customers to design our products,” says Mike Mendenhall, HP’s chief marketing officer.
Read more

Social Media Isn’t Just a Marketing Tool but an Efficiency Driver

 

What’s the bigger idea: social media as marketing stimulus or social media as a way to innovate business processes?

Every brand manager or CMO should recognize that it’s both — and in a disruptive economy, you need to take advantage of both outcomes. And when the potential dividends of a marketing effort include changes to a company’s process, we need to rethink the entire notion of ROI.
Read more