When surrounded by engaging and creative content this is a group that has the potential to take your marketing spend and increase its value exponentially. But, how do we get the attention of this group deeply enough to do that? The secret may lie in targeting, not them, but their Friends. In a recent study of the web impact of holiday retail promotion, comScore found that ‘friends of fans’ tended to have similar behaviors to fan of brands. In some cases, these ‘friends of fans’ were more likely to visit a brand’s website than the fans themselves!

Why is this such an interesting fact? Because of how highly involved Millennials are in digital, friends of Millennials (or ‘Friennials’ if you will) should be taken into consideration when creating a strategy to reach the Millennial segment. Since Millennials are so tech savvy, they are more likely to share their findings with their friends and followers. To put it simply – if you target Millennials, you need to consider the ‘Friennials’ as well, when developing your digital strategy. ‘Friennials’ have the potential to be just as important, if not more important, than Millennial fans, so developing a strategy around both segments is essential. 

Next time your strategy targets Millennials consider they pass-along value of your content more deeply. Because even if your target isn’t listening closely – their friends may be.

What’s different this year is the level of maturation with respect to advertising, both by advertisers and consumers. Advertisers have taken notice, and expect this year’s Super Bowl to be the most TV- and digitally-integrated event in history.

Some even bolder predictions for Super Bowl XLVI:

• Super Bowl XLVI will be the highest rated and most watched Super Bowl ever, with 120MM viewers, a rating of 49 and a share of 74.

Prediction and historical TV Ratings:

Source: Nielsen TV Ratings Data: ©2008 The Nielsen Company. All Rights Reserved.

• The automotive industry will be the biggest winner amongst advertisers. The ads will be the most ubiquitous, memorable, popular, and will transfer the most engagement to the digital space.

• 80% of Super Bowl ads will feature social and/or mobile app integration.
• More than half of Super Bowl ads will extend the story beyond the TV, transitioning the experience to digital and directing consumers to take further action in-market.
• The most engaging ads will integrate live, at-game ‘outcomes’ and ‘events’ into a digital experience.
• We’ll see an increase in Cause Marketing and Corporate Responsibility-type ads, but they will only be effective if they connect with viewers on a deeper level, making them more memorable.
• Honda’s Ferris Bueller ad will be the most popular Super Bowl ad this year. Matthew Broderick and his character Ferris Bueller are both highly likeable–Ferris Bueller is a classic icon from the 80s and will resonate with viewers.

It’s clear that advertisers have become savvier and realize it’s not enough to only broadcast a 30-second TV spot during the Super Bowl; you have to catch lightning in a bottle and generate greater value.

The Super Bowl is the ONLY time such a large audience chooses to be actively engaged with advertising; advertisers must quickly extend that audience engagement into something more tangible. Besides, consumers are more demanding than ever, and with the growth and mainstreaming of social media, consumer expectations are not just about connecting with brands. Consumers expect value well beyond the products or services they buy, and the most successful brand advertisers will deliver on that expectation.

Check back next week as a follow-up to the Super Bowl. We’ll see how the predictions panned out and cover a variety of other happenings at the Super Bowl.

So now you may be wondering, if Black Friday is the fourth largest online shopping day in the holiday season, why is there so much hype surrounding it? Despite not being the largest day for sales, Black Friday can still qualify as the kick-off of holiday shopping for consumers; a catalyst for the more profitable days in the month to follow. And, although online sales may not be highest on this day, in-store sales still reached $11.4 billion this past Black Friday (according to ShopperTrak). From a marketing perspective, it is important to realize that, despite the reputation, Black Friday is not the most profitable day for online holiday shopping. Although Black Friday is still notable, it is important that your online marketing strategy accounts for each of the various apertures during the holiday season and to prioritize focus more on the later periods of the holiday shopping period that realize higher spending trends.

What is “Search Plus Your World” (SPYW)? The collective algorithm updates and platform changes basically give each of us our own personal search engine. Google will use beacons of activity from Google+ to highlight content you or your friends have shared and display them within Google SERPS. I’m also seeing snippets of content from other Google properties like YouTube and Picassa and expect content from other Google properties like Music, Shopping and more. To illustrate, here are a few examples of my Google+ Circles and recent searches on Google.

Following your favorite brand: 

Be in-the-know and get timely info. about your favorite band or musician by creating a dedicated Circle. This is especially helpful when you want to be alerted of upcoming tours; get the best tickets before all of the scalpers do! Even better, hop into a hangout in your favorite band’s page, you never know who may just show up.

Search: the rolling stones

In searching for the “rolling stones” who are also in my Circle, you’ll see that the first result is something they’ve shared with me. Additionally, a custom YouTube playlist from their Google+ Page appears (remember the YouTube integration I mentioned) in the results along with a playlist from Last.FM. Additional searches for Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters) yielded shared results from their Google+ Page and a playlist from the Foo Fighters MySpace page. Pretty cool stuff!

Clearly Google is pulling in lots of 3rd party content through APIs, providing people with lots of great and may I add, RELEVANT content from multiple sources.

Following your favorite sports team: 

Following sports updates is especially time consuming and often untimely for fans and fantasy sports junkies like me! However, with Google+ you can easily create a circle and add your favorite teams and individual players. Get the scoop before you get burned by your fantasy league’s lack of timely updates! If you follow individual players, try starting or joining a huddle. Again, you never know who may join in!

Search: boston Celtics

Google has really knocked it out of the park with enhanced site links.

In a search for “boston celtics” I get a search result containing their record, standing, 2 week schedule with previous scores, and quick links to scoring recaps, highlights and to ticket info.
As they say back home in New England….”Freakin’ Awesome!”

Google+ Search Filtering

As part of this update, Google has enhanced its search filtering in Google+.  This is extremely useful for zeroing in on specific sections of Google+, allowing users to filter content from people in your Circles or filter content by geographic location. Filtering by location is especially useful if your searching for a common name, allowing you to hone in to a specific city or state.

Here are a couple of screenshots which show the various filtering options.

“So What, Now What?” The impact is mostly favorable for searchers, marketers and brands; with a little downside. See a few of my thoughts below:

1. More content visibility in search engines = potentially more traffic to your site & social media property.
If your content is sub-par and not distributed across your owned-media properties you had better get to it, right?
Better yet, you may want to check your editorial calendar and make sure your frequency of content posts are optimized.
Remember, Google’s algorithm changes also focus on content Freshness and “that’s so 26 seconds ago” is part of the new reality.

2. CRM & Qualified Traffic. Target results to your best customers & fans within Google+ Circles. Automatic CRM on Google’s dime. I love it!

3. Search LOVE. Searchers are finally getting higher quality search results that are most relevant, include recommendations by friends and in some cases directly actionable within the search result itself.

4. Impact to SEO & Keyword Reporting. More people logged in to Google = more encrypted search.
Google updated its analytics keyword reporting to stop tracking keyword referrals for users who are logged in at the time of search.
Early predictions from industry experts predicted encrypted searches will make up about 10% on average.
I don’t believe in averages and after assessing impact to the keywords reporting for our site, we’re seeing 25% of all Google searches who visit our site are encrypted. So much for averages!

5. Search Engine Ranking is Dead. If you haven’t heard this already, the premise of it is definitely true.
Today, what does it mean to be ranked #1, 2, 3, ….? For whom do you rank in the top positions for?
And better yet, when do you rank? It sort of depends, doesn’t it? The principals of SEO still apply however, and it’s absolutely clear that for Google, content and social are KING!
Just make sure it’s part of your digital marketing strategy, otherwise you’ll end up in NEVERWHERE!

We wanted a fresh start someplace, preferably with much warmer weather.  We also wanted a lower cost of living so I could spend more time with our children. We wanted a vibrant community that would provide a healthy backdrop to raise our family. And perhaps most of all, we wanted a creative employer with opportunity for Joe to use and increase his skills set.  We found this in Blacksburg, VA.   Our family and friends thought we were crazy. We each quit good paying, stable and established careers. We sold our house at a huge loss, and moved to a state where we had no friends or family; basically no support system.

It’s now been over a year, and I love living in the mountains. The air is sweet and clean and still I find the view to be a treat for my eyes every day. The hiking is exceptional and the mild climate allows you to enjoy hiking year round. I find the area full of outdoor athletes and it’s a healthy place to live. Biking, fishing, caving, rock climbing, hunting, kayaking, tubing and other outdoor pastimes offer good clean fun at little cost. Not to mention there is a big time college sports program here with Virginia Tech.

There are many contrasts between New England and Blacksburg. In New England, everyone walks around with a Dunkin Donuts coffee in-hand. In Blacksburg, everyone walks around with a reusable water bottle, and maybe a dog. I LOVE Dunkin Donuts coffee unfortunately, there are no D&Ds nearby. Deep down I know my body appreciates the increased intake of water.

Perhaps we just lucked out, but our neighborhood is like turning back time. The kids run from yard to yard, neighbors pop in for a cup of coffee and we all help out with one another’s children. My children are delighted to have some freedom and enjoy playing outside for hours doing what kids do best.

I find the community offerings to be very strong. We are active in both Cub Scouts and Girl Scouts and my children have participated in numerous recreation center programs that are reasonably priced.  Soccer, football and wrestling seem to be popular here, and there are plenty of music, language and theatre programs available for children. 

The pace of life really is slower here. I still drive like a New Englander, but for the most part I’ve slowed down. A traffic violation within the first 30 days of moving here helped that process along. I find the folks in the New River Valley to be exceptionally friendly.  For months I questioned the motivation of all these strangers sharing the best places to hike, eat, shop and more. After all, why weren’t they in a rush?  I remember one particular day where my impatience nearly got the best of me, waiting in line to buy gas and watching the clerk having conversations with not one, but two customers in front of me. 

I stood impatiently fuming as they discussed Billy-Bob’s (slap me for being stereotypical) foot operation.  The same thing happened at the hardware store, dry cleaner, and even the dump. Errands are meant to be enjoyed here, not merely rushed through.  I now chat with Jack at the dump each time I go.

If you are willing to try new things there is plenty to do here. Parades and festivals are offered regularly, and VA Tech and Radford University draw in national acts on occasion and offer all types of opportunities ranging from lectures and art displays to planetarium shows, and big-time college sports. Bluegrass music is vibrant here, there’s a NASCAR racetrack nearby, several caves and thousands of hiking trails to explore, decent museums and features the 2nd oldest river in the world, the New River (2nd only to the Nile).

Of course there are a few trade-offs; local restaurants are served for or by the college community; wings and pizza are legitimate food groups here. The theatre and music scene are limited and gone are our days of catching huge national events. I miss Trader Joes and my husband misses going to Celtics and Red Sox games.

However, this is a very small price to pay considering I now get to spend more time with my children. The quality of life here is amazing and it’s no wonder that Blacksburg was recently named the #1 place to raise a family in America. Modea is thriving and full of opportunity.

After a year, Blacksburg feels like home. And now that I’ve attended driver safety training I’m learning to slow down.

Jennifer Chasse
To learn about family friendly events in this area visit www.nrv.macaronikid.com

Well, that’s all fine and good.  Google heavily increased their means of acquiring and indexing content last year.  So what’s new? 

Well, just last month, the Google was at it again, and announced that now, an actual algorithm change is in effect to support Caffeine related content.  What’s the difference?  Google’s ranking algorithm is what determines where each and every site is placed in search results.  So what Google has done this time is they’ve given a ranking boost to sites with new, fresh content.  And not just a tiny bump –

“We completed our Caffeine web indexing system last year, which allows us to crawl and index the web for fresh content quickly on an enormous scale. Building upon the momentum from Caffeine, today we’re making a significant improvement to our ranking algorithm that impacts roughly 35 percent of searches and better determines when to give you more up-to-date relevant results for these varying degrees of freshness.”

So there you have it.  Starting last month, 35% of ALL searches conducted in Google will have a significant shift in the ranking with a strong focus on newer and fresher content.  That’s pretty darn massive, considering there are over 88 billion searches conducted each month on Google. (source: searchengineland.com)

What does this mean for you?  It means that you need to leverage editorial calendars for your site or your clients’ sites, to ensure that they’re always giving Google fresh content to index.  It means that now is the time to be proactive in determining what types of content we’ll need, and when.  It means that, to provide the most value for clients, the process of creating new content must not ever be one-off, but must be an ongoing building cycle.  Content needs to be the primary investment in any site’s strategy. Think of content as your new acquisition strategy. Not only does content engage and influence your audience, but it also puts you in a better position of being relevant to searchers and most likely to be visible favorably on SERPs. In a nutshell, it means that the necessity to have new, fresh, always changing content is more pressing than ever.  It means that having fresh content is no longer a “nice to have”, but an SEO survival requirement.

Even in the wake of Google+ and all of the social-in-search announcements, notice in the above instance (a simple search for ‘modea’), that even despite the number of shares in my personal network, the recent date made the businessweek.com article more relevant and important.

Yet again.  Notice the news snippet from CTV.ca, 16 hours ago on this search for ‘chiquita’.  The recent news trumps even their brand site, and not included in this shot, eatachiquita.com, Chiquita’s Twitter page, another news article from the AP in late November, and last but not least, Modea’s portfolio containing Chiquita content.  And it looks like that one only showed because I shared it:

In a nutshell, it is unbelievably important to stress new content creation at all times if we want to compete in the organic search space.  We must continue to promote ongoing content strategies and ongoing social updates to maintain relevance in Google’s eyes!

For more reading, the update directly from Google, and the analysis by Search Engine Land.

It’s that time of year again – cold weather, holiday traditions and full, hearty meals abound. It’s the perfect recipe for staying indoors and putting on an extra “hibernation” layer for the winter season. More often than not, the holidays serve as an excuse to indulge and health and wellness don’t even enter our minds until it’s time to make New Years resolutions. Only then do we start paying attention (or pretend to pay attention) and pledge to start working out earlier, eating fewer sweets and avoiding soda. But this year, Modea decided to get ahead of the game – and thus, ModeaFIT was born.

Still in beta, ModeaFIT is a three-pronged approach to bring health and wellness to the forefront at Modea. Led by a group of four Modeans, it’s designed to be all-inclusive, with specific programs designed to cater to different types of goals and people.

• Health & Wellness: This group is dedicated to weight loss and health through positive lifestyle changes including: diet choices, sleeping habits, physical activity and mental health. This group encourages each other through a weekly luncheon, which provides accountability and support. They’ve also implemented small changes throughout the office: scales in the bathrooms, healthier snack options, etc.
• xFIT: This group’s goal is to take fitness to an extreme level and meant for a more competitive audience. They meet at 6:45 a.m. Tuesday and Thursday mornings for hour-long group workouts including cross fit, rugby, flag football, etc.
• FlashFIT@5: Every day at 5 p.m. a Flash Fit challenge is issued throughout the office. It could be: How many squats can you do in a minute? How long can you wall sit for? The group then assembles and performs the challenge together, complete with bragging rights for the winner. The idea is to choose activities that get everyone involved, motivated and are quick enough to do at the office.

Subscribers to any component of ModeaFIT also receive a daily survey that records their personal sentiments about their health goals. The idea is to provide enough flexibility that each person is responsible for tracking and evaluating their own progress. At the end of the program, each participant will receive a compilation of their results so that they can be more aware of the choices they’re making on a day-to-day basis and how those choices impact their overall wellbeing.

For this phase of ModeaFIT, our annual holiday party (12/17) is the anticipated milestone for completion and re-evaluation of the program. Each employee who reaches his or her personal goal will receive a special reward from the company; like a 30-minute massage, for example, and it doesn’t stop there.

The evolution of ModeaFIT is already in motion. We’re currently looking to provide members with pedometers or other tracking technologies as well as additional ways to incentivize the group as a whole. The founders of Modea, Aaron and David, are not only great supporters of the initiative, but active participants, as well.

So far, we’re really enthusiastic about the enormous potential of the program and how far we’ve come in such a short amount of time. As an agency, the ultimate goal of our work is to influence consumer behavior; however, with ModeaFIT, it’s been an interesting and ironic task to try to change our own behavior. We’re looking forward to keeping health and wellness top of mind around our offices and hope to continue to push the program forward.

Expect an update from us after the holiday party and enjoy the season!

The website for the Science Museum of Western Virginia before CreateAthon.

The new Science Museum of Western Virginia website.

Certainly an adventure for all involved, everyone here at Modea is excited to participate again next year to have a little bit of fun, and help out some local organizations!

While in San Francisco for TechCrunch Disrupt, we had the unique opportunity to visit the Pixar campus in Emeryville, CA. One of our Creative Directors, Charles Wood, put us in touch with Max Bickley at Pixar, who was kind enough to invite us out and show us around. Built over 10 years ago under the direction of Steve Jobs, Pixar is a breeding ground for creativity, something Modea is striving to create with the construction of our new headquarters in Blacksburg, VA.

Pulling up to the front entrance of Pixar, I had a quick flashback to watching Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory – I felt like we had the magic ticket to get a sneak peak of what goes on behind those gates. In our tour of the facilities, we saw larger-than-life replications of iconic Pixar characters, artifacts from some of the movies and pieces of art by Pixar employees. While the main building was constructed in 2000, it feels like it was built just yesterday. It’s modern, fresh, full of natural light and has wide expanses of open space.

Everything in the Pixar offices encourages collaboration. When designing the space, Steve Jobs went as far as to only include one set of bathrooms in the whole office to force interaction between employees. There are high top tables for quick get-togethers and big couches for longer work sessions. The whole point is to get people up and moving, talking and collaborating. Frequent communication is something we value at Modea, and hope to create a similar environment in our new offices.

So much of Modea’s culture is fueled by fun activities. We have three foosball tables in our offices were Modeans can take a quick break, and we have gone as far as converting one of our bathrooms into a foosball room. Pixar’s outdoor volleyball courts, basketball courts and full weight room are great inspiration for how we plan to take everything to the next level at our new headquarters.
In short, the Pixar campus is a creative paradise. As we continue moving forward planning and designing our new Modea headquarters, Pixar and similar creative spaces will be a great resource for inspiration.