What MTV’s Jersey Shore can teach us about Internet Marketing

It’s not all fun and games at the Seaside house. The cast of brazen characters on the Jersey Shore are a wild bunch of misfits that can’t seem to stay out of trouble. Whether it be toxic affairs, overly dramatic rivalries, or local xenophobia; this young crew’s frivolous management of relationships and their own personal well-being opens a window for the outsider to build a guide on how-to not ruin marketing campaigns. If you’re not sure how the two match up, keep reading…

MTV's Jersey Shore Snookie

Snookie- The lovable, sassy, self-proclaimed guidette loves nothing more than tanning herself and making out with boys, but she also has a bit of a Napoleon complex. Being slight of stature but unafraid of a fight, she’s been punched more times than Kool-Aid. For some reason, the poor girl isn’t aware enough to know when trouble is brewing.

Learn from Snookie- It’s important to have a certain amount of real self-realization when considering online marketing channels. In SEM there are plenty of instances where you’ll simply be too outmatched to engage in a battle. The competitive landscape in both PPC and SEO and maybe such an uphill climb for newcomer businesses that lower barriers of entry can be found elsewhere. This wouldn’t mean abandoning either tactic, but simply revising it so that you are leveling the playing field. You may consider going strictly long-tail if your keyword sets are deep enough and using the same optimization practice to wage war against lesser opponents. This would be the equivalent of Snookie picking a fight with midgets and kindergartners rather than strung out hookers and roided out monkeys.

MTV's Jersey Shore Pauly D

Pauly D- The ladies man known most commonly for his signature blowout haircut. Pauly had a pretty successful time meeting girls at the bar for later conquest. His total operation is centered on meeting easy women. The Ed Hardy gear, the gym regiment, the haircut, it’s all focused on one goal.

Learn from Pauly- What Pauly might not realize is that his product is too geo focused to ever have success out of his home market. In order to scale nationally he would need to substantially overhaul his approach. It’s important to realize that different markets will not only react differently to marketing cues and product benefits. This can differ in regions as tight as neighboring cities. Thankfully geo-locatable advertising mediums online give us the ability to isolate and exploit. Marketers fall in love with national level A/B testing, which is imperative, and forget about regional testing. A/B testing can and should be separated at a regional level and independent markets should dictate their own testing schedule. Think about the local influence of broadcast news and how coverage may differ from Los Angeles to Boston.

MTV's Jersey Shore Mike 'The Situation'

Mike ‘The Situation’- Shortly after meeting Mike, you’ll be bound to know why he is the best thing to hit the Jersey Shore since spaghetti Bolognese. His callous desire to be the center of attention at all given times wears on everyone’s nerve. You can only take so much of ‘The Situation’ before you’re thoroughly sick of him.

Learn from The Situation- It’s plain and simple; there IS a sweet spot for ad frequency. Over serving ads, saturating channels, and riding a single set of creative for too long will not only erode short term returns, but erode brand equity you’ve built over time. Moderation is the key to all sorts of nice things: growing old, not getting too drunk, staying out of jail, and keeping your advertising fresher longer if you don’t have the luxury of an in-house creative team.

MTV's Jersey Shores Ronnie

Ronnie- The bear-like young man that tears up dance-floors and opponents faces like a ravenous…bear. Though he exhibits a tender and caring side, Ronnie’s testosterone get’s the best of him at times and he can’t control getting himself in dangerous situations. He naturally spends some time in jail.

Learn from Ronnie- Karma is a b**** sometimes. Maybe you’re not the only party at fault, but if you are getting pulled into affiliate programs that don’t give you any active voice in the management of your brand identity, then you could have your hands full. I’ve personally negotiated CPA based deals with networks only to find out that publishers were allowed to run wild with unapproved creative. Imagine the punch in the face I received when I checked my voicemail and had messages of people calling me a racist. You think that management fee and flat rate agency relationships are a gamble? Relinquishing all of your moderation authority to someone motivated by the almighty dollar could be a bet made with really unfortunate odds. Take that chance and you may get burned.

Think I’m way off? Go ahead and make a marketing parallel with J-Wow, Angelina, Sammie, or Vinny and post it below.

When eVisibility hits the conference circuit; we do so in style. For Daniel Redman’s appearance at the MIMA Summit discussing the new and next of display media, we created a very special wearable promise ring to the world of Behavior based marketing.

Let’s face it; Behavioral targeting is a very polarizing tactic. The lovers are marketers on the edge of tech, seeking out a high level of audience segmentation and education. The haters feel violated and that their security is being breeched. To the tune of, 60 percent of U.S. adults not wanting to be shown ads based on their interests (Brandweek).

The future of BT is a giant question mark! If the Feds have their hand in the cookie jar (so to speak) we could all be in for a bumpy ride. If self-regulation becomes the permanent modus operandi for the internet marketing world, it’s on like Donkey Kong. For the time being, it’s time to have a laugh at our benefit. We all know its anonymous spying, we just like to call it by another name.

Whether you are a lover or a hater, you certainly will get a kick out of our newest fashion statement. We will be handing our new t-shirts out at the MIMA Summit Monday, October 5, 2009! We will also be making them available to purchase on our website in the next few weeks. Stay Tuned!

If you are interested in finding out how behavioral retargeting can be an outstanding complimentary marketing piece for you please visit our site, read more about it, and contact us.

Sponsored content in general, and even more specifically sponsored tweeting, have spurred both misaligned and poignant conversation. The naysayers will always say nay and the advocates will have brown noses until they are hardly recognizable, but the majority of those who are considered thought leaders are skating in the middle (Cough… Lisa Barone). It’s as if people are waiting for sponsored tweeting to fail or succeed before they chime in and say ‘I told you so’.

“I thought sponsored tweets was the answer and I also disclosed that I have been doing sponsored tweets for the last year.” - Shoemoney

As a Media Director I am an equally unadulterated backer of sponsored content. I’ve used it, very effectively, to foster high performing and highly targeted online branding campaigns for many clients both big and small. Then just last Monday, alongside another agency, we were thankful enough to receive a preview of the sponsored tweeting platform from SponsoredTweets.com.

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Just like in any piece of writing, social media can be analyzed, criticized and canonized in many different ways. In the typical college undergrad English course, students are taught to analyze a piece of writing by going through the process choosing a selection and expanding outward within that context in order to gain an understanding of the piece in its entirety. Likewise, in social media it is critical to place an emphasis on one area of the field in order to gain a better understanding of the benefits of social media as a whole. But could it be possible to place so much emphasis on building a business marketing strategy that the value of the conversation is diminished? While SM Playbook makes a strong and well thought out plan of attack for a social media campaign, it foregoes the most important aspect of social media; conversation.

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There is a matter of semantics with certain publishers that will saturate some of the true value of employing a retargeting advertising strategy. If a single network is offering a retargeting ’solution’ as a package offering with other display, some sort of CPC, etc., I’d be wary of their temptation to retarget on the click rather than the visit for the sake of impression scaling.

What’s the difference?

Any groomed Google Analyticsman will tell you that a click does not equate to a visit (1-1). There can be pre-page load bounces, multiple session counts, spiders/bots, fraud, and who knows what else muddling up your clicks. If a user is not arriving on my site after clicking an ad, I do not want to waste impressions on them. Call me old school, but behavioral retargeting must be site-based to be effective.

There are a lot of new developments in the Twittersphere; so much in fact, that people are being sucked into any and all tools that will help to make them ”powerTwitters.” But what they are finding instead is that they are falling short of a successful Twitter account. The success of Twitter branding is not in gaining the most followers, following thousands of people, or in getting a following and then spamming them with outrageous and non genuine tweets.

There is no doubt that Twitter has become the center of the social media world. In becoming more mainstream, many have found that it can be a powerful tool in helping users to build and develop their own personal brand. Whether or not the account is set up for a business, a person, or a brand, there is a basic etiquette that should be followed to ensure an effective Twitter.

Here are some basics that will help you to develop and to maintain a healthy and successful Twitter account:

1. Create a Bio. In order to be successful in conversation, you have to gain the trust of those who are following you. Having a bio on your profile (a simple 160 blurb about yourself or your brand) will increase the likelihood of gaining followers, and it makes you approachable as a person. Therefore, it helps your credibility to include a picture, to be direct, to state your position, and to provide a link back to your original site. DON’T: create so many blank accounts without a bio that you never touch. Not only will it hurt the brand you are trying to develop, but it will never get off the ground and typically results in the Fail Whale or the even more feared, Foul Owl:

   

2. Followers. Once you have a profile, start following people. There are many tools that will help you to find people beneficial to you. As you find people to follow, look through their followers for other interesting people. Using search.twitter.com allows you to search tweets via keywords.
3. Engage in discussion. As people follow you, start following back. Begin conversations and stay consistent. Make sure that you are not adding too many followers without following any tweeters back. As you gain followers, reach out to them to reassure them that you are a real person, not:

   

4. Ratios. You should be adding followers at about an even pace as people start to follow you. In addition to that, you should be tweeting your own content at the same ratio that you are tweeting to others. It is important that you are not only preaching to your followers, but also talking to them.
5. Retweet. Retweeting other people’s tweets is an effective way to create buzz, to gain followers, and (if it is originally your tweet) to gain more traffic back to the original content. In essence, a retweet is another way to linkshare. (Example: RT @evisibility check out our latest blog post…) The more people that retweet it, the more links you are sharing to more people; thus, helping the viral nature of the content.

In the end, to be successful on Twitter you have to participate. The more realistic you can make your profile and your discussions, the better your chances are of gaining not only more followers, but followers that will stand by your word and will help to bring you more business.