THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO AGILE MARKETING IN DISPLAY pdf

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO AGILE MARKETING IN DISPLAY ADSFlite Inc.. THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO AGILE MARKETING IN DISPLAY ADSTable of Contents Chapter 1: Why Adopt Agile Marketing?. - Benefits Of

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO AGILE MARKETING IN DISPLAY ADS

Flite Inc

Copyright 2013 by Flite Inc

Smashwords Edition

THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO AGILE MARKETING IN DISPLAY ADS

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Why Adopt Agile Marketing?

- Benefits Of Agile Marketing

Chapter 2: What Are The Key Concepts In Agile Marketing?

- Prepare To Act Quickly

- Keep A Pulse On Trends

- Build Nimble Teams

- Make Updates In Real-time

- Iterate In Short Cycles

Chapter 3: How Agile Is Too Agile?

Chapter 4: How Do You Overcome “Banner Blindness” With Agile Marketing?

- Causes Of Banner Blindness

- What Makes A Good Display Ad?

Chapter 5: What Are Examples Of Agile Marketing In Action?

- When Preparation Meets Opportunity: How To Stay Agile During Unexpected News

- How To Test Ideas To Optimize Display Ads

Conclusion

Agile marketing is about taking small steps, minimizing risk, and failing fast—all in an effort to figure out what works as efficiently

as possible

As a methodology, it focuses on an iterative approach to planning and executing, learning quickly, and having a bias towards action Agile marketing means listening to what your customer wants, programming your ads to reflect relevant topics, updating, and measuring

So why does agile marketing matter in display advertising?

Because display is growing and marketers can’t afford to rely on static text and image ads to meet ROI objectives Forrester

Research predicts that interactive display media in the U.S will double between 2012 and 2017 to become a $28 billion industry, one that is ripe to adopt the flexibility and real-time nature that marketers have grown accustomed to with their social media

With agile marketing in display ads, brands can update their ads in real-time with the same ease that they update their Facebook pages and Twitter feeds This incremental approach allows marketers to create relevant, timely marketing that matches the pace of the

evolving digital landscape

Popular forms of online media—social, search, display—continue

to unfold at a lightning pace Agile marketing is especially salient

in display advertising due to the broad reach, multitude of formats, and endless variations in content type

In this guide, we’ll examine the who, how, and why of agile

marketing, and demonstrate the enormous potential of adopting an agile approach to display ad development

Let’s dive in

CHAPTER 1: WHY ADOPT AGILE MARKETING?

Today’s online consumer has unparalleled access to information, products, and entertainment Content is presented in a never-

ending stream that often leaves little time for exploration Since everything on the web is fleeting, what captures the attention of the audience is a constantly moving target

So how can marketers rise above the noise? How can we craft

messaging and stories that will resonate with our audience’s

changing interests?

The answer is to embrace a framework that adapts to your

audience’s tastes and priorities as quickly as they change It’s

innovate or sink

Agile marketing does not disregard careful planning Instead, it is a powerful and necessary evolution that empowers you to reach your audience in ways that are faster, leaner, and more creative — to help you become more competitive

Take Coca-Cola, for example In 2011 they announced that they would shift their marketing from “creative excellence” to “content excellence” as part of a new Liquid and Linked strategy At the center of this was a 70/20/10 content framework to encourage

innovation:

• 70% low-risk, established “now” content

• 20% innovative “new” content based ton what works

• 10% untested content, the “next” ideas that will become

tomorrow's 70% or 20%

Why is Coca-Cola applying 30% of their budget to innovation and experimentation? Because when juxtaposed with the real-time

internet, those rigid and heavily-planned executions from the past are risky, costly and potentially irrelevant

Coca-Cola is not alone As evidenced by Gatorade’s new Mission Control Center, Forbes’ real-time newsroom, and Procter &

Gamble’s daily review meetings—the list goes on—companies big and small are flocking to agile marketing

“Start small and scale fast.”

Wendy Clark SVP, Integrated Marketing Communications & Capabilities

The Coca-Cola Company

BENEFITS OF AGILE MARKETING

Here are five reasons that businesses are adopting agile marketing practices in display advertising

Mitigated Risk

By making small bets on many creative initiatives, measuring them carefully, and betting big on what’s working, marketers can

significantly reduce risk compared to large-scale campaign

executions planned in one sitting

Improved ROI

An agile approach can improve ROI by reducing the likelihood of spending in areas that are unfruitful When an initiative is working well, budget can be ramped up accordingly

Inquisitive marketers can learn as much through experimentation

as they might through a focus group or social media — maybe more The insights you gain from your digital campaigns can then inform the rest of your marketing strategy

Quicker Adaptability

Responding to current events and adopting new technologies becomes much easier with an agile approach Whether change is prompted by external events (e.g the stock market drops or a new competitor emerges) or internal ones (e.g changes in product or positioning) the agile marketer is ready to adapt

Rich Customer Insight

Successful agile marketing requires careful observation of

customer behavior By analyzing how a customer interacts with messaging and creative, the agile marketer gains a deeper

understanding of the customer than they would from a traditional waterfall marketing This allows marketers to deliver the type of ads that delight customers more quickly and effectively

CHAPTER 2: WHAT ARE THE KEY CONCEPTS IN

AGILE MARKETING?

Agile marketing, while flexible, does rely on a core set of values Below are important concepts as described by the industry’s

leading agile experts Since every organization is different, don’t

be afraid to adjust your working methods, too

PREPARE TO ACT QUICKLY

Jonathon Colman, Principal Experience Architect at REI,

encourages adopting a bias toward action Don’t get bogged down

by “analysis paralysis” where overthinking and overplanning

impede progress By developing a sense of urgency, you can seize unexpected marketing opportunities when they arise

Example: Gatorade Mission Control Center

Read Article ⊲

Gatorade keeps a pulse on its consumer base with an impressive data-monitoring room dubbed the Mission Control Center With an eye on social media channels, blogs, and relevant topics, Gatorade

is prepared to refine their marketing when an opportunity strikes

For example, when Mission Control noticed the viral popularity of

a rap song featured in one of their commercials, they quickly

worked with the recording artist to release a full version of the track to Gatorade fans on Twitter and Facebook Despite the

complexity of the task, Gatorade spotted an opportunity to connect with their customer and took action accordingly

KEEP A PULSE ON TRENDS

The best marketing teams have a constant pulse on customer

sentiment, internal business performance, and industry trends

There are numerous technologies available now that provide

insight into consumer behavior Keeping track of what people are engaging with on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest, and

LinkedIn are all ways to use both qualitative and quantitative

means to understand customer sentiment and to make sure that your marketing is relevant

Example: Procter and Gamble Daily Meetings

Read Article ⊲

P&G is one example of a global company that uses robust

analytics to ensure that they are aware of what the customer wants

Example: Hubspot

View Slides ⊲

Kirsten Knipp’s presentation on how agile marketing has improved prioritization, predictability, and transparency in marketing at

Hubspot dives deeper into how agile marketing is implemented on the ground

BUILD NIMBLE TEAMS

Agile teams are small, which enables efficient communication and decision making They are also cross-functional, which means that they can develop and deploy test campaigns rapidly

Teams should be small enough to ensure collaboration and

empowered to make decisions efficiently Having members of

product, sales, engineering, and customer service working

together, even peripherally, helps to ensure that various

stakeholder interests are represented This maintains alignment within the company and strengthens the backbone of marketing efforts

Example: The New Forbes Newsroom

Old hierarchies are dissolved through social software that

encourages an ongoing discussion Virtually anyone can chime in with ideas, enabling the publisher to conduct the flow of content in

an agile and effective way

“It’s now a far more inclusive, continuous and real-time generating process - a “group think” that reflects the era of

idea-social media and strategy of Forbes.com itself.”

Lewis DVorkin Chief Product Officer at Forbes Media

MAKE UPDATES IN REAL-TIME

Agile marketing requires a much faster cadence than traditional marketing Instead of lengthy planning and execution over the

course of several months, being agile means breaking things down into a matter of steps that can be accomplished in weeks or even days

Marketing efforts fluctuate between planning, execution, review, and optimization This doesn’t mean there can’t be big campaigns

or long-term strategies; it means that major initiatives are built up through multiple refinements and released in full when the data shows they can reliably succeed It also means that marketers are monitoring the performance of ad campaigns to figure out what’s working and what’s not, and making updates in real time to capture insights from current trends

Case Study: Wikia’s NCAA basketball ad campaign

Wikia.com took an agile, responsive approach with a banner

campaign during the NCAA basketball tournament The ad

allowed users to skin the Wikia basketball site with images of their favorite of the final four teams during March Madness by clicking

on the ad But when Wikia first launched the ad, interactions were far below expectations

Wikia quickly realized that the ad creative didn’t clearly indicate that the skin of the site would only change if the user clicked one

of the buttons Visitors didn’t want to interrupt their browsing

experience by clicking on a URL that would lead them to a new

page, so they avoided interacting with the ad altogether

So Wikia started iterating They changed the click behavior to

mouse-over, and updated the language in the ad from “Choose your favorite team” to “Hover on your favorite team.”

Wikia’s iterations paid off big time, boosting the interaction rate fold and more than doubling the click-through rate, transforming the ad into a smashing success

9-Read the full case study and experience the ad here

Wikia.com is a Flite customer, making it easy for the company to create interactive display ads that can be optimized in real-time all

in one platform

See more information about Flite’s SaaS platform here

ITERATE IN SHORT CYCLES

The agile feedback loop offers a model for iterating on work in short cycles Progress is measured by the rate of learning, where fast learning is rewarded with rapid optimization and successful campaigns While some marketers have slightly different ways of explaining this cycle, the core process is to Listen, Program,

Update, and Measure

1 Listen

Understand which trends matter to your customers Determine if and how these changes should be addressed in your marketing efforts

4 Measure

Monitor results using accurate metrics that reflect your marketing goals Apply what you learn to future updates and campaigns

CHAPTER 3: HOW AGILE IS TOO AGILE?

Being agile isn’t an excuse to fumble along forwards, backwards,

or sideways until you get your act together On the contrary, agile marketing requires you to have a strong vision of what you want to accomplish, what problem you are solving, and for whom

There are plenty of ways to be led astray in the rapid pace of agile marketing, but with awareness and solid decision-making, these pitfalls are easily navigable

Here are a few items to be aware of:

Pressure to Cut Corners

With a faster cadence and bias toward action come the pressure to cut corners Yes, you should act and iterate, but make sure to keep standards high with the quality of your marketing; otherwise, you risk damaging your brand

Insufficient Exploration Time

Sometimes it makes sense to delay acting until you have explored

a variety of potential options Especially at the onset of new

initiatives, it’s okay to resist the fail-fast mentality in order to

encourage creativity Execution should wait until the optimal

strategy becomes apparent, but that won’t happen until your team has leeway to think freely and creatively When brainstorming, there are no bad ideas But when acting, there certainly are

Refining, Not Defining

Agile’s iterative approach is great for refining a concept, but it isn’t an excuse to fumble along without a plan Agile marketing requires that you have a strong vision of what you want to

accomplish, what problem you are solving, and for whom This

vision can change once you get started, but by thinking critically

up front, you create guardrails about how to prioritize Striving to balance of flexibility and steadfastness will allow you to fully reap the benefits of agile marketing

“The point of Agile Marketing isn’t just to get more done, it’s to

get the right things done so that we can hit our goals and

ultimately generate more business.”

Jim Ewel agilemarketing.net

CHAPTER 4: HOW DO YOU OVERCOME “BANNER BLINDNESS” WITH AGILE MARKETING?

Agile marketing gives marketers the flexibility to take advantage

of new techniques and tools as they emerge Analyzing social

media, search, and display campaigns is becoming an increasingly real-time process, which presents opportunities to optimize

marketing efforts under very short turnaround times

Agile marketing technologies:

• In-depth analytics available in real-time for digital media

• Automated, real-time ad exchanges

• Audience targeting and retargeting with specificity

• Ad automation capable of changing ads based on geolocation, demographics, date, weather, behavior, etc

• Application-like functionality in display ads that can deliver

highly interactive experiences

CAUSES OF BANNER BLINDNESS

Skeptics keep insisting that display is dead, but the numbers

suggest quite the opposite Display is engaged in a period of

serious growth Forrester Research predicts that display advertising revenue will more than double by 2016, with search revenue only doubling in that time

Consider how display marketers who use the web’s best

technologies and agile mindsets can overcome these common

complaints:

CUSTOMERS SAY:

• Cause of Banner Blindness

• Agile Marketing Solution