In the coming year, MLC will be exploring how mobile and social media are disrupting consumers’ decision making processes.  Members are telling us that stated purchase intent is less predictive than it used to be, and that more consumers are changing their minds at the last minute.  A recent McKinsey study supports these observations, finding that 40% of consumers change their mind at the point of purchase and end up buying something they hadn’t intended to purchase. We’re going to be testing a few hypotheses around why consumers aren’t following through on intentions and exploring what the best companies are doing to increase follow-through. Read More »

As part of our ongoing global marketing organizational structure research, we recently asked MLC members to share some details of their own structures.  In total, 51 members (diverse in industry, size, and global reach) answered the online poll and the results were quite intriguing.  Three key findings emerged from the data – all three of which have been corroborated by more in-depth member conversations: Read More »

“The most effective coupons aren’t the ones that save you money on things you’d buy anyway; they’re the ones that come from out of nowhere, giving you license to buy something you otherwise wouldn’t.”

–Matt Schwartz, writer for Wired, paraphrasing Groupon founder Andrew Mason’s view of coupons

Okay, okay, you’ve heard the news.  Google offered $6 billion to Groupon, which is something like 12 days old but has 5 billion customers.

Point of advice #1: if someone offers you $6B, take it (I’m kidding, of course—always double down and hold out for more)

Point of advice #2:  If you’re a marketer at a mass brand—and no one is offering you $6B so you can call in rich tomorrow— it’s worth your while to understand why Google is offering $6B for Groupon. Read More »

Mobile devices have played a huge role this year in holiday shopping already.   In a recent survey of 607 U.S.-based smartphone users, we asked respondents whether they planned to spend less, more or the same amount this holiday season.  A little more than 14.1% said they planned to spend more, while about 85% said either less or about the same.

We then analyzed those who planned to spend more, and discovered they are very savvy mobile users. Read More »

• New findings from eMarketer: people spend as much time on mobile devices as they do reading newspapers and magazines [TechCrunch, and stay tuned for our own findings on mobile in the coming weeks]
• A consumer group has filed a lawsuit against McDonalds over Happy Meal toys [AdAge]
• Facebook’s 2010 ad sales will likely reach $2 billion [Bloomberg]
• YouTube is diving into content creation [NYT]
• Twitter has raised a round of funding that values the company at $3.7 billion [WSJ]
• Political ad spending for the US midterm elections set a new record [Adweek]
• I have never agreed with a top 10 list more than this: 10 Advertising Songs We Never Need To Hear Again [AdAge]
• Will your smartphone replace your wallet? [Mashable]
• What to do in an era when brands have become targets for web activism? [AdAge]
• The Chinese government has launched a Twitter clone called “Red Microblog” [Mashable]
• Profit and sales at Best Buy are down, as consumers chase deals at competing big-box stores [WSJ] as well as find better deals online [WSJ]

By Kirsten Robinson

Since the dawn of film and television, product placement has been among the most subtle marketing tools.  For the right price, producers will seamlessly blend your brand into scenes and storylines.

Here we’ve included some fun facts about some of the more memorable product placement deals over the years– you might be surprised which ones essentially cost the featured brand(s) nothing! Read More »

Ah, December – the magical time of holidays, first snowfalls, long nights and – year-end lists. We’ll be doing a host of lists throughout the next few weeks, but we’re starting with a look at the top 10 YouTube videos of 2010.

One thing that’s abundantly clear in comparing this year’s list to that of previous years is the slow but steady maturation of YouTube as a communications channel. In previous years – like 2006 – the most popular videos included the free hugs campaign, the Evolution of Dance, and some guys lip-synching the Pokemon theme song. Read More »

Social media – and the internet in general – have been a bright spot for businesses in an otherwise dismal climate. But many have had their illusions about the web punctured in recent weeks, as the strategic downside of open, transparent communication has made itself apparent in the Wikileaks disclosures.

To recap what has been a complicated story: on November 28, the leak-publishing clearinghouse, in conjunction with several major newspapers, began to disclose a series of diplomatic cables between the US Department of State and its embassies throughout the world. Julian Assange, Wikileaks’ primary spokesperson, also announced that the next leaks the site would publish would be from a major US bank. In response to the publishing of these leaks, the US government strongly denounced the site, and national leaders – such as Senator Joe Lieberman – suggested that companies who did business with Wikileaks could be subject to prosecution. Read More »

The worldwide recession has changed the value set for a significant portion of your customer base.  By the day, we’re hearing of more members recasting their segmentation models to reflect new realities.  But updating segments is only half the battle.  To see frontline impact with new segmentation, marketers must get the new segments to “stick” with internal stakeholders.

Not long ago, LG Mobile developed a new segmentation model.  Marketing leaders at LG Mobile quickly realized that to engage consumer segments more effectively, they needed to embed these segments into everything that LG’s employees do. Marketing leaders began by asking themselves the question- Is the segmentation understandable, relatable and relevant? Taking this as a starting point, LG worked to sell the segmentation internally. LG followed a 5-step process to create an internal buy-in of the segmentation. Read More »

• CNN’s iReport, a crowdsourced newsgathering platform, now has gotten a submission from every country on earth [CNN]
• A teenager explains why teenagers don’t use Twitter (take with large grain of salt) [ReadWriteWeb]
• On the other hand, only 8% of online Americans use Twitter, so maybe they’re onto something [Pew]
• The FCC wants to avoid cable blackouts over carriage fees [NYT]
• Are iPads the next critical tool for pharma salespeople? [WSJ]
• The rights to dozens of unused brand names were sold at auction this week [NYT]
• David Cameron is taking a sharp look at ’sexualized’ products sold to pre-teens in the UK [AdAge]
• Attention sponsors: the NHL is in good financial state, but some franchises may be in trouble [NYT]
• Foursquare now has 5 million users, up from less than 500,000 at the beginning of the year [Mashable]
• Agencies are finding an inviting market in Brazil [AdAge]
• A new service will bring first-run movies to your living room – for $20,000 [WSJ]
• Dissecting the Kraft-Starbucks grocery breakup [AdAge]