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1 TAKING DOWN GOLIATH

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3 TAKING DOWN GOLIATH DIGITAL MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR BEATING COMPETITORS WITH 100 TIMES YOUR SPENDING POWER KEVIN M. RYAN AND ROB SPIDER GRAHAM

4 TAKING DOWN GOLIATH Copyright Kevin M. Ryan and Rob Spider Graham, Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. First published in 2014 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number , of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India. First edition: November

5 FOR THEM ALL

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7 CONTENTS List of Figures Foreword Michael Learmonth i x xi Int ro duc t ion 1 Chapter 1 The Digital Advertising Big Bang 9 Chapter 2 Setting and Measuring Digital Campaign Goals 31 Chapter 3 Defining Online Audiences 49 Chapter 4 Creating the Perfect Online Marketing Message 67 Chapter 5 Digital Display Advertising 85 Chapter 6 Tactics and Strategies for Creating Effective Marketing Campaigns 101 Chapter 7 Search Engine Advertising 127 Chapter 8 Understanding Search Engine Optimization 145 Chapter 9 The Social Media Universe 155 Chapter 10 The Mobile Marketing Conundrum 171 Chapter 11 The Level Playing Field 187 Appendix: What s a David Profile? 197 Index 233

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9 FIGURES 1.1 The first online ads were simple and effective Foundational communications model Site click-through rate comparisons Six site click-through rate comparisons CTR vs. conversion Maslow s hierarchy of needs Interactive communications model Benefit statements and calls to action Event examples Company focus evolution The perfect search Humans and search engine advertising Search charts Social media examples 160

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11 FOREWORD WHY SMALL IS BEAUTIFUL A core maxim of business journalism is follow the money. At Advertising Age, that means tracking the multinational conglomerates, the P&Gs, Verizons, and General Motors of the world as they funnel ad budgets through giant agency holding company structures to the biggest ad sellers of the world, the likes of which today are Google, The Walt Disney Company, and Time Warner. Once, that triumvirate the marketer, the agency, and the media company was dominant by dint of their size. The more ad spending you have, the more leverage you can wield in the marketplace. The world was simple. Everyone knew his or her place. Success was measured in tiny percentage increments each year. Disruption, when it happened, came over decades; gradually once-dominant brands, such as Sony and Blockbuster, started to decay and were soon replaced after shifts in technology or market conditions. Well, I m here to tell you that that time has ended. Actually, it ended some time ago, but it s only now starting to become obvious. If you just follow the money today, you ll miss the next big story, the one that s right under our noses. That s the story of how thousands of challenger brands largely small and mid-sized companies are using technology to transform markets and upend the status quo. Big marketers of the past leveraged scarcity a limited number of TV spots in prime time or shelf space at grocery stories to protect their position. That worked when people were watching four networks and shopped

12 xii FOREWORD in brick-and-mortar stores. Today, they re glancing at their smartphones thousands of times a day. Attention has fundamentally shifted and splintered. The first generation raised on touch screens and YouTube is in middle school today. Ask these people if they watch things on broadcast or cable TV, and they will look at you with a mixture of confusion and pity. The disaggregation of attention is a fundamental threat to established brands and a huge opportunity for small and medium-sized upstarts. No one sells more coffee in grocery stores than Nescaf é, but you d never know that from Amazon.com where you d think the world drinks Green Mountain Coffee out of K-cups. Similarly, you won t find an ad for Red Bull on TV, but Red Bull s Stratos stunt, where Felix Baumgartner jumped from the edge of space, has been viewed more than 200 million times a couple Super Bowls for anyone who s counting. Similarly, a brand like GoPro can ascend based largely on videos shot by its users. Big marketers are no longer looking around at their big, legacy competition; what s really giving them heartburn are the upstarts, the small and mid-sized brands that could become dominant tomorrow. Here s how the small brands become dangerous. First, they take risks. Small brands that took a chance in social media reaped huge rewards on Facebook and Twitter. They know their audience and how it is using technology. That might mean understanding a new generation of messaging apps that are replacing Facebook in the hearts and on the home screens of young people. Small brands move fast and experiment first. A theoretical understanding of new platforms won t do; you have to be first to understand. That means knowing the culture and your brands value within it. Small brands challenge every orthodoxy. That may be the biggest opportunity for a small brand. While giant marketers tweak their plans here and there, small brands aren t beholden to tradition; they can pivot fast and jump on opportunities as they present themselves. None of this, by the way, is easy. Easy was having the most money. It is much harder to figure out how to leverage limited resources across many different platforms and consumer touch points. And it is harder still

13 FOREWORD xiii to measure those investments and adjusting them on the fly, often in real time. But the truth is that there s never been a better time to be a small brand. With the right foundational knowledge, a budget, and some savvy, a small brand can punch way above its weight. But how to get there? Schools are at least a decade behind and so are most marketing departments and agencies. That s where the authors, Kevin Ryan and Spider Graham, come in. There are two kinds of people writing books about marketing today: those who make a living talking and writing about marketing (you can put me in that category) and those who actually do it. Kevin and Spider aren t part of the pundit class; they re too busy making small and mid-sized brands look and act big. These guys love what they do and have provided invaluable insights to me over the years. What follows is an advanced education in what works today. It s a how-to for the next generation of dominant brands; the next story in American business. Michael Learmonth Global Tech Editor at International Business Times Former Deputy Managing Editor at Advertising Age