HOT-NEW HI-TECH MARKETING TO REACH AND ENGAGE CONSUMERS

Nationally recognized expert Liz Crawford, Iconoculture Vice President and Consumer Strategist for Consumer Packaged Goods and Retail Brands, will speak to The Hampton Roads Chapter of the American Marketing Association luncheon meeting on Thursday, April 10, 2008.

Ms. Crawford’s presentation will focus on emerging marketing technology that is driving change in consumer expectations and buying patterns. According to Ms. Crawford, “Consumers’ lives are now seamlessly integrating the real world with cyberspace. This creates ubiquitous, interactive touch points, which are opportunities for branding and sales across industries.”

Businesses can now connect with their customers in highly creative and rich media environments that are much more interactive, immediate and actionable. Site-to-store services, social networks, virtual and location-based digital touch points and “Fourth Screen” technology are all shaping how we will buy in the future.

Retailing for the Fourth Screen (that small screen on your cell phone) follows the “silver screen,” the TV screen, and the PC screen. Mobile media provides a portal to the Internet with technology that incorporates all four generations on the mobile cell phone screen. It offers new ways to build brands and drive sales by reaching and engaging consumers outside the home and often in close proximity to the purchasing decision.

Ms. Crawford points out that “consumers are retraining themselves in the art of retail – in how to shop using technology. There are huge implications to why Fourth Screen media is so popular. Marketers now need to create new ways to communicate using this media and retailers need to create new ways to merchandise at a digital point of sale.”

SUBWAY’s® recent mobile phone program offers a powerful example for marketing with Fourth Screen media. The program, offered free to customers who sign up, provides cell phone-based, real-time alerts and relevant coupons. Messages reach customers at key times with where to eat. The Mobile Marketing Association reports that more than 300 SUBWAY® stores in the Seattle-Tacoma area began offering My SUBWAY Mobile to their customers with the following results:

A startling 50% coupon redemption rate on the first mobile offer with the 12 test stores — as compared to the typical 1%-2% response rates from traditional paper-based coupons
8.6% average coupon redemption rate to the mobile offers
150 mobile-phone opt-ins per week
Less than a 1% opt-out rate since the program’s inception.

MultiMedia Intelligence reports that the new media opportunity of Internet advertising, Internet TV, IPTV advertising, mobile TV advertising and in-game advertising will grow to US $41 billion worldwide by 2011. This will more than double the new media advertising segment of 2007, which collectively will reach almost US $18 billion worldwide in 2007. Veronis Suhler Stevenson forecasts total Internet advertising to surpass newspapers in 2011 as the nation’s largest ad medium.

The Hampton Roads American Marketing Association luncheon speaker will arm Hampton Roads marketers and business owners with strategies and techniques to embrace and succeed in these emerging technologies. Liz Crawford, with over 15 years in brand management, has helped drive company and brand strategies for Lysol, Clairol, Colgate, Lipton, Johnson & Johnson and Ford, among others. Her brand management and market research background has led to the development of several new products across an array of CPG categories, including Lysol Antibacterial Kitchen Cleaner, FreshLook Radiance Contact Lenses, Lysol Sanitizing Wipes and Ultress Custom Hair Color, to name a few.

A nationally recognized expert, Liz has contributed her perspective and analysis to publications like CBSMarketWatch, National Review Online, and Everything Online Business Book. She has taught as an adjunct professor at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School and New York University’s Stern MBA program. She has an MBA from New York University and a BA in English from Columbia University. Learn more about Ms. Crawford and Iconoculture http://www.iconoculture.com/.

WHEN:
Thursday April 10, 2008
11:30 AM - 1:00 PM

WHERE:
Town Point Club
World Trade Center
101 W. Main Street Suite 300,
Norfolk, VA 23510

Stay tuned for registration info TBA.