International Digital Marketing

We have been aware of it for almost a one year, but unfortunately the lawyers in EU headquarters are not changing their minds as we secretly hoped. The new EU data cookies law will be effective from 26^th of May 2012 in the UK, but very rare companies have done something about it. Now we only have two months left.

What is a Data Cookie?

Cookie is a small file that is downloaded onto your device when you access a website, and it sends your information back to the site once you access it again. Cookies are used in most of the websites – for example, eCommerce site stores delivery details to fasten the checkout, Google analytics (one of the most common cookies) uses cookies to provide statistics for the website owners, and Google also uses them in Google search to provide more personalized search results and adverts.

The reason why cookies are so important for companies is the statistics and results they provide. These allow website owners to analyze the data and take actions to optimize the website performance. Marketers also need the results to justify the digital investment for the top management and investors.

What is the New EU Data Cookies Law?

The European Union Cookie law – or the Privacy and Electronic Communications (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 – was created to assure that website users have a choice whether the website can collect their information or not.

It means that cookies or similar devices must not be used unless the website subscriber or user:

(a) is provided with clear and comprehensive information about the purposes of the storage of, or access to, that information; and

(b) has given his or her consent.

However, device finger printing as a way of user identification is allowed.

What does the EU data cookies law signify for companies?

From May 26^th 2012 companies must inform users about the cookies on their website, what the cookie is doing and ask actively users permission to use that cookie. Besides websites, devices like mobile phones, internet-connected TVs and gaming consoles require the same level of compliance.

How this is done in real life without spoiling the user experience? Well, that is a good question.

If the user does not give permission to use cookies, companies will have no track record of their visit, which means that visitor numbers are going to drop record low. It will also be extremely difficult to track website and campaign performance. Not only there is a great quantity of own and third party tagging, but do not forget the quantity of embedded YouTube videos, widgets, social log-ins, plug-ins etc. which also want to use cookies. Who will explain the Facebook cookies – the website owner or Facebook?

How to ask users permission to use cookies?

There are not many examples how companies are asking users permission to use cookies in real life. This is most probably because companies do not want to add an annoying message to their website until they absolutely have to. And of course companies prefer seeing what competitors are doing first and then possibly copying the message to their website. Of course the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) website had to provide an example. Not a great one to be honest, since if user ignores the message and does not click “accept” you cannot track them. It meant that ICO’s analytics data regarding the unique visitors dropped 90%.

There are however few options, such as:

• Modal dialogue box, which explains in detail what cookies are on the site and what they do. It is shown as a layer and does not allow user to interact with the site until they opt-in or opt-out
• Status bar, which appears in the top or bottom of the page. It informs users that cookies are used on the site and user needs to opt-in or opt-out to close it.
• Warning bar, which appears every time the website wants to use a cookie asking user to either accept or decline it.

How this is implemented in mobile, TV or tablets? I do not know. Maybe one option is to start by having a link advicing users of the new privacy policy, which then leads to a page explaining in more detail what the cookies are, why they are used, how they improve the site functionality, and explaining how the user can disable them in their browser (if they really want to).

Whatever you do, it is not worth waiting for 26^th May 2012 to see what competitors are doing or you might risk a 500,000£ fine. It is better to start thinking and experimenting with AB testing now before it is too late. Of course usually the government does not act until someone complains – but do you really think that some of your competitors would not be happy to tip you off?

According to a research firm IDC, tablet market in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) made up about 33% of last year’s global sales. The company also estimates that the EMEA media tablet market will more than triple in 2011 to reach 22 million units.

However, research firm Forrester predicts that tablet market in EMEA will account for 14.5 million units, or 30%, of worldwide consumer tablet sales in 2011. Not as positive prediction as 22 million units, yet the research firm indicates that more than 43 million Europeans say they are interested in buying a tablet in the future.

Apple, not Android, dominates Europe

Despite recent Android launches in Europe, Apple still has 70% market share for tablet sell-through to consumers in Europe. It means that other tablet makers have product in retail channels, but it is not moving nearly as quickly as Apple’s iPad. Main reason is that non-iPad tablet competitors’ content ecosystem, applications and channel strategy are not as effective as Apple’s and their tablets’ prices are perceived too high.

Apple’s weakness outside the UK

However, Apple has a smaller number of Apple store outlets across Europe (52) compared to its more extensive network in the U.S.(240). What makes this even more interesting is that 30 of these Apple stores are located in the UK, leaving 22 for the rest of the Europe. It means that Apple could be vulnerable to competition outside the UK, since Apple’s brand and channel presence is not as strong in the continental Europe. For example, Mac ownership is lower in all EU-7 countries than it is in the U.S.

This weakness could give Samsung, HP, Acer and Research in Motion a chance to gain more market share in Europe yet if the prices remain the same, there is a danger that low-cost tablets from ODMs such as Huawei and ZTE will enter the market quickly and steal market share.

No content or apps? No customers.

Yet even if consumers like low prices, being cheap is not enough to make them purchase the product. For tablet to be successful in Europe it has to be user-friendly, and have attractive content and useful applications both for free time as well as business purposes. In a very culturally diverse Europe it is very important to have local content providers, because English is simply not enough.

What comes to t-commerce, most of the tablet owners find shopping with the tablet more engaging and a study by e-commerce platform provider Shopatron, supporting more than 800 brand stores in 35 industries, claims that the conversion rate from tablets is much higher than conversion rate from mobiles or even PCs. According to the study, the average conversion rates for non mobile optimized pages (iPhone, Android, iPod…) was an average of 0.37%, yet the average conversion rate from iPad was a whopping 2.04%.

This means that t-commerce is another aspect tablet developers need to take in account while optimizing the user experience.

Anyone to challenge Apple?

Even if there are many competitors rushing into European market, Forrester argues that at the moment there is no serious iPad challenger on sight. This will not change and people will keep on buying iPads unless a competitor with competitive price, quality hardware and successful content ecosystem emerges.

Google might just do this. The search giant has agreed to pay $12.5bn in cash for Motorola Mobility to move  decisively into the hardware and into even more intense competition with Apple and Microsoft. Larry Page, Google’s CEO, said the reason for the move was to “supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers”.

What would be interesting to see is Nokia and Microsoft taking on the challenge to compete with the two. Nokia is known around Europe for its high quality and Microsoft office programs would result very attractive and familiar for European business users. If Microsoft does not invest in mobile and tablet market, the company will see its market share diminish. Nokia meanwhile has also strong reputation in emerging markets, which could help them to keep their market share.

In the end of the day, Nokia still has the strongest foothold in European mobile market even if all we hear about is Apple and Android. But as we Finns say: empty barrels make the most noise.

E-commerce, M-commerce, now T-commerce…just like Smartphones, the amount of “tablets” such as iPads is increasing across the globe. In 2010 Apple sold 14,8 million iPads and the Analyst IDC estimates the number of tablets, not just iPads, to reach 44 million in 2011. Meanwhile, according to Forrester, many retailers report that over 50% of their mobile traffic is now coming from the tablets.

What is very interesting is that a study by e-commerce platform provider Shopatron, supporting more than 800 brand stores in 35 industries, claims that the conversion rate from tablets is much higher than conversion rate from mobiles or even PCs. According to the study, the average conversion rates for non mobile optimized pages (iPhone, Android, iPod…) was an average of 0.37%, yet the average conversion rate from iPad was a whopping 2.04%. For some of the e-commerce stores the iPad conversion rate was double than the conversion rate from personal computers.

Are tablets better for e-Commerce than Smartphones?

Smartphones used for investigation

Consumers are using mobiles to investigate before buying a product, but not for actual transactions. Currently 6-8% of the retailers’ traffic comes through mobile, but only 1% of the final purchases are done by mobile.

This is mainly because, unless the web is mobile optimized, transactions through mobile are not very user friendly, especially if the user has to fill up long forms. Instead, Smartphone is ideal for users to investigate products and do a pre-purchase at any time in any place. Consumers access mainly the product price, availability and client reviews. During the weekend consumers dedicate 30% more time on investigation than other days per week

This reflects in the number of searches. According to the Google Mobile, in Q1 2010 mobile search queries from Smartphones on Google grew 62% over the previous quarter. Concerning the m-commerce, Google mobile searches on shopping-related keywords grew 2500% in the past three years.

To enhance users mobile shopping experience, here are some tips on how to mobile optimize your site.

Tablets used for purchases

Let’s face it: tablets are bigger and with a bigger screen the shopping experience is closer to the familiar PC e-commerce experience. The buying process is also much simpler. It can actually turn out to be much richer and exciting with a touch screen giving the user a bigger possibility to interact with the brand and the store.

And of course, another reason is that there are far too many non mobile optimized sites. A webpage that is unpleasant to browse in a mobile looks slightly more appealing in a bigger tablet screen. Still not optimal, but better.

Tablet users want more precise and up-to-date information than mobile users with all the details of the product, purchase process and delivery. To give users what they want, make sure that the page is “tablet optimized” and the shopping experience as simple and pleasant as possible. Make sure the “shopping basket”, product price and image (and discount if applicable) are always clearly visible. Also test the page in different tablets and check that the content is easy to navigate. Include user reviews and comments and optimize the user journey by making payment and delivery fast and effective.

Tablet, Smartphone or PC?

Why not all three? Whether you call it E, M or T, online commerce is increasing fast and retailers should compensate the decline in physical store sales by investing more in online reputation and sales.

Tablets are coming and offer very nice figures. PC still drives most of the traffic and sales. Smartphones maybe are less likely to be used for transactions than tablets, yet mobiles are considerably increasing the traffic to the actual POS. Besides of search and product investigation, users rely on them to find locations and deals near by, check opening hours, and compare prices online. The potential they have to drive sales offline and online is enormous.

By taking advantage of different channels and devices retailer can stay ahead of the competition, create strong online reputation and increase the number of leads. Therefore it is not wise to concentrate only on one channel, but to invest in e-commerce, t-commerce, m-commerce as well as mobile search.

As the world is going crazy about Smartphones, the amount of users watching videos on mobile is increasing the same rate. According to the official YouTube blog, in January 2011 YouTube exceeded 200 million views a day on mobile.

Google also conducted recently a very interesting study surveying more than 16 000 YouTube mobile website users. According to the survey, 75% of respondents claim that mobile is their primary way of entering YouTube, and 38% believe YouTube Mobile will replace their desktop usage of the platform. Google also claims that 70% of the users visit YouTube Mobile at least once a day, and 58% spend in platform more than 20 minutes per visit.

It seems like a good idea to get on board, but how to create a successful YouTube channel?

1. Choose the best YouTube channel for your brand

First of all pick the right YouTube channel for your brand based on your industry, objectives and budget and then personalize it.  There are various options to  choose from:

• User channel: Free set-up, but basic functions only. Video length max. 15 min
• Enhanced channel: Free set-up, includes also branding box, watch page banner, side column image, channel header and analytics. Video length max. 15 min.
• Advanced channel: Min. media commitment 25K. Has everything Enhanced channel has + standard gadgets, remarketing, 1×1 pixel ad tag support, geo/age restriction. Video length longer.
• Custom Channel: Min. media commitment 40K. Has everything Advanced channel has + bespoke gadget
• Contest Channel: Min. media commitment 60K. Has everything Advanced channel has + contest gadget.

2.  Align your Youtube channel with rest of the brand platforms (social media, website…)

To start with, make sure the channel follows the brand guidelines and the message/image is aligned with rest of the brand platforms. Making changes to images, text, flash etc. takes time and effort and having a clear brand image allows user to know it is indeed the official channel of the brand. Remember to test the look and feel also on smartphones.

3. Include reference points

Include the number of times video has been viewed, liked, downloaded, linked or shared, number of subscriptions to your channel, number of comments. More popular the video and channel seem for users, more credibility it gets.

4. Check users comments frequently

YouTube is also a great channel for customer service and data capture. If the user has a doubt or question about the brand or product, try to respond quickly. Good thing is that users have to have a YouTube account to comment and it is possible to send them a direct message privately.

5. Do not forget to link your website, social media sites or campaign minisite.

From SEO perspective including links to your Youtube channel can improve your sites ranking. Also, it will increase traffic to your website, social media sites or campaign minisite. If possible, try to include links when answering the comments (but not unless it is relevant for the user).

6. Engage and capture users with interactive content and competitions

Do not only make videos, but let the users participate. Create a competition across website, YouTube channel and social media platforms and hide “clues” into videos or around the YouTube channel. Let your fans send you videos and publish the best ones. Having their video on your official channel makes users spread the word around their networks and rest of the Internet. It also gives a human face for your brand.

7. Do not expect all the videos go viral

They will not. It is very difficult to create a successful video users spread around the net and sometimes even the viral video creators do not know why it worked. There are some ingredients that add virality to the video: fun, surprise, sex, talent, tips…but of course you need to be careful not to damage the brand image and to make sure the content is suitable for your industry and target audience. If you are a consultancy or B2B firm, usually industry tips, statistics and discussion of current hot topics can add value to the company and let you establish a reputation of an industry expert.

One example of an excellent brand video that will go viral: Mercedes-Benz.tv: Formula One TV Commercial \’Compliments\’

8. Do not forget to include Call to Actions nor contact details in the end of the video

If you are lucky, users will spread your video around the social networks, blogs, forums etc. outside your official online channels. Make sure that you encourage the users to get in touch with you or the brand in the end of the video. Create an appealing phrase and include your website url, facebook page url, Twitter page, Youtube channel url, campaign microsite url or other platform where they can find out more about the brand/company and connect with you.

9. Promote your videos and YouTube channel in social networks and industry forums

Promote your video and YouTube channel in your social networks and industry forums. And your own website of course. As all the online campaigns, this also requires careful planning. You need to be prepared if one of your videos goes viral to support it across the platforms, media and websites for bigger impact. Be also prepared for the negative and positive comments. For tips, which posts require immediate response, which posts can be left for later and which should simply be ignored, click here.

10. SEO optimize your Youtube channel

Include keywords to the video title, description and channel introduction. Both YouTube and search engines (especially Google) classify YouTube videos based on relevancy for the user and keywords he uses. Again, remember not to include only keywords, but direct the description and introduction to user, not only the search engines.

According to a study by GroupM Search, 48% of the online buyers use combination of normal and social search during the buying process and the percentage is increasing constantly. Consumers search every day brands their friends know and like, and 30% base their buying decision on their friends’ evaluations, 17% on Facebook and 9% on Twitter.

There has been a lot of discussion of social search threatening traditional search. As people spend more time in social networks, especially Facebook, it is to be seen whether users prefer results based on traffic and SEO or the results based on content voted (liked) by other users and friends.

But what if the battle between traditional and social search is not limited to computers, but takes place in mobile devices?

Increasing Mobile Internet, Search and Social Network usage

The quantity of Smartphones and users accessing Internet through mobile devices is increasing fast around the globe and ITU believes mobile devices will surpass computers as the most popular way to connect Internet within five years. According to Strategy Analytics almost 530 million users used the mobile Web at the end of 2009 and the company estimates the browsing to increase to over 1 billion by 2015.

Meanwhile, according to the Google Mobile, in Q1 2010 mobile search queries from high end phones on Google grew 62% over the previous quarter. Concerning the e-commerce, Google mobile searches on shopping-related keywords have grown 2500% in the past three years. Currently Google’s gross revenue from mobile advertising is over 1 billion dollars per year.

At the same time, social networking is increasing around the globe. EMarketer forecasts that the amount of Western European Internet users who visit social networks at least once a month will increase 16.2% in 2011. The company also estimates that the quantity of regular social networking users in the region will increase to 64.4% (141.9 million people) by 2015.

Social and Mobile Search

The search giant Google used to avoid social results in the past, but now the company is becoming more convinced of the importance of being more “people centric”. Even if Google Social Search was introduced few years ago, the social media related content has had a neglected role in the search results. Yet this is now changing: the recent update integrates information from Twitter, Flickr and Quora all over Google’s search engine.

What is quite funny to notice is that while Facebook is not included in Google Social Search, Facebook does not show web results by Google either, but by Google’s competitor Bing.

However, whatever the situation in computer search might be, currently in mobile search Google is definitely the king. According to Pingdom, Google owns 98% of the global mobile search market.

This is a very interesting detail since while Google is still the underdog in the battle between Android and iPhone, at least most of Steve Job’s iPhone users will be searching on Google. Which means big mobile ad revenues for Google whatever the OS might be. Not bad.

Mobile social search

Google’s current position in mobile search seems unbeatable, however according to a recent study by Ofcom, almost 25% of the consumers in the U.S., Japan, France, and the UK already access social networks through mobile devices. There are also various apps that use geolocation to search, such as Facebook places, and apps that use geolocation and users’ reviews combined with augmented reality.

What is curious to notice is that while the whole world focuses on the competition between Google and Facebook while discussing social search, Bing has already gone a step further and integrated a social search feature to its Bing for iPhone App. The user can use their phone to search through their Facebook and Twitter accounts and see combined status updates from their friends. In case there is an instant answer for the search, the app shows it first before social results.

This is a very interesting idea, since this social feature allows the user to see information from the web together with the opinions from user’s social network. This increases the relevancy of the result and user experience, since the user can see with one quick look if the place is worth visiting or product worth buying without browsing further or visiting social network app or site. Also the information user finds is easy to share in Facebook, Twitter and email, which means users can share and ask their friends opinions in real time.

Could this be dangerous for Google? Yes. Google is not able to do this as long as it does not want anything to do with Facebook, which has more than 500 million users across the globe. Therefore this might be Bing’s opportunity to stand out, since users, who have their main friend base in Facebook, would not like the platform to be left out from the results.

Bringing social dimension to mobile search can be the next big thing if it is user friendly and well promoted. Whether it will affect Google’s current position as a principal mobile search tool, depends on its flexibility to accept that also results “liked” by Facebook users can be relevant. If not, other search engines or Facebook can take advantage of this default and challenge Google  also in mobile search.

According to a study by Akamai Technologies for IDC, consumers in Western Europe have increased their online and mobile shopping. The study interviewing 1.500 consumers from 7 different European countries (France, UK, Germany, Italy, Spain and Sweden) reveals quite interesting results for online retailers and other companies interested in e-commerce.

Main findings:

• Most of the consumers wait that the website downloads in less than 4 seconds, if not, around 70% will go to another website.
• In total 30% of the respondents have increased their online spending during 2010, Spain being the biggest growing e-commerce country in Europe with 44%.
• 62% of the respondents bought clothes and shoes online, books and magazines following with 59% and travels with 47%.
• Surprisingly, people spending most money online in Europe (1.500 €/year) are 35-54 years olds.
• Around 30% of the respondents uses, or plans using, mobiles to buy online. Inside this group 10% uses already their mobile or smartphone to search shops, compare prices or buy online. Besides, 20% of the respondents is planning to do it in the future.
• Multi-channel buyers spend 15%-30% more than a consumer who uses only one channel.

However, even if  users have increased online spending, the conversion rate from visitors to clients is still low. According to a study by The e-tailing group, the conversion rate is still below 5%. Also, only 17% of the users visiting online stores even have an intention to buy. When users can move to competitor’s website with one click, it is essential to re-think the strategy: How to motivate the users who arrive without intention of buying? And those who do, how to turn the intention into a sale?

34% of the online store users do not find what they are looking for, says a study by e-marketer. It means that in most of the product information is not visible or the product is not classified properly. 8% of the users say as well that the information available is insufficient for purchase decision. According to another study by conZumo.com, 64% of the consumers believe that it is essential for the portal to be well-known (security).

To increase conversion rate, make your website more user friendly:

• Easy access: To facilitate the access to the products, highlight the “search” button, add different categories and subcategories, recommendations and different channels to access the products.
• Organized products: It is very important that the website is organized and the user can see the products clearly. Just like in a physical store.
• Clear product information: It is essential that the visitor has all the necessary information during the purchase. For example, price, delivery, delivery time and availability have to be clear because they are the factors that influence most the buying decision.
• Purchase confirmation: Show clearly required steps needed for purchase. Include thank you page and send the client confirmation e-mail after the purchase. Also, if possible give user a chance to follow his delivery. This gives users feeling of security.
• Different delivery options: Users should have a possibility for a different way of delivery, for example – buying online, but getting the product in physical store to avoid delivery costs.
• Sense of urgency: To turn visits to sales, it is important to create a sense of urgency. Tell visitors it is the last day the product or discount is available or show how few products are left with the discount (like Ryanair: “only 5 seats left with this price”)

Consumers expect more from their online shopping experience and they demand better services and support from the online retailers. With the increase of mobile usage in buying process, the e-commerce retailers must have also a proper mobile strategy in place.

“As we look across markets, dramatic differences in mobile media consumption, brand adoption and user behavior become evident…For brands seeking to establish a multi-market presence, understanding usage dynamics across geographies is essential to implementing a successful global mobile marketing strategy.”

Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile

ComScore published in October 2010 a very interesting comparative report on mobile usage and behaviors in Japan, the United States and Europe. To find out how consumers interact with mobile media across these three markets, the study gives a detailed picture of the mobile content consumption, demographic comparisons and top social networking brands across markets.

There are considerable differences between the three: Japanese use mobile to access mobile media, U.S consumers use it for Social Networking and Europeans love texting.

Connected Media

In Japan more than 75% of the mobile owners use connected media (browsed, accessed applications or downloaded content), while only 43.7% are using it in the U.S. and 38.5% in Europe.

Japanese mobile users also show stronger preference of applications and browsers compared to mobile users in the U.S. and in Europe.

Messaging

What comes to the messaging, the biggest difference of user behavior between the markets is that 81.7% of the Europeans use text messages, while Japanese prefer sending emails. The American mobile users were more likely to use instant messaging services on their mobile than the other markets.

Social Media/Entertainment

While 21.3% of the American users use the mobile for Social networking/blogs, only 17% of the Japanese and 14.7% of the Europeans get connected & blogging through their mobile.

However, 63% of the Japanese like to capture photos and 22% watch TV/video on their mobile. Europeans capture videos more than other two and 24.2% of them is listening to music and 24.1% is playing mobile games.

Finance/Retail/Travel/Others

Quite few people accessed their bank accounts, the percentage staying under 10% in all markets, yet 16.1% of the Japanese accessed financial news or stock quotes through their mobile. Online retail and travel services were also low in all markets; most of the numbers not reaching even 7%.

Maps, traffic reports and weather are another story. 16% of the Americans and 15.7% of the Japanese access maps, 12.6% of the Japanese access traffic reports, and 34.1% of the Japanese and 22.3% of the Americans access weather forecasts through their mobile. In Europe these areas are not popular, the percentage varying from 5.9% to 13.7%.

Demographic Segment

The study measures also the mobile media consumption across the genders and age segments.  The usage rate is more balanced across age segments in Japan than in the U.S. and Europe.

* Index = % demographic segment / % demographic base*100

In Europe, 18-24 year olds are 54% more likely to access mobile media than an average mobile user, while persons aged 25-34 are 35% more likely to get connected.

In the U.S., 25-34 year olds are 44% more likely to use mobile media, while 18-24 year olds are 39% more likely to use it.

Another interesting fact was that females in the U.S. were 9% less likely than males to get involved with mobile media and European females were 16% less likely than males to use mobile media.

Top Mobile Social Media Brands

Across markets the top mobile social media brands were the same ones as the social media brands generally. Facebook leads the way in the U.S. and Europe and local social media brands ruled Japan with Mixi, Gree and Mobage Town. The Twitter fever in Japan raised the brand on 3^rd position in the market. In Europe considerable preference for Youtube might explain partly Europeans preference on video capturing.

Looking through the statistics from these three complex markets, I think Mark Donovan is right. To create a successful International mobile marketing strategy, it is essential to know how the consumers use their mobile in each of these markets. For example, SMS marketing and games might work in Europe, email or interactive marketing might be more effective in Japan and in the U.S. social media and blog marketing might be a success.

Everything depends of course of the target audience, which makes the demographics handy, and the relevant content/message/advertising. Good thing to remember here is also the emerge of the Smartphones, which change the user behaviour considerably allowing the mobile user access to different applications and faster connection among the other benefits. The high mobile media use in Japan makes sense since the market is more advanced than the others on this aspect, but I have a feeling that at same time next year the results could be very different in the U.S and Europe.

Great comparative snapshot of Japan, the U.S. and Europe anyhow!