Marketing Pilgrim Published: “Conde Nast to Sell Share in Social Site? You Reddit Here First Second” plus 5 more

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Conde Nast to Sell Share in Social Site? You Reddit Here First Second
A Less Hype Oriented Look At Twitter
Mobile, Mortar and the Scan and Scram Shopper
Ebooks Prevail Over Print Sales in January
The Onion’s Take on Facebook, Errrr, the CIA (VIDEO)
Nice Deal! Groupon CEO Rolls Ad Agency Under the Bus

Conde Nast to Sell Share in Social Site? You Reddit Here First Second

Posted: 22 Mar 2011 06:13 AM PDT

It’s been almost 5 years since social news aggregator Reddit was acquired by Conde Nast.

Since then, the publisher has done its best to let Reddit go the way of a ~~Digg~~ Dodo, but thanks to some fundraising and running a lean team, Reddit has managed to achieve some epic growth–hitting 1 billion pageviews no less!

It appears that Conde Nast is not quite ready to let go of the cash-cow that Reddit could still become and is instead mulling a sale of a stake in the site. According to CNET,

The publisher would continue to own the site, but it’s talking to investors about selling a stake. Sources tell me it is floating a $200 million valuation…The theory: taking Reddit outside of Conde Nast’s corporate structure would make the site that much more valuable, and would give it a better chance to compete for capital, managers, and employees alongside the likes of zippy start-ups like Quora, StackExchange, etc.

What a rosy picture that is! More likely, Conde Nast is not sure whether Reddit will dive or thrive and so is hedging its bet. Sell a small stake and reduce some of the risk, while still having enough skin in the game if the site soars.

A Less Hype Oriented Look At Twitter

Posted: 22 Mar 2011 04:59 AM PDT

Twitter just celebrated its fifth birthday. The blog post over at Twitter celebrating this ‘event’ has a nice video (see below, it's worth the look just to see Snoop Dog's 'wake and bake' reference to Martha Stewart … classic). The Twitter post also has some statistics that, of course, come from the nest itself so we can set the stage with how Twitter feeds the hype.

Twitter users now send more than 140 million Tweets a day which adds up to a billion Tweets every 8 days—by comparison, it took 3 years, 2 months, and 1 day to reach the first billion Tweets. While it took about 18 months to sign up the first 500,000 accounts, we now see close to 500,000 accounts created every day. All of this momentum and growth often pales in comparison to a single compassionate Tweet by a caring person who wants to help someone in need.

That's nice. eMarketer has released a study (for sale with no connection to MP) recently that looks to provide a counter balance to the hype that usually is attached to anything Twitter related. US marketers should have a healthy perspective of who uses Twitter and how much of the hype can be trusted. eMarketer puts it this way

Reports of Twitter usage can vary widely. The company itself reported that as of September 2010, 175 million accounts had been created. Firms that track unique visitors to Twitter.com tallied between approximately 20 million and 26 million per month last year.

But because of duplicate accounts, international users, "Twitter quitters" and the fact that many visitors to Twitter.com are simply reading public tweets and not truly using the service, those numbers are nearly all higher than survey data that asks internet users about their online and mobile habits.

"Twitter users are a sizeable and growing bunch, but their numbers are considerably smaller than those disseminated by many media outlets and Twitter itself," said Paul Verna, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the new report, "Twitter Users: A Vocal Minority." "In the US, this means tens of millions of users, as opposed to hundreds of millions."

A Twitter reality check is a good thing and should be talked about more often. Twitter's claim of 500,000 account being created every day makes no mention of how many are bots or just placeholders or actual people that add no value to the service and tend to create clutter vs. anything of real importance.

Regardless, Twitter can be very valuable but marketers must be acutely aware and realistic about just how important it will be to their marketing efforts. The chart below shows that Twitter adult user growth should remain strong over the next few years in the US. This is good to consider but once again you have to look at ‘growth’ through a skeptic’s lens or else you can be blinded by numbers that can’t turn into business. Are bots considered adults?

In the end, it's a simple matter of using rational thinking as to what role Twitter can and will play in whatever marketing efforts are being considered for a business. Just doing a cannonball into the deep end of the Twitter pool could end up in a visit from the marketing lifeguard. If there was ever a place where spending some time in the low impact areas (let's say the shallow end to keep our pool analogy going), could pay off, it's Twitter. For every @garyvee there are millions of accounts that are dormant, are bots or are just not of any value to a marketer. Discretion is the better part of valor when choosing to use Twitter for business. That's not a knock on the service because there can be incredible value but as with anything it is only available if applied correctly.

So we leave you with the thought that real research is required to see the real Twitter through the hype machine. If you simply buy the numbers and expect magic you could be very disappointed. But let's leave on a happy note with Twitter's own Happy Birthday to itself video which will make anyone think that all you need to be happy is a tweet and a smile.

Mobile, Mortar and the Scan and Scram Shopper

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 02:34 PM PDT

Yesterday, I went to the closing sale at my local Borders (sigh, and yes, I have book sales on the brain today). They had blu-ray box sets marked down 40%, so thinking I was getting a great deal, I decided to buy one. After I bought it, I used my Google Goggles to look up the item online and found that the price I paid was the same as Amazon’s everyday, low price. If I had scanned before I bought the item, I probably wouldn’t have bought it as it wasn’t the great deal I had hoped for. I would have been a “Scan and Scram Shopper,” and I’m not sure how I feel about that.

Reporting from the CTIA Wireless 2011 conference, CNBC says;

[The Scan and Scram Shopper] accounted for about 24 percent of last season holiday sales. And those numbers are only going to increase. According to recent IDC Retail Insight findings, these hyper-connected individuals will account for 28 percent or $127 billion of the $447 billion predicted that consumers will spend this holiday season.

While that may sound like bad news for the retail establishment that lost the sale, the report says that it’s good news over all because m-commerce, as opposed to e-commerce, has the power to connect consumers with brick and mortar stores like never before.

Scott Ellison, Vice President of Mobile & Consumer Connected Platforms at IDC says;

"From a bricks and mortar perspective, the winners are those retailers that can create apps that drive users into the store and then engage them even further. A great example is Puma and their in-store iPad app that allows you to create your own shoe while looking at swatches of materials in your hand. That transforms the online ordering experience at home to one that a shopper wants to go to the store to do, and of course once in the store the cross-selling opportunities abound."

The Wireless Association says that the biggest area of untapped gold is in location-based shopping apps. If an app can tell a customer where to find what he needs within a five mile radius of where he is – that’s a powerful tool. I might be loyal to Target but if I find out Kmart has it cheaper and closer, I’m going to Kmart.

Amazon may have replaced Borders but they’re not going to replace my neighborhood Staples. Not when I’m running out of toner and have to print 60 copies of a presentation by tomorrow. I can order gourmet pasta online, but not if I want to have it for dinner tonight. But with the right app on my phone, I can find that same brand of pasta at the Trader Joe’s which is next to a Kinkos so I can get my presentations copied while I shop for dinner. That’s the power of mobile.

As for “Scan and Scram,” I still feel funny pulling out my phone to scan barcodes in a store. I’ve also heard stories about people who were told it wasn’t allowed. But store owners shouldn’t fear the scan. If you do have what I need at a good price, then I’ll stay instead of scram.

Ebooks Prevail Over Print Sales in January

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 01:28 PM PDT

It might be a sad day for bookstores, but it’s a great day for readers. According to the Association of American Publishers, ebook sales rose 115% in January beating out both paperback and hardcover sales in the same month.

Paperback sales in January were dismal, dropping to 39 million, well below ebooks’ 69.9 million sales figure. Adult hardcover books pulled in $49.1 million which is an 11.3% drop. The only kind of book beating ebooks were trade paperbacks which pulled in $83.6 million.

Marketers have long used ebooks as a reward in return for a potential client’s email address, but now that people have shown they’re willing to buy ebooks, why not look at ebooks as an opportunity to bring in some income.

Start brainstorming from two different directions. First, think about what kind of ebooks would be helpful for your customer. You sell camping gear, then how about an ebook with the best little known campgrounds in the US?

The second option is to think about your own skills and how those translate into an ebook. If you’re running a successful business of any kind, people will pay to find out how you did it. Do you overcome great odds to get where you are? Inspirational books are big sellers.

What’s important for beginners is that you don’t get too bogged down in the process. Begin by throwing all of your thoughts into one big file then work on whittling it down and organizing later. Though the book must be well written and interesting, it’s not the great American novel. You’ll do better with a small, informative book that costs under $5.00 then a 500 page narrative that costs $12.00.

If you don’t think you have the talent to write it yourself, hire a writer through a freelance website or Craigslist. But, please, no freebies, folks. Us writers need to make a living, too.

Author Barry Eisler recently made the switch from traditional publishing to self-publishing ebooks. His short story is on track to make $30,000 this year and unlike print books, it will stay on the virtual “shelf” and continue earning royalties forever. Says Barry,

“Forever is a long time to earn royalties. So it makes sense for forever to begin today, not tomorrow.”

Do you have any experience with ebook publishing? We’d like to hear about it.

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The Onion’s Take on Facebook, Errrr, the CIA (VIDEO)

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 11:25 AM PDT

Occasionally we just want to share something funny with you. This qualifies. (via TechCrunch)

CIA’s ‘Facebook’ Program Dramatically Cut Agency’s Costs

Beware the ‘Overlord’.

Nice Deal! Groupon CEO Rolls Ad Agency Under the Bus

Posted: 21 Mar 2011 08:36 AM PDT

Remember the dustup that Groupon created wit their Super Bowl ads? Most people felt they were offensive while others saw the as being brilliant. In the end, Groupon decided to cave to the majority (in other words, those who pay Groupon's bills), remove the ads and apologize for their lapse in judgment.

Andrew Mason, Groupon's CEO, isn't about to let the world think that the while thing was entirely their fault. In fact, he appears quite happy to paint Groupon's ad agency, Crispin, Porter + Bogusky (CP+B) as the culprit while acting as if Groupon was just too trusting rather than complicit in the ads.

AdAge reports

After defending controversial Super Bowl ads created with CP&B, Groupon CEO Andrew Mason is now blaming CP&B and himself for trusting it as an ad partner.

In a Bloomberg BusinessWeek profile last week, which noted Groupon has stopped working with CP&B, Mr. Mason said he placed too much trust in the agency “to be edgy, informative and entertaining, and we turned off the part of our brain where we should have made our own decisions. We learned that you can’t rely on anyone else to control and maintain your own brand.”

Now, that sounds like "we got sold a bill of goods" talk that is looking to take the blame away from Groupon and pushing it back on the agency. In fact, Mason implies that Groupon fired the agency which appears to be at odds with a little thing people in the industry like to call the truth. CP+B's response?

That about-face and, more bitingly, the underlying assertion that it fired CP&B, is riling some execs at the MDC Partners’ crown jewel, which by some estimates accounts for more than one-third of the holding company’s revenue. For one thing, people familiar with the situation say the agency’s contract with Groupon was only through Feb. 28, and it’s disingenuous to say CP&B was dismissed. Groupon’s TV schedule has run its course and no further ads are planned, a Groupon spokeswoman said.

Groupon wouldn't be the first company to push blame back on their agency but let's face it, if Groupon were paying attention to reality rather than being blinded by "Super Bowl Ad-itis" they could have stopped this from happening. To go back and act like they were just kids who took their eye off the ball to be bamboozled by the big, bad ad agency is silly.

The AdAge write up goes on to explain some more detail but the takeaway I get is something that seems to be more thematic with today's big companies run by younger executives. Mason's actions seem eerily similar to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's take on mistakes, which is essentially using the "Oh that's wrong? Really? I'm so sorry" approach. Have you ever felt that Zuckerberg is truly sorry about anything he has ever done?

This kind of corporate behavior in public sheds light on what is likely going on behind the scenes. We have been played by Facebook enough to know that they know exactly what they are trying to get away with and how it often borders the line of good taste and strong ethics. If anyone is ever suckered by a Mark Zuckerberg hurt puppy dog look apology for anything moving forward then they are just not very bright.

Now Groupon CEO Mason is taking the same approach with their business and it could be a red flag. Culture is a trickle down thing in organizations. If there are questionable tactics happening at the top you can be guaranteed that the culture of the organization will reflect that. If Groupon is going to be the 'we're never truly at fault, it's always the other guy' type company just imagine how that plays out with customers who have been sold a 'deal' that isn't in their best interest.

Aggressive closing sales teams aren't born from people who have the best interest of their clients at heart. They are born from the need to get money in the door regardless of the price to another. Groupon's culture is like that and it can make some wonder just what is going on with this multi-billion dollar juggernaut from virtually nowhere.

I bring up this possibility as a warning and nothing else. I have no basis for an accusation other than observed behavior. What I see thus far from Groupn's c-suite isn't the stuff of "I should trust this guy." I think a healthy serving of caution would be advised to anyone who is thinking about 'dealing' with Groupon.

Your take?

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