Elemental Know-How

This weekend is Mother’s Day and, as many of us know, this holiday is all about substance as we prepare to pay tribute to our moms for everything they do. No greeting-card-industry-driven holiday fluff here.

Behind the winter holidays, Mother’s Day is the second largest U.S. spending holiday―even bigger than Valentine’s Day!

According to a National Retail Federation survey, Americans will pamper mom with appreciation this year. Consumers are estimated to spend an average of $152 on mom, buying everything from flowers and jewelry to apparel and special outings (brunch, dinner, etc.). That’s big bucks when you consider there are more than 85 million mothers in the United States alone.

Ssshhh! But, here’s what we plan to treat mom to:

• 66.4 percent will buy flowers, spending a total of $2.2 billion;
• 54.3 percent will spoil mom with a nice dinner or brunch, costing $3.4 billion. 
• 32.8 percent will give mom a new blouse or sweater, spending $1.6 billion on clothing and accessories; and
• 12.7 percent will go digital, shelling out a total of $1.6 billion on tablets, digital cameras, smartphones, etc.

Additionally, consumers will spend $1.8 billion on gift cards and $1.3 billion on personal services such as a trip to a day spa.

A recent sur­vey by Price­Grab­ber, reported that 52 percent of peo­ple planned to buy their Mother’s Day gifts online this year. Whether you’re a retailer, restaurant or florist, you can help attract new customers and make it easy for them to spend on mom by serving relevant merchandise, content and promotions―whether to buy on the spot or to make a more informed decision for an offline purchase.

Digital Element is proud to be a partner at “Deutschen Online-Handelskongress e-Tailx 2012” in Frankfurt this week. Kate Owen, our Managing Director for Europe, will also be speaking about how international e-tailers can use IP Intelligence.

Join other retailers, from 14.20-14.40, on Wednesday, May 9, to hear more about one of the show’s Hot Topics: Data-driven eCommerce. Kate will specifically discuss how IP Intelligence can have a positive impact immediately on conversion rates. She’ll be showcasing real-world examples with international case studies.

We look forward to seeing you there and discussing how you can leverage Digital Element’s NetAcuity solution in your own ecommerce initiatives!

Snow skiing in April, you ask? Maybe not so hard to believe after the freak winter snow storm the northeastern United States experienced this week. Traditionally, there are a number of regions around the world where snow skiing is still top of mind. Think Ischgl, Austria; Banff, Canada; Chamonix, France; and Zermatt, Switzerland.

While there’s no denying that we’re on the backside of this year’s winter ski and snowboard season, organizations―from gear retailers to airlines to ski resorts―still have time to maximize this time of year to the fullest with targeted ads, special promotions, and discounts.

Quick and easy to implement, IP Intelligence technology can help you successfully reach and engage the eternal ski bum or the snowboarding air dog who is using the Internet to plan his or her next big ride. For example,

•  Gear retailers can target local consumers with ads that promote in-store, blow-out sales on this season’s remaining inventory, from snowboards and skis to gloves and jackets.

• Airlines can offer special weekend get-a-way airfares to consumers living in a zip/post code that would require only a short flight to ski destinations that are still open.

• Ski resorts can reach their immediate communities with even deeper discounts on lift tickets during the week and/or promote special events of interest to locals.  

According to IBISWorld, the world’s largest independent publisher of U.S. industry research, the Ski and Snowboard Resorts industry is in the mature phase of its life cycle, and is expected to remain in that state over the next five years. That means competition will only intensify, and those organizations whose livelihoods depend on this industry will need to turn to marketing techniques that help personalize the ski and snowboard customer experience from the first touch―and for one third of the worldwide traveling population that usually means online.

Who says you can’t be in two places at one time? Digital Element will be at two key European digital marketing shows this week, starting on Tuesday:

 ·         IAB Sweden Conference 2012

·         DMX Austria 2012

 While at DMX Austria, be sure and attend our special workshop on geolocation, at 9:15 a.m., on Wednesday, April 25.

 Lots of activity in the region and new European clients deploying our NetAcuity IP Geolocation technology coming on board. Be sure and stayed tuned for upcoming announcements.

We’re fanning out across Europe with exhibits at two major expos this week. You can meet and greet Digital Element’s crack European team at the following shows, starting on Wednesday:

·         Internet Retailing Expo 2012 in Birmingham, England – Stand F21

·         Online Marketing Expo 2012 in Madrid, Spain – Stand 407

Recent research by The Boston Consulting Group indicates that the Internet represents a $4.2 trillion economic opportunity for G-20 countries―with the United Kingdom leading the way.

It’s the perfect time for European organizations ― or those companies conducting business internationally ― to find out how they can put IP-based geolocation technology to work for them in order to tap into this impending economic windfall.

Although not an official “federal” holiday in the United States, St. Patrick’s Day has a long history of being celebrated with parades and general goodwill for all things Irish―including the beer. Irish is our nation’s second most frequently reported ancestry (behind German―also known for great beer).

Outside of our own Irish population, the number of people traveling from Ireland to the United States has been a steady influx of hundreds of thousands each year.

If you’re in the travel and hospitality industry, then tourists in these numbers represent a pot o’ gold at the end of the rainbow. But how can you capitalize on their interest in our fair country?

Here’s a wee bit of advice (pardon me for lapsing into leprechaun-speak): Incorporate IP Intelligence into your website. By automatically identifying online visitors from Ireland, you can:

• Instantly present information on regional Irish events (i.e. St. Patty’s Day celebrations) and cultural groups;
• Offer discounts at local Irish pubs and restaurants;
• Deliver recommendations on where other visitors from Ireland prefer to stay, eat and sightsee; and
• Customize content in their native language.

Delivering a more relevant online experience shouldn’t be left to the luck of the Irish these days. Incorporating IP Intelligence into your online strategy can significantly simplify and enhance visitors’ online experience, allowing you to accurately and non-invasively present relevant content, products and promotions to them based on their location.

This year, you can count me in as one of the 13 million people who will don green, hoist a pint of Guinness, and celebrate the Irish with good cheer.

These days it’s very easy for any single individual, male or female, to capture someone’s affection. Online dating sites have provided a spot-on platform for single males and females to mingle and enter into casual or serious relationships by finding their “perfect” match―on their terms. No more blind dates with that “nice young man down the street” set up by Great Aunt Mary or with the “girl with the great personality” orchestrated by a well-intentioned friend.

These stats should give you an idea of just how much love has blossomed online:
• The dating service industry in the United States is projected to be worth $2.1 billion.
• There is estimated to be 1,500 dating sites in the United States alone.
• There are 54 million singles in the United States, with 5.5 million of those using dating services.
• In October 2011, online dating sites had 593 million visits just in the United States.

As with anything else on the Internet, the sheer size of the dating pool has gone global and can often be daunting for date seekers. An online dating site with a significant number of people may seem great, but when you ultimately find out only three people live anywhere within a 200-mile radius, that tends to put a damper on any notion of romance.

However, a site that enables its members to find and interact with other people in and around their local areas seems to be a match made in heaven. Living in the same geographic location means they’ve already registered on the “compatibility-o-meter.” From there, they can pull in other criteria such as age bracket or special interests to move the needle (or not).

People’s unwillingness to disclose a lot of personal information these days has made that first social interaction a little more difficult. IP-geolocation technology, however, provides a non-invasive method for online dating sites to provide members with the ability to automatically make that connection on a local level while still maintaining their privacy. With services focused on interactions between people in the same geographic proximities, it is more important for sites to use accurate geolocation data so they can be more effective in introducing people who live close to one another. Reliable geolocation data down to a ZIP and postal code level allows online dating sites to deliver on their promise to help people find true love.

So, forget the roses and box of chocolates―that’ll come later. Play Cupid today and spread a little more love through geolocation.

In an audience, people gather together in concert halls, at sporting events, and in museums because they share a common interest, whether it be in music, for the love of a sports team, or appreciation for the arts. You and the other people who also live in your ZIP code tend to share common lifestyles and demographics. Yep, that makes you an audience as well.

It’s really no different online. People gather on Facebook and Twitter to share information and experiences with their friends and followers who they think will find it interesting. Many of us frequent the same websites where we gather information or shop. We’re part of several different audiences there as well.

Audiences come in all shapes and sizes, but their members often share common characteristics and interests. For online advertisers, targeting audiences is a necessary ingredient for success in today’s marketplace. This means marketers need to be able to define the needs and interests of their audiences on an ongoing basis so that information can be used to develop messages that are more timely and relevant to their audiences’ needs and interests. However, identifying just what audiences want and need has often been a challenge online.

A recent ClickZ article “Audience Targeting: A Look to the Future,” sums up where the marketplace is. Of particular note it says:

“In most cases a single point of targeting criteria is too little information to effectively reach ‘real people’ who are definitely more multifaceted than a lot of marketers give them credit for. It’s about understanding how people see themselves. It’s about giving them access to information that can help them make informed decisions.”

The future path for audience targeting is paved with data. It’s no longer about going after the low-hanging fruit or broad mass markets. It’s based on sophisticated data that allows marketers to engage in relationships with audiences in a more personal way, relevant and timely manner. 

For example, maybe it’s about leveraging new data inputs such as country, state, city, and ZIP code-level location information to geo-segment online audiences and benchmark campaign performance.

This type of approach is working for [x+1], a company specializing in delivering real-time, audience-based, predictive marketing technology and services that help advertisers and marketers reach their prospects and customers more effectively online. Several years ago, [x+1] needed to collect anonymous consumer data in order to automatically uncover actionable segments of consumers in real-time. By adding demographic and geographic IP Intelligence technology to its analytic platform, [x+1]’s clients could begin to profile end-users and anonymously track their online responsiveness, as well as identify patterns between the profiles and their response activity to determine the best offer to display.

A six-month campaign─using IP Intelligence─for a prominent luxury automotive manufacturer and retailer seeking to drive buyer inquiries generated more than 42,000 click-throughs, led to approximately 5,000 people who scheduled test-drives, requested sales information, conducted inventory searches, or used the dealer configurator. In addition, more than 7 percent of post-click actions led to sales inquiries.

Online technologies, such as IP Intelligence, will only continue to evolve to include deeper and more numerous datasets. If online marketing budgets continue to increase as predicted, then I believe this next year represents a lot of opportunity for audience targeting. So, I hereby declare 2012: The Year of the Online Audience Experience.

A recent McKinsey research report estimates the number of Chinese online video watchers will reach 700 million by 2015. With gigantic online viewing numbers such as these, it’s no wonder that the United States is projected to fall behind China in online ad market share by 2015.

Chinese online video sites, such as Tudou, are already turning to technology innovations to make the online user experience that much more relevant with targeted advertising and content based on geographic location. Tudou is deploying global and hyperlocal geolocation technology to more specifically target the delivery of content and advertisements geographically down to a city or town level—for Tudou’s audience of more than 200 million monthly unique visitors.

Read the full press announcement here to learn how Tudou is using this technology to enhance how users find what they want to see, share what they create, and connect with like-minded people in their local communities

Little did I know when I was sleeping—I mean sitting—in the back of my high school World Geography class how important geography would become to our lifestyles and our livelihoods.

At the time, I really didn’t see the relevance of studying countries, such as China, Russia and Africa, that all appeared worlds away from my little corner of the U.S. of A. Although, I did see the importance of knowing where the cutest girl in the school lived—and I didn’t need a geography class for that.

Fast forward to the 21st century, where the world is anyone’s oyster and the Internet has helped create today’s global marketplace.

Geography pervades our society, our work and our lifestyles. From Yahoo Maps, to Google Earth, to GPS locators and apps for mobile devices. They’re all designed to make location-related decisions better and faster.

National Geographic calls it “geo-literacy,” the combination of skills and understanding necessary to make far-reaching decisions. The three components of geo-literacy are understanding human and natural systems, geographic reasoning, and systematic decision-making.

• Understanding human and natural systems: A geo-literate individual is able to reason about the creation, movement, and transformation of materials in human and natural systems.
• Geographic reasoning: A geo-literate individual is able to reason about the characteristics of a location and its connections to other locations.
• Systematic decision-making: A geo-literate individual is able to articulate decision-making criteria, project outcomes of alternatives, and evaluate those outcomes in terms of the established criteria.

To be truly geo-literate is to be able to combine these three abilities to make decisions in real-world contexts. IP Intelligence is an example of a leading technology that provides businesses with the necessary—and accurate—real-time geographic location information in order to make those decisions.

So in honor of geography teachers around the world, let’s make a collective New Year’s resolution to get more out of geography so we can all grow and prosper in 2012