Building a Connected Brand - iCrossing

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FEBRUARY 2011

icrossing + HEarst

building a

connEctEd brandHow brands bEcomE publisHErsin a rEal-timE markEting world

by Adam Lavelle - Chie Strategy Ofcer, iCrossing

with Brian Haven, Alisa Leonard and Rob Garner

RELEASE 1.0



© ICROSSING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 2

NOWBEFORE

BRAND

BRAND

AUDIENCE AUDIENCEMEDIA MEDIA

iCROSSING: Building a Connected Brand

Brands, media and audiences used to have distinct roles in themarketing relationship. Today those roles overlap, creating new

opportunities and expectations.

People are now their own publishers of opinions, experiences and preferences.

They share those sentiments with each other in social spaces. By working together,

audiences have commandeered many of the functions of marketers, driving product

awareness and inuencing purchase decisions. They are telling both brands and each other

just what they think – and they are doing it publicly, for others to nd and see.

Media properties are also learning to evolve as technology continues to

give rise to the voice of the customer. Magazine articles and news stories no longer end

when the writer or journalist nishes the piece. Media companies are now playing host to

serious conversations, with readers functioning as active contributors to the story. Media

innovators are learning to harness that user-generated content, responding to it, building on

it, and using it to inform further editorial direction. They are listening to their audiences, and

actively engaging with them. They are evolving into real-time curators of unique audiences,

each with their own robust communities.

The traditional messaging model still plays a vital role for marketers. Placing brand advertising

with media content consumed by audiences is an effective method to reach customers.

But alone, the tactic is insufcient. Traditionally, media (and media companies) served as

the meeting place for brands and audiences. But, media companies are no longer the sole

connective tissue for brands to communicate with their customers. Today, all three are equal

participants in an ecosystem where each party is both a content creator and distributor. This

fundamental shift, while disruptive to the status quo, creates both opportunities and liabilities

marketers cannot ignore.

Figure 1: Brand, media, audience – BeFore & now

The Big Shift:

Brands Must Evolve Into Media Machines.1



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FEBRUARY 2011iCROSSING: Building a Connected Brand

Brands are expected to share back. As audiences increasingly talk directly

to brands, brands are realizing that audiences are demanding more of them than simply

shouting about their products and services. Audiences want to hear what brands have tosay. Every day, millions of them are actively reaching out to connect with brands through

digital channels. Nearly 15 million people “like” the Skittles Facebook page —opting in to

daily messages from the candy brand. Zappos and Whole Foods each have nearly 2 million

people following them on Twitter. Shoppers even pay for the content brands provide:

witness the $.99 that iPhone users pay to download Kraft’s iFood Assistant app.

Content moves through networks at lightning speeds at a pace marketers

struggle to match. To complicate matters, one form of content can create another form

of content, and another, and another — moving through a constant cycle of replication.

Comments, re-mixes, mash-ups, parodies, derivatives — it seemingly never stops. And

as the content replicates, it spreads through networks exposing hundreds or thousands

of unique connections to audiences, creating public, visible histories of interaction.

Conquering this rapid cycle, a signicant aspect of the content ecosystem, can prove

difcult.

The Takeaways: As these three forces — brand, media and audience — blur together, the roles and

expectations of each continue to change. Most importantly, for brands there are two key

takeaways:

1) Brands are becoming their own media platorms

Brand equity is no longer being created by media spend alone. Instead ‘earned’ media

(visibility in search and social spaces, word-of-mouth, PR) and ‘owned’ media (a

brand’s website, ofcial Facebook and Twitter pages, branded apps, etc.) are becoming

fundamental components of the story.

2) Always-on marketing is the new norm

Audiences are increasingly expecting constant, consistent engagement from brands.

Online stores are never closed, so marketing programs and customer service can’t be

either. When consumers want to know more about a product, need answers to questions

or are ready to take action, the brands are expected to be ready and responsive.

Hearst and iCrossing are committed to working with brands that recognize thisfundamental shift in marketing. Central to our approach is a marketing framework we call

connectedness, an approach that focuses on how marketing gets done in a networked

world. As our clients embrace this approach, brands become a new kind of publisher,

interacting with their audiences wherever they are, whenever they want, armed with unique

content that serves as the relationship-building currency they need. This results in higher

degrees of loyalty and brand preference — not to mention the ability to more precisely

inuence purchase behaviors.





Aware. Gone are the days of immense “consumer”

studies conducted every several years — audiences’

needs and behaviors are now changing dramatically

within much shorter timeframes. Brands need to stay on

top of what’s truly important to audiences at any given

time — sometimes even minute-to-minute. It is less

about isolated market research data and more about

understanding your customers, in the moment. Agile. Brands need to adapt quickly and precisely to

shifting audience attitudes, interests and behaviors.

What’s required? New processes for creating and

distributing content on a frequent and reactive basis.

Active. Brands need to play an active role in the

digital ecosystem by reaching out to audiences for

interactive, two-way conversations. Those that don’t

will either cease to be relevant with online audiences or

relinquish control of their brand image to the whims of

the masses.

A new approach is required

for brands that wish to

leverage the strengths of

earned and owned media,

and adopt meaningfulcustomer engagement as

keys to marketing success.

Brands have no choice but to rethink their current approaches to

communication, customer engagement, and the metrics they use to

determine success. The rules have changed.

Connectedness is an approach to executing marketing in a networked world. It is a framework

for, and a measure of how intimate a brand is with its audiences. It’s a characteristic of a

brand, a ‘state of being.’ After all, a brand needs to be a living organism in today’s marketing

world, not an object, not a loudspeaker yelling at people. Connectedness is a way of thinking

about how successful brands do marketing: focusing on audiences, not targets; engaging in

dialogue, not shouting; and developing trust that is meaningful and lasting.

We see connectedness and measure it by looking at a brand’s visibility to its audiences, its

usefulness to those audiences, its usability (the ease of doing business with the brand), the

brand’s ability to create desire, and nally, its level of engagement with its customers.

A new approach is required for brands that wish to leverage the strengths of earned and

owned media, and adopt meaningful customer engagement as keys to marketing success.

To reinvigorate a brand and strive for category leadership, brands need to become:

Connected marketing presents newopportunities for brands.2

Brands that mobilize around these themes, focusing on content and community, moving at the

speed of the net, and integrating their programs not just across traditional and digital channels,

but across the entire bought, earned and owned media landscapes, will dene themselves as

connected brands, and will win in the marketplace.



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FEBRUARY 2011

audiences expect brnds to support the throughout their

decisioning journey, providing infortion nd ssistnce in rel-

tie. mrketers tht fil to deliver erode brnd equity.

At the core of a connected experience is

content. Procter and Gamble provides recipes

and craft ideas on its Home Made Simple site,

while North Face and REI have developed

iPhone apps that report snow conditions

on popular ski trails. Pampers.com has a

complete tool set for moms including helpful

information for every stage of the child-

raising journey, and Avery helps moms stay

organized through its Organization Of Moms

Facebook community. The Home Depot has

produced hundreds of do-it-yourself videos

for its YouTube channel. The implication for

marketers who want to create connected

experiences: beyond campaigns and campaign

assets, brands need to create and distribute

meaningful content at signicant scale, and at

increasing velocities.

But content alone does not create a connected brand. Content may be the currency, but

active engagement is how a brand comes to life: content is shared, discussed, re-formed

and amplied. This is a new breed of communications strategy, where connected brands

participate in live, active dialogue with their audiences. Comcast, Jetblue and Best Buy

provide customer service experiences through Twitter. Skechers and bebe partner with

Kim Kardashian (armed with her 5M Twitter followers and 4M Facebook fans) to cultivate

conversations with their audiences. Ally Bank doesn’t just listen to what its customers

are saying in social spaces and on their blog, they use those conversations to inform new

products and services. In all of these examples, it’s the synergy between content creation,

sharing and community engagement that yields success.

Figure 2B: ally Bank and Best Buy

Content And Community AreEssential Ingredients.3

Figure 2A: avery, home depot, and rei






Marketers are struggling with changes in the media landscape, and are determined to gure

out how to take advantage of them. Do we just create a Facebook page and call it a day? Do

I use Twitter for customer service? What content should I be producing? What makes good

content, and what do I do with it? Can I control the conversation? How do I pull off the ‘live’

experiences my audiences expect?

We are helping marketers answer these and other questions, by identifying and developing

programs across four must-have areas:

• Listening: ongoing analysis of customer sentiment, expectations and intent

• Creation: content publishing, from high-quality branded content to real-time responsiveness

• Engagement: continuous dialogue with audiences, backed by dened governance models

• Measurement: benchmarking a brand’s performance within the networks and ways to optimize

The Connected Brand System

Listening uses both comprehensive research studies coupled with real-time monitoring to en-

sure that a brand’s insights about their audiences are not only deep, but current as well. Thosendings drive the creation and distribution of the appropriate forms of content. A varied mix of

content ranging from high-production branded content to the harnessing of audience-gener-

ated content then ows across an ecosystem of publishing systems. As that content ows, au -

dience managers guide it to the right venues, motivate audiences to engage and participate in

continuing dialogue. As this engagement happens, metrics determine what content, and which

actions are successful. Ongoing optimization ensures that the appropriate mix and speed is

used to keep the audience engaged. Finally, all of this information feeds back into the listening

process to enhance overall insights and inform the content that will be created going forward.

Brands need a framework to thrive in an always-on world.

Our approach provides the foundation necessary for brands to succeed.

The Connected Marketing Playbook.4

ENGAGE

MEASURE

LISTEN

CREATE

Figure 3: the connected Brand system



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FEBRUARY 2011

Create a customer listening program.

A gap exists between the tactics in the typical marketing

toolkit and the behavior of audiences in today’s digital land-

scape. Marketers typically turn to focus groups, surveys and

customer satisfaction analysis to understand an audience —

but they stop there. As a result, brands are out of touch with

audiences’ digital behaviors — and most of their advertising

and marketing efforts prove it. While all of these techniques

are still useful, they don’t tell the full story. There are nu-

merous techniques to understand how audiences behave,

including conversation monitoring and analysis, search data,

persona development, web analytics, campaign performance

data, social media activity data and more. These newertechniques improve a brand’s understanding of who their

audiences are, where they are in the network, and how they

behave— a substantial enhancement of insight over mean

income and gender.

Additionally, much of this information can be collected now,

in real-time — and should be, because it’s continually chang-

ing and providing insights. This means marketers need to

shift their thinking — audience insights don’t happen in quar-

terly or annual research sessions, they demand listening right

now. Knowing and understanding this information in real time

is essential for a connected brand to develop and maintain

an effective strategy. Audience needs and desires shift in the

moment, and marketers and audience managers need to

adapt the content accordingly to remain relevant.

Leveraging both its own resources and those of its par-

ent company, the Hearst Corporation, iCrossing helps

marketers form a detailed and accurate picture of a

brand’s audiences— and ensures that the insights are

always up-to-date.

Our listening methods are targeted specically at digitalaudiences. We leverage numerous data sources to give us a

baseline understanding of audiences’ media consumption,

technology adoption and online behavior. We layer on our

own research into how audiences make decisions online, the

roles that various media channels play in the process, and

what (or who) the inuencers are at each step along the way.

We leverage best-in-class monitoring tools — like Radian6,

Buzzmetrics, Cymfony and others — to listen to online

conversations and understand what specic communities

Together, iCrossing

and Hearst can help

marketers form a

detailed and accurate

picture of a brand’s

target audiences — and

ensure that it’s always

up-to-date.


A

To guide our clients through the essential activities for building successful and sustainable

real-time marketing programs, we’ve developed The Connected Marketing Playbook.

These activities center around the four key areas described on the previous page: listening,

creating content, engaging audiences and measurement.




TRADITIONALMARKET RESEARCH

HEARSTRESEARCH& INSIGHTS

AUDIENCE INSIGHTS & PERSONAS

(Needs, Desires, Aspirations)

iCROSSING“LIVE”

AUDIENCETRACKING

R I C H

S U

B S C R I B

E R D

A T A B

A S E

C U S T

O M R E S E A

R C H

A C T I V E R E A D E R P A N E L S

D I G I TAL ETHNOG R AP H Y E X P E R I E N T I A L M A P

P I N G C O N V E R S AT I O N & M O N I T O R I N G L I N G U I S T I C P R O F I L E S

S E A R C H A C T I V

I T

I E S

DEM O G R A P H I C S C U S T O M

E R S A T

I S F A C T I O N

F O C U S G

R O U P S S U R V E Y S


Figure 4: customer listening program

This combination of traditional research efforts, Hearst media insights and iCrossing digital

audience knowledge provides brands with the needed intelligence to develop powerful and

effective programs. Programs that are authentic, intimate and connected to desired audiences.

are saying about our clients and their competitors. And with our proprietary linguistic

proling methods, we mine search data to identify what people need and want. We nd

exact language so our clients can connect with audiences using the audience’s own

vernacular.

Leveraging insights from Hearst’s media properties (magazines, websites, newspapers

and more) we are also able to keep attuned to changes in the aspirations, attitudes

and emotional needs of the audience groups that brands want. With a rich subscriber

database, ongoing custom research programs, and active reader panels, Hearst pro-

vides insights and informed opinions into what inspires and intrigues audiences right

now. Hearst’s expertise ranges from broad categories like teens, women, and men, to

specic interest areas like beauty, green living and retail shopping trends.



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Develop a process for content creation and distribution.

There is a tendency to think that an effective tactic to marketing in an always-on

environment, rife with chatter, spam and other noise that may keep a brand from achieving

its rightful share of voice, is to simply push out massive amounts of content. After all,

consumers are likely to produce more content about your brand, more quickly than your

marketing department ever could. There is a bit of a content war going on online, and brandsare on the front lines, like it or not.

We believe success lies in distributing the right content to the right audience in the right

places at the right time. And that’s a tricky thing to gure out. What topics will engage

audiences the most? Where will content have the most impact — in a blog, on Twitter, or on

a branded website? How often does new content need to be distributed and how quickly

do audience comments need to be addressed? Even if marketers nd the answers to these

questions, they still need to develop the content. Articles, stories, video, photos, blog posts,

and responses to audience-generated content — new ideas for specic pieces of content

— all need to be produced. For many marketers, the resources and expertise required for a

real-time marketing program can be daunting or just simply undoable.

With expert content strategists, content creators and premium material at our ngertips,

the unique combination of iCrossing and Hearst can help brands create and distribute

content efciently and effectively.

iCrossing’s dedicated content team is coupled with Hearst experts and resources, giving us

access to an extensive editorial network for the development of premium content. We can

also tap Hearst’s deep archives of existing editorial content assets for brand use. And of

course, because we adjust our plans on an ongoing basis, much of the content we produce

is developed dynamically, on-the-y. Throughout the content development process, we also

involve iCrossing’s creative and user experience experts, who ensure a smooth and consistent

brand experience as audiences follow the content trail from search to Facebook to a brand

website and beyond.


Connected Brands Create & Inspire Content From Many Participants

While content, sharing and community are at the foundation of a successful connected brand,

not all content is created equal. The digital network through which content is published,

consumed and re-purposed is increasingly multifaceted. The complexity of creating and

distributing content aligned with audiences’ needs and desires requires a robust approach.

Therefore, a content platform for a connected brand is:

Relevant to the audiences’ needs frst. Many marketers put their own needs ahead

of their customers. Pressure to meet nancial objectives, achieve disjointed marketing

metrics, or simply believing that buyers of the brand are still “consumers,” drive marketers

to miss the mark. Connected brands know that business objectives begin with an

audience need, and that’s no different with content creation. Content must be useful to the

audience, otherwise there’s no reason for them to engage.





Cohesive across touch points. Content creation must be diverse to meet audience

needs, but it also must tell a larger brand story. Content generated by a brand should align

thematically across all touch points, ensuring that the subject matter aligns with audience

expectations and allows them to accept, or give permission, for the brand to engage on

the topic.

Designed to foster engagement. While not all content created will generate massive

amounts of interaction, brands should strive to achieve that interactivity as often as

possible. One signicant tactic to creating engaging content is listening. The brand

audience provides ample information about what is interesting, exciting, and useful for

them; all the brand has to do is observe their behaviors and listen to the words they

say. Built into a robust content plan, this feedback can be invaluable to keeping people

engaged.

Sourced from the appropriate creator. Most marketers cringe at the thought of

generating the volumes of content required to maintain an engaged audience. But

marketers need to remember that they don’t have to generate the content alone. Brand

content can come from within the company, from agency and media partners, aggregatedfrom third parties, and developed in conjunction with the brand’s audiences (see Figure 5:

Content Continuum)

Adaptive to modifcation by all parties. Brands no longer have full control of the content

created about them. Content can be owned by the brand, inuenced by the brand, or

merely observed (see Figure 6: Degrees of Content Control). Any content, regardless of

source, ‘belongs’ to all other participants in the dialogue. This means it can be repurposed

or recreated in newer and more meaningful ways. The connected brand’s role is to design

for, allow, encourage and facilitate these modications. Once the content created by

a brand becomes the ownership of the audience, it’s more valuable and it brings that

audience closer to the brand because it’s a co-creation.

Figure 5: content continuum

AUDIENCE

GENERATEDBRAND COMMISSIONED PARTNERED AGGREGATED CONVERSATIONAL

Pre-existing or

newly created

content by the

brand’s staff

Short, rapid

interactions

between

audiences and

between the

audience and

brand

Personal content

frequently cre-

ated by the audi-

ence, about the

brand or tangen-

tially related to

the brand

New, custom con-

tent requested by

the brand

Pre-existing con-

tent created by

partners

Pre-existing con-

tent created by

third-parties



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Figure 6: degrees oF content control

These content sources can be classied into three primary categories: 1) Owned—fully

in the control by the brand, 2) Inuenced—requested by the brand but not necessarily

controlled, and 3) Observed—outside the control of the brand, but still usable (and critical) to

a connected brand’s content strategy.

Connected Brands Share Content at the Appropriate Velocity

Content that is created for the appropriate situation and activated by audience management

must be distributed at the necessary speed to remain relevant since content exists in many

forms and it takes varying amounts of time to prepare. Sometimes weeks or months ofresearch are required to answer a complex question, other times it’s a rapid and instantaneous

dialogue — and any type of content can inspire or instigate the creation of a different type. It’s

this robust cycle of content creation that demonstrates the need for content that can be shared

in a manner that:

Allows for the proper preparation time. Some content may require extensive research

or preparation, from investigative editorial article to a long-form video, these types of

content don’t happen overnight. Additionally, some content is instantaneous, from

comments on a blog to @replies on Twitter, a brand need to be prepared and have a plan

to respond. Content plans and the appropriate staff are critical components to bringing

these disparate forms of content to life in the same ecosystem.

Transforms when appropriate, spanning long-term to real-time.

Any piece of content can instigate a urry of responses by an audience, derivative content

that can spread like wildre. Additionally, some content should be designed for change,

allowing the audience to transform it into something completely different. Perhaps a long-

form, in-depth article motivates a days-long discussion about the implications. Or perhaps

the advice of an expert inspires the audience to test the advice and capture it on video.

Any piece of content must be designed to consider multiple forms of derivative output.

Achieves the necessary velocity of distribution. Each form of content within the

Content Continuum has a different pace for development. As content moves from Owned

to Inuenced to Observed, the pace becomes evermore explosive. As a result, different

content development strategies are employed given the preparation times involved. In fact,

there are different types of people employed along the way, but they all must work in a

tight knit, integrated fashion to ensure a uid process.


CONTENT

SOURCES

AUDIENCE


OWNED INFLUENCED OBSERVED





Presents an appropriate amount of information to the audience.

Distributing these types of content in the right channels and at the right pace will play a

signicant role in the level of audience engagement. Too fast, and they get overwhelmed.

Too slow… boring. A highly-astute staff must monitor the pace of content generation

and distribution (both internally and externally) to ensure the proper ow.

Promotes dialogue, not just consumption.

Content must be shared in a way that it facilitates a conversation. Long gone are thedays of “consumption,” media control, and push-only messages. As the authors of The

Cluetrain Manifesto observed, “markets are conversations”. Connected brands contribute

content and perspective to these conversations, but the dialogue belongs to the audience

as well. This means that content must be shared in a venue that is optimized for the

desired method of response — perhaps YouTube for video responses, or Facebook for

polling.

AUDIENCE


OWNED INFLUENCED OBSERVED

CONTENT

SOURCES

VELOCITYFigure 7: the content continuum + velocity



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C Actively Manage Content and Communities

Content alone does not produce a successful connected marketing program. Nor does a

stand-alone Facebook page or Twitter account. No matter how strong their initial foray into

branded content or social media, many marketers lack a plan for sustaining their efforts on a

long-term basis. Today’s real-time, networked environment requires that brands produce rich,

engaging content on an ongoing basis and continually cultivate relationships with audiences.Brands that can’t keep up with these constant demands will see their online presence start

to languish, along with their opportunity to reach audiences and convert them to brand

advocates.

Hearst and iCrossing believe that there’s a synergy between a strong content strategy and an

active audience management plan. Through this approach, we compound the value of our

clients’ real-time marketing efforts. We develop and execute a Communications Architecture,

that requires specic strategy and planning skills to leverage the expertise of individuals who

understand the reciprocal relationship between content, community and crafting ongoing

brand narratives across multiple touch points through content and conversation.

Whether it’s reaching out to audiences in existing communities or fostering dialog andrelationships in communities that we build, iCrossing’s teams work on behalf of the brand

to engender deeper engagement with audiences. Depending on the client and the content

strategy, our daily efforts might include posting updates to a brand’s Facebook page,

responding to questions or comments on Twitter, or directly emailing inuential bloggers

within a community. But beyond simply publishing content, our community managers

play an active role in iterative content development. We turn audiences’ comments into

conversations by creating polls, open questions, and other dialogue-based content intended

to amplify conversation and interaction within a community. We leverage the Content

Continuum to create assets, publish them to appropriate media formats, and propagate them

across the brand’s digital ecoystem (see Figure 8: Connected Marketing Ecosystem). All

delivered within the wrapper of a dened governance model, and brought to life through an

engagement strategy.

Figure 8: connected marketing ecosystem

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT

AUDIENCE MANAGEMENT

GOVERNANCE

AUDIENCE


OWNED

MEDIA

PLATFORMS

CONTENT

TYPES

INFLUENCED OBSERVED

• Article

• Story

• Photo

• Video

• Editorial Article

• Brand Mention

• Comments

• Link to Brand

• Blog Post

• Blog Comments

• Blog Link

• Video Embed

• Status Update

• Facebook “Like”

• Facebook Comment

• Facebook Poll Response

• Tweet

• Retweet

• Twitter Follow

• Twitter @Reply

.com Brand

Blog

Partner

Site 3rd Party

Site

FacebookTwitter

YouTubeFlickr




By continually keeping the community engaged, we encourage audiences to create an

enormous amount of additional branded content in the form of tweets, comments, status

updates, and likes. This audience-generated content magnies both the volume and speed

of branded messages throughout the network — and it does so in an extremely cost-effective

manner. Because we’re always in the loop on what audiences are talking about, we’re able to

constantly feed new ideas into the content strategy and master content plan.


Connected Brands Embrace The Art & Science of Audience Engagement

While content is the critical ingredient, and sharing the essential frequency, community is the

process that activates that content and denes the pace. The ‘network effect’ of a published

piece of content can result in hundreds or thousands of unique connections to audiences,

creating public, visible histories of interaction. For brands to be relevant today, they need to

entrench themselves where people already spend time, across the uid ecosystem of digital

channels. Managing this ecosystem is a full-time job. It must leverage the expertise and

skills of talented individuals who understand the engagement landscape, the power of smart

content, and who think and function as strategists, communications designers, and user

experience experts. Architecting and managing activities embedded within this ecosystem

requires an audience manager who can:

Be the steward and voice. A connected brand exists and participates in many places.

Some are owned, like the website or microsites. Some are semi-owned, such as social

spaces like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Others are not owned, like forums and blogs.

Regardless of the venue, the brand needs audience manager(s) who can speak on behalf

of the brand in a unied and consistent voice. Many of these individuals become quasi-

celebrities as stewards of the brand, so marketers need to nd a person (or people) with

not only the right skill, but also with the personality that aligns with the brand and is inviting

to audiences.

Encourage an active dialogue. The audience manager has to be both a good listenerand a social buttery. Much like a conductor, they must orchestrate many different topics

and ensure that the audience stays engaged. Their tactics span from issuing requests

for content, to soliciting stories to sharing new content. It’s a never-ending process of

monitoring, encouraging, activating and conversing.

Enhance the visibility of content. But audience managers don’t just engage in

conversations with the audience, they also promote and distribute content. Some of that

content is contributed by the brand (Owned or Inuenced content) and made available

through various digital channels. Additionally, sometimes that content is created by the

audience themselves. Either way, the audience manager acts as the hub making sure

anyone who might be interested knows the content exists. Lastly, iCrossing’s audience

managers access search and social data, to ensure the visibility of content in searchengines and relevant social spaces.

Drive buzz and word-of-mouth. Getting the word out is not only the job of the audience

manager. The audience itself plays a crucial role in exposing the brand and the conversation

to new people. The audience manager must ensure that the community has all of the tools,

motivation, and interest they need to spread the work. Audience managers use techniques

like contests, promotions, and audience generated content initiatives.



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D

Create and inspire derivative content. Just like spreading the word is a role for the

audience, so is the creation of content. An effective audience manager actively encourages

the audience to create new content or enhance and modify content contributed by the

brand. It’s a process of co-creating that furthers engagement and brings people closer to

the brand.

Build relationships with inuencers. Some audience members are of signicant

importance because they are key inuencers — they also inspire the audience. The

audience manager constantly seeks out and identies these inuencers and engages in

relationships with them to help promote both the brand, and the inuencer themselves.

This mutual benet helps motivate these inuencers to amplify brand messages.

Contribute to an enhanced audience experience. In many ways, the audience manager

becomes an extension of the brand’s products or services. The engaging interactions they

inspire contribute directly to the overall brand and audience experience. Connected brands

differentiate themselves from the competition by using audience management and robust

content strategies to enhance the experience.

Measure and optimize.

The point of connected marketing is to help brands maximize their marketing spend by

creating deeper engagement with audiences. While many marketers have jumped on the

social media bandwagon to create a branded presence on Facebook or Twitter, they’re just not

seeing results. Or worse: they don’t even know how to measure their performance. In order to

take full advantage of their investments in real-time marketing, marketers need to understand

what content is getting the most traction in the community — and how it’s performing across

paid, owned and earned media.

Our dedicated measurement teams and proprietary technology enable us to quantify the

results of our marketing programs and make strategic adjustments to our approach over time— ensuring a positive ROI.

We start by creating an initial baseline for audiences’ conversations around a brand. We

benchmark KPIs such as blog mentions, social signals and referral trafc and then monitor

these metrics over time to understand what’s working — and what’s not. We measure

conversions from Facebook fan pages and referral trafc from Twitter followers, which allow

us to determine the actual value of a brand’s participation on these sites. Our real strength lies

in our proprietary platform that tracks audience behavior across SEO, SEM, display, brand

websites, and social spaces in order to create a robust understanding of who’s engaging

with what content and where. In addition, our custom Web-based marketing intelligence

dashboards enable our clients and our internal teams to view all content performance data

at a glance.

Once we understand how certain pieces of content are performing in different contexts, we’re

able to adjust the content strategy and master content plan accordingly — creating additional

content around a hot topic or scaling down our efforts on a particular site. Often, we’re able to

adjust our programs that same day. Our ability to continually ne-tune our approach ensures

that brands are always getting the most of their marketing budget.




Creating and managing a connected marketing program takes preparation and strategic

vision. It also requires an ability to see and react to changes in audience behavior and

conversations as they happen. This is clearly one of the biggest challenges that marketers willface in the years ahead — and many are unprepared.

Marketing programs at most companies simply aren’t designed to keep up with audience

expectations for real-time content and interactions. Marketers spend months designing and

developing microsites — and years on their primary .com properties. They treat social media

efforts as on-again, off-again campaigns with stringent review processes that cripple new

content development. And while analytics platforms can provide immediate visibility into data

trends, most marketers don’t look at their website or search analytics data until they’re

months out of date. In short, many brands are stuck in old-fashioned marketing practices

that aren’t conducive to — and actually hinder — active participation with audiences in a

connected manner.

To succeed with connected marketing, brands need to align with partners who can inspire

people around the world through rich content – and distribute that content to audiences

precisely when and where they need it. iCrossing and Hearst have joined forces to do just that.

iCrossing is a full-service digital marketing agency. Our heritage in search engine marketing

and optimization affords us unmatched skills in understanding what online audiences need

and dening how to distribute content so that it’s highly visible to the right audiences. Our

social media strategists and community managers keep an active pulse on audience attitudes

and conversations for brands as diverse as bebe, The LEGO Group and Mazda. We’ve got

data in our DNA and a relentless focus on measurement, so our clients always know how

effective their marketing efforts are. Our clients also have access to our proprietary tools for

audience research, analytics and content optimization.

Hearst’s creative legacy provides a complement to iCrossing’s deep technical expertise.

With 14 U.S. magazine brands – six of which are over 100 years old — Hearst has mastered

the art of understanding audiences’ ever-changing needs and creating branded content

that’s fresh and relevant. To support its publishing engine, Hearst has world class resources

including a global network for editors and writers, digital photography and video studios, and

a deep archive of historical content. Marketers can leverage all of these resources for their

own branded content programs. And marketers can tap into Hearst’s extensive distribution

network, which reaches a truly global audience through 14 magazines, 24 websites, 10 mobile

websites, and nearly 200 international editions. Each month, Hearst’s U.S. magazines alone

reach 72.6 million readers, and its websites draw 21 million unique visitors.


iCrossing + Hearst: Your ConnectedMarketing Partners5



17

FEBRUARY 2011

Figure 9: hearst content category Breakdown

Brands can leverage the authenticity and authority associated with brands like Good House-

keeping, Esquire, Popular Mechanics and Seventeen by tapping Hearst’s vast editorial net-

work and its archive of evergreen articles and images. Hearst offers premium content in the

following areas such as Luxury, Beauty, Family, Men, Moms, Food & Home, Technology and

Young Women.

LUXURY

MEN

MOMS

FOOD &

HOME

YOUNG

WOMEN





By combining our respective talents, iCrossing and Hearst help marketers connect with

audiences through real-time marketing programs. Here are a few examples of how we make

this work:

Hearst insights are used to advise brands on topics that might be of particular interest

to certain communities.

iCrossing taps into Hearst archives and commissions new content from Hearst’s

network to create branded content for sites, Facebook pages, microsites, blogs, Twitter,

YouTube, and many others.

iCrossing curates relevant text, images, video, etc. from Hearst archives to create

branded service or entertainment-focused display ads that can be displayed on Hearst

and/or third-party properties.

iCrossing leverages its robust technology platform to monitor, track and distribute

content throughout the ecosystem, providing a technological platform to support a

connected brand.



FEBRUARY 2011

iCrossing and Hearst have joined forces to help marketers create communities around rich,

engaging content. We’re developing powerful connected marketing programs for some of the

world’s top brands — and our combined expertise in social media, search technology, content

creation, distribution and community cultivation means that we can help marketers sustain

these programs for years to come.

You might want to talk to us if you:

Struggle to keep up with the rapid changes in your audience’s needs, wants,

interests and conversations online.

Want to gure out the right level of active participation for your brand.

Aren’t sure what kind of content will best engage consumers.

Aren’t ready to build an internal editorial department.

Lack the resources to continually engage with your consumers.

Seek skills and approaches to measure the ROI of your social media efforts.

We want to help you succeed in today’s real-time marketing environment. Please connect

with us:

Join the dialogue:

http://thecontentlab.icrossing.com

Email us:

[email protected]

Call us:

866.620.3780

Follow us on Twitter:

twitter.com/icrossing

Become a fan on Facebook:

facebook.com/icrossing

Read our minds a Great Finds, the iCrossing blog:

greatfnds.icrossing.com

How can we help you?6

Building a Connected Brand - iCrossing

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