“The recession has accelerated systemic changes in the media landscape: Audiences are fragmenting, taking more control, and seeking inexpensive or free alternatives. Combined, print and television will lose almost $17 billion in US ad spending in 2008 and 2009. Newspapers  down (-29%) and Broadcast TV  also down (-23%)” says Forrester Research.

While it may seem to be a buyers’ market, this media meltdown risks being highly disruptive to campaigns and partnerships. Marketing leaders must work with media companies and agencies to reinvent integrated marketing, blending content with messages and extending channels not for reach, but for deeper audience relationships.

Another comment on a recent Forrester Research Blog says “Social Media changes everything, Social Media alters the playing field for everyone within the enterprise; formerly successful strategies and tactics are being challenged, while old and tired methodologies are getting new legs and as we see, Pepsi is using Social Media to give new energy to cause marketing“.

So What did ABC news have to say about Pepsi, the Super Bowl and social media?

Pepsi

“This year for the first time in 23 years, Pepsi will not have ads in the Super Bowl telecast. No Cindy Crawford, Britney Spears or Justin Timberlake. Instead it is redirecting the millions it has spent annually to the Internet. Pepsi has chosen to give away over $20 million in a social media play it is calling The Pepsi Refresh Project, debuting in 2010.

In Super Bowl ads from 1999 to 2009, Pepsi spent over $142 million to encourage consumers to drink the Pepsi brand. Pepsi’s decision to pull its advertising from the Super Bowl telecast and concentrate on its Social Media strategy to try and create a movement will be the largest and most visible showdown between broadcast media and the Internet to date.

The Pepsi Refresh Project will launch on Jan. 13 with a Web site where people can outline their projects to refresh their communities to make a better world.

Visitors to the site can start voting on Feb. 1. Pepsi estimates they will fund thousands of projects spending in excess of $20 million dollars and hopes to start a movement where others will begin funding community projects in the same manner.

On the other hand, if the new strategy gains traction, Pepsi will have increased sales while spending less on the brand than it has in past years and will have a head start on its competition in the new media.

Some industries including automotive in recent years have made the decision to cut broadcast spending in favor of greater spending on the Internet and social media. According to a recent survey conducted by Forrester Research, more than 50 percent of marketers are increasing their spending in social media. Advertisers view social media as important because online they can seek out people who have an affinity for the brand and engage them in a meaningful discourse that lasts longer than 30 seconds. Many times these people pass along information to their friends. Online tools give marketers the ability to track the “pass alongs.” Communication can be more frequent and the consumer can share with the advertiser information such as what other information they would like to have and what actions they would like for the marketer to consider”

So what are some of the other major brands implementing Social Media?

This is what  Media Post had to say on General Motors

General Motors

“According to a new report from Borrell Associates monitoring the pulse of local ad spending by U.S. auto dealers, dealer associations, and manufacturers, US auto manufacturers will increase their online local ad spending by 14% in 2010, while new- and used-car dealers will increase their ad spend online by 8.6%. The total effect will result in an 11.4% increase in new-vehicle online ad spending next year.

Overall, Borrell Associates predicts that US ad spend for new cars will rise to a total of $19.2 billion from the low of $18.4 billion in 2009, experiencing a 4% growth rate across all media. These numbers represent declines from 2008 spending, following a precipitous drop in automotive ad spend of 31% in the first half of 2009, during which  Chrysler and GM declared bankruptcy and the recession forced a significant decline in new auto sales.

Online ad spend, says the report, which grew only 5.2% in 2009, will likely surpass all other media for new-vehicle advertising next year, driven by email, social networking and especially streaming audio and video campaigns, which will grow significantly.

Borrell says in the report that “Revenue from display banners, pop-ups and classifi­ed listings is dropping 20%  this year, while spending by auto marketers on email and social networking campaigns is growing by 20%; a cross-over is expected next year, but it is streaming audio and video that will show the most growth this year and is positioning itself for “break-out” growth in 2010.”

And what about some other major brands and their use of Social Media

Toys R Us

This holiday season, Toys “R” Us developed a Facebook page that grew at the astounding rate of between 40,000 and 95,000 fans per day after its late November launch.

Best Buy

Using Social Media to improve its customer support in new ways

Starbucks

Embracing consumers’ ideas and driving innovation and loyalty.

Meanwhile, Pepsi will be leading an army of bloggers, texters and tweeters as it attempts to redefine the marketing game. I, for one, want a front row seat to see if Pepsi can increase the pace of change of the use of social media by marketers

So is 2010 the tipping point for traditional mass media marketing versus new media?

Twitter has gone mainstream in the last few months and with it the multiple ways and means of using it to promote your product, brand and service has escalated. The tools available are burgeoning and maturing (thats for the next blog). Its being linked into facebook, blogs and websites. Its being used to help customer service, in fact Zappos has nearly all its staff on their own twitter accounts to help interact and support their customers.

Its also being used to promote a Pizza brand and its increasing sales by 15% in some cases. 

But, its not as widespread in other locations as it is in San Francisco and other high takeup areas - “yet” … so its not maybe as useful at this point in time for your suburb, city or country, never the less it cannot be ignored and  its ability to broadcast in real time, to tens of thousands of people and customers at no cost except your time is something  that has to be seriously considered. Twitter can tease and tempt you. It invites you to click on that link and see where it goes, or to listen to that track of music from Blip.fm,  (Great if you are a band or a singer and want to promote your Gig or song and let people hear your music).

So as a business, its ability to deliver your message is something you ignore it at your peril.    

1.  “Twitter Proves Its Worth as a Killer App for Local Businesses”

New Orleans’ own Naked Pizza (@NAKEDpizza) is changing the minds of experts and engaging its local community – using Twitter – in a profitable way.  Naked Pizza is effectively using Twitter for communications, customer service and most importantly, new sales. 

There has been a LOT written about Twitter in general and as a marketing and branding tool.  But as yet, there is no primer, no “Twitter for Business for Dummies.”

Even without a primer Jeff Leach, co-owner of Naked Pizza, seems to be well on the way to figuring it out.  That’s not to say that Jeff’s approach would map to the “best practices” of Public Relations (PR) and Social Media (SM) pros but it’s working for @NAKEDpizza and most importantly Jeff is tying it to metrics which matter to his business

2. “How To Build Your Personal Brand on Twitter”

 Today, Twitter has roughly 6 million users and is projected to grow to 18.1 million users by 2010. With all those people, the chances for networking are endless and connecting with new people can lead to career opportunities, so it is essential that your personal brand exists on the service. Last blog I showed you a step-by-step process for building your personal brand on Facebook, and today we’re going to show you how to do the same thing on Twitter. By leveraging the Twitter platform to build your brand you can showcase yourself to a huge and growing audience.

3.  “10 Essential Twitter Tools For Business” 

Most people struggle when it comes to using Twitter effectively. This may be especially true for businesses, which tend to feel pressure to join Twitter, but don’t quite know where to begin. If you want to use Twitter, but aren’t sure how to use it well, these process by using these 10 essential Twitter tools for business may help smooth the learning curve:

4. “7 Questions Some Brands Are Asking About Twitter”

 Here are some of the excellent questions organizations and other brands are starting to ask:

5. “How To Use Twitter For Customer Service”

Customer service can evoke some serious misgivings or negative emotions. Although customer support is designed to help the consumer, the pain of waiting for a phone representative and the impersonal emails can cause more damage than good for a brand. People are turned off by the term and companies have begun to use different terminology to describe their efforts.

This is not how customer service has to be. With the connectivity made possible by social media, companies have found a new way to engage their customers, solve their problems, and build goodwill for their brands: Twitter. Understanding how Twitter can transform customer relations for the better can be substantial for reducing costs and improving brand image.

What is Social Media?

Well here is a definition…Social Media is about community networks on the Internet that allows for hyper-connectivity between individuals and content. The social software enables anyone without knowledge of coding, to post, comment on, share or mash up content, and to form communities around shared interests.

The most well-known communities are Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, and Youtube with a plethora of blog sites. However there are numerous other social networks online with many having a focused interest, such as Travel, Finance, Parenting, Business.

Social Media is now a mass-communications channel and too important for any organisation to ignore.

What is Social Media Advertising?

Social Media Advertising  is using rich media and interactive widgets, on paid placement across social networks and blogs, where content can be created that affords a truly interactive advertising experience that is proven to yield a higher ROI propensity.

3 Types of  Social Media Marketing

1. Word of Mouth: This is getting a conversation going, participating in the conversation, creating content and resources people can engage with and pass on.
2. User-generated content: This could form any number of scenarios from using simple ratings and reviews on your site, which garners high conversion rates, to inviting users to participate with your content, join your own community, post their own materials.
3. Advocacy: Through carefully crafted opinion scales, we identify and engage your advocates (from your own customer database to external on the social web) to engage them to be your recommenders. The power of recommendation is the most important channel of influence that the social media channel delivers.

What is Social Media Optimisation (SMO)?

Making the content travel and making it visible on search engines. Social Media Optimisation radically improves your SEO results. It is important to optimise your social content, and use a solid link baiting strategy to ensure you are part of the social web

So what are the Benefits of Social Media?

• Live research and insights into your brand, your customers, trends and market places
• Engagement in the online conversation they are having about you today
• Reputation management
• Highly effective brand visibility
• Drives traffic and generates sales
• Increases SEO results
• Wide distribution channel to disseminate your messages
• Improves CRM
• It is completely measureable
• The most credible form of marketing

Finally….5 Key Steps to Social Media

1. You need to do the research first, then listen, analyse and benchmark
2. Train your team to enable them to understand the opportunities of Social Media
3.  The research determines the social media approach and the strategic recommendations 
4. You then implement & manage
5.  Then you measure