Eco-Friendly Digital Marketing Internship

Ahhhh, our beloved phone chargers – we all have them.  Some of us probably have more than one to leave at home, at the office, etc., and chances are, most of us leave our phone chargers plugged into the wall 24/7 (guilty as charged). Leaving our cell phone chargers constantly plugged in (when we’re not actually charging our phones) is obviously a huge waste of electricity.  We all have our excuses as to why we do it: we don’t have time to unplug them when we are rushing around getting ready, we forget to unplug them, we are too lazy, whatever.  No matter what your excuse may be, fear not – AT&T has what they call the ZERO charger – an eco-friendly phone charger!

The charger works by cutting off the power supply from the wall socket to the charger when the charger automatically senses if a cell phone is plugged in or not (how awesome is that?).  This five-star efficiency rated charger comes packaged from 100% recycled paper and is nearly universally compatible with any device including bluetooth headsets, iPods, and more. This device is great because it not only saves the environment, saves us money on our electric bill, and saves our conscious from feeling too guilty about harming the environment, but AT&T makes it compatible with a variety of devices so that we can all do our part to cut down on overusing resources.  Does anyone have this phone charger?  It’s definitely something very worthy of checking out!

For more on this topic, check out Mashable’s “AT&T Intros Eco-Friendly Phone Charger”

Today (December 15th, 2010) signifies the one-month mark that I have been with Ingenex for the Eco-Friendly Internship, and yes, the saying is true – time really does fly when you’re having fun! The number of lessons I have learned thus far are countless, and one of the most meaningful and interesting things I continue to learn about on a daily basis is Google. The specific area of interest for this post however is Google AdWords Certification. With a Google AdWords certification, a company or an individual can exhibit their expertise in AdWords. This “stamp of approval” is not only globally recognized, but it allows individuals to showoff their vast knowledge of the latest AdWords tools while practicing their newly mastered techniques.

Photo Credit: Google

In order for an individual or professional to become AdWords Certified, he or she must pass the “Fundamentals” exam as well as one of the three advanced exams. Google has added the “advanced exams” to give individuals a way to study for exams that are more related to his or her role or interest, as a way of differentiating the mastered skills. Ingenex’s very own Digital Strategist Grant Heitkamp has recently been Google Certified in Ann Arbor, an accomplishment that everyone here at Ingenex Digital Marketing is very proud of! When a company becomes certified, Google refers to this accomplishment as becoming a “Google Certified Partner.” In order for a company to be certified, they had to have managed a minimum of $10,000 spend over 90 days (which should be counted from the day that the AdWords account is linked to the MCC account (MCC is Google’s “My Client Center” which exists to handle multiple AdWords accounts). The company must also have at least one employee who is individually qualified to meet the requirements for certification.

Aside from some obvious bragging rights, being Google AdWords Certified, either individually or a company, is a really powerful tool to have. Those who become certified receive a badge (if you are a company) or a certificate (if certification is received individually) that shows their qualification. This qualification is also impressive to prospective clients who may be trying to find the perfect person or company to take them to the next level with Google AdWords.

Have you looked at your Facebook page lately and wondered when (and how) you became friends with a bunch of cartoon characters?  When I started to see my friends’ profile pictures suddenly changing to Madeline, the Rug Rats cast, Doug Funnie, and even Scooby Doo, I couldn’t help but think there was a virus making its way around the site.  However, to my very pleasant surprise, I found out that a virus was not the case. Instead, a new campaign had surfaced in which Facebook users were asked to change their profile picture to a picture one of their most beloved childhood cartoons in order to raise awareness of child abuse.  The campaign’s Facebook page promotes the effort under the campaign page title Campaign to End Violence Against Children – Childhood Cartoon Faces.

Photo Credit: free-software-download.info

The idea behind the campaign was to flood Facebook with happy memories of our childhood instead of human faces, with the goal of eliminating violence against children.  Along with changing profile pictures, users were also asked by the undetermined campaign creator to share information about the campaign in their status by saying, “Change your FB profile picture to a cartoon from your childhood.  The goal? To not see a human face on FB till Monday, December 6th. Join the fight against child abuse, copy & paste to your status and invite your friends to do the same.”  The campaign does not present itself as being affiliated with any sort of official organization, so the origins of the campaign are yet to be determined.  Regardless of how the campaign was started, or just how effective the campaign was, the campaign definitely caught on throughout Facebook and shed some light on an important movement.  Who did you change your picture to?

For more on this topic, head on over to Mashable’s “Facebookers Changing Profile Pics to Cartoon Characters to Fight Child Abuse”

We know that ad spending on social gaming has increased by 60% since 2009, that 56 million Americans play social games, and mobile phone applications and games are continuing to grow in popularity so it just makes sense that advertisers would want to pay more attention to social gaming.

Robert Tomkinson, Playfish’s senior director of global marketing, explained that “What [media buyers and advertisers] want is massive reach, they want targeting, they want performance.” And they can have all of this, especially through the use of ads in social gaming. Tomkinson was a speaker at the Social Gaming Summit and had the opportunity to explain why social gaming advertising is growing and why it will be a success.

One reason he gave for social game advertising’s success is the idea that advertising in games is about engagement, not eyeballs. He gave the example of the Facebook game Farmville and how users were given the option to plant a branded crop, Cascadian Farm blueberries. This may seem like a simple concept but in 500 million cases, Farmville users decided to purchase the branded blueberries opposed to an unbranded crop. The use of branded items in social games allows the gamer to actually engage with the brand instead of just viewing it on a TV screen or magazine page.

Photo Credit: Pichaus

Another reason social gaming advertising is so successful is the fact that social games reach the Facebook (and other social media sites) audience. Facebook has 500 million users and the average American spends more time on Facebook than on Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Microsoft, Wikipedia, and Amazon combined. This high usage gives advertisers the opportunity to reach a large audience in a very simple way.

Tomkinson also mentions that some games have bigger audiences than prime time TV. Close to 30 million people play Farmville, the most popular social game. Last week Dancing With the Stars, the most popular prime time TV show, had close to 24 million viewers. The fact that social games are mostly free for users to play, simple to play, and are easy to access plays a big role in the audience the games are reaching.

Social games are also expanding their advertising efforts to the physical world. For example, 7-11 sold products that allowed Farmville game users to access a code from the bought product, perform a task in the game, and unlock a 7-11 virtual good. Over 3 million codes were redeemed and played in the game.

Brands and advertising in social games can do more than just showcase their name on a billboard. Brands are actually now becoming part of the game. In the social game It Girl, Old Navy had a virtual store that allowed users to purchase clothing with real-world offers. This gave Old Navy the chance to put their brand right into the game and make the company stand out above the rest.

One last advantage to advertising in social games is the idea that brands and companies will often reward players for using their games. By choosing to use a branded item in a game users may have the opportunity to win virtual currency, unlock new levels, or play the games for free.

Photo Credit: Mashable

It seems that social gaming advertising has many advantages for companies to increase their brand awareness in more ways than just having their logo flash across the screen. With the popularity and success of social gaming it seems that they will be here to stay for awhile and it will be interesting to see which companies jump on the bandwagon next.

Check out “6 Reasons Why Social Games Are the Next Advertising Frontier” to read more

It is already December, and I am having a very hard time believing that the end of the semester is already here!  What’s more, the end of the semester signifies the completion of my public relations M.A. program at Michigan State University’s College of Communication Arts and Sciences, and provides another exciting opportunity to wear a cap (which, by the way, have not become any more fashionable since my graduation from Albion College in 2009, or even from my high school graduation in 2005) and gown. As I look back on my program, one of the most prominent memories is my wonderful experience in the New Media Drivers License (NMDL) course, taught by Derek Mehraban, CEO of Michigan Internet marketing firm Ingenex, at Michigan State University.  This class, offered at both the undergraduate and graduate level, strives to teach and train students in digital marketing and new media. I easily deem it as one of the most beneficial classes of my graduate career, considering our lessons revolved around topics like social media monitoring, blogging for business, online video strategy, Google AdWords, blogger outreach and Google Tools, just to name a few.  And while I honestly enjoyed each topic of discussion, one of my favorite lessons was about search engine optimization or SEO.

With search engine optimization, certain words on an organization’s website, blog, or other form of online presence are discovered by search engines like Google, Yahoo!, Bing, (insert favorite search engine here). The premise behind SEO is making the most of a website by using links composed heavily of keywords, while constructing “search engine friendly” content on the page.  The primary goal of search engine optimization is to attract more traffic to a website, while increasing the page rank of that site on search engine pages.  David Meerman Scott provides a very worthwhile discussion about search engine optimization in his book (our class textbook) called The New Rules of Marketing and PR.

If I had to pick out one overarching lesson from our discussion of SEO in class and in the book, it would have to be that using really broad and general terms when developing “keywords” will never work to an organization’s advantage when it comes to search engine optimization.  When we are thinking of “keyword rich links” for a site, it is important to remember that a lot of the time when conducting a search online, consumers typically look up information by phrases based on the information they are looking for (for example, “New Media Class at Michigan State University”). Having key words that are unique and special to the organization will provide more of a chance for consumers to find just what (or who) they are looking for in an effective and efficient search.

Classes coming to an end, especially the New Media Drivers License course, is bittersweet.  But I can say with all confidence that I look forward to applying all of the very worthwhile concepts from NMDL into real life situations.  If you are a student interested in public relations, marketing, advertising, etc. or you are an individual looking to become a master of all things social media and digital marketing from a personal or business standpoint, I highly recommend that you get your New Media Drivers License!  You will not regret it!