Today is Memorial Day in the USA, when we honor those Americans who have made the ultimate sacrifice of valor in war.
On Saturday, 200 buglers gathered at Arlington National Cemetery to remember the 150th anniversary of the composing of Taps during the Civil War.
Taps was created in 1862 at Harrison’s Landing, VA by an officer in the Union army. It has been played as an unofficial part of military funerals since the end of the Civil War. See the NPR story about it.
The above Infographic is by Weldon Owen (@WeldonOwen).
Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you publish a book the right way. J
And be sure to bookmark, use daily, and tell others about the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.
Marketers should make an effort to understand and cultivate so-called brand advocates as social media becomes more prominent. According to a Zuberance (@Zuberance) study, half of brand advocates make a recommendation online because of a good experience with a product or service. The second most prominent motivation for brand advocates: they want to help friends make better purchase decisions.
Though brand advocates are formally defined as making one recommendation a year, without pay – the highest percentage of them (38%) do so 5 to 9 times a year, with 16% making 10 to 15 recommendations and 16% making 15 or more. Other findings:
· Brand Advocates are even more active than previously thought.
· Brand Advocates have even larger social networks than previous studies showed.
· Brand Advocates’ recommendations aren’t limited to consumer brands and products.
See the recorded webinar.
Also see our previous blogpost, “Consumer Trust in Online, Social, & Mobile Advertising Grows.”
Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you identify and reach your brand advocates.
And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.
Consumers’ reliance on word-of-mouth in the decision-making process – either from people they know or online consumers they don’t – has increased significantly.
According to Nielsen’s (@NielsenWire) latest Global Trust in Advertising report, which surveyed more than 28,000 Internet respondents in 56 countries:
· 92% of consumers around the world say they trust earned media, such as recommendations from friends and family, above all other forms of advertising — an increase of 18% since 2007.
· 70% trust online consumer reviews, an increase of 15% in 4 years.
· 58% (nearly 6-in-10) trust messages found on company websites.
· Half trust email messages that they signed up to receive.
· 4-in-10 respondents rely on ads served alongside search engine results.
· 36% trust online video advertisements.
· One-third believe the messages in online banner ads — an increase of 27% since 2007.
· Sponsored ads on social networks, a new format included in the 2011 Nielsen survey, are credible among 36% of global respondents.
· Display ads (video or banner) on mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones are trusted by one-third of global respondents, which is slightly higher than the reported consumer trust level of text ads on mobile phones (29%). While the reported consumer trust level in mobile phone advertising is still low, it increased 61% since 2007 and 21% since 2009.
· When it comes to traditional paid media, while nearly half of consumers around the world say they trust television (47%), magazine (47%), and newspaper ads (46%), confidence declined by 24%, 20%, and 25%, respectively, between 2009 and 2011.
Interestingly (perhaps confusingly), the 92% statistic above contrasts with April 2012 survey results from Ipsos (@ipsosnewspolls & @ipsosna), which finds that, while consumers worldwide may turn to their friends for advice on purchases, only 38% will trust a product or a service more because friends recommend it. Hmmmmmmm!
Possibly our previous blogpost, "Matching the Medium with the Message in Word-of-Mouth Marketing," might shed some light on the confusion.
Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you communicate your brand’s message through owned media, consigned media, earned media, and paid media.
Be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard (and tell others about it, too).
Who says branding isn’t valuable? Yesterday, Ford reacquired its logo. Back in 2006, when other automakers in financial distress accepted government bailouts, Ford Motor Company pledged its assets as collateral – including its historic Ford blue oval logo – in a loan agreement with banks. The New York Times says:
Ford put up its logo, headquarters, factories and other assets to qualify for $23.5 billion in loans that helped it survive the recession without needing a government bailout like General Motors and Chrysler.
Read the Ford news release.
Bloomberg BusinessWeek offers a brief history of the logo:
The carmaker’s emblem first appeared in 1927 on the nose of Henry Ford’s new Model A. The cursive script inside it dates to at least 1906, when it appeared on the radiator of the Model N and later on the more famous Model T, according to automotive historian John Wolkonowicz. It was trademarked in 1909, the company says.
The script logo is not, as often thought, based on the founder’s signature. Rather, it was created by Childe Harold Wills, a draftsman for Henry Ford. “The font was similar enough to Henry’s own signature that it looked as if he was signing every car,” says Bob Casey, senior curator of transportation at the Henry Ford museum in Dearborn, Mich. “But that was more happy coincidence than by design.”
So what’s a logo worth as a guarantee for a multi-billion dollar loan? Ford hasn't placed a value on the trustmark. But Interbrand (@Interbrand), which tracks brand values, says the Ford brand is worth $7.5 billion, and it ranked Ford 50th out of its top 100 brands in a recent survey.
What are you doing to add value to your brand?
Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strengthen and effectively communicate your brand’s message.
And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.
On the heels of Gallup’s assessment of the religiosity by state, American Bible Society (@americanbible) has released findings from its State of the Bible survey (@UncoverTheWord) conducted by Barna Group (@barnagroup), which details Americans’ beliefs about the Bible, its role in society, its presence in US homes, and more.
· 47% of American adults believe the Bible has too little influence in society today; only 16% believe it has too much influence, with the remaining adults expressing neutral opinions
· 55% read the Bible to be closer to God, down 9% (from 64%) in 2011
· 79% believe they are knowledgeable about the Bible but 54% are unable to correctly identify the first 5 books of the Bible
· 46% believe the Bible, the Koran, and the Book of Mormon are different expressions of the same spiritual truths; 46% disagree
· On average, 85% of US households own a Bible; the average number of Bibles per household is 4.3
· 36% of Americans read the Bible less than once a year or never, while 33% read the Bible once a week or more
· Younger adults are less likely to perceive the Bible as relevant and useful when compared with older adults.
· 62% of adults age 66 and older believe the Bible contains everything a person needs to know about living a meaningful life, dropping to 54% among boomers (age 47 to 65), 44% among those age 28 to 46, and dropping even further to 34% for those age 18 to 27.
See the graphic (pdf).
Read the full analysis report (pdf).
Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you reach Bible readers.
And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.
An article on Marketing Charts (@marketingcharts) says QR Code scans by consumers were up 157% in Q1 2012 over Q1 2011, according to a report by Scanlife (@ScanLife), the mobile barcode solution provider.
That’s good news for the town of Monmouth (Wikipedia entry) in Wales (pop. 8,877) which recently embarked on the "Monmouthpedia" (@Monmouthpedia) project — a community-wide 6-month project to affix QR codes to all its landmarks, organizations, and even people, and write Wikipedia entries on each of them, which the codes link to. Adweek (@Adweek) says:
The idea came from a TEDx talk in Bristol, where a Wikipedia editor suggested that Wikimedia's UK chapter should "do a whole town" using QR codes. Residents and businesses in Monmouth stepped up, did all the legwork (there are more than 1,000 QR codes in total), and introduced Monmouthpedia this weekend.
A Wikimedia blog entry says:
Lest you think this is a passing interest, the town of Monmouth is in it for the long haul. Many of the QRpedia codes are printed on ceramic plaques that should last for decades. The information in articles is backed by the Wikipedia community and will be continually improved and expanded. Physical guides and maps will become outdated, but the Wikipedia articles will always be able to be updated. This potential for on-site access to up-to-date information in any language is what makes the Monmouthpedia model so exciting.
A simple concept and coordinated effort put this Welsh community on the social media map. Does this spark any dreams you may have for your own brand?
Read the Wikimedia blog entry in full.
Read the Adweek article in full.
Read coverage by psfk (@psfk), by Amanda Kooser (@akooser) for cnet, and by Joseph Volpe (@jrvolpe) for engadget.
Also see our previous blogpost, "Small Swiss Village Hits it Big with Facebook Fans."
Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you strategize unique promotions for your brand.
And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.
The above Infographic is by BzzAgent (@BzzAgent). Enlarge it.
A demographic milestone has been passed that will be important to marketers and publishers. Here’s how The Wall Street Journal puts it:
For the first time in US history, whites of European ancestry account for less than half of newborn children, marking a demographic tipping point that is already changing the nation's politics, economy, and workforce.
Theologian Martin E. Marty suggests,
Insert the word “Religion” next to “Politics” and “Economy” ... and you will have the mix which excites, troubles, and provides new agendas.
According to the WSJ,
Among the roughly four million children born in the US between July 2010 and July 2011, 50.4% belonged to a racial or ethnic group that in previous generations would have classified them as minorities, up from 48.6% in the same period two years earlier, the Census Bureau says. That was the first 12-month stretch in which non-Hispanic white children accounted for less than half the country's births.
The New York Times says,
While over all, whites will remain a majority for some time, the fact that a younger generation is being born in which minorities are the majority has broad implications for the country’s economy, its political life and its identity. “This is an important tipping point,” said William H. Frey, the senior demographer at the Brookings Institution, describing the shift as a “transformation from a mostly white baby boomer culture to the more globalized multiethnic country that we are becoming.”
Read Martin Marty’s commentary in full.
Read the Census Bureau news release.
Also see our previous blogposts, “Millennials Aren't Kids Anymore; Plurals Are” and “New Website for Demographic Info.”
Contact Somersault (@smrsault) to help you reach your brand’s targeted demographic.
And be sure to bookmark and use daily the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.
At the 21st Annual Minitex ILL Conference in Minnesota, the director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project (@pewinternet), Lee Rainie (@lrainie), gave the keynote presentation on "Learning in the Digital Age: Where Libraries Fit In."
He discussed the way people use ebook readers and tablet computers, and how those devices are fitting into users' digital lives. His presentation below describes how 3 revolutions in digital technology – in broadband, mobile connectivity, and social media – have created a new social operating system that he calls "networked individualism." And he used the Project's latest findings to help describe how librarians can serve the new educational needs of networked individuals.
How does this new way of learning among your consumers impact your publishing agenda? Let Somersault (@smrsault) help you sort it all out.
And be sure to bookmark, use daily, and tell others about the SomersaultNOW online dashboard.