Marketing to Women Online

Are Women Losing Their Trust in Social Media?

Tony Fannin at Be Branded asked me that very question.

Women are increasingly turning to social media sites for interaction and information.  As advertisers try to tap into the power of social media and the power of recommendations by female consumers, are they somehow influencing, or tainting those recommendations?

Do women still believe what they see, hear, and read on social media sites, Twitter, blogs?

See my answer on whether women still trust social media.

Olympic Advertising Gets a Gold Medal

Friday night, I felt like I stepped into a parallel universe.

After reviewing the ads for the Super Bowl, where the theme seemed to be - see who can come up with stupidest joke, I was pretty discouraged about what constituted "good creative."  But my faith in Madison Avenue has been renewed.  The ads on the Olympics' opening night had everything the Super Bowl ads didn't....heart.

While Super Bowl advertisers made little to no effort to reach out to women, Olympic  advertisers seemed to have gone the other way with a slew of ads targeting women or ads that were just female friendly. 

So I'm going to hand out some medals to advertisers on the Olympics who did a terrific job of reaching out to women (and in many cases reaching out to men as well.)

Gold Medal - P&G - Proud Sponsor of Moms

The ad speaks for itself.  Fabulous jobs of tapping into exactly how moms feel.

Super Bowl Ads Target Hot New Consumer Group - Beavers

 
  
Well....I wanted to write about how well the Super Bowl ads did in connecting with women consumers.  Unfortunately, I didn't see any ads that were targeting women.   Really.  Even Dove was promoting skin care products to men.  Ok, there was one commercial for a chick flick called The Back-up Plan, but it was so horrible I have erased it from my memory.

I thought it was a little odd that the advertisers completely ignored half the audience.

Yes, women influence 80% of all spending, control 51 percent of the wealth in this country, and one in four women out earns her husband.  But, for whatever reason, advertisers and their agencies seemed to feel this wasn't an audience they wanted to reach out to. 

Um....Ok.

They DID, however, reach out to another consumer group - Beavers.  Ok, they're really a rodent group, not a consumer group, but still.   Several of the ads featured beavers -   beavers looking for jobs, beavers buying cars, beavers using technology products. 

Perhaps there's some research out there I missed.  Here I've been focusing all my efforts on women.  Maybe advertisers know something I don't know. 

Blissdom '10 - What I Learned About Women

At this year's Blissdom 10 women blog conference, I think Isabel Kallman summed it up best - "It's not just about sharing information, it's about sharing understanding."

That's what women bloggers do - they don't just share information about their lives, the products they use, their dreams and disappointments.....they share understanding of all of these things.  Bloggers give a voice to women's unique experiences in this world.   I believe women are flocking to the blogosphere because it is one of the only places their true authentic voices can be heard, unfiltered.

One of my all-time favorite quotes came from a woman who said, "The Internet has given women a voice, and they're screaming their heads off."

Blissdom'10 - top insights

Great presentations, stories and conferences are judged by their beginning and end.  Blissdom got it just right.  The opening keynote was by Kevin Carroll - author of Rules of the Red Rubber Ball. 

Why Do Women Blog Video

I have been fascinated by the explosion of blogs written and read by women.  It lead to a year's worth of research and many questions.

What's going on here?  Why are so many women flocking to the Internet?  Are they getting something in blogs they aren't getting elsewhere?

In today's society, where we move around, stay home with our kids, often don't have family nearby - are women feeling isolated?

Is there a void in our media?  Is there a lack of women's stories being told unfiltered? 

Do women have a unique sense of humor?   Let's find out.

Disclaimer:   The filming was done at women blogging events and I'm sorry, but ya'll are LOUD.   There's some background noise and some poor camera work which are totally the fault of the crappy videographer (which would be me).  My super woman editor Jennifer Takaki did an amazing job of assembling and improving the material.

Oh. And there are poop jokes.  No video is worth its weight without a good poop joke.

I'd love to hear from you.  What's your answer to, "Why do women blog?"