Marketing to Women Online

Advertisers Addictions

Oh no.   I’m standing in a clothing boutique when I happen to glance over and see they have a penny candy section.  I immediately start to sweat.    What if….they have them.  What if I glance over and see the tell-tail red shape.   Uh oh…..I’m in trouble. They do have them….lots of them.    I feel myself starting to lose control.   

They say when you get in a situation like this to remove yourself from it, walk away, call a friend for support, call your sponsor.  Unfortunately, I don’t have a sponsor.   You see, I am addicted to….Swedish Fish.    As of yet, I have not found a Swedish Fish Anonymous support group, so I’ve been battling this addiction on my own.

….without much success.

Usually I buy them in the big bags, but in the case of this store, they were individually wrapped.   I guess the idea is people only buy one or two at a time.   

I picked up 37.    (feeling somewhat guilty I did leave a handful in the box)

How do you know you’re addicted to something?   You have uncontrollable cravings.  You increase the amount of intake with diminishing returns.

The feeling from Madison Avenue is – advertisers are addicted to certain types of advertising mediums.  One such medium is television.   Advertisers keep buying it up despite increasing prices and diminishing returns.   

Ad Age reported that McKinsey & Co. has a new report that finds that by 2010, traditional TV advertising will be one-third as effective as it was in 1990. McKinsey is estimating "a 15% decrease in buying power driving by cost-per-thousand rate increases; a 23% decline in ads viewed due to switching off; a 9% loss of attention to ads due to increased multitasking and a 37% decrease in message impact due to saturation."

Women and Mobile Gaming

Donchaluvit?   Another "women don't use technology" stereotype smashed.   A recent report by Telephia, a mobile industry performance measurement reporting company, found that in the mobile gaming space, four of the top five revenue generating titles were in the Puzzle/Strategy category.   These mobile games do very well with women.

Sixty-five percent of mobile game revenue is driven by female wireless subscribers, comprising 72 percent of the total share of revenue, while men made up 28 percent. Women dominate revenue generation for all mobile game categories, with the exception of Action/Adventure mobile games, in which men drive 60 percent of the revenue for that category.

Ad placement in mobile games is a rapidly growing industry.  Don't make the mistake of thinking young men are the only target market.   Check out the following stats:

Category Share of Revenue and Gender Revenue Share (U.S.)
Category	Share of Revenue	Male Share	Female Share
Puzzle/Strategy	33.8%	28%	72%
Card/Casino	18.3%	34%	66%
Sports/Racing	12.9%	39%	61%
Action/Adventure	12.8%	60%	40%
Trivia/Word	11.4%	26%	74%
Classic/Arcade	10.8%	38%	62%
Source: Telephia Mobile Game Report, Q1 2006

See the full report here.

How to Tap the Power of Digital Marketing

A recent Advertising Age article headline declared "AAF Survey:  Industry 'Behind the Curve' in Digital Marketing."  The premise of the article is - while many marketers believe in the power of digital marketing, they aren't entirely sure how to tap into that power.

I thought I'd try to find an example of, specifically, online marketing done well.  I was hoping to find an example of online marketing to women done well, but couldn't find a good example.   So, for today, we're going to switch to online marketing to men done well.

Axe Body Spray  - launched into a mature 2.4 billion market just four years ago, Axe deodorant has taken leadership of the category.   So what's Axe's secret?   I believe it's smart marketing.   (I've never tried the product, um, since I'm not a guy, so I can't speak as to the quality of the product itself)   But Axe seems to know who its audience is, where its audience is, and what matters to its audience (young men). 

They've done an extraordinary job of turning that knowledge into sales.    So how did they do it?  I believe a large part of it is due to their online marketing efforts.  Where so many others failed, Axe has been successful.   Here's why....