27 November 2012

Black Friday, Cyber Monday Surpass One Billion Press Releases

imageA fleck of flack confetti just flew into my inbox:

Subject: Expert Available for Cyber Monday Recap Stories
 
Chuck,
For any Cyber Monday wrap up stories you’re working on, **** CEO & Co-Founder ***** is available to comment.

Who needs experts when we have famed Soothsayer and advertising gadfly NostraChuckus, who’s been startling the world for years with his mundane prognostications?

More from the flack fleck:

Move Over Black Friday: Last year it was Cyber Monday, rather than Black Friday, that saw numbers surpassing $1 billion in revenue.

Hmmm.  Could that be because Black Friday revenue was $11.4 Billion last year? Why would you use $1 Billion as any sort of comparable barometer?  You might as well use one dollar.

Flack fleck:

Top Shopper-Targeting Tactics: The number of potential touch-points to reach consumers is rapidly increasing, especially with more shoppers turning toward tablet devices and smartphones.

Add these:

Mobile Boosts Cyber Monday; Facebook and Twitter Not So Much
By Christopher Heine
image… The proliferation of smartphones and tablets are impacting the way holidays shoppers go about their business.

…On the other hand, IBM found that social media-driven sales were down 35 percent year over year for Black Friday.

Social Media Has A Black Friday #Fail
Traffic from Twitter to retail websites was especially grim: down from 0.02% of total traffic on Black Friday in 2011 to 0.00% this year…

The numbers will need some serious spinning by social media gurus invested in the idea of social commerce being the future for online retail.

This all sounds vaguely familiar…

01 May 2010
Foretellings
… Advertising on smartphones will be considered an annoyance, invasive, and rather dinky – while marketing/search (coupons on steroids, and more) will flourish and dominate.

22 August 2011
5-Star Web Reviews Go for $5
Time To Duct-Tape WOMM?
A recent ad posted by “Katmoney” … offered to write convincing negative reviews posted to a Yelp page of your choosing.

25 September 2012
Twitter & Advertising
imageThe mobile/social media soothsayers will have you believe that there is this unknown, magical mode of persuasion that has never been thought of before – and will reveal itself any day now.

The Lesson:  Use (silly retronym ahead) Traditional Advertising – television, newspaper inserts, magazines, outdoor, direct mail – to advertise, use smartphones for marketing while consumers are shopping. (Although the percentage of people using  smartphones to shop isn’t that impressive.)

And what did NostraChuckus predict almost six years ago?

15 December 2006
The Brouhaha Over WOMM
…When it all comes out in the wash, WOMM will be the best thing to happen to traditional advertising. Pretty soon, consumers won't believe anybody - even their best friends.


What is and is not ‘digital’ advertising?  That’ll be the next post.