Monday, August 20, 2007
Web Marketing Focuses on Social Entertainment
Retailers are winning teens and tweens by fusing social networking and entertainment with their websites. This marketing shift will continue to be effective as long as retailers create entertaining content, and it is more transparent than TV shows' increasing dependence on product placement.Now 96 percent of online kids use social networking sites and technologies (the other 4 percent must be from Utah), and parents are buying more stuff for their kids online, according to the Washington Post.
Retailers have been slow to take advantage of entertainment and social networking to lure kids into their online stores, but they are catching on to the marketing power of Facebook and MySpace.
Department stores and specialty retailers alike are experimenting with these new venues. At Sears.com, visitors can create avatars, or virtual versions of themselves, outfitted in the chain's latest styles. Wal-Mart started a Facebook group about dorm room style. J.C. Penney and American Eagle Outfitters developed short films to air in weekly installments on their sites.
If kids find it fun they will hang out and prod their parents to open their wallets and buy more clothes etc. online. You know what you are getting when you watching something on a retailers site.
However, I'm increasingly getting turned off by the blatant product pitching during TV shows. During USA Network's Dead Zone last night, there was a shameless plug for Visa that included several lines of dialog focusing on how wonderful the swipeless credit card is. TV production companies have to make a buck, but the marketing pitches are beginning to drive the content.
Posted By John Gartner at 09:45 AM
Permanent Link: Web Marketing Focuses on Social Entertainment
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