Criterion Global: International Media Buying Blog


Chinese Affluent: A Rapidly Growing Consumer Base
27 April, 2009, 1:18 pm
Filed under: Consumer Insight, luxury marketing, media | Tags: , , , , , ,

According to global management consultant McKinsey & Co., China is home to 1.6M affluent consumers, a figure that is growing at a rate of 16% annually. Although this currently accounts for less than 1% of urban households in mainland China, China will have over 4M affluent households by 2015.

Does your BRIC media buying strategy include feasible marketing strategies to reach this affluent Chinese consumer? Call Criterion Global, or visit our website for more information.

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Destination Marketing: Monaco Reevaluates Target Audience
27 April, 2009, 1:12 pm
Filed under: Real Estate, luxury marketing, travel/hospitality | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Monaco is launching a new destination marketing initiative by promoting $500 holiday packages to reach a new audience – poor people. With good taste, of course.

Vacation packages from Paris, including airfare with helicopter transfer and 2 nights of five-star lodging now runs roughly $520 USD, although the upcoming Grand Prix in May will surely see a spike in tourism and hotel room rates in the tiny country (less than one square mile). These promotional holiday rates are part of a five-year initiative for Monaco to fight a the recession’s toll on tourism by opening itself to budget-conscious tourists.

Feeling a 15% decline in business travel, which accounts for one third of its travel income, Monaco saw an 8% decline earlier in 2009 in overall hotel bookings, although the vast majority of its 5 million visitors per annum are not overnight stays.

As reported by Criterion Global in March 2009, in “European Gaming goes Mass Market,” Monaco’s famous Casino de Monte Carlo opened itself to a lower-end crowd by reserving several rooms of its high-touch casino for machine gaming

Per Bloomberg: “For decades, Monaco prospered by catering to wealthy people trying to avoid taxes. Along with Andorra and Liechtenstein, Monaco is classified as one of three global “uncooperative tax havens” by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In September, the country overtook London as the world’s most-expensive location for luxury homes, according to an index compiled by Knight Frank LLP.”

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Brands-At-Risk: Top 12 Soon To Be Extinct?
27 April, 2009, 10:29 am
Filed under: Consumer Insight, media | Tags: , ,

Seeking Alpha is a site that, much to readers’ delight, will boldly say what no one else will. Taking into account debt obligations, trends toward consolidation in the retail sector, and the increasing fiscal prudence of the global consumer, analyses by 24.7 Wall Street (via Seeking Alpha) brings us this top-12 (hit?) list of prominent brands headed for the dustbin before 2010 is nigh.

  1. Budget Rent-A-Car
  2. Borders Books
  3. Crocs Footwear (these comfy shoes are like the comfort food of the late 90’s – recall the rise and fall of Krispy Kreme’s stock?)
  4. Saturn.
  5. Esquire Magazine
  6. Old Navy apparel
  7. Architectural Digest Magazine
  8. Chrysler
  9. Eddie Bauer
  10. Palm
  11. AIG
  12. United Airlines

Get the full lowdown here!

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Integrated Media: 41% Unsatisfied With Integrated Media Mix
27 April, 2009, 8:16 am
Filed under: Higher Education Marketing, media | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

According to a study of how marketers are integrating traditional and digital media for advertising purposes, marketers consider their greatest challenge to be the lack of metrics to help them properly allocate the mix of traditional media, like television and print, and digital media, like the Internet and mobile devices.

Arguably, its not an issue of a lack of metrics, but dissatisfaction with how to apply these metrics, and cull meaningful information on business trends from behaviours measured. This is often an area of concern for higher education marketing professionals, tasked with determining the origin, and therefore the opportunity cost, of each application received and student enrolled.

Still, 59% percent of the marketers responding to the survey said they were satisfied with their company’s progress with integrating digital and traditional media. The study, which involved 294 marketers, was conducted by the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the Association of National Advertisers, which worked with Bellwether Leadership Research and Development.

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Destination Marketing: ‘Pink Money’ is the New Green!
24 April, 2009, 2:22 pm
Filed under: Consumer Insight, travel/hospitality | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Destination marketing groups, like the travel industry as a whole, are going back to basics in efforts to survive the recession. The gay market is mainstay demographic for savvy destination marketing organizations and travel brands, for greater disposable income, proclivity toward travel, and less-recognized influence as a trend-starting market:

Remember the gay community’s early affection for boutique hotels? That was before everyone else caught on and W’s creators commercialized, syndicated, and franchised the concept (and then allegedly took the formula to Hilton)?

Still, gay marketing is new to some destinations, even New York, whose new Rainbow Pilgrimage Criterion Global blogged about.

A Fun Fact from the Chicago Tribune:

“Gays and lesbians tend to spend more…A 2006 study by the U.S. Travel Association found that gay men spend an average of $800 per trip, compared with about $540 for straight men.” We’re not sure how lesbians are included in that statistic, and 2006 was definitely pre-recession, but nonetheless, you get the idea….

Tom Nibbio, the Chicago-based manager of global partnerships and education for the International Gay & Lesbian Travel Association, said his group is flooded with requests for seminars on marketing specifically to gays and lesbians. “Chicago is now stepping up a nice campaign to market to gay and lesbian travelers,” Nibbio said…”

(more…)

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Luxury Hotel Marketing: Recession Limbo
24 April, 2009, 12:29 pm
Filed under: travel/hospitality | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

via (CNN.com) — …[L]uxury hotels are bleeding occupancy and revenue at a rate far worse than the travel slump experienced after September 11, travel experts say.

To overcome their financial woes, luxury hotels are dropping rates, giving customers incentives and finding ways to cut operating costs without compromising the integrity of their posh images.

Starwood Hotel & Resorts, which owns the chic W and St Regis hotels, is offering existing and new members of its preferred guest program the opportunity to earn a free weekend night with two stays at any of Starwood’s hotels from May through July…

This summer, Rosewood Hotels & Resorts, which operates five-star properties around the world, will offer customers who book particular packages free breakfast and a $100 resort credit. Washington’s Willard Intercontinental Hotel is offering a “buy two nights, get a third night free” promotion for weekend stays through December.

From December to February, occupancy in luxury hotels, a category that includes names such as the Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts and Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. sunk more than 15 percent — a steeper drop than at mid-level hotels, according to leading hotel industry watcher Smith Travel Research Inc.

The revenue generated from the available luxury rooms fell 23 percent in that same three-month period, according to the Smith Travel Research report. Meanwhile, there are 551,610 rooms opening this year amid sluggish consumer demand, according to a STR construction pipeline report in March.

And when the economy rebounds, the luxury lodging segment will take longer to recover….

PKF Consulting forecasts that the luxury hotel segment will stay in red ink until 2011.

Things have gotten so bad that some upscale-hotel owners across the country are delaying hotel construction to save money. Other developers are facing foreclosure or have scrapped future hotel plans altogether, industry experts say….

Many companies such as Starwood and Rosewood are trying to lure customers by giving free nights and dining and spa credits without significantly lowering room rates, which could tarnish their exclusive appeal. Hotel operators hope that offering guests free nights will encourage them to spend more money overall.

Other hotels prefer bundling their rates in packages so it is difficult to tell how much the prices have dropped…. (more…)

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BRIC Advertising: Leveraging Indian Traditions
23 April, 2009, 1:29 pm
Filed under: Consumer Insight, media | Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Cute commercial via kar2905.wordpress.com; background preceding the ad.

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How to boost ecommerce conversions through advertising
22 April, 2009, 11:33 am
Filed under: CG, Real Estate, luxury marketing, media, travel/hospitality | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

As our clients and colleagues know, Criterion Global’s ecommerce optimisation practise is on fire. Our media buying services help numerous high-touch fashion, travel, real estate, higher education and retail brands optimise conversions and improve ROI.

Our clientele is composed of ecommerce-only, ecommerce + retail hybrid brands, universities (which most closely resemble retail, in terms of distribution and revenue intake), and finally travel, destination marketing, and airline clientele (which, naturally rely heavily on online booking activity).

Recently, we were asked for some tips to increase online sales via offline advertising. Check out two smart, simple tips courtesy of Criterion Global, and others here at FlyingCart.com!

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Appropos of UK roll-out, Jeeves is back!
22 April, 2009, 10:29 am
Filed under: media | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ask.com has chosen to reincarnate the site’s famous butler in 3D, albeit this time accoutremented by Savile Row tailors Gieves and Hawkes! Compared to the cartoon gentleman’s butler of 2005, today’s Jeeves is a fantastically outfitted man with a somewhat bloated, maskish head.

Still, a weird apparition of the old Jeeves will – hopefully – be better than no Jeeves for the site’s traffic volume, and revenue. Barry Diller, CEO of InterActive Corp (IAC) announced Jeeves’ “retirement” in 2006, and has now reinstated the iconic character in efforts to compete with perennial rival Google and Yahoo!

What do you think of Mr. Jeeves: old and new?

jeeves-throughout-the-years_2005_2009-pictorial

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Yahoo profit plummets 78%; Advertiser minumums fail to curb display decline
22 April, 2009, 9:22 am
Filed under: media | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Yahoo’s first quarter in 2009 showed drastic  78% profit declines, down to $118 million from $539 million this time in 2008.

What’s to blame? Some say a 12% drop in marketing services revenue, and a 13% y-o-y drop in display ad revenue, which coincided with a $1.2B drop in net revenue overall, despite the fact that the Google rival’s pageviews rose 8%.

Still, 13% drops in display ad revenue isn’t drastic considering the economy, although Yahoo could do much more to drum up business, including dropping its $25,000 US display advertising minimum per campaign. Google’s self service display advertising platforms allow small advertisers to, cumulatively, generate significant volume in overall ad revenue – with little or no manpower necessary. Hey, didn’t Barack Obama out-fundraise every other candidate by accepting donations as low as $5?

Yahoo admits its deficiencies: “We still aren’t easy enough to do business with when it comes to buying. The platforms will help focus on marketing ad buying easier,” said CEO Carol Bartz to AdAge.

Yahoo also announced plans to cut 5% of its workforce — a loss of nearly 700 positions — in the near future. CEO Carol Bartz dubbed it a “natural outgrowth of the work we’re doing to streamline our structure, globalize products, slim our portfolio and eliminate duplications,” Advertising Age reports.

…Or just get better at servicing advertisers – smal, medium, and large.

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