I was speaking with a media executive the other day. He made a comment to me that I want to share with you.

He said that one of the largest companies in the 'Home and Garden' industry has changed its organizational structure.
The company no longer has the position of 'Director of Marketing' - the one guy/gal to oversee media placement.

That job has been broken into two pieces to address the accelerating advance of digital/mobile media.

The two positions are now:
~ Digital Media Director
~ Mobile Media Director

It might be the second position that really got my attention. I certainly understand that giving a new title to the first reflects the digital space.
But to put someone in charge of MOBILE says a lot about the mobile space.

So here is a shout out to all of our SMB's (Small to Medium Businesses) in the 'Home and Garden' industry - Pay attention to Mobile Media. Start learning the language - how it works - what are it's efficiencies, etc.

Mobile Media will penetrate your customers faster than the Internet did - because it has the horsepower of the Internet behind it.

In these times of change it would be wise for our SMB's to embrace THIS change because it is going to happen with or without us.

For your consideration,

Steve

The IGC show in Chicago just wrapped up.

If you are a garden center retailer, or someone who sells to the IGC's, this show is a 'bulls-eye' for doing business.

Someone commented that 'I just don't do shows anymore - too much of the same stuff'.

I understand that feeling too, but the PEOPLE is the difference maker. The networking that goes on at IGC Chicago is the best in the business - period.

A thanks to Jeff and Cheryl Morey for making it happen.

Steve

 
10-20 Media has recently overhauled and launched a website for Joanne Kostecky Garden Design Inc.

You can see it here: http://www.gardendesigninc.com/index.htm

The goals were:
~ Represent professional web design that reflected their professional landscaping design
~ Show the quality of their work without having to click too much
~ Make the site Search Engine friendly

The major asset that Joanne and team were able to provide was the 'before and after' pictures.
This is very important for a landscape company because a "finished" picture never reflects the state of the job a the "start".

It was a real pleasure working with Joanne and Kurt on the site. Now it is time for it to go to work for them.

Steve

A thank you to Dr. Charlie Hall for having a vision.

Dr. Hall has been talking common sense to the green industry for months - telling us how to prepare for the onset of an economic recession.

Now he is telling us to prepare for an Economic Rebound. Are you preparing?
Source: Bill Conerly.

See the larger version here: http://ellisonchair.blogspot.com/2009/04/upcoming-challenges.html

Hang in there. The green industry's best days are ahead.

Steve

We are pleased to announce the most recent addition to the 10-20 Media Publishing Network:

The Greensboro News-Record in Greensboro North Carolina.

They have been a real pleasure to work with. They've taken a real hands on interest in creating a resourceful 'Home and Garden' marketplace for their audience.

Here it is if you want to take a look at it.

Welcome aboard News-Record !

Steve

Was talking to business partner a few months ago. The head of their editorial department told me that they could not link editorial up to our marketplaces because it would cross the historic line of editorial to advertorial.

Well yesterday came an email newsetter from this group:

The report states that clicks to relevant advertisers happens at a higher rate from content.

This means that the consumer is OK with the advertorial component when done tastefully.

Here are the details:

Favorable Response to Advertising
Type of Advertisement	% Saying Very or Somewhat Likely to Respond
Articles that include brand information	51%
Email offers	47%
Sponsored search engine links	39%
Banner ads	25%
Pop-up ads	13%
Source: Adfusion, March 2009

There is more:

Additional data included in the survey:

• 87% of survey respondents said they were not very likely or not at all likely to read and act upon pop-up ads
• 56% of households containing three or more people said they are very likely or somewhat likely to read and act upon articles that include brand information.
• 62% of households with 13 to 17 year-old children said they are very likely or somewhat likely to read and act upon articles that include brand information
• 52% of college graduates said they conduct Internet searches for products or services they read about in online articles either very frequently or somewhat frequently
  

Here is where you can find the whole story:

http://aranetonline.com/Docs/OnlineAdvertisingSurveyResults031609.pdf


Steve

We've added another great local niche publisher to the 10-20 Media Network of publishers.

Washington Gardener magazine has been serving the DC, Virginia, Maryland and surrounding states for a while.

We are pleased to be a part of their new Internet publishing strategy.

Here is a link to their marketplace.

Welcome aboard.

Steve

Pam Danzinger, top gun at Unity Marketing recently published a newsletter about the 'Home Furnishings' marketplace.

The value of the marketplace ($264 Billion) certainly caught my eye, but she didn't include the service side of the lawn and garden industry ($45 Billion).

OK, so the total is a $309 Billion dollar of products and services marketplace called 'Home and Garden'.

 

WOW !

Digesting that number, knowing that we are ineffective at advertising our products and services (to get an earned share of consumer discretionary spending). That number exists even so.

To clarify, when I say ineffective, I’m not blaming our businesses. The advertising vehicles our businesses have had in the past have not been measurably effective. However, we have no excuses going forward because of the Internet.


Here is how Pam describes it:

"But the real power of the Internet comes from its ability to influence the shopper. Home shoppers turned to the Internet first when they wanted to learn about new items to buy to decorate or remodel their home.  The Internet ranked ahead of in-store displays and sales associates, word-of-mouth and magazine ads in terms of influencing the shopper.  So the Internet plays a much larger role than many marketers may suspect simply from looking at raw online sales data alone."

Here is another part of her newsletter:

“The big take-away?  Home furnishings and decor marketers must offer a robust online presence, packed with data that includes price, product details, brand information, and customer reviews and feedback.  These elements are part of the 'new customer service' that the Internet offers and which truly influence purchase," says Danziger.

As manufacturers, we have to get over the desire to have all product information and eyeballs come through the manufacturer web site. This product information needs to be everywhere consumers are looking. That means the web sites of the retailers, publisher marketplaces, search engines, etc.

Retailers (more than 50% don't have web sites) need to engage the web and find ways to give their web audience what they are looking for.

What are they looking for?

"data that includes price, product details, brand information, and customer reviews and feedback."

This is no small task I know, but it is a lot easier than we know. MANY marketplaces are already doing it.

It will be done - the consumer is demanding it. The question is: Who in our industry is going to remain on the island of non-participation?

Steve

TMP has recently released the results of their "Local Search Usage Study" conducted by comScore.

In a nutshell it says that people use different resources based on what they are searching for.

As for the 'Home and Garden' category, the study suggested that the users are using IYP's over search engines. IYP's are 'Internet Yellow Pages'.

The amazing part of this is that IYP's typically have only 11 categories for the 'gardening' part of the equation.

Therefore, there is NO WAY someone can look up information about 'Perennials' on an IYP.

This data supports the mission of my company 10-20 Media. We have created a  'Home and Garden' marketplace platform for 'Interactive Publishers' interested in new revenue from the "Home and Garden' categories.

The end user (consumer) will be the big winner at the end of the day. They will actually be able to find information about 'Perennials' and know where to buy their new favorite locally.

Here is the link to a summary of the report.

Steve