Guest Blog (Joe Pulizzi, Junta 42) - Content Marketing Spending Report

I'm really excited to have Joe Pulizzi, founder of Junta 42 , sharing his valuable insights as a guest blogger. I truly respect his work, consider him (as do many others) one of the world's leaders in content marketing strategy and services, and am also honored to call him a friend. Thank you Joe for providing your insights!



Content Marketing Spending Report
6 in 10 Marketers Spending More on Content Marketing in 2010
by Joe Pulizzi, Founder, Junta42


For the third straight year, marketers are planning to spend significantly more on their content marketing efforts. For 2010, approximately six in 10 marketing professionals surveyed plan to increase their spending on content initiatives. The January, 2010 findings came from a survey of 259 marketing professionals.

Key Content Marketing Survey Findings:

• According to the survey, Content Marketing Spending comprises 33% of the total marketing budget (up 11% from 2008)
  Smaller companies spend more than 2x that of larger companies on content marketing
• Marketers are increasing their focus on mobile content solutions
• Only 7% of marketers are spending less on content in 2010

Download the complete content marketing spending report here (no signup required). Tweet this!

2010 Content Marketing Spending
59% of marketers surveyed plan to increase content marketing spending in 2010, compared with 56% in 2009 and 42% in 2008.

















Content Product Breakdown
Marketers are leveraging new media content products more than ever - nearly 3/4 are leveraging content through social media and a majority are tapping into blogs and enewsletters. White papers and case studies continue to be mainstays in the content marketing portfolio.























Content Marketing Education
The clear winner for educational needs is mobile content marketing solutions, up 63% from 2009 survey figures. Considering only 10% are currently using mobile content marketing, 2011 should show a dramatic increase in that area.

Interested in Getting Your Content Program Started?
There is no doubt about it...the hardest part about content marketing is finding the right custom content provider, so make sure you check out Joe's Junta42 Custom Publishing Service, a free service that will find you the expert content providers you need. There is no oblication.

E Source Releases White Paper on Key Lessons for EE Program Success

E Source just released a white paper entitled Launching Energy-Efficiency Programs: Ten Lessons for Success (and One for Failure). It is an excellent piece that is worth picking up. It talks about key principles to keep your EE program(s) on track. Keep in mind that this white paper is based on the collective knowledge of my company E Source, which has spent the last 23+ years focused on Demand Side Management and Demand Response, so this is a highly credible document.

For my part, I discuss the evolution of FirstEnergy's CFL program communications situation in the paper. I wish I could say I was surprised with how quickly this story moved up from the blogosphere to the mainstream media, and into the national spotlight, but it's just another volatile example of the new communications landscape utilities (and all businesses) live in. This particular story went from rather neutral/standard press coverage, to national political leaders calling for investigations in less than 48 hours. I suggest that understanding this phenomenon, specifically how quickly stories (particularly controversial ones) can gain momentum and find their way into the regional or national consciousness, is critical to the modern communications professional.

You can get the white paper off the E Source.com website here. It is painless for non-members. If you are an E Source member, you should have access to it when you log in to the site. As always, if you have any questions, please let me know.

Utility Brand/Sustainability/Community/PR Websites

FPL's Generation Clean website (http://www.generationclean.com/) and Sempra's Every Day Life website (http://www.sempraeveryday.com/) represents a unique brand-focused site that speaks specifically to utility values, their role in the community, efforts on sustainability (often including reports and internal/external initiatives), recent projects, and sometimes service options (like online billing or green power) that customers can utilize. It is a trend we are seeing more an more. Design and functional elements are often very strong, utilizing images of the environment and the communities they serve. The sites are often distinct from from the primary utility website. I will be discussing these sites more in 2010 through E Source, though dates at still TBD.

Best Practices in Energy Efficiency Advertisments

Chad Garret (fellow E Source Manager) and I had our paper on Best Practices in Energy Efficiency Advertisements selected by AESP (Association of Energy Service Professionals) for presentation at their 2010 National Conference in Tuscon, AZ. We are excited to be part of this 20th anniversary event and look forward to presenting on our analysis of over 60 utility energy efficiency print ads from across North America.

For our talk, we will look at the positive and negative characteristics of both the most popular ads, as well as those that didn't garner the same attention. We will break down commonalities, differences, effective ad elements and structures worthy of consideration for 2010. Hopefully, we will be able to provide some useful insights during this particularly important window of increased attention and funding for Demand Side Management (DSM) programs. Tens of millions of dollars are spent on EE advertising and this is only going to increase as efficiency is increasingly viewed as a critical resource in meeting future energy demand. I will post conclusions after we present in February!

The Comfortable Chairs at Starbucks

Marketing and social media consultant Ken Chen (Founder of EM Marketing), recently wrote in his blog:

“The big opportunity sitting right in front of most brands is to build a meaningful community or experience inside their own site. A place where their customers come, share thoughts and opinions, talk to other customers, gain valuable information, have fun, and want to return again and again. It's the online equivalent of the comfortable chairs at Starbucks.”

Ken is absolutely right…even within the energy industry. No, utilities are not particularly sexy, but we are uniquely positioned within our communities to provide important and useful content to those we serve. National consumer research shows that consumers are more aware than ever of energy and its impact on their lives. How can you be useful to your customers? How can you provide a user experience that brings them back again and again for assistance, energy insights, community support? In other words, what could your comfortable chair be?

Finally Firefox has taken over IE...and growing!

I don't like IE.  I've never really liked IE.  It just doesn't perform well.  Thank goodness people are starting to realize there are better alternatives.  This graph from StatCounter Global Statistics shows it all.  Note the trajectory for Firefox.  Like I said...finally!

Effective Elements of Top Utility Energy Efficiency Print Ads

All utility marketing professionals recognize that energy comes with a complex and evolving set societal baggage related to finance, fairness, entitlement, pragmatism, morality, apathy, and simple understanding. Breaking through these barriers is a difficult challenge that requires the combination of creativity and properly placed pressure points to not only grab the customer’s attention, but compel engagement and action.

We, meaning my marketing research and analytics team at E Source, pulled together a national utility energy efficiency print advertising contest in 2009, which included a highly respected set of judges from Crispin Porter, SmartPower, the University of Colorado at Boulder, E Source, and others. Based on their feedback/comments and our own comparative analysis, we found that simplicity, iconic and narrative focused imagery/visuals, a clear and concise call to action, and intelligent humor and/or irony, are all effective elements and techniques used in 2009 energy efficiency utility ads. Just use those and you will be all set. Clearly, there is no way to wrap a tidy bow around any type of advertising and the suggestions above are somewhat amorphous when suggested out of their physical context (meaning the 60+ EE print ads we reviewed), but such is life. Clearly ad creative is an art linked to science; however, the insights we gained from this work were not only interesting, but also compelling, and will hopefully be helpful to the community of utility DSM advertisers. If you want to see some of the top ads, let me know and I'll happily pass them along!

Here is the link to the press release about the print ad contest results: http://www.esource.com/esource/getpub/public/pdf/press_releases/ES_PR_AdContest09.pdf