Our clients have told us that they would like to see more case studies and best practices to illustrate eMarketer’s digital trends and advertising spending analyses. We’ve listened.

One result is “Mobile Barcodes: Trends and Best Practices for Marketers.” In this report, principal analyst Noah Elkin explains the promise of mobile barcode technology as well as the obstacles to its adoption, such as the need to download a dedicated application to read the codes. It also spotlights how savvy consumers have begun to see the value in QR codes; majorities of those who access the codes use them to secure deals and discounts.

In another example, “Facebook Marketing: Strategies for Turning ‘Likes’ into Loyalty,” writer/analyst Kimberly Maul shows real-world examples of how marketers for Chef Boyardee and Clarisonic are enticing their customers to stay engaged with their brands’ Facebook pages. These are just two of several case studies in the report showing how marketers are succeeding in making deeper connections with consumers through social networks.

Here are eMarketer’s top picks from May 2011:

REPORT: Facebook Marketing: Strategies for Turning “Likes” into Loyalty
Facebook marketing used to be all about how many “likes” a brand could attract on its page. But to be successful in the post-“like” phase of Facebook marketing, brands will need to follow the example of companies such as Discovery Communications, which boasts 75 Facebook pages and regularly rolls out cross-page promotions, and Adobe, which encourages its most ardent fans to share their love for Photoshop.Learn more about this report.

CHART: Social Media Site or Blog that Is Critical to Companies
While company blogs are considered the most important social media tactic, Facebook and YouTube tie for second with 44% of companies in North America seeing them as critical or important, up from 24% and 26% percent, respectively, in 2009, according to Hubspot. Available only for Total Access subscribers.

CASE STUDY: Discovery Initiates Unique Dialogue for Each Show’s Facebook Page
Discovery Communications has a dedicated social media team to update its 75 Facebook pages. The team employs a number of tactics to keep viewers engaged, regardless of a show’s current status on-air. For example, the page for TLC’s “Sister Wives,” which started its second season in March 2011, is active, with video clips and questions for fans, while other pages are active even when the related programming isn’t. Available only for Total Access subscribers.

REPORT: Mobile Barcodes: Trends and Best Practices for Marketers
Barcode adoption, particularly of 2-D types like QR codes, is rising, but there are still a number of obstacles to greater usage. For one, the barcode field is fragmented, with a number of proprietary and open source formats jockeying for position. Nevertheless, marketers are developing best practices. Learn more about this report.

CASE STUDY: Adobe’s Facebook Page Gets Customers Talking
Adobe grew its number of Facebook fans from 240,000 to 1.8 million “likes” by demonstrating an “authentic” voice. For instance, to learn more about visitors, Adobe asked them what they would like to see, and then responded with what visitors asked for: behind-the-scenes glimpses of the product management team and the products they were working on. Available only for Total Access subscribers.

ARTICLE: Tablets Beat Smartphones for Online Shopping, Buying
Tablets hit it big only in 2010 with the release of the iPad, but their owners are already making use of them for commerce—and doing so to a greater degree than smartphone owners, according to research from the e-tailing group. Read article.

INTERVIEW: Product Videos Hike Sales at Zappos
Zappos.com has 40,000 videos live on its site, all produced in-house with help from employees. The result of all that work? Consumers who watch the videos not only purchase more, but return fewer products, according to Laurie Williams, video and photo product manager at the etailer. Available only for Total Access subscribers.

CHART: Top 10 Retail Sites, Ranked by Number of Videos
Among companies that appeared in Internet Retailer’s list of top video-using retail sites, Overstock.com took the top spot, with 46,198 clips on its site in Q4 2010, according to SundaySky, a software provider that specializes in repurposing digital content into automated videos. Others with at least 10,000 clips each included Amazon.com, HSN and QVC. Available only for Total Access subscribers.

REPORT: Demographic Profile—Millennials
Need a snapshot of millennials? Take a few minutes to read this report about the demographic segment that represents 23% of the population and is almost never unplugged. They shop, view, play and communicate through the internet—increasingly via a handheld device—and insist on responding to digital advertising on their own terms. Learn more about this report.

ARTICLE: How Moms Keep Connected Using Smartphones
Smartphone ownership is higher among moms than the general population, according to March 2011 research from parenting website BabyCenter. Nearly six in 10 moms have a smartphone compared to 50% of all internet users. Read article.

INTERVIEW: Taco Bell Cracking Code on Young Men’s Digital World
Ronalee Zarate-Bayani is charged with developing the strategy for Taco Bell’s social media and mobile marketing efforts, and for ensuring customers have a positive experience with the brand across all digital touchpoints. Read interview.

eMarketer Total Access subscribers have access to these features and more. To learn more about becoming an eMarketer client click here.

AN INTERVIEW WITH:
Alison Jeske
Senior Director of Marketing Services
drugstore.com

Alison Jeske leads the team at online retailer drugstore.com that develops new site features designed to offer personalized shopping experiences across the company’s family of websites, which include Beauty.com, SkinStore.com and VisionDirect.com. She is responsible for creative direction, site production and product management. Jeske spoke with eMarketer Writer/Analyst Tobi Elkin about best practices for retailers using online video.

eMarketer: What are your goals for online video?

Alison Jeske: At drugstore.com and Beauty.com, we’re really seeking to give our shoppers access to a variety of editorial content about brands and products, and how to use those products. We’ve offered video since 2008 and the video library plays a key role in content development. We want to give our visitors a dynamic look at industry trends, expert recommendations and a lot of beauty news.

eMarketer: What types of video do you offer—how-tos, tips, product demos?

Jeske: All of them. Our brand videos teach shoppers how to use certain products and tools to get a specific look. We have video that offers behind-the-scenes access to photo shoots and Fashion Week coverage. And we have informational product videos.

We host videos that the brands produce. We also post our own video content that we record and edit. For example, we created unique Q&A sessions via Skype with beauty brand founders and industry experts that address current events and trends.

eMarketer: Do you use a third-party platform? What is your syndication strategy?

Jeske: We have worked with Liveclicker since the beginning. Our video distribution strategy has been focused on looking at where our customers go. The logical places are YouTube and our Facebook page. We have a YouTube channel and a video tab on our Facebook page. About once a week we do a post that highlights a video from our library.

We need permission to post some of the brand videos on YouTube. But everything we’ve produced is available. We’re finding more and more customers visiting Beauty.com through their mobile devices and iPads and watching video.

eMarketer: What metrics do you use to measure the effectiveness of online video in achieving your business objectives?

Jeske: Time spent on the site and conversion are benchmarks. We have seen improvements in both over time. Of course, that has made us invest more in this method of engaging our customers. We also have specific tracking data on which videos are the most popular and where the traffic for those videos comes from.

We can determine how engaging a particular video is by how long people are watching it in 10-, 30- and 60-second intervals. We then determine how often these particular videos are being shared. The viral aspect is as important to us as the conversion benefit.

eMarketer: Are there certain types of video that resonate with customers?

Jeske: Really popular are behind-the-scenes video, certain product demos and how to get the look that’s trendy for a particular season. They’re extremely viral. Videos like how to get the perfect cat eye or a smoky eye look are popular and get shared a lot.

eMarketer: What tools do retailers need to have in place in order to be successful?

Jeske: For us, partnering with a good platform provider like Liveclicker was important. Think about what you as a retailer can provide organically. What can you really bring that’s original and will benefit customers? For us, it was access to Fashion Week, incredible experts, industry leaders and designers.

The complete interview is available to eMarketer Total Access clients. To learn more, click here.

For AstraZeneca, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, engaging in online social media requires careful footing and continuous regard for government regulation. As such, the American arm of the UK-based drug manufacturer has crafted its social participation around big-picture healthcare topics and, for the most part, is steering clear of specific mentions of prescription products.

The goals for the company’s social media program were two-fold: AstraZeneca wanted to raise awareness of its prescription assistance program, which helps needy patients afford their medications. Additionally, the company wanted to interact with patients, healthcare professionals and industry advocates about the best ways to promote AZ&Me.

“We wanted feedback on how to operate our prescription assistance programs more effectively and efficiently to serve patients,” said Katie Lubenow, AstraZeneca’s senior manager of external communications. In essence, the corporation wanted to crowdsource ideas for future marketing of AZ&ME.

Strategy:

AstraZeneca’s PR team promoted the scheduled Twitter chat through both @AstraZenecaUS and the company blog. The event soon caught the attention of pharma industry pundits and bloggers who retweeted and posted information about the chat. On the day of the #rxSave chat, tweets denoting the planned hashtag began to appear, creating buzz about the event. At exactly 8:00pm, Jen McGovern, AstraZeneca’s director of Patient Assistance Programs, greeted those following the hashtag and welcomed them to @AstraZenecaUS’ first ever Twitter chat.

At the beginning of the event, McGovern established that, given current regulations, she would not be able to discuss specific medications or diseases using Twitter’s 140 character limit. She did, however, tweet that if individuals had questions about specific products, they could contact AstraZeneca through its corporate website or through a telephone help line.

With disclaimers out of the way and ground rules set, McGovern—via @AstraZenecaUS—asked participants what they thought were the best ways to increase awareness of prescription savings programs. Close to 30 responses came in and McGovern probed a few follow-up questions. The participants, largely individuals in healthcare and pharma professions, suggested ideas such as healthcare social networks, front-line education and the use of patient and health advocates to spread the word.

Results:

During the time allotted to the live chat, there were nearly 400 tweets using the #rxSave hashtag. Even after the close of the event, tweeters continued to use the hashtag. And four days later, there were more than 1,000 tweets from more than 200 different people that used the hashtag. AstraZeneca also gained 73 Twitter followers the day of the chat—and this number has steadily increased.

Because a number of healthcare providers participated in the chat, the pharma company was able to ask questions and get answers about real-life actions and challenges to prescription savings program adoption. AstraZeneca was also able to ask about communicating with patients via text messages, and gleaned insight about reaching caregivers of seniors.

Despite an overwhelmingly positive response, AstraZeneca did face backlash from one persistent tweeter. The individual, making use of the #rxSave hashtag, posted tweets critical of AstraZeneca’s past legal affairs. Despite the individual’s unrelenting negativity, the conversation continued about #rxSave, with both the @AstraZenecaUS moderator and participants largely ignoring the person’s trolling.

On the heels of this first success, “AstraZeneca is open to conducting additional chats,” Lubenow said, “if there are topics that would be beneficial to discuss while staying within regulations.”

The complete version of this case study is available to eMarketer Total Access clients only. Click here for more information.

AN INTERVIEW WITH:
Ryan Records
Director of the Starbucks Card
Starbucks

Last year, customers loaded more than $1.5 billion onto Starbucks gift cards. As the coffee company increased its presence on social media, it also wanted to digitally expand the card program, which launched in 1991. Ryan Records, director of the Starbucks Card, spoke to eMarketer writer/analyst Kimberly Maul about the launch of the e-gift cards, how Starbucks is integrating them into social media and mobile strategies, and the surprises he’s seen since the e-gifting program began on January 26.

eMarketer: Tell me a little about the online e-gift card. Is this the first time customers can give Starbucks gift cards to friends through Facebook?

Ryan Records: We have a site called MyStarbucksIdea.com, which is an opportunity for customers to actually connect directly with the business folks and provide ideas and feedback. One of the things we kept hearing was that people want to send a drink digitally. So this was in direct response to that.

We had a Facebook app before, and that was a little difficult to navigate because the customer had to “like” Starbucks, and the recipient had to “like” Starbucks. Then the customer had to download the Starbucks app, and the recipient had to download the Starbucks app. And the customer had to have a registered card, and the recipient had to have a registered card. Then we could move money back and forth.

The difference now is if I have an email address, I can send anybody I want a gift, regardless of whether or not they have a Starbucks card. And if I don’t even have their email address, I can give them a gift on their Facebook wall. It’s more convenient. There’s nothing to restrict it now.

eMarketer: What have you learned so far?

Records: We’re seeing a lot of traffic on Facebook. We’re seeing a lot of posts. It was an eye-opener when these gifts are actually purchased. Literally, after the doors close in our store, this is when the e-gifting business picks up. Another lesson is how many folks want a last-minute gift, and want that convenience. We saw it, especially on Valentine’s Day, which you can imagine.

eMarketer: Are you advertising on Facebook for it?

Records: We’re not. We have some various paid channels and then we’re using our own digital assets to do that as well. We’re telling our tens of millions of Facebook fans and our registered cardholders that they have the capability to send e-gifts. We’re turning our own digital assets on.

eMarketer: What advice do you have for any cafe or restaurant owners and operators who are looking to do online and social e-gifting?

Records: My advice would be to really think hard if you want to do this internally, or if you want to do it externally. We partner with [digital gifting and incentives company] CashStar in this. We put a lot of thought into it, and I think we made the right decision.

The only other advice I would give is to not underestimate fraud mitigation. This is a new channel for a lot of people, and if not done correctly, it could open you up to a large amount of fraud. That’s where partners like CashStar come in, and really bring the level of sophistication and expertise that a program like this requires.

The complete interview is only available to eMarketer Total Access clients. To learn more about becoming an eMarketer client, click here.

When Facebook launched Places, the social network’s long-awaited location-sharing feature, in August, it was accompanied by a couple of key assumptions. One was that 800-pound gorilla of the social networking space, with its 500 million total users and 100+ million mobile users, would take the check-in mainstream. As my colleague Debra Aho Williamson sagely put it in an eMarketer blog post:

Right now, checking in is a fairly niche activity. Places will introduce a lot more people to the concept. Facebook has already shown that it can drive big changes in people’s behavior—just look at the popularity of status updates. Checking in is another one of those behaviors that Facebook can easily push toward mass acceptance.

Another was that the launch of Places signaled the death knell for foursquare and other location-sharing services. But as it happens, the reports of foursquare’s death have been premature. In fact, since the launch of Places, foursquare’s user base has continued to surge, growing from 2.6 million on August 12th (according to a tweet by CEO Dennis Crowley) to 4 million on October 21st. If it continues at its current pace, foursquare is projected to top 5 million registered users by the end of November.

In addition, while Places has built-in scale, it doesn’t necessarily top foursquare in engagement. According to some recent (and admittedly rough) calculations by Silicon Alley Insider (SAI), a large number of people (a reported 30 million) have tried Places, but more people check in on foursquare on a more regular basis. Blame a lack of compelling features, such as game dynamics, that give foursquare a lot of its appeal. On the other hand, engagement and usage metrics, even the somewhat speculative data assembled by SAI, that disproportionately favor the smaller foursquare over the much larger Facebook, serve as further evidence that two can peacefully coexist.

The big question is: what would make Places more compelling? With yesterday’s launch of its Deals program, Facebook is betting the answer is commerce.

Why Places + Deals is important to Facebook:
First, the opportunity to save money will give Facebook’s base of mobile users, now 200 million-strong, a reason to use Places to check in. The success of group-buying services such as Groupon and flash sale sites like Gilt has demonstrated that consumers will jump at the chance of a good deal. The fact that Deals is launching with a roster of 22 national brands, including the Gap, H&M, McDonald’s, Starbucks, Macy’s, American Eagle Outfitters, JCPenney and Chipotle, proves that Facebook is serious about driving adhesion. In many cases, the inaugural deals mean discounts, but Starbucks and McDonald’s, for example, are offering donations to charities in return for checking in, reminiscent of a successful program non-profit Earthjustice has run with foursquare.

Facebook also recognized the need to include a mechanism to drive ongoing usage. In short, Deals is not about the one-shot deal. Rather, merchants have the option of using the platform as a virtual loyalty program or punch card to reward repeat buyers. This is a smart move that could counter some of the criticism leveled at services such as Groupon and one that will make Deals more compelling for users and businesses alike.

Why location-specific deals make sense for marketers:
Location information, which provides insight into not only place but also context, enables marketers to deliver a compelling offer or reward when consumers are at the point of decision. In yesterday’s geo-location sessions at the ad:tech New York conference (coincidentally scheduled at the time same time as Facebook’s Deals announcement), WHERE CEO Walt Doyle noted that reach, relevancy and redemption are the key factors in the location game.

Cracking all of those nuts simultaneously and with the same degree of success is challenging. Facebook can do its part by offering scale and ease-of-use for the business owner, whether a national brand or single proprietorship. But platform and scale alone are not sufficient. Ultimately, the success of Deals depends on, well, the deals that merchants offer. Unless they’re consistently attractive, consumers will lose interest or not sign on at all.

Will Deals alter the dynamics of the marketplace?
The answer is yes, but the impact of Deals will be felt differently throughout the geo-location ecosystem. Although foursquare was absent at yesterday’s launch, Groupon and Loopt, two companies that are farther along than Facebook in marrying location and offers, were present. The single-click sign-on feature that Facebook announced as part of the enhancements to Places will enable deeper integration between Facebook and other location services, which, in theory, at least, will give Facebook more appeal as an aggregator, a value proposition that will likely extend to commerce as well.

Could Facebook, with its reach and resources simply blow its erstwhile competitors out of the water? Given the inclination, the answer is probably yes. But Facebook understands a) the value of the ecosystem (a lesson perhaps learned from Google, now Facebook’s primary competitor in the digital space); and b) its limitations in being all things to all people and all companies. Fast Company described the post-Places opportunity for services such as foursquare and Groupon in the following terms:

Their long-term sustainability will probably rest on the same thing that enabled the Mac to survive in a PC world: A decision to eschew the urge to be everything to everybody and instead to focus on a customer segment they will always be able to serve better than the big boy.

Deals may not be perfect, it may be “cruder,” in Fast Company’s estimation, than similar offerings, but assuming that Facebook is on to something here, Deals could have a significant impact in the marketplace. It could also offer a big boost to mobile-assisted commerce and make mobile not only a more viable but also more necessary channel for reaching consumers.