Mobile ready hero images - why should you use them and how

Did you ever try to buy a shampoo online, and ended up trying to enlarge images to understand if you were really looking at a shampoo, what kind of hair was it for and the size? Then you can skip half of this article, because you already grasped the problem.

E-commerce is about simplicity and convenience for the shopper. And that starts by the way you present your product in the online store. You want to make sure that your product stands out clearly to the shopper, and its key features are easy to understand - in a shampoo, product category, brand, variant /  / benefit, size. You don't want a shopper to actually have to click on your product, then click again on the image, just to understand that was not the product they were looking for and having to do it again on a number of products until they find the one they want to buy - you know things don't work like that in the real world, and that somewhere in the process, you will lose the shopper, who will just decide to try a different brand. Hence, "hero images" is the two words you want to keep in your mind.

Now, let me make it a bit more difficult. 58% of global e-commerce purchases last year were done in a mobile device. Which means smaller screens and hence makes it even more difficult for a shopper to understand product features. So, "mobile ready hero images", that work as well in a mobile device as in computer screen are actually the four words you want to keep in mind - and use them in all your e-commerce related sites.

A mobile ready hero image is not a picture of the real product. It is an optimized version of such. It starts from a picture of the real product, but then you work it up. And it is not that different from working up single product packshots - the principle is to take off the unnessencial (no ingredients, no marketing claims,...) and highlight the key features of the product, the things the consumer really wants to know scoping a shelf - again, make the brand, the variant / benefit, size and (never forget) the product category ("is that thing a shampoo, a conditioner or a shower gel?" is a more frequent question than a marketer would like). Don't limit yourself use the packaging as a frame - put some of the essential information out of the pack frame, if needed. And zoom in the packaging. Remember, you want to make the shopper shelf scoping easier, to make your product stand out through clarity.

The results (always key): A/B testing points out to a 30 to 40% increase of sales of a product, when using mobile ready hero images. Which is typically a winning reasoning.

A key habit every consumer goods marketer needs to have

Every consumer goods marketer knows that stores hold lots of information. Shelves space, appearance, turnaround, promotions locations, prices, in-store communication,... - there is a ton of things that you can learn from a store. You might even talk with a shopper in front of a shelf, with a polite introduction and some well honed questions - and again, you will learn a lot. But there is this key thing you can do in a store that can unlock even further information, and that many marketers don't. You can talk with your restocker.

Yes, the person that replenishes the stores' shelves with your products is one of the most valuable sources of information you can have. They can tell you not only about your products performance (and detail it by variant and size), but also about your competitors. They can comment on which kind of promotion is the most successful and who buys it, based on what they see. They can tell you about pricing and how you can use instore communication (and in a world where this communication is more and more limited by store management, they can even get you a break on this). And they can tell you about how your operations are going, how are things happening on the back of the store - is there any logistics problem, any out of stock or delivery issue, any quality problem? If you go and ask about these things to a restocker (and believe me, they will be willing to talk to you if you show how interested you are and that you work with those brands) they will provide you with important, valuable (qualitative) information and insights, completed unfiltered.

The people that are closest to the market typically have key insights. And there aren't many people that are closer than the restockers, that actually handle your product in stores. So, make a habit of going to a store and talking with them. You won't believe how good is the information you will get. I am still amazed at what I learn on those conversations!

The 5 seconds rule in Youtube

When we are talking about digital video advertising, Youtube ends up being the most talked name in any conversation. Youtube's capacity to attract content is amazing - every 2 months, the content uploaded to Youtube surpasses the one created by the 3 main US TV broadcasters in the latest 60 years. It is a fabulous and diverse content, that Youtube explores to the limit of its advertising capabilities. 

The main advertising format you have in Youtube is to insert a commercial during a Youtube video, at specific lengths of it. It is similar to a TV commercial, and it is an interruption of the user playtime - so Google went one step beyond TV and gave a bit more of power to the user. The viewer has the option to stop the commercial and go back to the content it was viewing anytime after 5 seconds of commercial play. That means that the consumer has the option to cut you out after 5 seconds.

When I am around in Youtube (and I have a small child, so "Peppa Pig" and "Little Baby Bum" are part of my friends) I am amazed at how many advertisers ignore this rule. Because it has considerable implications on the way people watch your commercials, and how you should develop them. 

We are typically taught that a good video (TV) commercial is based on a small story where you create tension that is solved by your brand, highlighting its main benefit - that is the base for engagement and message communication, and it should put your brand as the hero of your commercial, strengthening branding. Now, that means that your brand is only explicit to the consumer late in the communication (typically, only after 12 secs in a traditional 30 secs commercial). Will your commercial viewers on Youtube understand what brand is communicating to them on this case? Not 98% of them, because they will cut it out at 5 secs, while you are still building up (or just introducing) your story.

The solution is to adapt your commercial to the media (as it should always be the case, by the way). Make a specific Youtube version (cut) of your commercial. If viewers have the power to cut you out after 5 secs, the absolute rule is that the brand should be explicit in that time frame - show your brand in the first 5 seconds. If you can show its main selling point / attribute, even better. But never air an ad that is not clearly branded in the first 5 seconds in Youtube - that's just a waste of your budget.

Digital communication is a sales opportunity

Every single digital asset you air should provide a direct opportunity to buy your product. And it should take no more than two clicks.

This is the current mantra in digital communication. To ensure a perfect link between communication and e-commerce, in a way that is unrivalled by traditional media. And it is just based on logic:

- the consumer logic, that if a consumer finds a product s/he likes and needs, it wants to buy it in the most convenient way;

- the customer journey logic, that says that you want to shorten the path to purchase as much as possible;

- the sales logic, that says that you should never lose an opportunity to sell, as "a sale lost today will never be recovered tomorrow" (and thank you for the lesson 15 years ago, João Aleixo)

Until a few years ago, this was nearly impossible. The paradigm would be that you advertise (even digitally) to indirectly generate sales in brick & mortar stores. But e-commerce changed this and it is now easy to setup sales opportunities on digital assets - any kind of digital asset. On search terms, you can do it through Google Shopping, that connects a search term directly with online retailers to buy the product you googled; or through a shop section on your Facebook account; you can link any display (banner) or video to your direct-to-consumer online store or your product's page in a partner customer. And you can even generate powerful data and insights into the shopping behaviour of your shoppers that can help you improve your product / shopping experience.

There are still many digital assets that are produced and aired daily that point to a quite passive brand page or Facebook brand page that still follow the indirect advertising path from traditional media. To be more effective, these digital assets should be linking with e-commerce opportunities. It really is the way forward. So, repeat after me: "Every single digital asset should be linked to a direct opportunity to buy my products". That's the mantra.

The importance of online reviews

When you go looking for a product - or better said, when you go looking for an answer for a need (typical marketeer language, but you get what I mean) - who do you trust? The commercial that has been done by the product manufacturer, what the salesperson is trying to tell you about it? No, typically, you trust other people's opinions the most. Ideally, people you know, and whose opinion you trust - but if they are not around (or they don't know the product), you just trust other people.

And that's the fundamental thing to understand about online reviews for products - they are rooted in simple human behaviour, in the way our brains are engineered to work in a society. We trust other persons that have tried the product and have no incentive to praise (or dirt-mouth) it. We trust simple, honest opinion of "Jack", "Jane", "John", "Camilla".

86% of online shoppers say that they read product reviews when shopping - not only ratings, but worded reviews. 42% of  site administrators report sales growth when they include product reviews (vs 8% that said that their sales actually went down - which, for me means they need to pay more attention to what they are selling...).

And that's why you should always ensure you have them for your product. Let me share a few simple tips on how to ensure this:
- ask your shopper to leave a review - break the inercia and just ash him/her how is the product. The best time for this is after your costumer has used the product but never too much after - typically 24h after the purchase, or 3 days after is a good timing.
- ensure leaving a review is easy - remove whatever obstacle there is for this, make sure the consumer can do it with a click. And avoid the temptation of cluttering the review process by trying to sell him/her more products before the review is submitted.
- provide an incentive - especially when you are in the early stages of your e.commerce presence, and your critical mass (number of customers) is still low, you can incentivize reviewing - a discount coupon is the traditional way to do it.
- use it as an opportunity for interaction - if you get a negative review, fix the situation and tell so to the customer - eventually ask him/her if he wants to update the review. If you get a positive one, thank your shopper, show some grattitude.

#puppymonkeybaby

One of the most bizarre commercials of Super Bowl 2016, this Mountain Dew ad took social media by storm. But... most comments were not exactly positive, many of them calling the ad extremely annoying and generating some very strong negative reactions. To be honest, I agree with those comments - and still, I think this was one of the best ads of SB50.

Launching a new drink (like Mountain Dew's Kickstart) is all about generating the first trial - then, it is a matter of taste, whether you like it (and you will buy it again) or don't (and you will stay with your current drink choices). If you want to generate trial through commercials, then you need awareness, that's your number one job. And, let's be honest, puppymonkeybaby really breaks the clutter and generates awareness and real conversations that bring the brand to life. And then, I am sure, a part of your target group will try Kickstart.

Mumm and David Guetta

Are you an old brand, restricted by advertising regulations and with severe problems to break the clutter when communicating to younger audiences? Then, feel free to be inspired by GH Mumm partnership with David Guetta, delivering your key messages, boosting your products' awareness and equity, through music video-clips from one of the coolest DJs around...