Social Bowl XLVII: Why You Should Move Your Money to the Web ...

We all know that the Super Bowl is the Super Bowl of, well, Super Bowls.? It?s even MORE super for mega-brands with colossal marketing budgets, fancy Hollywood contacts and burping frogs.? But not everyone is a Coke? Or even a Pepsi.? Consequently, if you?re a mid-sized business looking to maximize your advertising dollars this Sunday, the place to spend that cash isn?t on TV, but online.

Say you?re Shasta.? Or Thrifty Car Rental.? Or Kettle Brand.? Sure you have an ad budget, but at $3.8 million per 30 second TV spot, those dollars are burned in a half-minute.

But social media is different.? There?s a lower financial barrier to entry and seemingly endless opportunities to improve your ?bang for the buck.?? So rather than blow your budget on 30 seconds, small businesses and mid-sized concerns should stretch their Benjamins across Twitter and Facebook.

As Portent?s President Steve Gahler says, ?You can?t own the Super Bowl, but you can own the space where everyone talks about the Super Bowl.?

Here?s how you, too, can put some points on the board during the biggest media marketing event of the year.

The Game Day audience

Last year, 111.3 million people watched the Super Bowl ? the largest audience ever.

And according to NBC (last year?s broadcaster), 2.1 million people watched the game live online.? Yes, a much (much) smaller market, but potentially a more tech-savvy, higher-income one as well.? Add that number to the masses following the game on social media and you have a nice chunk of engaged fans to market to.

This year?s broadcaster CBS will be streaming live on their site, as will nfl.com.

TV ad costs

Up, up and away:

According to Forbes:? ?Current reports plug [Super Bowl XLII?s] ad price at $3.8 million, up from the $3.5 million that companies paid for a spot at [last] year?s game, and that is just the cost of air time. Ad budgets for Super Bowl commercials can run as high as $5 million per 30-second spot.?

So, potentially $8.8 million for 30 seconds.? Yes, it?s the biggest media event in the world, but?

Super Bowl ads don?t work for everyone

According to NBC News:? ?Most of the top 10 [Super Bowl] spenders are perennial also-rans. Yum! Brands, owner of KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, spent $67 million over the past 10 years. Meanwhile, McDonald?s, the indisputable market leader, spent less than half that amount and is not a top 10 spender. Similarly, E*Trade, well-known for the talking baby campaign, spent more than any other online brokerage firm, yet remains fourth in the industry.?

Most mid- to-small-size companies can?t afford to blow $9 million on a spot that doesn?t guarantee a great ROI.? And for all their hype, Super Bowl ads don?t.? For example, check out this graphic from nfl.com?s Football Freakonomics:

Social media and television: Partners in engagement

According to the latest Nielsen Social Media Report, ?As of June 2012, more than 33 percent of Twitter users had actively tweeted about TV-related content. Some 44 percent of U.S. tablet owners and 38 percent of U.S. smartphone owners use their devices daily to access social media while watching television.?

And those numbers are an aggregation.? Super Bowl engagement is even higher.

But does social really convert?

Even the NFL is using social media to evaluate Super Bowl ads? ROI.? The NFL?s Head of Sales Seth Winter says social media improves an ad?s TV value, allowing them to charge more.? So why not start with social if you can?t afford the TV kit and caboodle?

Where to spend your money: Twitter

In the final moments of last year?s game, Twitter interaction was averaging over 12,000 tweets per second.? PER SECOND.? And the grand total for Super Bowl related tweets?? 13.7 million.

From Zander Lurie, SVP, Strategic Development at CBS:

They refer to it as a ?second screen? experience: the audience watches conventional media while using new media to comment on / interact with it.? Take a look at this graphic by Nielsen:

And for social proof, do you know who?s monitoring Twitter on Super Bowl Sunday?? All of those enormous in-game advertisers? For real time feedback, they turn to the social media network.

(Interesting aside: With social media, you may not even lose an impression due a pit stop: according to the Nielsen report, 32% of people use social networking in the bathroom.)

Option 1: Promoted Tweets

A tip from Twitter?s advertising department: ?Leverage real-time intent: Run Promoted Tweets in search to target relevant [timely] terms that have trended in the past on Twitter and are likely to once again spark high levels of discussion.?

A Promoted Tweet looks like this:

I could obviously do with some more followers? Hint.

And just in time to collect your Super Bowl dollars, Twitter made improvements to Promoted Tweets:? You can now target negative keywords.? Their example: ?If you sell bacon, you can now keep your campaigns more than six degrees apart from Kevin Bacon by using ?Kevin? as a negative keyword.?

You can also target your promoted Tweets to geographic regions (a great advertising option for brick and mortar businesses), existing follower base and gender.

But the best thing about Promoted Tweets?? You only pay when people play.? From Twitter: ?Promoted Tweets are priced on a Cost-per-Engagement (CPE) basis, so you only pay when someone retweets, replies to, clicks or favorites your Promoted Tweet.?? Pretty sweet deal for someone with a small ad budget.

Option 2: Sponsored hashtags

Also known as Promoted Trends, a sponsored hashtag will appear at the top of Twitter?s Trending Topics list at the left of a user?s feed.

Anecdotal evidence of their efficacy ? at least for bigger brands ? is positive.? For example, Coke used a promoted tweet during the 2010 World Cup and snatched 86 million impressions with a 6% engagement rate.

Today, the price tag of a 24-hour sponsored hashtag is around $120,000, though Twitter is expected to hike that cost for this year?s Bowl.? It?s a bargain at even twice or three times that figure, however, when you consider that your brand will stay in the spotlight for 24 hours (compared to a 30 second, $3.8 million TV spot).

Sponsored hashtags also appear on iPhones, Android mobile devices, Tweetdeck and Hootsuite, making them a good choice for folks tweeting in front of their flatscreens.

A caveat: As with any social or viral marketing campaign, you do not control the interaction.? It is important to consider that the hashtag, once created, takes on a life of its own.? Some of your feedback may be negative. For example, check out the Republican National Committee?s #AreYouBetterOff debacle.

And for those of you truly looking for a bargain, you can get ahead of the game and capitalize on tags that you KNOW will be trending; in 2013, #ManofSteel, #IronMan3 and #Hangover3 are all pretty safe bets.? You can also check out hashtag search engines like Tweet Archivist or Tweet Charts to see what people are talking about most.

Option 3: Promoted accounts

While a promoted account won?t necessarily be visible on everyone?s Twitter page, it allows for greater targeting of potential customers. Twitter?s algorithm recommends a user follow your account only if they fit a specific profile, resulting in less wasted coverage.

Like Promoted Tweets, you only pay for interaction ? specifically when someone follows your account. You decide how much you want to spend per day or new follower, and you can geo-target.

Our in-house social media guru Doug Antkowiak also suggests: ?Promoted accounts target people based on who the target account is already following.? If you want to be seen by a specific niche, you need to go follow those people first.? Followerwonk is a great place to start.?

Where to spend your money: Facebook

Are people really looking at their Facebook pages during the big game?

Allfacebook.com studied the wall posts of more than 1,400 brands during game time and found that engagement during the Super Bowl soared 60%.

Not unexpectedly, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg maintains advertising on Facebook is better than advertising on television.? More unexpectedly, she had this stat to back it up:? Facebook?s daily traffic is over three times greater than Super Bowl viewership.

Option 1: Facebook Ads

Facebook Ads allow you to select a page or piece of content you?d like to promote.

Facebook has greater targeting dexterity than Twitter, allowing you to select from a number of demographic categories, including location, age, gender and interests.? You set your campaign budget and are charged every time someone sees your ad or sponsored story.? Then choose whether you?d like to optimize for engagement, impressions or clicks.

If a mid-sized business elects to go with Facebook Ads, it may want to create some pieces of quality Super Bowl-centric content to promote on Game Day.? Craft the message for your target market and select the demographic filters that correspond.

Option 2: Facebook Apps

More expensive but great at brand building, Facebook apps allow you to more fully engage with a potential customer base, often via a contest, game or service.? It also enables an advertiser to control a corner of the social media juggernaut, increasing user engagement rates.

With highlights like automatic bookmarking, newsfeed stories and a notifications API, Facebook apps are front and center for engaging potential customers.? Once you reach 10 active users, your app will be automatically included in the Facebook search index.? Facebook Insights also allows you to accurately track user engagement and referral traffic.

In fact this year, Doritos is using a Facebook App to choose their network Super Bowl commercial as the latest incarnation of their popular ?Crash the Super Bowl? promotion.

While posting your app to Facebook is free, building it can cost anywhere from $500 to tens of thousands of dollars.

Your Game Day playbook

1. Start with content.? Create something relevant to the Super Bowl, but not necessarily about football.? Think of your target market and generate a campaign that connects your product or service to the event in a way that engages them.? For a conventional media example, the Puppy Bowl entertains Animal Planet?s demographic (pet owners) with a silly, cute ?game? that is relevant enough to capitalize on the Super Bowl?s PR, but distant enough they can carve their own niche.
2. Capitalize on Twitter trends through promoted tweets and sponsored hashtags.? Also take advantage of some ?free? promotion with Tweets using hashtags that are certain to be popular.
3. Anything that is cost-per-whatever, consider using.? You?re only paying for people who have seen your Facebook ad/Promoted tweet/account/etc.? No wasted coverage.
4. As always, monitor and measure.? Improve.? You?ll have another shot next year.

The takeaway

?Playing your own game? is about forging a relationship with your customer base on your terms.? Small- to mid-sized businesses should grasp the opportunity to capitalize on a trending, water cooler topic like the Super Bowl, but they must do so strategically, for the right price, and be able to measure the result.

For anyone who?s not Coke (or even Pepsi), the smart money?s online.? There you?ll have time to build a brand identity? One that stands a chance against a talking gecko and some Clydesdales.

Ultimately, you can spend $3.8 million on 30 seconds of TV which may or may not catch fire? Or you can become part of the excited, week-long dialogue that surrounds the big game, engaging potential consumers on a topic they are already vested in.

Now it may be too late to implement a strategy for the Super Bowl ? it IS on Sunday ? but there?s still a little time to capitalize on the Female Super Bowl: the Oscars air on Sunday, Feb. 24.

Am I missing any other viable social media ad outlets for Super Bowl Sunday?? Should we bet on YouTube?? Pinterest? (Hint: not them.)? Let me know in the comments below.

Source: http://www.portent.com/blog/internet-marketing/social-bowl-xlvii.htm

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Squishy Science: Extract DNA from Smashed Strawberries

A genetically geared activity from Science Buddies

By Science Buddies

Image: George Resteck

• 

  Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...

  Read More??

Key concepts
DNA
Genome
Genes
Extraction
Laboratory techniques

Introduction
Have you ever wondered how scientists extract DNA from an organism? All living organisms have DNA, which is short for deoxyribonucleic acid; it is basically the blueprint for everything that happens inside an organism?s cells. Overall, DNA tells an organism how to develop and function, and is so important that this complex compound is found in virtually every one of its cells. In this activity you?ll make your own DNA extraction kit from household chemicals and use it to separate DNA from strawberries.?
??
Background
Whether you?re a human, rat, tomato or bacterium, each of your cells will have DNA inside of it (with some rare exceptions, such as mature red blood cells in humans). Each cell has an entire copy of the same set of instructions, and this set is called the genome. Scientists study DNA for many reasons: They can figure out how the instructions stored in DNA help your body to function properly. They can use DNA to make new medicines or genetically modify crops to be resistant to insects. They can solve who is a suspect of a crime, and can even use ancient DNA to reconstruct evolutionary histories!

To get the DNA from a cell, scientists typically rely on one of many DNA extraction kits available from biotechnology companies. During a DNA extraction, a detergent will cause the cell to pop open, or lyse, so that the DNA is released into solution. Then alcohol added to the solution causes the DNA to precipitate out. In this activity, strawberries will be used because each strawberry cell has eight copies of the genome, giving them a lot of DNA per cell. (Most organisms only have one genome copy per cell.)

Materials

• Rubbing alcohol
• Measuring cup
• Measuring spoons
• Salt
• Water
• Dishwashing liquid (for hand-washing dishes)
• Glass or small bowl
• Cheesecloth
• Funnel
• Tall drinking glass
• Three strawberries
• Resealable plastic sandwich bag
• Small glass jar (such as a spice or baby food jar)
• Bamboo skewer, available at most grocery stores. (If you use a baby food or short spice jar, you could substitute a toothpick for the skewer.)

Preparation

• Chill the rubbing alcohol in the freezer. (You?ll need it later.)
• Mix one half teaspoon of salt, one third cup of water and one tablespoon of dishwashing liquid in a glass or small bowl. Set the mixture aside. This is your extraction liquid. Why do you think there is detergent in the extraction liquid?
• Completely line the funnel with cheesecloth. Insert the funnel tube into the tall drinking glass (not the glass with the extraction liquid in it).
• Remove and discard the green tops from the strawberries.

Procedure

• Put the strawberries into a resealable plastic sandwich bag and push out all of the extra air. Seal the bag tightly.
• With your fingers, squeeze and smash the strawberries for two minutes. How do the smashed strawberries look?
• Add three tablespoons of the extraction liquid you prepared to the strawberries in the bag. Push out all of the extra air and reseal the bag. How do you think the detergent and salt will affect the strawberry cells?
• Squeeze the strawberry mixture with your fingers for one minute. How do the smashed strawberries look now?
• Pour the strawberry mixture from the bag into the funnel. Let it drip through the cheesecloth and into the tall glass until there is very little liquid left in the funnel (only wet pulp remains). How does the filtered strawberry liquid look?
• Pour the filtered strawberry liquid from the tall glass into the small glass jar so that the jar is one quarter full.
• Measure out one half cup of cold rubbing alcohol.
• Tilt the jar and very slowly pour the alcohol down its side. Pour until the alcohol has formed approximately a one-inch-deep layer on top of the strawberry liquid. You may not need all of the one half cup of alcohol to form the one-inch layer. Do not let the strawberry liquid and alcohol mix.
• Study the mixture inside of the jar. The strawberry DNA will appear as gooey clear/white stringy stuff. Do you see anything in the jar that might be strawberry DNA? If so, where in the jar is it?
• Dip the bamboo skewer into the jar where the strawberry liquid and alcohol layers meet and then pull up the skewer. Did you see anything stick to the skewer that might be DNA? Can you spool any DNA onto the skewer????
• Extra: You can try using this DNA extraction activity on lots of other things. Grab some oatmeal or kiwis from the kitchen and try it again! Which foods give you the most DNA?
• Extra: If you have access to a milligram scale (called a balance), you can measure how much DNA you get (called a yield). Just weigh your clean bamboo skewer and then weigh the skewer again after you have used it to fish out as much DNA as you could from your strawberry DNA extraction. Subtract the initial weight of the skewer from its weight with the DNA to get your final yield of DNA. What was the weight of your DNA yield?
• Extra: Try to tweak different variables in this activity to see how you could change your strawberry DNA yield. For example, you could try starting with different amounts of strawberries, using different detergents or different DNA sources (such as oatmeal or kiwis). Which conditions give you the best DNA yield?

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=7edf7a4697fe9a890d420068e17cc1fd

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Chimp see, chimp learn: First evidence for chimps improving tool use techniques by watching others

Jan. 30, 2013 ? Chimps can learn more efficient ways to use a tool by watching what others do, according to research published Jan. 30 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Shinya Yamamoto and colleagues from Kyoto University and Kent University, UK. Their study presents the first experimental evidence that chimps, like humans, can watch and learn a group member's invention of a better technique.

Chimps in the study were provided juice-boxes with a small hole and straws to drink with. One group of chimps used the straws like dipsticks, dipping and removing them to suck on the end, while the other group learned to suck through the straw directly. Learning both techniques required the same cognitive and motor skills, but chimps that drank through the straw got considerably more juice in a shorter amount of time. When the first group of chimps watched either a human or a chimp demonstrate the more efficient 'straw-sucking' technique, all of them switched to using this instead.

The study concludes, "When chimpanzees are dissatisfied with their own technique, they may socially learn an improved technique by closely observing a proficient demonstrator."

According to the authors, their results provide insights into the cognitive basis for the evolution of culture in chimpanzees, and suggest ways that culture could evolve in non-human animals.

The present study was financially supported by grants-in-aid from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan (MEXT: 20002001, 24000001, and MEXT special grant ''Human Evolution'' to T. Matsuzawa) and from Japan Society for the promotion of Science (JSPS: 18-3451, 21-9340, 22800034 and 40585767 to S. Yamamoto).

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Public Library of Science.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Shinya Yamamoto, Tatyana Humle, Masayuki Tanaka. Basis for Cumulative Cultural Evolution in Chimpanzees: Social Learning of a More Efficient Tool-Use Technique. PLoS ONE, 2013; 8 (1): e55768 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0055768

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_science/~3/YPEZGgp5i-o/130130184158.htm

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Total Recall: Al Pacino's Best Movies

News ? Columns ? Total Recall ? Total Recall: Al Pacino's Best Movies

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We count down the best-reviewed work of the Stand Up Guys star.

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Panasonic returns to profit on cost cuts, yen drop

TOKYO (AP) ? Japanese electronics maker Panasonic Corp. returned to the black last quarter as cost cuts and a weaker yen offset sliding sales.

Panasonic is among the Japanese electronics makers battered by price plunges in gadgets and hot competition from more successful rivals such as U.S. manufacturer Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. of South Korea.

Osaka-based Panasonic reported a 61.4 billion yen ($667 million) profit for the October-December period Friday. It had a loss of 698 billion yen in the previous quarter and a loss of 197.6 billion yen a year earlier.

Quarterly sales slipped 8 percent to 1.8 trillion yen ($19.6 billion).

The company said global demand weakened for flat panel TVs and digital products and devices, but sales grew in LED lighting and auto-related equipment.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/495d344a0d10421e9baa8ee77029cfbd/Article_2013-02-01-Japan-Earns-Panasonic/id-3cf7a343e1394709abe969fcf1c59106

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Obama wants immigration overhaul this year

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama rejected Republican complaints about his proposals for overhauling the U.S. immigration system on Wednesday and said he believed it was possible to get a deal done by the end of the year if not in the first half.

Obama gave an interview to a pair of Spanish-language U.S. television networks to promote his proposals for giving 11 million illegal immigrants a pathway to U.S. citizenship after a bipartisan Gang of Eight senators offered its own plan.

"I?m hopeful that this can get done, and I don?t think that it should take many, many months. I think this is something we should be able to get done certainly this year and I?d like to see if we could get it done sooner, in the first half of the year if possible," Obama told Telemundo.

If Congress delays, he said, "I've got a bill drafted, we've got language" ready to offer Capitol Hill.

Obama offered his own principles on immigration at an appearance in Las Vegas on Tuesday. He pushed for a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants that is faster than the one the Senate group proposed.

Rather than emphasize border security first as the senators want, he would let undocumented immigrants get on a path to citizenship if they undergo national security and criminal background checks, pay penalties, learn English and get behind those foreigners seeking to immigrate legally.

Asked by the Univision network about Republican criticism of his proposals, particularly from a Hispanic senator, Marco Rubio, Obama argued his administration had already done much work on securing the U.S. border with Mexico.

"Look, we put border security ahead of a pathway to citizenship. We have done more on border security in the last four years than we have done in the previous 20," Obama said. "We've actually done almost everything that Republicans asked to be done several years ago as a precondition to move forward on comprehensive immigration reform."

Obama offered to meet publicly or privately with Rubio and other senators to try to move the process forward.

The border security issue may be the toughest the two sides will have to overcome to reach the type of comprehensive overhaul that Washington has talked for years but been unable to execute.

After years on the back burner, immigration reform has suddenly looked possible as Republicans, chastened by Latino voters who rejected them in the November election, appear more willing to accept an overhaul.

Congress is now grappling with two major issues - immigration and Obama's efforts to tighten gun regulations. The president told Univision he believed Congress could handle both at the same time.

Obama said he wanted Congress to get legislation on immigration reform to the floor of the Senate by the beginning of March.

(Reporting by Steve Holland and Matt Spetalnick; Editing by Eric Walsh and Peter Cooney)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/immigration-overhaul-possible-first-half-2013-obama-001248327.html

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Dutch state nationalizes SNS Reaal NV bank

AMSTERDAM (AP) ? The Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem has nationalized the long-suffering bank and insurance company SNS Reaal.

The bank, the Netherlands fourth-largest, had been given ?750 million ($1 billion) in bailout money in 2008 and its operations remained mostly profitable. But as the value of its real estate assets slid, its balance sheet weakened to the point that it was below legal solvency limits.

The bank had warned with increasing frequency of its troubles and was in talks with private parties about a takeover until Thursday.

But Dijsselbloem said in a 20-page written decision published Friday that nationalization was the best option.

Dijsselbloem says shareholders will lose their investments, and subordinate creditors also stand to lose money. Retail deposits are guaranteed up to ?100,000.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/dutch-state-nationalizes-sns-reaal-nv-bank-074645972--finance.html

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