PardonMyFrench

AOL Blogging Stocks - Umm Why?

I guess I've become a bit of a dinosaur after 5 years in marketing in the online brokerage space, but I don't understand the hoopla surrounding AOL's supposed big move into blogging stocks.  As written over at Business Week in AOL Launches New Network of Financial Blogs, AOL hired bloggers to write about product announcements, earnings releases, and commentary on stocks in their blog roll.  This was a big idea of new AOL employee, Jason Calacanis and Weblogs.  And over at Micro Persuasion, Steve Rubel thinks that this will cause more corporations to use blogs as a communications tool. 

Hmm, PardonMe if I don't get too excited about this because, umm it has been done already over at The Street.com/RealMoney.com, on TV with Jim Cramer's Mad Money (same guy from the Street.com), Motley Fool, and like 1000s of analysts worldwide.  Plus, if you want people commenting about stocks, you could always visit Yahoo Finance's Message Boards or Google Finance.  Repackaging news content around specific stocks sounds like it hasn't been done, but doesn't that how most financial sites including online brokerages organize the news now? The answer true-believers is YES!

There is a lot of discussion on whether they can hold the stocks or not that they blog about.  I personally stayed awake long enough while taking my Series 7 to learn that you don't EVER want to be perceived as influencing stock.  How you go about that is up to your legal and compliance team's advice.  To put it in perspective, I was politely told 5 years ago that I could have my own website and blog, but I would need to submit it for legal review prior to posting.  That way, it would be difficult to show I influenced trading; plus, I had legal and compliance approval for communicating with the customer.  In the end, I didn't want to assume the risk, so I didn't start my blog until after I left (by the way, I left as a Managing Director and one little test away from a Series 24).  The influence perception is about risk management and whether you are trusting the information you are getting. I hate to say it, but I think this is just a poor PR ploy to generate attention regarding their governance (ho-hum).

This information is already widely available on any number of sites, including my personal choice for investing, Fidelity.com.  So, having bloggers enter an already crowded field, repackaged in a pseduo Web 2.0 wrapping is really not needed and not breakthrough.  If you were really interested in true financial bloggers, then spend a little time with Motley Fool or Real Money.com.  In fact, RealMoney has original Wall Street bloggers, Jim Cramer and James "Rev Shark" De Porre. 

As one financial services advertiser once said in a TV commercial (and I believe got slapped around by the NASD for it), let's put some lipstick on this pig.  And, that's what is happening here with bloggingstocks.com.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Sam I AM TDAmeritrade

As reported by Stuart Elliot in the NY Times in an article called Actor Gets an Encore, Sam Waterston has been kept on as the spokesperson for the newly combined TD Waterhouse, Ameritrade company now known as TD AMERITRADE.  According to the article, the new TD AMERITRADE carries the theme, "The independent spirit, expressed in headlines such as "Independence is the spirit that drives America's most successful investors." The double meaning is meant to evoke the do-it-yourself approach of current and potential TD Ameritrade customers.  OK, a couple of observations from an insider and someone that enjoyed competing with both Ameritrade and TD.

Law and Order Link - Why Is It Important?

Simple.  Sam Waterston is trustworthy to people.  He is the voice of reason for TDAmeritrade and when he speaks people listen to what he has to say.  What I always found interesting is that people believe the person that Sam plays on Law and Order is believable and trust worthy.  That was not meant as a shot at Mr. Waterston because I don't know him personally, but like everyone else I have a valid opinion on the person he plays.  TDAmeritrade kept the best aspect of TD's old marketing campaigns and now according to the article, will blow out about $150 million next year on marketing with Sam at the helm.

The Do-It-Yourself Angle Should Have Stayed With The Waterhouse Name

Keeping Sam is a good idea, the do-it-yourself positioning is really, really tired and it leads to very silly ads. Yes silly.  About 2 years ago, TD Waterhouse ran a campaign that was based on the do-it-yourself investor and when you opened a new account you got, you guessed it true-believers, a brand spanking new power drill.  I never laughed so hard in my life at an incentive and couldn't resist calling up my counter part at TD to needle him. They even tested the offer on a Yahoo Finance Quotes Results Button. 

Look there is nothing wrong with featuring people investing on their own, in fact that is similar to the old Harrisdirect positioning of the self-directed investor and similar to Schwab's campaign.  It is just the positioning as a do-it-yourself, Home Depot type investor leads to a very sad state.

Why Do Agencies Do That?

Ok, so Sam is good and do-it-yourself is bad, but what I believed really affected their online campaigns was the lack of ability by their creative agency to use the ENTIRE space in the browser.  I always pushed my agency to use bigger fonts and more space to make the page easier to read on say people with 30+ eyes.  Really, what does the ugly green border do for signing up new accounts when you squeeze in a complicated product like X-ray?  Bigger fonts, less space for the people that actually resonate with Sam Waterston makes some sense, no?

TDWaterhouse was a worthy competitor, but that was mostly due to their huge online spend and spokesperson.  For almost three years, I had my own pseudo spokesperson that had a cult following online and coincidentally helped me generate a ton of campaigns.  That story, The Life and Times of Elsie Lee is a story for another week.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

It's About Times

Well, hopefully you already experienced it but the New York Times just finished a new redesign of their website and I think it looks fantastic. The website is now wider with more columns and the homepage has a real newspaper feel to it.  Plus, I love the RSS feeds jumping out all over the place and they somehow managed to squeeze in more advertising space.  I also love the streaming video on the front page and now with better content below the fold, it gives you a reason to actually scroll down the page; however, I think the buttons way below the fold are a complete waste of space.

Now, I'm probably the last person you think would care to review them, but I have a lot of experience buying advertising from NYTimes.com.  DLJdirect had an advertising deal with the site back when it was originally launched and I inherited the deal when I joined the brokerage firm back in January 2001.  In fact, one of my  first meetings was with the NY Times account team to discuss our advertising campaign with them.  Over the years, I kept that deal in place, even when I had to completely cancel all other deals due to 9-11.  It also survived the chopping block when accounts fell off the cliff when we added in MSN which had a huge overlap with them.  In fact, at the beginning of 2005, Fidelity bought my favorite position which was the button positions below the Markets Graph on the homepage (since now removed).  Not to be deterred, I switched my deal to the Search Sponsorship, so Harrisdirect appeared on EVERY PAGE of the site and after E*Trade acquired Harrisdirect, they assumed that button buy, too.

Why did I go through all of this trouble to keep my deal in place?  Was it because I liked the news or did I get a free subscription?  Both answers were no and I had other uses for the website.  First of all, a huge percentage of my current and former customers were big subscribers to the site.  Second, the deal itself helped position Harrisdirect as one of the largest advertisers on the internet (17th largest US to be exact).  Next, the account team, led by Hayward H. was really focused on our business and tried to make a win-win for both sides.  Finally and most importantly, I believe the site with all of the national and international viewers was a big driver of brand awareness for Harrisdirect.  In fact, when anyone said they noticed a Harrisdirect ad, it was often an ad on NYTimes.com.  You see, I do believe in brand awareness on the internet  (you probably thought I was just a CPA kinda guy).

Now, as opposed to Jack Shafer over at the Slate.com who is canceling his print subscription due to all of the changes on the site, I'll still hold on to my Sunday subscription.  I already cut back on my daily subscription years ago because I couldn't stand wrapping up all of the paper and I had figured out the internet was a decent place to get your news.  The Sunday NY Times paper edition is still a lot easier to read at the breakfast table and a lot more civil than opening up the laptop.  Besides, the kids like smacking the paper in my face when I have it open to read and doing that to the laptop would definitely make a harsher sounding noise when it bounces off the floor.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

To Run With The Big Yahoos, Get Off The Launch

So, after yesterday's big launch of Google's finance page, everyone naturally started thinking and writing about Yahoo!'s response.  What is poor Yahoo! going to do and how are they going to respond? 

As written in MediaPost, Yahoo! Readies Response to Google Finance, I think they unfairly make it seem like a response is coming.  Well, I know the folks at Yahoo! Finance very well because I bought millions of dollars worth of online media as Managing Director, Channel Marketing for Harrisdirect and I know that they are not responding to the Google Finance launch.  You see the team, led by Richard Kosinski, is always constantly trying to improve the Yahoo! Finance page, but they do it in a methodical, planned approach.

Was the team at Yahoo! Finance surprised by Google Finance?  I don't think so.  Yahoo already knows that they are the number 1 finance destination on the internet and like Google in the search category, maintains that leadership position by carefully planning out changes and balancing the needs of marketers and users. 

As a marketer that tried to buy the quotes results button year after year, I can tell you that what makes the site powerful is the consistent traffic, information, message boards, and constant placement of positions and ad units.  You know something else about Yahoo!, the quotes results button package is the most coveted position in the finance category.  I had the privilege of testing it (yes I wrote privilege) for a few months as the mythical fourth button before they implemented it and I received fantastic results.  I just didn't have the marketing budget to compete with the current owners of the buttons to pull the trigger on a much larger ad buy.

Can Yahoo! Finance use a few tweaks?  Sure. It should add in more news feeds from their own search platform as well as blog posts to already go along with the well used stock message boards.  Plus, some bells and whistles with Flash could be useful provided the users don't revolt.  I think this quote in the article best sums up Yahoo!'s strategy for managing the finance section.

"Along with balancing our relationships with users and advertisers, the most important thing for us is making sure we're relevant to marketers," said Richard Kosinski, category head for business and finance at Yahoo. "We have to provide marketers with the best solutions, and part of that is helping them understand user behavior on our site."

The media buys in this category are large enough to add in another key channel and if Harrisdirect was still in existence, I would be convincing my Google account team to let me be the first advertiser to test the new finance page.  And, if you are the internet czar of a large financial advertiser, take my advice and beat your competition to the punch and make those calls now. 

Google's announcement and baby step into the Finance category is welcome, but until they start making more improvements and add in some advertisers, folks should try starting the comparisons with finance sites that are a little lower on the food chain. 

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Google Finance Launches

Today, you can start checking financial quotes and news over at Google as they launch a beta version of Google Finance.  I have to be honest, when I heard this was on its way I thought to myself, great another Google product, what is next Google Cola? 

Well, I gave it a test run and it is a pretty good tool.  I'm not sure if I will use it as a primary source, because well, if you are going to buy stock, you should be using more information besides just news.  However (and that's a big emphasis on however), I really like how they organize all available news including blogs.

I tested it using a quote on the New, New, New, and Really It Is New AT&T and I found the organization of the information impressive.  Plus, it pulls in all available news feeds, not just the ones that have a news feed deal with the publisher.  I like the mouse overs, especially the ones on the executives which pulls in insider trading activities from Yahoo Finance.  It also puts AT&T's competition right on the page so you don't have to guess.  Finally, the lower left hand side of the dashboard has other resource links including Yahoo!, MSN, and The Street.com.

Of course the beta version has no advertisers, so it is a little unfair to start design comparisons with Yahoo and MSN.  However, I like the dashboard feel and the organization of the page. I think I would use it as part of stock research because I'll get more information, but I don't think it would become my primary research.  That still would stay with Fidelity.

From a marketing perspective, if you are an online broker, I would be beating down the door to run advertising in it.  I used to purchase stock quotes as part of a search buy and this is now far superior to the results of the past.  If you are Yahoo! Finance or other finance publishers, I'd study it to see what improvements could be copied, err sorry, researched, but I wouldn't be jumping through hoops.  You already have a huge competitive advantage with your consistent organization, advertisers, and existing traffic

Google Finance - a pretty good product, just not sure if it will rule the world on its own.  I think people managing their finances are more sophisticated than the average Google user and use a variety of sources.  However, as part of a looming Google dashboard - very interesting and a worthy baby step into organizing financial data.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric

Fidelity Gets Amazoned

Did you now know when you shop on Amazon for books and DVDs you can can also drop an IRA account into your shopping cart?  Well, not exactly, but in a move that is very surprising to yours truly, Fidelity entered into an agreement with Amazon. 

Now you can access Fidelity products from Amazon by either hitting the Fidelity logo on the home page or scrolling ALL THE WAY DOWN on the left margin to hit a link that says Financial Services.  This deal looks like someone way up in the rafters at Fidelity decided that dealing with Amazon is a great idea, but is it really?

Well, I don't know the terms of the deal, but I can make a very educated guess.  Why?  Simple, for two separate companies I personally investigated doing a deal with Amazon; the last one was on a personal hunch and not directed by any company.  You know what I concluded both times?  To deal with Amazon becomes a very expensive proposition with very little room for customization.  You have to confirm to their website and marketing strategies and give up creativity.  In fact, as you can see from these two screen shots below, if you have a my Amazon page (which most users do), the link is not found at the top of the tab, but buried on the margin (hence the reason for two screen shots).

Wait a minute you say to yourself.  Amazon has that cool  1:1 marketing engine that brings offers to you.  As far as I know, that 1:1 marketing engine won't legally work in the financial services arena (ex, Amazon recommends you buy Fidelity stock) and a watered down version would actually be better off coming directly from Fidelity.  Wait, you say there is a ton of traffic?  Sure, but are they shopping for financial services while looking for a book?  Nope.  Check out that top screen shot - looks pretty busy in the financial services page, plus I read somewhere that the deal is NOT exclusive. 

This reminds me of a story when I first joined CSFBdirect.  I was trying to do some re-marketing to customers and my old COO/Lawyer Mike Hogan pulled me into his office.  He listened to my proposal and then turned to me and said it won't work for a variety of reasons.  To quote Mike, "We are not selling telephone service or books here", so those ideas were filed away for another day.

I really like Fidelity and I hope the deal works out for them, but I have a feeling it won't.  They probably would have been better off carpet bombing the internet with their new 60's retro style IRA campaign much the same way the New, New, New, Really New AT&T did with their campaign.  I guess it is really great to have a ton of money sitting around in corporate money market vaults.

PardonMyFrench,

Eric