HIP Digital Media


Competition for consumers' attention online continues to climb. The need for engaging content is higher than ever before, and brand managers who work to understand the importance of interacting with their consumers on a more in-depth level recognize the additional value of delivering promotional incentives through a custom branded store. Adding Hip Digital's branded redemption portal to a promotion can turn an everyday website experience into an entertainment portal that captivates consumers visually, audibly, and emotionally. Leveraging the inventory of a brand's products within a Hip custom branded site also allows consumers to interact more completely with the brand, which helps create an enthusiastic connection and immediate engagement with cost-effective digital promotions – and a level of connection that's hard to make when advertising on other websites, in adware, RSS feeds, blogs or even in many cases, a brand's own website.

The benefits of shifting the mix of media spend from ad networks to digital promotions that include a brand's custom-branded redemption portal are many, with the main advantage being the opportunity to interact longer with the consumer on what appears to be the brand's own turf. Hitachi's G-Technology site is a great example of a brand that's taking advantage of highlighting their product line at the same time that recipients of the brand's free download offer choose their songs. While customers download, browse, and sample content, they are also reading about the products and services offered by the brand. What's more, the brand has the chance to gather data about the users' demographics: engagement time spent on the site (with their products front and center), purchase patterns and top-downloaded content, to name a few. For the consumer, it's a complete immersion with the brand. For the client, a branded redemption store takes consumer engagement on a level that transcends the Marketing 101 strategies from even a few short years ago. To see the real numbers tied to the impact of a digital promotion on a branded website, read on.

The multiplatform entertainment company Much is enjoying the ease of Hip's Digital Music Engine (DME) this spring and summer to power their new promotion aimed at Canada's young adults. Attendees at the company's Much Video Dances are given cards with pin codes worth five free tracks from a custom playlist of the today's hottest artists with the intent of keeping the fun alive long after the VJs pack up and go home. This promotion is a fine example of just how simply a brand can put Hip Digital's full catalogue behind the familiar user experience of a company's site. DME services also include realtime PIN delivery as well as search and browse capabilities in Hip's full catalog of media. Let Hip's Digital Music Engine bring much more to your brand too: 888-701-3873.

It's true. When comparing the actual results of online consumer-user engagement for display advertising versus promotional marketing, the numbers show some amazing differences.

Let's use a budget of $100K for a Display Ad campaign that directs consumers to a brand's website:

Average CPM: $5
Click through rate: 0.20%
Number of visits: 40,000
Page views per visit: 2
Average time on site per user: 1-2 minutes
Total pageviews: 80,000

(Source: Industry averages from the Interactive Advertising Bureau)

Now let's take that same budget of $100K for a digital promotion:

Value of award to consumer: $1
Price per PIN code: $0.10
Promotional units: 1,000,000
Page views per visit: 15
Visits per user: 1
Average time on site per user: 10-15 minutes
Total pageviews: 750,000

(Source: Actual statistics from Hip Digital clients over the past 12 months)

So in the minds of the all-important consumer, promotions are ten times more engaging than display ads. The addition of free digital content (music, facebook Credits, eBooks and more) to a campaign creates not only a highly perceived value of the gift itself, but also an overall positive impression of the brand. Add all this to a fully branded redemption portal and a promotion can hit the ultimate sweet spot for increasing sales, creating loyalty, and learning more about the consumers who interact with the brand.

What can brands learn from Lady Gaga? She knows that she should put her brand where her audience is - maybe not on an actual farm, but where the gamers and the rest of her fans live online. The iconic pop music makes a historic stop on facebook May 17 - 26 to entertain the nearly 46 million players of the game FarmVille. Completing certain tasks in the temporary GagaVille will unlock the Lady's newest single - the first place in the world to hear her newest release. The more activities that a player completes in the town, the more exclusive singles will be unlocked.

Gaga already connects with her fans online with her hugely popular facebook fan page Twitter's largest lists of followers (the first to reach 10 million fans), in addition to garnering YouTube hits in the tens of millions for each of her videos. She's out front and has the advantage of being a performer who knows the revenue potential of plugging into the demographics for online gaming and the rapidly expanding market of Credits as a currency. Hip Digital takes its clients there too, providing the technology and tools to make consumers go gaga for a brand. Contact us: info@hipdigital.com.